“Tremble”
A great morning of worship at Calvary Baptist in Winston-Salem from last spring! This is a song featuring a young lady who grew up there, Chloe Hamlin, singing the song “Tremble.” You may recognize her from college days when she sang with the “Voices of Lee” on the video “No Longer Slaves” which I posted here back in 2017. What a delightful surprise to find out that Calvary was Chloe’s home church! While I served as interim pastor there in 2019-20, I was blessed by her ministry as well as that of her mother Patsy who regularly sang on the worship team. Hope you enjoy!
“As You Find Me”
Back in the fall of 2020, a dear friend of mine passed away. Jimmy Carroll pastored Journey Church here in Raleigh, a church with significant impact far beyond the walls of their building. He was a man of incredible passion and vision, a great preacher and teacher, a skilled organizer and most of all a shepherd to his family and his church!
With hundreds of others, I joined a gathering to celebrate his life and legacy. Many stories from many speakers reminded me of what the Lord can do with an available and gifted servant like Jimmy. But the focus of the entire service was on Christ and the power of His gospel of grace. I hope you find this song as powerful as I have. It is excerpted from the video of the service but in spite of my limitations as a video editor, I believe this recording does something to capture the moment. Jimmy was honored indeed…and His Savior was exalted and glorified.
I have listened and watched scores of times and been blessed every time. In fact, after I post this, I fully intend to watch it again!
Josh Via and the Journey Church Worship Team, Raleigh, NC
The Blessing
The time has come to reactivate this blog! What better way than to begin with a video of the Providence worship team singing the song, “The Blessing,” at the conclusion of their Christmas concert. Merry Christmas!
Welcome back to our blog!
“Jesus Thank You” by Renew Worship
This simple, profound song of worship from Sovereign Grace quietly stirs the heart to remember the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ–and then give Him thanks! Hope you enjoy the manner in which Renew Worship leads us gently into His presence.
Cuba Trip Postponed: Hurricane Irma!
We are sorry to announced that our plans for a trip to Cuba next week have been postponed due to the impending Hurricane Irma crisis. More details when new plans are more settled but it looks like we are shifting the whole plan to January 13-18, 2018.
Thanks for your prayers…for us and for the millions in harms way due to the path of the storm still ahead.
Discipleship Ministry Begins
This week Cathy and I take the next steps toward providing discipleship ministries to seminary students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here is a screenshot of the information that was sent to students at the end of last week.
Pray for a great response! These who are discipled now will be the disciple-makers in the years ahead! 2 Timothy 2:2
No Longer Slaves – by the Voices of Lee
Great individual voices and a capella’s tight harmonies of the Voices of Lee provide the vehicle for the liberating message of Romans 6:14-17:
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Hope you enjoy the music and definitely connect with the message of the freedom we have through Christ!
Devotion: The Power of God’s Word
By Cathy Horner
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. (Ps.119:9-11, ESV)
E
ven as a small child, I was very aware of the presence of God. I remember those delicious afternoon nap times when I was 4, when you become increasingly drowsy and utterly aware of the steady beating of your heart. It was then that I would drift off to sleep totally convinced that my heartbeat was drawn from my Creator, who was very near. It was a Romans 1: 20 moment – a perception of God’s limitless, divine nature — within the soul of a child.
As I matured and became more aware of my personal rebellions against God, I was still aware of His presence, but more with a sense of fear and dread. I had been taught that He knew my every thought, word, and deed, and that my sin had put a barrier between myself and Him. I was afraid of His justly held wrath. What does this have to do with our passage? Bear with me.
It was not until I was a teenager that I realized that I knew of God but I did not know God. So I jumped into studying the Bible, God’s Word. I was blown away that God, the Heavenly Father, would send His Beloved Son to bear the wrath that I deserved so that I could be reconciled to Him. He loved me first, before I ever loved Him!! I surrendered my life to Him in faith, wanting to love Him in return. But how could I love someone I did not know?
At that point in our lives, God’s Word becomes intensely relevant. The Bible is God’s revelation of Who He is — of His divine nature as Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer. Therefore, I grow to know and reverence God by searching and studying the Scriptures. Within this passage in Psalms about the purifying effect of God’s Word, I find three essential truths it reveals about God (and consequently myself).
