Faith | Hope | Love: Brandon Hochstetler

Brandon Hochstetler

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Worship Album Highlight: Prayers of the Saints (Live)

Every so often, I like to introduce music to you that I think will be encouraging and helpful. The album I want to highlight today is an album by Sovereign Grace Music called, “Prayers of the Saints (Live)”. I realize that not everyone listens to “worship music” all the time. Personally, I listen to a lot of music for the church while I’m at work, so I like to add some variety to my listening. With that said, I have found myself increasingly turning to certain worship songs during critical moments of my life. When I spend time in the Word, a common response is to engage with a song that speaks to the truth I am reading about. There are also times of difficulty where a song can prove to be encouraging and helpful.

I believe “Prayers of the Saints (Live)” stands out among other worship albums. With so many worship albums being produced today, it is difficult to know which ones are worth spending your time on. Here are a couple reasons why I think you should check out “Prayers of the Saints (Live)”

1. The theme of the album

The album title “Prayers of the Saints” comes from a phrase John uses in Revelation 5:8 and 8:4 to describe the prayer of God’s people for the punishment of the wicked, the deliverance of his people, and the vindication of God’s name. These may seem like some heavy topics, which they are, but they help speak to a theme that is often absent in a lot of worship music today: “the already and not yet”. What I mean by that is the tension that we feel that Satan is defeated and our sins are paid for, yet we are still waiting for the final return of Jesus where all things will be made new and death will finally be destroyed. Sin is still prevalent today and it seems like things are only getting worse. The waiting period we find ourself in is filled with emotions of celebration, joy, and victory, but also, lament, longing, grief, and anticipation. This album helps speak to all of this through songs such as “We Look to You” which says:

Deliver us from evil, Lord; the devil’s seeking to devour

With trembling heart we hear his roar, but Your strong arm will crush his pow’r

And the song. “When We See Your Face”

As day unfolds, I seek Your will in all of life’s demands

And though the tempter tries me still, I cling to Your commands

Let every effort of my life display the matchless worth of Christ

Make me a living sacrifice; be glorified today

I’m thankful that this album gives us words and expressions to help us on our journey as pilgrims longing for a greater home.

2. It is saturated with Scripture

Another reason this album stands out is its emphasis on being filled with Scripture. Each song has been written with truths of Scripture as its foundation. And the songs don’t just have one verse to support it, they are saturated with Scripture. One great example of this is the song “All Praise To Him” which is filled with Scripture from the Creation account in Genesis, to the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 98:7-9, and Psalm 11:4-9, to verses on redemption and grace found in Romans 5:4-35 and Ephesians 1:13-14. On the Sovereign Grace website, there is a helpful resource that allows you to see all the Scripture used in each song.

3. Quality of the music

When great truth is combined with great music, it creates something moving and powerful. Not only is this album filled with Scriptural truths, it is combined with quality music that serves the lyrics. The music gives right expression to the theme of each song. There are songs of celebration and adoration such as “He is Our God”, “All Creatures of Our God and King”, “All Praise to Him”, and then songs that rightly express lament and confession through moving melodic passages and chords progression such as “Forgiven”, and “Lord Have Mercy”. It’s also worthy to note that the production of the album is done with extreme excellence and makes it a joy to listen to.

4. It’s Singable

I think the best and most distinguished feature of this album is that it is singable. The biggest issue with a lot of worship music out today is that while many songs may be powerful and moving, they aren’t always the best songs for the context of corporate worship, or even just signing in general. Every song in this album is very singable and is good for any congregation to easily pick up. I know this to be the case both in my own church context as well as in my family. My two year old knows every word to “O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer” because it is singable and easy to memorize. My wife, who is not a musician, also easily sings to all of the songs. It is a great album because it is powerful and singable!

I hope this encourages you to check out this album. It has been an incredible blessing to my family, my church, and myself over the past couple of months, and I pray it will be an encouragement to you as well.

I wanted to share with you good article I came across recently.

In Christ,
Brandon H.

A Place to Start for Spiritually Stuck People

Article by Paul Maxwell

I’m spiritually stuck. We are stuck people. We get distracted, pulled down, undone. God feels distant and irrelevant. Dane Ortlund says, “You are not abnormal. So, relax. We all go through this from time to time.”

Seasons of spiritual darkness are common — even when many pretend they’re an anomaly. Even when indifference pirates our most pious intentions, and we surrender ourselves to isolation in our lack of holy zeal, don’t be deceived: gloom in the Christian’s heart is common.

It does often look and feel different for different people:

Your daily fear of future tragedy erodes your affection for God.
Your experience in corporate worship is empty and distracted.
You feel unimpressed, aloof to the things of God.
Patterns of repentance crumble and fade.
The preached word seems boring.
Hymns prompt only an irregular cadence of exhausted sighs.
Spiritual advice trips over its own triteness on its way to cynical ears.
Christian articles online induce more guilt than help.

Day after day, sermon after sermon, small group after small group, we’re discouraged and frightened by a widening gap between the desired self and the real self. We feel the torque pulling between our desired relationship with God — the desired emotions, the desired disciplines, the desired relationships — and the real.

It feels like the solution should be simple — another round of repentance, a worship song, a Paul Tripp devotion. Something. Anything. But those things either don’t feel effective or mysteriously elude us. Here are six places to start — intentions to experiment with — when you feel spiritually stuck and alone. “Intentions” are things that we easily lose. They are good, but they can be slippery. Find yourself in one, or a few, of these intentions. They’re not all right for you. But discover which one might be most relevant to you now. Read through them, and search for words for your heart. Read them in sequence, and look for the helpful nutrients you need.

1. Be honest about your heart.

We read, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog” (Psalm 40:1–2). Well, then. What a wonderful experience for David. #Blessed. But not all of us have yet been pulled from the bog.

