D.S. al Coda: Go to the Sign of the Cross, Then proceed to the End

  John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.   What a loaded question! On the one hand I could answer this quickly and easily, on the other hand it is virtually impossible to answer completely and satisfactorily. This is because there are two separate worlds of worship: private (or personal) and corporate. One is a very deep personal love relationship and the other is a complicated mixture of faith, doctrine, religion, traditions, customs, politics, Kingdom growth, evangelism, discipleship, business, marketing, sociology, community, technology, celebration, beauty, art, music, teaching, preaching, praise, prayer, appropriateness, timing, flow, and a whole lot more. What is in the world of private or personal worship? The Bible says that God is jealous for our worship and will not share His supremacy with any other god, person, or thing. Since God is a “pneuma” which means “spirit” and “breath” and must b

Peace on Earth!   Isn’t that what we long for?   Yet, it sure seems like we are just constantly farther away from world peace, and closer to world war!    This is a time of year when the world tries really hard to close its eyes just for a moment and imagine or pretend that world peace can exist, even if just for a moment.   John Lennon’s “Imagine” gives a recipe for peace, but tragically has it all wrong.   What a fatal delusion it is for the fallen and sinful race of mankind to have a theme song that says   there simply is no heaven or hell, no Creator, no Savior, and “above us only sky!”   Yet, because it is a beautiful song, millions (including Christians!) love to hear it and sing it.   In 1999 BMI named “Imagine” as one of the top 100 most performed songs of the 20th century.   In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine voted it the third greatest song of all time.   In 2005 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named it the greatest song in the past 100 years, as voted by listeners.   200

     December - the last month of 2012.  We are approaching another milestone as 2013 is just around the corner.  No matter how you choose to participate or boycott the annual events of this holiday season, this month will trigger many nostalgic memories for all of us.  From Thanksgiving to Hanukkah or Christmas, to New Year's Eve, the annual repetition of family and church events packed into this month make it especially difficult to experience if you have lost a loved one in 2012.  This Sunday, December 2nd, Lexington Baptist is conducting a Memorial Service at 6:00 PM.  The purpose for this service is primarily to offer people who are in the grief process an opportunity to remember and honor their loved one and draw strength from the Holy Spirit and God's Word to face a world that for them has changed drastically because of death.       Death is not something we want to dwell upon.  Ebeneezer Scrooge sang (in the Albert Finney version of Scrooge), "I like life, life

Does the Bible give us any qualifications for who should be our president?  Yes it does!  2 Samuel 23:3 says, "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God."  These words are recorded in the Bible as being among the "last words of David".  So, according to this admonition our president needs to be one who can be described as "just".  The dictionary defines "just" as    1. fair and impartial: acting with fairness and impartiality     2 . morally correct: given in accordance with what is morally right      3. reasonable: valid or reasonable For those that say that it does not matter about a candidate's personal moral character or what he does in his private life as long as he makes good policies, please note this and read on.   King David also tells us that he should be a man who understands what it means to fear God.  Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom

This Sunday the LBC Choir is singing a hymn of the Church that is partly ancient and partly brand new.   The hymn is "Of the Father's Love Begotten".  I wrote an accapella arrangement of this hymn that begins with a text that was a Latin poem by the Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius, born in the year 348 AD.  250 years ago it was translated in English and set to a plainchant melody called Divinum Mysterium which first appeared in print in 1582.  It is one of the most beautiful melodies ever sung in worship of our God, and it actually first appeared in a manuscript form as early as the 10th century.   Here is where the brand new part comes in.   I re-wrote the 2nd and 3rd verses.  Prudentius' first verse is about the origin of the love of God which existed before the creation of this world!  He states that God is the beginning and the end.  And in his words, penned about 1,635 years ago, Prudentius spoke how all the things that are, have ever been, or would be seen by f

The LBC Choir is singing this Kirk Franklin song: You don't have to worry, and don't you be afraid.  Joy comes in the morning, troubles they don't last always.  For there's a friend named Jesus who will wipe your tears away, And if your heart is broken just lift your hands and say, "Oh, I know that I can make it!  With Him I know I can stand!  No matter what may come my way, my life is in your hands!" When I was a kid I loved Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman with his, "What, me worry?" silly grin on his freckled face. If you are under 30 you might need a reminder: I have always said that there are only 2 things in life you can worry about: a) Things you can do something about, and b) Things you can do nothing about.  The simple logic followed that if you can do something about it, then do it!  And if you can't do anything about it, why worry?--There's nothing you can do about it! Then reality sets in.  Life is full of thi

Have you ever celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles ?  Most of us do not even know what that is.  A tabernacle is a temporary dwelling place.  In Hebrew it is called a "sukkah", and so this Festival is also called "Sukkot".  The sukkah is intended to remind us of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt.  This eight-day Festival also depicts the wonderful world tomorrow that will be established when Jesus Christ returns to earth as King of kings and Lord of lords and Tabernacle among us once again during His Millenial reign here on earth. Here is where we are commanded to keep this Divine Appointment wthYHWH: Leviticus 23:33-43 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord ... on the first day there shall be a sabbath- r