I recently enjoyed two weeks on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The only aggravating thing was seeing these when I was out in the mornings.
C’mon Gold Coast. Really.
I recently enjoyed two weeks on Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The only aggravating thing was seeing these when I was out in the mornings.
C’mon Gold Coast. Really.
New songs from Getty Music feature on an EP called The Northcoast Sessions.
Magnificent, Marvellous, Matchless Love is a singable song of praise.
The lyrics:
1.
Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love; too vast and astounding to tell
Forever existing in worlds above, now offered and given to all.
Oh, fountain of beauty eternal; the Father, the Spirit, the Son.
Sufficient and endlessly generous, magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
2.
Creation is brimming with thankfulness, the mountains, exultant they stand;
The seasons rejoice in Your faithfulness, all life is sustained by Your hand.
You crown every meadow with color; You paint every shade in the sky;
Each day the dawn wakes as an encore of magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
Chorus
How great, how sure; His love endures forevermore.
Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
3.
What grace, that You entered our brokenness; You came in the fullness of time
How far we had fallen from righteousness, but not from the mercies of Christ.
Your cross is our door to redemption; Your death is our fullness of life.
That day, how forgiveness flowed as a flood: magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
Chorus
How great, how sure; His love endures forevermore.
Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
4.
United in Your resurrection, You lift us to infinite heights
Could anything sever or take us from magnificent, marvelous, matchless love
Chorus
How great, how sure; His love endures forevermore.
Magnificent, marvelous, matchless love.
Words and Music: Matt Papa, Aaron Keyes, Luke Brown, and Keith and Kristyn Getty
Heidelberg Catechism – Lord’s Day 38
103.
Q. What does God require in the fourth commandment?
A. First, that the ministry of the gospel and Christian education be maintained, and that I diligently attend church, especially on the Lord’s day, to hear the Word of God, to participate in the holy Sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian service to those in need. Second, that I cease from my evil works all the days of my life, allow the Lord to work in me through his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.
There is a form of remembering the goodness and grace of God that can kill faith in the present.
Ralph Davis, from a study on Ezra:
The Disappointment We Must Control – Ezra 3:12-13
What a mixed response! From Ezra 3:12b it looks like the memory of the first temple clouded the day for some (see 1 Kings 5-7on Solomon’s temple). The older folks could still recall that magnificence. And they could tell from the foundation of this projected temple that it would have none of the “pizzazz” of Solomon’s. There is no problem here with the candor of their weeping, but there is a danger in it – it could color the whole occasion. But you can understand them, can you not?
In 1953 my father purchased a new car, a 1953 Chevrolet. As usual, he selected the most basic, stripped-down, economical model. He bought the “150” model, which had black rubber instead of chrome trim on the back fender. There was no radio. It had only regular hubcaps, no wheel covers, and a standard transmission, no “Power Glide.” It was nothing like the fine looking “Bel Air” model. This second temple was a “150” model, and a major disappointment to those who had seen Solomon’s Bel Air style.
Sometimes nostalgia like this can kill a church. We can also have problems if a church does not meet our expectations in its ministry or fellowship. In our culture of hyped-expectations, we tend to think that what is low-key, ordinary, plain, simple and quiet must be rather worthless – and this attitude can infect God’s people. Sometimes we can be so caught up in desiring revival (not a series of meetings, but when God’s Spirit is poured out in a striking way) that we may forget that it’s possible to be faithful even when God doesn’t send revival. We can still engage in family worship, sincere public worship, loving intercessory prayer, consistent Christian living in school or workplace. Don’t despise the “day of small things” (Zech 4:10). What matters is not whether the church is grand, but whether she is genuine. The question is not “Is it jazzy here?” but “Is Jesus here?”
Can the people of God live through their gray days? Yes, by running with their fears to worship their Savior; by expecting that though God has dashed their hopes they will yet see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living; and by being content when God prefers to work in plain, ordinary, non-sensational ways.