Let’s be honest about what we feel toward God — our tangled thoughts, our slogging feet, our raw experiences, our dulling passions, our disappointed expectations. Anyone who gives you a single answer for all of humanity — to fix every single sorrow — is a fool. That’s what makes us wanderers. You can’t podcast away sin’s tedious yoke. What, then, does it look like for us to encounter Christ when we cannot yet praise God for pulling us out of our emotional marshland? It begins with honesty.

Ask yourself, “If I had absolutely nothing to lose, what would I say to God?” Or even further, “If I had total domain over my personal spiritual life, what would I want it to look like?” More than that, “How do I feel about how that compares to my real spiritual walk?” Keep digging. Honesty is difficult, because sometimes it’s buried beneath our own spiritual pretensions. Find the honesty in you — sift through your own heart like you’re sifting for gold.

2. Complain out loud to God.

Now, speak your honesty. We need the blessing of God’s fatherly ear toward us, inviting us to speak what we might not say out loud in church:

I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. (Psalm 6:6)

I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. (Psalm 69:3)

I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out. (Proverbs 30:1)

Maybe perseverance in praying out loud — or starting to pray embarrassing feelings out loud to learn that God has no pretense — will be your means of blessing and freedom.

If you’re angry at God, say it with David. It doesn’t help to add hypocrisy to unfounded anger. “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.” David has replaced his meal-time prayers with complaining to God, and he doesn’t apologize for it. He says, “I’m talking to you three times a day, and I know you can hear me.”

3. Complain out loud to others.

If you want to double down with a high-risk spiritual investment portfolio, say these honest things out loud with other people. “Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high” (Psalm 7:7). Revival may be found in community. This isn’t meant to justify whining. Don’t whine. Complain until you expect, again. Complain until you find yourself bringing your spiritual dryness to God: “Over it return on high.” “Return.”

Complain to others, “Is my complaint against man? Why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be appalled, and lay your hand over your mouth” (Job 21:4–5). Job is saying, “I don’t care if this scandalizes your pristine, glass-encased view of prayer. He can’t use traffic as an excuse for his absence — he is all places at all times with all knowledge and all power — so I’m asking him to show up right now and get me out of this rut.” He just might.

4. Get out of your own head.

More knowledge may not be the solution to your problem. In an age of career-design, lifestyle-engineering, and life-hacking, that may seem ridiculous to you. But if you’ve tried everything, consider this thought: It’s possible you may not even need to repent of anything in order to “fix” your feelings. You might just need to get out of your head.

To a certain extent, your current spiritual emotions may be the circumstances that you’ve been given — the cards you’ve been dealt — and faithfulness does not look like scrubbing your soul of any indicators of unrest or grief, but of letting those indicators help to lead you into being more comfortable in your own skin, and as an extension, a deeper, more real relationship with the God who made you and gave you this story.

The uncontrollable spinning of thinking about God and the Bible can distance you from yourself, from people, and from God (attention: seminary students). If you don’t know that you can think too much about theology, you’ll just feel guilty for not being able to think your way out of a problem that is caused by overthinking to begin with.

Turn off your phone, go to the nearest open field, kick off your shoes, and lay in the grass. Do it right now. “Your righteousness is like the mountains” (Psalm 36:6). I have an inkling that this prayer has roots in a completely non-intellectual, nature-enjoying, social-media-absent experience in David’s life — looking at mountains, perhaps. Lay back in the grass and, gazing at the sky, allow your mind to wander there. “Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down” (Psalm 144:5). And maybe you will find enough rest in that moment to sink down a few verses: “Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters” (Psalm 144:7). And maybe he will.

Let the entire industry of trivializing Jesus Christ through list-formulations dissolve out of your mind. Let the expectations of virtual communities be silenced. The distant vision of an infinite, glorious, compassionate, and satisfying God — increasingly a pipedream — it is real, and it is available to you today.

5. Get back in your head.

God also heals us through remembering. The entire book of Deuteronomy is about how Israel needs to remember God if they are going to find satisfaction for their souls and be fruitful with what God has given them. Remind yourself that nothing you’re experiencing is surprising or disappointing to God. The best, most faithful, happiest Christians in the universe have experienced spiritual darkness, and it doesn’t necessarily say anything about you.

God intimately cares about and knows

your every deliberate sin (Psalm 32:5)
your every stubborn turning away (Psalm 139:2–4)
your every desperate moment (1 Samuel 2:8)
your every unmet hope (Proverbs 13:12; Psalm 34:18)
your every cynical thought toward him (Genesis 6:5)
your every crippling fear (Psalm 56:3; Psalm 77:16)
your every lonely moment (Psalm 25:16; Psalm 102:7)
your every overwhelming crisis (Isaiah 43:2)
your every despair (Psalm 69:14–15)
your every feeling of rejection (Psalm 147:3).

He knows everything about us. And he still sustained us today. He still gave us breath. He still woke us up. He still gave us what we need to live a full, 24-hour day.

For some purpose, in his knowledge that is greater than ours, and in his care and provision and compassion that are more imaginative and sufficient than we can conceive, he has not allowed the atoms that hold us together to dissolve. That would be terrifying, knowing we live our lives teetering on the cliff of non-existence at the whim of a more powerful, all-righteous being, except that he tells us why he gives us another day, another breath, another reason for hope: he loves us.

6. Practice receiving the love of God.

This may be the most important thing you can do. Without this, all the other spiritual exercises you could possibly integrate into your personal life will quickly disintegrate. So, let’s have at it.

