Do you come to our gathered worship service expecting God to speak to you through his Word? We encourage you to prayerfully read through the passage that will be preached prior to the service to help you prepare.
God’s Beauty for the Bored, Busy, and Depressed
Psalm 96:6: “Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary."
Good read as we prepare to look at Psalm 96 this Sunday:
To escape our bondage to sin, we must come alive to the glory of God in Christ. He’s our only hope. On this theme, theologian Jonathan Edwards was a master. He discovered God’s glory and beauty all over Scripture, and he centered his understanding of the Christian life there. . . So what does God’s splendor have to do with my daily life right now — in my busyness, in my temptations, in my boredom, and in my spiritual dryness? I recently sat down to talk with Dane Ortlund, who serves as the Bible publishing director at Crossway.
The Role of Singing in the Life of the Church
Psalm 96:1: Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD all the earth!
Another good one to prepare us for gathered worship:
Christianity is a singing faith. It’s one of the chief things followers of Jesus are renowned for, both down through the ages and now all around the world. While the proportion of singing has varied from time to time and from place to place, most churches today devote about a third of their gathering time to congregational singing and invest a considerable amount of time, money, effort, and energy into the musical side of church life. But why do we sing? What does our singing accomplish? What purposes does it fulfill? According to Scripture, God has both created and called us to sing for three principal reasons: to help us praise, to help us pray, and to help us proclaim. Let’s look at each of these reasons in turn.
I could celebrate the fact that a south-born Church has repented of racial sin, and taken steps to walk in repentance. I could celebrate our pursuit of God’s truth in our study of Gender roles in the Church. Both of which cause me to rejoice.
But I want to celebrate something less structural but just as significant:
I praise God for the work accomplished on the Assembly floor, but I’m just as thankful for our witness outside of the convention center.
I have no idea if the World is watching our assembly debates, but I know that men and women working around Mobile noticed us, and I’m proud of the fact that the PCA loved them well.