God is God and I am not.
He is the Creator of all things, the author of my physical life (Ps.139) and my spiritual life in Christ (Heb.12:1-2). That means that what He has to say – His Word – has authority over my life. It tells me that I am called to walk with Him in a way that reflects His glory – what verse 9 calls the “pure” way. Yet God, who knows all things, is aware that the remnants of my old sin nature would have me chasing after things that could darken and destroy my life and my witness. Therefore, His Word provides commands and precepts that set a guard around my life and heart, establishing boundaries for pure living. Since God knows all possible outcomes and consequences of my every word and deed, clearly His way is the wisest and best. The pure way offers my life protection, growth in spiritual understanding, and right relationships with others. Gloriously, Christ’s Spirit indwells me and will help me to guard my ways according to His Word. My boundaries actually free me to develop a deeper trust relationship with God.
My obedience is fueled by whole-hearted devotion to Him.
In verse 10, the psalmist gives us the key to obeying God – seeking Him with your whole heart. Because we are in Christ, we can have intimate relationship with the transcendent God who made all things and is enthroned above the heavens. When our hearts are whole-heartedly in search of His will and His ways, our benevolent “Abba” Father will support and guide us with His all-sufficient hand (2 Chronicles 16:9). If our love is only half-heartedly given because we also carry allegiance to other things in this world, verse 10 warns that we will tend to stray from His path.
Internalizing God’s Word keeps me from sinning against Him.
Finally, since God is everywhere present, verse 11 indicates that when we sin we are doing it in His face. Our sin is ultimately against Him. That stunning truth from the Word should be a check to any believer’s stubborn and willful heart, causing it to tremble in fear and reverence. The psalmist assures us that God’s Word – when stored up in our hearts –acts as a constant measuring rod to our thoughts, feelings, and decisions. It can deter us from sinning.
Thankfully, I have experienced this. When I’ve been tempted to participate in anything the Bible calls impure – drugs, sexual immorality, occult practices, defiling entertainment – God’s Word, memorized years ago, wells up within me: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). … Activity check.
Likewise, when my desire is to verbally lash out at someone, God’s Word whispers: “ Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (Eph.4:29). … Tongue check.
When I am discouraged and feeling overlooked by God, He speaks to my heart: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). … Attitude check.
So let no excuse stop you! Internalizing God’s Word is important to your spiritual health. Write a pertinent verse out on a card. Put it where you will see it and can repeat it frequently – your car’s dash, your kitchen window, your mirror, your desk. Meditate upon it, memorize it, store it in your heart. God’s Word is powerfully active, either restraining your feet, reminding your heart, or re-training your thoughts. Allow His Word do all it is meant to do within you.
Time for Comps…Need Prayer!
Well, the time has come! Tomorrow I am looking for lots of people willing to pray for me. After two and a half years of PhD course work, I take my written Comps from 9:00 – 4:00 tomorrow. Next Friday I sit for the oral defense portion. In weakness His power is made known…so I am really ready to see that! Been preparing and look forward to it, but I’m still nervous! So pray for recall, clarity of expression and peace as I answer two essay type questions, each taking three hours. SDG! Thanks to all who will pray! Very grateful!
A Russian Kids “Hallelujah”
The captivating melody of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has made it a favorite resulting 
in thousands of covers by all kinds of musicians. Somehow the bizarre confusion of Bible stories gets overlooked because the chorus says, “Hallelujah,” which means “praise the Lord.”
A couple of years ago, several videos appeared in which the words were re-written to reflect Biblical truth, some of which still appear on Youtube (however, some are muted due to copyright issues).
On the Russian version of the the TV show, “The Voice Kids,” four young musicians present a rewritten version you may well enjoy. The melody is indeed beautiful, their harmonies extraordinary, and even though the translation is rough, it does succeed in turning the song into one of genuine, honest praise to the Lord. Lots of other seem to like it as well since it has over 8 million hits on Youtube!
Hope you enjoy!
Equipped for Life: David Horner, Raleigh, NC 