God loves you so much. He loves you. He loves you. He is with you in the dim and the dark. He sings songs of joy about you.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

It’s so easy to trust our reflex — that God is big, and therefore removed, distant, and has better things to do than care about our daily anxieties. Sure, he “cares” about us. But he cares about everyone. So, his generic providence can feel like a cheap consolation prize to forgetful people — a happy-meal toy that punishes us when we do bad and pats us on the head when we do right.

The beauty of God’s love is that it survives spiritual dry times. Don’t let the lie sink into your mind that spiritual dryness indicates that God has gotten over you, or that he’s tired of working with you. Far from it.

Think of a moment in your life when you were brought to tears — when you were overwhelmed by your body’s desire to cry, because you felt so deeply. God feels that about you. The Bible tells us that “in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus, who is God’s perfect expression of his attitude toward you, cries over you. He doesn’t just love in action. He loves in emotion. God is upset by you — in a good way. It can’t be overstated: He loves you.

We live in a frightening world. Life threatens us with loss, with decay, with slow suffering, with aging, with slipping into a place we don’t want to be. God is beyond and above romantic love; he doesn’t have it — romantic love merely depicts the commitment and intensity of God’s love. “God is in love with you” isn’t saying too much, but not enough — God is in love with you. God is utterly devoted to you in Jesus. He’s fascinated with you like a father with his daughter. He’s brought to tears by his love for you. If something tangles you up and distracts you from that, cut it loose.

Start there, end there. You don’t need more good news than this, whether it’s the first day you belong to Christ or the fiftieth year you walk with him: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

Paul Maxwell is a Ph.D. student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and philosophy professor at Moody Bible Institute.

I love to recommend great sources for our church family to use. In a world where we can literally research anything in seconds, knowing how to decipher between good and harmful sources is important. That’s why I like to point you towards books, articles, music, and other resources that I find valuable and centered on truth.

Today, I want to share a resource from the Village Church called Seasons. It is a document that explains the Church Calendar. We are most familiar with two seasons of the Church Calendar, Christmas and Easter, but it is much more than that. The Village describes the church calendar in way that it “seeks to redeem our time and space through the seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Through readings, prayers, songs, fasts and other practices, these seasons reorient our hearts and minds toward the Christian story.” This resource thoughtfully explains each of these seasons and includes excellent devotional content such as Scripture readings and songs that you can engage with personally and with your family.

My hope is that while we may be new to the idea of the church calendar, it can be a way in which we remember and are pointed to the one true story of the Bible.

You can access the Seasons booklet here: https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/guides/seasons-book

Recommended Resource: The Imperfect Disciple by Jared Wilson

Every once in a while I will come across a book that I just can’t put down; Jared Wilson’s new book “Imperfect Disciple” was one of those. It is common today for discipleship to be viewed as simply to-do lists or following self-help principles in order to earn God’s approval or grow in the Lord. While we are to obey commands in Scripture and pursue spiritual disciplines, those are not meant to be in end to itself, and, if we are honest, will always find ourselves failing according to those standards. Wilson takes a different approach to discipleship by stressing our inability to keep the to-do lists and focusing on the completed work of Christ. He explains this in a powerful way by saying “The essential message of Christianity isn’t “do”, but “done”.” (Pg. 67) It is from this foundational perspective that he then focuses on spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship. His explanation of Bible study was extremely helpful in that the primary reason to read the Bible is “not to learn stuff but to be stuff” (pg. 87) focusing on the transformative aspect of studying to encounter the glory of Jesus.

From beginning to end, Wilson stresses, “the power of our obedience and the source of our holiness is not in our efforts but the finished work of Jesus Christ.” (151). He does this from a very honest, real, and personal perspective that makes the book a refreshing joy to read. This will be a book I continually go back to and recommend others to read and work through together. For imperfect, messed up people like me, I know this book will bring hope and encouragement because it points to the only one who can provide it, God Himself!

You can find this book on Amazon, and most other national book sellers as well as going to Jared’s website at jaredcwilson.com

Recommended Resource: “The Songs of Jesus” by Tim and Kathy Keller

I can’t recommend enough the book “The Songs of Jesus” by Tim and Kathy Keller. For myself, it has helped shaped my prayers, my affections, and drawn me closer to God. The book is structured as a 365 day devotional which takes you through all the Psalms roughly 5-7 verses per day. There is a short reflection on the verses as well as a prayer that is shaped by the content of the Psalm. I strongly encourage you to pick up this resource and do it with your family, with your spouse, or for your own time with the Lord.

You can find out more information about this book at http://www.timothykeller.com/books/the-songs-of-jesus

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

The psalms lead us to do what the psalmists do—to commit ourselves to God through pledges and promises, to depend on God through petition and expressions of acceptance, to seek comfort in God through lament and complaint, to find mercy from God through confession and repentance, to gain new wisdom and perspective from God through meditation, remembrance, and reflection.

The psalms also help us see God—God not as we wish or hope him to be but as he actually reveals himself. The descriptions of God in the Psalter are rich beyond human invention. He is more holy, more wise, more fearsome, more tender and loving than we would ever imagine him to be. The psalms fire our imaginations into new realms yet guide them toward the God who actually exists. This brings a reality to our prayer lives that nothing else can. “Left to ourselves, we will pray to some god who speaks what we like hearing, or to the part of God we manage to understand. But what is critical is that we speak to the God who speaks to us, and to everything that he speaks to us. . . . What is essential in prayer is not that we learn to express ourselves, but that we learn to answer God.”7

Most of all the psalms, read in light of the entire Bible, bring us to Jesus. The psalms were Jesus’s songbook. The hymn that Jesus sang at the Passover meal (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26) would have been the Great Hallel, Psalms 113–118. Indeed, there is every reason to assume that Jesus would have sung all the psalms, constantly, throughout his life, so that he knew them by heart. It is the book of the Bible that he quotes more than any other. But the psalms were not simply sung by Jesus; they also are about him, as we will see throughout this volume. The psalms are, then, indeed the songs of Jesus.

