Category: Worship

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Worship

I Have Missed You! (And Our Interaction)

What happens when I take a short hiatus from writing? Mainly I miss the interaction I have with you!

A few people have wondered something along the lines of “where did Brian’s devotionals disappear to? Did I get dropped off the email list? Has he stopped writing?” And in the absence of the devotionals, several of you told me that you missed them. Thank you for encouraging me to get back to writing. The truth is that I simply got too busy and my writing had to be “dropped” for a time (it has been almost a month. ouch! that’s way too long).

The situation is that each morning I start my day off with my own Bible reading and prayer. When I get into a situation when I am in a time crunch, it would be quite easy to let my devotional time go, so that I could write something for my blog. Most of the time crunch has come during these last three weeks in the form of our cross-country drive to California and the activities I have been part of in-between the driving (2200 miles there and another 2200 miles back!). It is true that I could have kept up the blog, by letting some of my devotional time go, but I have made a commitment to God that my time with Him will remain a top priority. Not for His sake, but for mine. The more time I spend with Him, the healthier I find that I am – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I hope you have made that same commitment to Him. That you will spend time with Him each day in Bible reading and prayer. That your commitment to time with Him will take precedent over the morning newspaper, Good Morning America, and Sportscenter. Or if you use the evening as time to connect with Him, that you won’t allow Duck Dynasty, Fox News, or catching up on all the Facebook status updates to become a higher priority than your daily fellowship with Him. If we are not careful… if we are not intentional in our time with him… then without even realizing it, our time is consumed with all the busyness of each day. To grow in Christ, we have to make a solid commitment to carve out time with Him. And Satan isn’t going to make it easy. The question is whether we will develop the discipline to be the disciples we told Him we would be when we started our journeys with Him. Let’s keep encouraging each other onto deeper discipleship and spiritual maturity!

Let’s go “further up and further in!”

(bonus points if you know where the last quote is from without looking it up!)

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Worship

The Resurrection of Sunday Morning… What Changed?

Well, it’s Monday. Did much change in your life because of yesterday? Maybe not.
But so very much changed some 2000 years ago on a Sunday. James Stewart sums up what occurred by Jesus’ Death & Resurrection, and how it changed everything:

“It is a glorious phrase— ‘He led captivity captive.’ The very triumphs of His foes, it means, He used for their defeat. He compelled their dark achievements to subserve His ends, not theirs.

bloody barbs of the crown of thorns that preceded the resurrection“They nailed Him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the world to His feet.

“They gave Him a cross, not guessing that He would make it a throne.

“They hung Him outside the gates to die, not knowing that in that very moment they were lifting up all the gates of the universe, to let the King come in.

“They thought to root out His doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting imperishably in the hearts of men the very name they intended to destroy.

“They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated: they did not know that it was God Himself who had tracked them down.

“He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil. He conquered through it.”

Thank You Jesus for conquering sin & death & hell & satan on the cross.
Thank You Jesus for rising from the dead to prove to us the truth of what You did.

Resurrected One – You changed everything and You are worthy of all honor & all praise & all glory!

— brian rushing

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Worship

The Silence of Death.

No sound comes out of graves.
But on a Saturday some 2000 years ago,
that silence was deafeningly loud at the tomb of Jesus.
a carved rock tomb which signifies the silence of the tomb of Jesus
Have you ever had one of your dreams dashed…to the point that it left you speechless? I can’t imagine seeing Jesus crucified on Friday and to have all my hopes as a disciple dashed and destroyed. How could He die? What will I do now? The silence screaming back at me from my dark questions would have been deafening.

It was a dark day in history. There have been other dark days. But I love what Ravi Zacharias has to say about the dark days of history – including the dark spots that stand as blemishes on the history of Christianity:

“As discomforting as it is to admit, much of what the church has had to face by way of criticism has been deserved. Much wrong has been perpetrated in history by people supposedly acting in the name of Christ. In many parts of the world today the church has a poor name, and a look back at her track record in those settings often reveals valid reasons for that contempt. But… the deviants often get more attention than do the normal.”

