Posts from — February 2012

“Worship is not only expressive, it is also formative. It is not only how we express our devotion to God, it is also how the Spirit shapes and forms us to bear God’s image to the world. This is why the form of worship needs to be intentional: worship isn’t just something that we do; it does something to us. And this is why worship in a congregational setting is a communal practice of a congregation by which the Spirit grabs hold of us. How we worship shapes us, and how we worship collectively is an important way of learning to be the body of Christ.”

- James K.A. Smith (source)

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“The aim of Ash Wednesday worship is threefold: to meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior; to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin. Ash Wednesday worship, then, is filled with gospel truth. It is a witness to the power and beauty of our union with Christ and to the daily dying and rising with Christ that this entails.”

- The Worship Sourcebook

For some excellent meditative music for this season, I recommend the beautiful album Fragments of Grace by City Hymns (also available via Spotify).

Today I am especially appreciating the lyrics for How Long, O Lord (Track 8):

How long, O Lord, shall I complain like one that seeks his God in vain?
Canst thou thy face forever hide, and I still pray and be denied?

But I have trusted in thy grace, and shall again behold thy face

Shall I forever be forgot, as one whom thou regardest not?
Still shall my soul thy absence mourn, and still despair of thy return?

How long shall my poor troubled breast Be with these anxious thoughts oppressed? And Satan, my malicious foe,Rejoice to see me sunk so low?

Whate’er my fears or foes suggest, thou art my hope, my joy, my rest;
My heart shall feel thy love, and raise my cheerful voice to songs of praise.

But I have trusted in thy grace, and shall again behold thy face.

For more on Ash Wednesday, see last year’s post.

“The knowledge of Christ is profound and large; all other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean. Though something of Christ be unfolded in one age, and something in another, yet eternity itself cannot fully unfold him. There be many excellent things in Christ, that the most eagle-eyed believer has not yet seen . . .

Take heed that you rest not satisfied with that knowledge of Christ you have attained, but grow on towards perfection. It is the sin, even of the best of saints, when they see how deep the knowledge of Christ lies, and what pains they must take to dig for it, to throw aside the shovel of duty, and cry, ‘Dig, we cannot.’

To your work, Christians, to your work; let not your candle go out: devote yourselves to this study, count all but dross in comparison of that excellency which is in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

- John Flavel, The Fountain of Life

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“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”

- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

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I think this is so beautiful, not to mention a rare example of autotune appropriately used. Thanks to my brother Steve for alerting me to this sweet jam.