I was sixteen years old when I wrote my very first song. I remember my mom often quoting the verse Proverbs 3:5-6 on trusting in the Lord, so I decided to write a song on trust. I have to admit, it was a cheesy song. The chorus was simple:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

Lean on Him in every way.

Through life’s trials and life’s pain

He will help and He will save,

And when your soul is feeling down,

You can talk to Him in prayer.

You can always trust in the Lord,

Always trust.

As I have grown in my faith, one area that continues to be a struggle for me is fully trusting in the Lord. Trusting in the Lord “with all your heart” and “in every way” is definitely not easy, but it is also a command in Scripture, and in doing so, the Lord promises to direct your paths. So, why is it so hard to fully trust in the Lord? I want to give you a couple reasons in hopes that it helps us recognize how to gain a deeper dependence on the Savior.

1. We don’t really believe who God says He is.

Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make straight your paths.” What does it mean to acknowledge God? The Hebrew word for acknowledge is yada’ which means, to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing). This first means we must have a proper and broad understanding of who God is. We need to recognize His many attributes such as that He is holy, just, and sovereign just to name a few. The way we do this is by meditating and studying Scripture. The more we meditate and study the Scriptures, the deeper understanding we have of who God is. But, it is not just enough to know about God. A true understanding of God’s character leads us to truly seeing Him. This is what the Psalmist gets at when he says in Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” This type of relationship with God goes beyond facts, but reaches into a heart that longs for God. If we truly believe who God says He is, our relationship with Him will be transformed and we will begin to fully trust in Him.

2. We rely too much on our own strength

My two-year-old daughter is at the stage where she wants to do everything herself. Just the other day we were making her dinner and she insisted that she wanted to carry her plate and cup filled with milk all by herself to her highchair. While we offered to help her, she was very set on doing it herself and you can guess what happened; it didn’t quite go as she planned. That is a perfect picture of how we often treat God. We try to handle our own problems in our own way, thinking we can do it ourselves. Proverbs 3:5 clearly warns against this when it says “lean not into your own understanding.” This does not mean that we never use any wisdom and discernment in making decisions, but it does recognize that any wisdom and discernment we have is from God, and ultimately His ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:9; James 1:17) The best posture we can have in trusting the Lord is one of humility. It is in this posture we can begin to rely less on our own understanding and more on God’s.

3. We Have a Lack of Obedience

Trusting in the Lord is active. What I mean by that is, trust involves much more than just knowing about God and believing Him, it involves obeying Him. One of the clearest examples of this is Abraham when he offered up his son Isaac. When you begin to study the context of that story, you realize what a big deal it was that Abraham was willing to give up his Son. This son was the way God was going to continue to bless his family, this son was the miracle Abraham had been waiting and praying to God for so long. We see that Abraham trusted that God would keep His promises in blessing him and his family so much that he obeyed God even when that obedience could potentially cost him his son. Maybe the reason we don’t fully trust the Lord is we are too scared to step out in faith, too scared to do something? Is there something God has laid on your heart that you have put off due to fear and lack of trust? The amazing thing is, once you take that step of obedience, that’s when God strengthens your faith and you begin to trust Him more.

I wish I could write back to my sixteen-year old self and say thank you for writing a lyric that emphasized trusting the Lord with all my heart and leaning on Him in every way. While I didn’t fully understand trust then, and I am certainly far from it now, I am thankful for how God is teaching me to trust in Him and showing me the barriers that keep me from doing that fully. This is a daily struggle, but the stakes our too high to not trust in Him. May we all recognize these barriers and desire to grow in our dependence on the Lord in this new year!

Recommended Christmas Album

This month I wanted to recommend a Christmas album that my family really loves to listen to this time of year. Three years ago, Sovereign Grace Music produced an album called “Prepare Him Room”. The idea of the album came from a family devotional book called “Prepare Him Room” written by Marty Machowski. I personally have not gone through that devotional, but have heard great things about it. The album includes a mixture of familiar Christmas hymns (many of them reworked with different melodies and lyrics) as well as some original songs. Some of the highlights include their rendition of “O Holy Night (Hear the Gospel Story)” which really encapsulates the power of the Gospel story through new lyrics in both the second and third verses, as well as the song “Who Would Have Dreamed” and “He Who is Mighty”. I love the chorus in “Who Would Have Dreamed” which says:

Who would have dreamed, or ever foreseen

That we could hold God in our Hands?

The giver of life was born in the night,

Revealing God’s glorious plan

To save the world.

I hope this album serves you and your family well as you take time to reflect on the reality of the incarnation. I am very thankful to Sovereign Grace music for providing such a beautifully crafted, gospel rich album!

You can find more information about the album and Sovereign Grace Music at

http://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/albums/prepare-him-room/

Psalm 67:1-7

1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. 5Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

We introduced a song couple weeks ago called “May the Peoples Praise You” written by Keith and Kristyn Getty, Staurt Townend, Ed Csh, and David Zimmer. I have learned to appreciate songs that have been written by multiple writers. The depth of Biblically based lyrical content combined with a singe-able and beautifully written melody shows that the song has been labored over, prayed over, and written from the perspective of multiple different sources. This song comes directly from Psalm 67 and gives the call to proclaim the name of the Lord because we have “been called out of darkest night”. (Romans 3:23) The purpose of our redemption is to make Christ known! What a challenge to make praise the name of the Lord and work towards making His name known throughout all the earth!

Here is a link to the song so you can continue to listen to it! I am looking forward to singing this song with you again on Sunday!