“But I point you not to them or to any man; rather, I point you to the person of Jesus Christ. Look at who He is and who He claims to be.”

“Do yourself a favor and get your eyes off of the shortcomings of institutions and people and history’s dark spots. Level your scrutiny at the person of Christ, and you will see the One who wears His Father’s coat very well.”

“Pilate said of Him, “I find no fault in this man. The thief on the cross said, “We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Jesus looked at His fiercest opponents and said, “Which of you convinces me of any sin?” That last challenge could not have been made by any other religious leader, founder, or prophet. The sinfulness of each one of them is readily visible and undeniable.”

“Jesus alone stands without moral blemish.”
“Fairy tales are merely fantastic; Jesus Christ is fantastically true.”

The silence of Saturday was deafening, but the resurrection of Sunday was on its way!
Jesus is fantastically true, and so was His resurrection!

— brian rushing

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Worship

The Good God of Good Friday

scrabble tiles spelling friday, as a visual representation for Good FridayA very few of you that have been following me for the short time I’ve been posting on facebook may have noticed that I have been adding my prior facebook posts into my blog. Going back through some of my posts that I wrote for facebook before I started the email subscription and blog, I felt they would be useful to share with everyone. So when you read today’s post and wonder why I am posting about Good Friday several months after it has occurred, it is because it is a “recycled post” but one with ideas that are applicable for today. So…   What’s So Good About Good Friday?

The reason we celebrate Good Friday as a holi-day (Holy-Day) is because of Jesus – His Goodness. His goodness to leave Heaven and put on humanity; His goodness to come to earth as its Eternal King yet not to be served but to serve; His goodness to take the punishment of my sin though He was sinless.

And it isn’t just that His greatness is to be remembered only on Good Friday or on the days when I feel blessed, but God is good all the time!

Corrie ten Boom reminds us of this when she says:
“Often I have heard people say, “How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!” Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp.”
the inside of a concentration camp barracks
What an amazing outlook on this sin-filled, evil world where God’s goodness is evident even in the midst of our circumstances. We invited sin into His perfect world. We chose to listen to and trust Satan instead of God. And instead of blasting us into oblivion, He becomes our righteousness in the midst of this perverse earth. We still have to endure the consequences of living in a sin-soaked world. We still have to endure the consequences of our own poor choice of choosing sin. But thankfully, we can do so knowing that our God of goodness will walk with us through every difficulty.

Corrie ten Boom knew that God was good even though she and Betsie had to endure the evil of the concentration camp. What an amazing statement she made showing that she was allowing God to transform her mind, and therefore change her entire outlook on life.

God, change our outlook on life so that we better understand your greatness no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in. And Thank You for Good Friday!

(Thanks to my friend Mariah Fields for sharing this wonderful quote with me from Corrie ten Boom!)

— brian rushing

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Worship

The Rest of Sunday

Yesterday was Sunday…did you find your way to worship?

small white country church with a church bell beside itThe first day of the week (Sunday) has become for Christians our day of rest when we reflect on the resurrection of Jesus. Though it is not the original Sabbath day of the Old Testament, we have followed the lead of the early church such that Sunday is now our Sabbath day of rest. But what will I do with it?

I agree with Pastor Gordon MacDonald that we should be more careful of our use of the Sabbath: “Sabbath-time is definitely not a time for catching up on household chores, exhausting recreation, or parties. Sabbath-time is retreat, withdrawal. In it, one worships, meditates, and seeks a filled inner spirit. At its conclusion, one is refreshed.”

Too often I end my Sabbath-time feeling spent rather than refreshed. I use it to do things that in no way bring me closer to my Great God. Father, forgive me, and help me get a right perspective on how to use my Sabbath-time each and every Sunday. Help me be refreshed when I finish my Sundays.

I hope that next Sunday, you will strive to put aside busy-ness and distractions so that at the end of the day, you have been refreshed in God through worshiping Him alongside Christian brothers and sisters.

What do you do each Sunday to keep from being too busy with personal chores or exhausting recreation? What do you do to make sure that you are refreshed in Him before you start a new week? How do you enjoy Sunday rest?