Silence

 Today we begin worship with:

Habakkuk 2:20

The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.

We don’t like silence. But we complain when it is too loud that we can’t hear ourselves think. Well that is just it, when we are silent we can hear ourselves think. And when we think we ask questions to which only God is the answer. 

There will be a time when heaven will be silent.

Revelation 8:1

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Every celestial singer, every musician, every ministering spirit, will be silent.  In awe and expectation they will watch as the Lamb opens the Seventh Seal to finish what He started.

Revelation 21:5-7

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

 Amen, come Lord Jesus. 

Permanent

 Today we begin worship with:

Hebrews 7:20–22

For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

In the old covenant the consecration of a new priest was done through a series of sacrifices. The priest was not bound to the office in any way and due to the fragility of man, his office could end due to age, illness, or even a change of mind.

We have a permanent priest, a permanent intercessor.  

He is not unfamiliar with our condition.  He knows our lifetime of prayer and circumstances.  He has heard every mournful groan and every gleeful shout.  He need not be told the backstory, only the petition of the moment.

Matthew 6:11

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Fellowship

This week we begin worship with:

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Faithful. What is promised is delivered. 

What is promised? A completed call.  

But there is often a considerable distance between faith and sight.  During this time we are in fellowship (koinōnia) with those who also long for Christ’s return.

We have all sinned.  We have all cried out to God in need of a Redeemer.  We all regularly stumble and reach out for an arm to steady us.  We all have similar scars of battles fought.  

We all feast at the table together.  

Please, pass the salt.

Distinction

This week we begin worship with:

Acts 15:8-9

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to [the Gentiles], by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

It is a beautiful play on words that the word used here for distinction (diakrinō) is often translated as “doubt”, such as when one is divided in one’s own thoughts.  When doubt is erased by faith, we are cleansed. 

God’s title in this verse is “Knower of the Heart” (kardiognōstēs).  When the Gentiles were also cleansed, God bore witness not “to” them, but of their transformation, by also giving them the confirming presence of the Holy Spirit. 

When God unifies us by faith, James calls out any attempt to divide us as sin.  Sin that is sufficient to have broken the whole of the Law.

James 2:8-10

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.