Keith & Kristyn Getty - May The Peoples Praise You (Live)

My one year old daughter loves to read. What I mean by “read" is more just flip through pages, look at all the colors and animals, and mumble through her favorite words. Every night we try to read a book before she goes to bed, and often times we read through a Children’s Bible that does a great job depicting the biblical stories and relating them to the gospel. It has caused me to think of how I will continue to teach my children the Bible. I know this can often be a struggle for parents. A lot of words can be difficult to understand, the chapters and can be long, and the parent’s may not have a full understanding of what a passage means in order to articulate it in a clear way. This article by Jon Neilson gives some very helpful and practical ways we can do this. Enjoy!

In Christ,
Brandon H.

6 Ways to Teach Your Kids the Bible

The Gospel Coalition · by Jon Nielson · July 26, 2017

I’m a father of three young kids. I can’t think of many things more important for them than regular exposure to the living Word of God. If you’re a Christian parent of young children, I assume you share the same conviction: Your kids need to hear from God, and you long for them to listen carefully to his good Word.

But it’s hard. Life is busy, kids are lively, and reading the Bible often struggles to compete with the Disney channel, Legos, and the newest phone app.

Here are six tips my wife and I have found helpful in our rhythm of Bible reading with our young kids (currently 6, 5, and 3).

1. Pick a regular time and place for Bible reading.

In general, children tend to love a routine—a regular, anticipated time with Mom and/or Dad associated with a particular activity. Sporadic and random Bible reading may not engage your children in the same way a regular, planned, prioritized “special” time will.

In our home, we’ve chosen the chunk of time before bed for Bible reading. Our two older children know that, in the 15 to 20 minutes before bed, we’re going to gather in their room to read a Bible story, discuss it together, and pray. They’ve come to look forward to it, and it’s become as regular and natural a process as brushing their teeth. It may even help them sleep better, as many bedtime routines seem to.

2. Read short chunks.

Some of us will have to guard against being overly ambitious in the beginning. Since we believe in the power of God’s Word, we want our children exposed to as much of it as possible. So we read two full chapters from Genesis each night. Needless to say, a 5-year-old’s eyes will probably start to glaze over.

I encourage you to pick manageable passages, chosen based on thoughtful criteria. You may decide to begin in Genesis, and move through the Bible sequentially. The key is to not rush it, and to think ahead of time about the right “chunks” for each day.

3. Stop to explain and gauge comprehension.

Even if the passage for the day is only one chapter, that can be a lot for a young child to absorb if read all at once. It’s incredibly important to stop often along the way, explain things, ask questions to gauge comprehension, and ensure your kids are following along and grasping what the passage is saying.

4. Think of age-appropriate questions for discussion.

This aspect has become my children’s favorite part of our nightly time together in God’s Word. I’ve begun thinking of a few basic questions for each of them that will help them do three things with the passage we’ve read: (1) solidify their comprehension of the passage, (2) connect it to the Bible’s overall story, and (3) apply it to their lives.

When you ask simple questions, you’re doing much more than “quizzing” them to ensure they were paying attention. You are actually leading them, interactively, in a time of interpreting and applying God’s Word. And you are preparing them to engage the Scriptures directly on their own in the years to come.

5. Connect each passage to Jesus.

Jesus makes an amazing—even shocking—statement to the Pharisees in John 5: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life. But it is they that bear witness about me.” He is saying, in no uncertain terms, that the Scriptures are centered around him—his incarnation, his life, his teaching, his death, his resurrection, his return.

What does this mean for daily Bible reading with our kids? It means if we’re trying to help them understand any part of the biblical storyline, we must give them a sense of how that part connects to the major character—and great climax—of that big story.

6. Let Bible reading lead to prayer.

Listening to kids who are learning to pray can be humorous. If yours are anything like mine, their prayers can be hilarious in their simplicity and self-focus. God has heard prayers in our home for dogs, movies, imaginary people, and, of course, coveted toys.

If we’re honest, though, our children’s prayers often are really just “kid versions” of our own. We can easily resort to praying only for our needs and wants, rather than spending time praising and adoring God, and asking for his Spirit’s work in the lives of others. One way to grow in our prayer lives, then, is to intentionally tether our prayers to our reading. We can help our kids “talk back” to God daily, based on the ways he’s speaking to them through the Scriptures.

Parents, press on. Daily, prayer-fueled exposure to the Word of God is the best gift we can ever give our kids.

Reprinted from The Gospel Coalition, Inc.. Copyright 2017 Find the original article here at https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/6-ways-to-teach-your-kids-the-bible

Here's a great article I wanted to share with all of you!

In Christ,

Brandon H.

Fighting to Say ‘Yes’ When God Says ‘No’

The Gospel Coalition · by Ann Swindell · April 6, 2017

God doesn’t always grant healing and wholeness in this life, a painful reality that came to a head for me in college. I wrestled with the knowledge that God could heal me instantaneously—a small thing for him, surely—and the truth that he didn’t.

By the time I entered college, I’d struggled with trichotillomania—a hair-pulling condition—for a decade. I pulled my eyelashes and eyebrows out every day, even though I hated it and wanted to stop. Neurologically, my brain couldn’t stop itself, and that meant I couldn’t heal myself. Because of the “no” I kept getting in response to my prayers for healing, God seemed silent and distant.

One day, as I felt my frustration toward God mounting, I headed to the prayer chapel. I poured angry, hasty words onto journal pages with dark strokes of ink. I told God he seemed mean and cold and distant and impossible to deal with. I sat there with eyelashes scattered across the pages—ashamed they were no longer where they should have been.

The tears I cried weren’t new, but they felt surprisingly fresh. “I keep asking this question, God,” I cried. “Why? Why won’t you heal me? My hours of praying and begging, even my days of fasting—what have they done? Anything?”

I answered myself: “Nothing. They’ve done nothing! I’m worse than I’ve ever been.”

I wanted to push him away—this God who is all places and everywhere—and I wanted to run from him. I began to understand how people become bitter, how the seeds of anger turn into deep roots of distrust. I’m not proud of my bitterness or the ways I fought God. But it’s the truth: I was mad. In fact, I was offended.

Choice of Offense

When we’ve begged and pleaded with God, and he still doesn’t change our situation, we’re left with a choice: We can offend him or obey him. Offense puts us in the judgment seat. We declare what God should do and how he should work. We’re offended when he doesn’t follow our plan. We point our finger and tell him he’s wrong.

While it’s good to be honest with God, there’s a distinct difference between heartfelt honesty and hostile honesty. Heartfelt honesty comes to God on its knees, crying out with humility and trust. Hostile honesty comes to God pointing a finger. When our honesty turns hostile, we become bitter. We judge him and run from him. By doing so, we reject the very source of comfort we desperately need.

Choice of Obedience

The second choice we have is obedience. We say yes to God, even when we don’t understand him. This option feels harder in the short term. But it’s the only real one if we’re going to continue walking with Christ.

In mercy, God pulled me back from the crag of prideful offense. Through small steps of obedience, he reminded me of his truth and kindness. He softened my heart in two ways. The first way was through a woman named Nita, the wife of one of my professors. She and I met twice a month to talk about my walk with the Lord, to discuss the Word, and to pray.

As we talked one afternoon, my words came tumbling out. My anger, frustration, and hurt bubbled over, and I started crying at the kitchen table. What I remember most is not what Nita said but what she did. She put her hand over mine, and she cried with me. She didn’t chastise or immediately correct. Her hand and her silence let me know I was allowed to feel those emotions. She didn’t force me to be anywhere other than where I was.

When she spoke, her voice was a violin, wavering with emotion but full of deep conviction. “Ann, we don’t always understand what God does or doesn’t do. But we always know—we always know—that he loves us.”

“It just makes the no harder to hear sometimes,” I said. “Because I don’t understand why that’s his answer. It’s hard for me to reconcile his love with the no.”

“I understand, Ann. I do.”

I recalled the losses Nita had endured, the sorrows she had walked through, and I knew that she did understand. Her eyes were glossy, and she took a big breath before speaking again. “But who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35).

I shook my head. “Nothing, Nita.” My voice was a whisper. “Nothing and no one.” Not even a no. Nita’s kindness and truth spoke blessing to me. She pointed me to the Word and offered me compassion. That day, through her, God began to heal my hurt and frustration.

The healing and softening continued as I obediently read the Word and spent time in prayer. As I met with Christ, I couldn’t harden my heart against him. By reading the stories of men and women in the Bible who waited and trusted, I came to trust God’s sovereignty over my life, even when I didn’t understand it. And, as I poured out my heart to him in honest and humble prayer, I came to experience his comfort and love.

Better than Healing

In my obedience of small steps toward God, he pulled me back from offense. He showed me all I really need is Jesus. To walk away offended is more devastating than continuing to deal with any sickness or unwanted condition.

I may not have healing, but I have Christ. And he’s more than enough for me.

Editors’ note: This is an adapted excerpt from Ann Swindell’s new book, Still Waiting: Hope for When God Doesn’t Give You What You Want (Tyndale, 2017).

The Gospel Coalition · by Ann Swindell · April 6, 2017

As I prepare for worship each week, I first of all spend time time in prayer and ask for direction and guidance from the Spirit as I plan every element of the service. I also make sure that the songs we sing and the elements of worship are not chosen at random but follow an intentional rhythm or structure. I do this because I believe the way that a worship service is structured ultimately shapes our views and understanding of God.

Why Gospel Shaped Worship?

- Corporate worship is a Christian’s expression of authentic devotion towards God (Psalm 148:13)
- Corporate worship is a divine dialogue between God and His people (Isaiah 6)
- Corporate worship is profoundly formative (1 Cor. 14:40)

Structure of Gospel Shaped Worship

GOD IS HOLY- CREATION

Call to Worship
- Worship always begins with God speaking to us. He speaks, and we respond
- Practical:
- Reading a passage of Scripture (Psalm 100:1-4)
- Repeating phrases such as “worship begins with God”, “God speaks, we respond”

Adoration and Praise
- Adoration and declaration of War
- Goal- Put the glory of God on display
- Adoration provides the language and images of God’s glory for God’s people
- Practical:
- Ask what songs in your library are about what God has done, not what we do.
- Take an inventory of songs and compare them to a list of attributes about God.

WE ARE SINNERS- THE FALL

Confession (and/or) Lament
- Involves recognizing (1) the world is not the way it was meant to be (2) we as a church are not the way we were meant to be (3) I am not the way I was meant to be
- Practical:
- Can be sung or prayed: “Give Us Clean Hands” // Praying through Psalm 51
- Pray for both corporate and individual sin

JESUS SAVES US- REDEMPTION

Words of Assurance
- After recognizing our sin and the fallenness of the world, we hear an answer from the Lord that assures us, “It is finished”
- Practical:
- Songs about the cross and forgiveness of sins
- Doesn’t always have to be long, but simply a reminder that God has heard us, and in Christ, He’s forgiven us

The Peace
- Paul begins almost all of his letters with a greeting of peace. It’s a peace that flows directly from God. It is a natural result of the gospel.
- Practical:
- Make the greeting time more meaningful by connecting it with the gospel
- Occasionally give more time to the greeting
- Scripture Reading : John 13:34

Giving/Offering
- Giving also flows directly from the gospel (2 Corinthians 8-9)
- The primary motivator for giving us the transforming power of the gospel
- Practical:
- Seize the opportunity to point out ways the giving is a call to worship
- Allow the Scriptures to make the hard call to give
- Be thankful

Pastoral Prayers
Instruction: The Sermon

JESUS SENDS US- CONSUMMATION
Communion
- A beautiful, tangible, concrete gift where we can physically remember the gospel story.
- In a single act it remembers the past, embraces the present, and hopes for the future.
- Practical:
- Thoroughly discuss your church’s theology and ecclesiology pertaining to this issue
- Understand that communion can by celebrated a variety of ways

Commitment/Preparation for Sending
- Our attention is brought to the future.
- Practical:
- Repeat or reaffirm what was taught in the message
- Historic confession of faith
- Songs: “O Church Arise”

Benediction
- Sending or blessing
- “Worship like creation, ends as it began: with God’s blessing”- James K.A Smith
- Practical:
- The Call to Worship and Benedictions are like book ends to the service. Consider connecting the two in some way
- Make clear that the benediction is offered by God

Additional Resources on Gospel Shaped Worship:
- Christ-Centered Worship- Brian Chapell
- Rhythms of Grace- Mike Cosper
- Story Shaped Worship- Robbie F. Castleman
- Imagining the Kingdom- James K.A. Smith
- You Are What You Love- James K.A Smith
- Gospel Shaped Worship- Jared Anderson
- The God We Worship: An Exploration of Liturgical Theology- Nicholas Wolterstroff

I hope this is a helpful resource for your family as we approach Easter. There are so many opportunities around this time of year to teach our children about Christ and specifically about the Gospel and the resurrection.

In Christ,

Brandon H.

Four Things to Teach Your Children This Easter

April 1, 2014 | Christina Fox

Spring is upon us. Flowers are beginning to bud, leaves are reappearing on trees, and birds are building their nests. Signs and decorations herald the arrival of our favorite season when we walk into local stores. Bags of plastic eggs and bunny-shaped confections line the shelves.

While we Christians enjoy all the signs of spring, this season is special for us in another way. In a couple weeks, we’ll celebrate the most important holiday weekend of the year: our Lord’s death and resurrection. Beyond jellybeans and warm sunshine, we remember and rejoice in the new life that is ours because of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and triumph over the grave.

And we want our children to know this joy, too. We want our children to know that there is more to this time of year than chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps — so much more.

Will you join me in trying to turn the blooming opportunities of this season into a way to teach our children more about Jesus? Let’s think toward making the most of this spring to show our kids all that they have because of Christ. Here are four key things to teach our children this Easter.

1. The Story of Redemption

Our family has what we call a “Resurrection Tree.” For the month leading up to Easter, we read through the story of redemption. We begin with creation and the Fall. We then go through God’s covenant promises in the Old Testament, as well as prophecies about the Messiah such as in Isaiah 53. We study Jesus’s birth, baptism, and ministry. During the final week, Holy Week, each day’s passage focuses on Jesus’s last days. For each story and passage we read, we hang an ornament on our “Resurrection Tree” that we’ve made to symbolize the passage we read.

2. The Importance of the Resurrection

Jesus’s resurrection from the grave is at the heart of our faith. Paul wrote,

If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:16–19)
Go through this passage with your children and teach them how crucial the resurrection is to our salvation. Teach them that Christ rose from the grave because he was the perfect Son of God. The grave could not hold him. He conquered sin and death. Not only that, his resurrection assures our own future bodily resurrection.

3. Christ Is the Passover Lamb

It is no coincidence that Jesus suffered and died during the Passover. Teach your children the significance of this. Read the story of the original Passover. Show them how the Passover in Exodus points to Jesus, and how because of Jesus we are freed from God’s righteous judgment.

4. Cross Truths

Easter is also a great time to teach your children central themes such as substitutionary atonement, justification, imputation, and redemption. Discuss how Jesus perfectly obeyed his Father in all things. Teach your children that Jesus’s perfect life has been credited to us in union with him by faith. In Christ, God now looks at us and sees Christ’s perfect life. Talk about the sacrifices made in the Old Testament and why they were not sufficient to atone for our sins. Discuss why Jesus was a perfect sacrifice for us at the cross and that it was sufficient for all time. Talk about what it means to redeem or buy back something. How does Jesus redeem us?

Allegories can be a helpful aid in teaching these wonderful truths, including R.C. Sproul’s The Princes Poison Cup and The Priest With the Dirty Clothes, and of course, C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As we teach our children about the cross, let us also remember those wonderful words from Aslan,

that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.

Reprinted from Desiring God. Copyright 2016 Christina Fox Guest Contributor, desiringGod.org. Find the original article here at http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/four-things-to-teach-your-children-this-easter

Meditating on Scripture

I read a statement the other day in a devotional book by Robby and Kandi Gallaty that was simple, yet powerful. It said, “prayer is the most effective tool we have against any opposition or temptation we face, both in our personal lives and in our church today.” I truly believe prayer is vital for the life of the Christian and for the church. Because of this, I believe that understanding what prayer is and how to pray is also vitally important. There is a spiritual discipline that is a vital step before prayer that many Christians tend to leave out, and that is meditation on the Scripture. At its most basic level, meditation on Scripture is getting the truth of the Word of God from your head to your heart. Meditation literally means to “mutter”, to work out, or to work through. Doing this allows the Word of God to become real to you and allows you to commune with God at a deeper level.

Timothy Keller, in his book, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy With God, gives some helpful questions to ask when approaching the Scriptures that allows you to work through the Scriptures and move it from the head to the heart.

Is there any example for me to follow?
Is there any command for me to obey?
Is there any error for me to avoid?
Is there any sin for me to forsake
Is there any promise for me to claim?
Is there any new thought about God himself?
Am I living in light of this?
What difference does this passage make?
Am I taking this seriously?
If I believed and held to this, how would that change things?
When I forget this, how does that affect me and all my relationships?

Over the past couple of weeks, I have done my best at working through these questions and it has really helped my understanding of the Scriptures. I hope this helps you as well in your pursuit of seeking after God.

It has been on Pastor Brian's heart for our church to return to being a PRAYING church. This has challenged my faith and given me a desire to become someone who prays regularly with purpose and meaning. Timothy Keller's book on Prayer is a game changer when it comes to how and why to pray. He looks into what the Bible says about prayer as well as highlights the writings of some of the most influential theologians of all time. One such theologian is St. Augustine. This article gives us a look at a letter he wrote that specifically addresses prayer.

In Christ,
Brandon H.

Saint Augustine on Prayer
by Timothy Keller

Anicia Faltonia Proba (died AD 432) was a Christian Roman noblewoman. She had the distinction of knowing both St. Augustine, who was the greatest theologian of the first millennium of Christian history, as well as John Chrysostom, who was its greatest preacher. We have two letters of Augustine to Proba, and the first (Letter 130) is the only single, substantial treatment on the subject of prayer that St. Augustine ever wrote.

I had the chance to read the letter over the Christmas holidays and was impressed with its common sense and some of its unusual insights. Proba wrote Augustine because she was afraid that she wasn’t praying as she should. Augustine responded with several principles or rules for prayer.

The first rule is completely counter-intuitive. St. Augustine wrote that before anyone can turn to the question of what to pray and how to pray it, they must first be a particular kind of person. What kind is that? He writes: “You must account yourself ‘desolate’ in this world, however great the prosperity of your lot may be.” He argues that no matter how great your earthly circumstances they cannot bring us the peace, happiness, and consolation that are found in Christ. The scales must fall from our eyes and we must see that—if we don’t all our prayers will go wrong.

Second, he says, you can begin to pray. And what should you pray for? With a bit of a smile (I think) Augustine answers you should pray for what everyone else prays for: “Pray for a happy life.” But of course, what will bring you a happy life? The Christian (if following Augustine’s first rule of prayer) has realized that comforts and rewards and pleasures in themselves give only fleeting excitement and, if you rest your heart in them, actually bring you less enduring happiness. He turns to Psalm 27 and points to the Psalmist’s great prayer: “One thing have I desired of the Lord, one thing will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord.” This is the fundamental prayer for happiness. Augustine writes: “We love God, therefore, for what He is in Himself, and [we love] ourselves and our neighbors for His sake.” That doesn’t mean, he quickly adds, that we shouldn’t pray for anything else other than to know, love, and please God. Not at all. The Lord’s Prayer shows us that we need many things. But if God is our greatest love, and if knowing and pleasing him is our highest pleasure, then it transforms both what and how we pray for a happy life.

He quotes Proverbs 30 as an example: “Give me neither poverty nor riches: Feed me with food appropriate for me lest I be full and deny you…or lest I be poor, and steal and take the name of my God in vain.” Ask yourself this question. Are you seeking God in prayer in order to get adequate financial resources—or are you seeking the kind and amount of resources you need to adequately know and serve God? Those are two different sets of motivations.

In both cases the external action is a prayer: “Oh, Lord—give me a job so I won’t be poor” but the internal reasons of the heart are completely different. If, as Augustine counseled, you first became a person “desolate without God regardless of external circumstances”—and then began to pray, your prayer will be like Proverbs 30. But if you just jump into prayer before the gospel re-orders your heart’s loves, then your prayer will be more like: “Make me as wealthy as possible.” As a result, you will not develop the spiritual discretion in prayer that enables you to discern selfish ambition and greed from a desire for excellence in work. And you will be far more crestfallen if you have financial reversals. A Proverbs 30 prayer includes the request that God not give you too much, not only that he not give you too little.

The third rule was comprehensive and practical. You will be guided, he said, into the right way to pray for a happy life by studying the Lord’s Prayer. Think long and hard about this great model of prayer and be sure your own appeals fit it. For example, Augustine writes: “He who says in prayer… ‘Give me as much wealth as you have given to this or that man’ or ‘Increase my honors; make me eminent in power and fame in the world,’ and who asks merely from a desire for these things, and not in order through them to benefit men agreeably to God’s will, I do not think he will find any part of the Lord’s Prayer in connection with which he could fit in these requests. Therefore, let us be ashamed to ask these things.”

The fourth rule is an admission. He admits that even after following the first three rules, still “we know not what to pray for as we ought in regard to tribulations.” This is a place of great perplexity. Even the most godly Christian can’t be sure what to ask for. “Tribulations…may do us good…and yet because they are hard and painful…we pray with a desire which is common to mankind that they may be removed from us.”

Augustine gives wise pastoral advice here. He first points to Jesus own prayer in Gethsemane, which was perfectly balanced between honest desire “let this cup pass from me” and submission to God “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” And he points to Romans 8:26, which promises that the Spirit will guide our hearts and prayers when we are groaning and confused—and God will hear them even in their imperfect state.

Anicia Proba was a widow by her early 30s. She was present when Rome was sacked in 410 and had to flee for her life with her granddaughter Demetrias to Africa where they met Augustine. Augustine concludes the letter by asking his friend, “Now what makes this work [of prayer] specially suitable to widows but their bereaved and desolate condition?” Should a widow not “commit her widowhood, so to speak, to her God as her shield in continual and most fervent prayer?” There is every reason to believe she accepted his invitation.

See Augustine’s Letter 130 (AD 412) to Proba found in Philip Schaff, ed., “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,” First series, vol. 1, 1887. Christian Classics Ethereal Library pp. 997-1015.

Copyright ©2016 Redeemer City to City. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find the original article at http://www.timothykeller.com/blog/2014/3/1/saint-augustine-on-prayer