Psalm: 74 Meditation Ezra: Ezra was commissioned by King Artaxerxes (or Xerxes) to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple; to make it ready for worship. This letter is Ezra’s bona fides (his credentials or authorization) and Artaxerxes’ endorsement. He is to get as much gold and silver as needed and any free-will offerings as …
Tag: Worship
Finding God in the Big, Beautiful World
Listen. If you missed the Children’s Message on Sunday, you can listen to a recording of it here: http://www.pacificunionchurch.org/churchsmall starting Monday. Review If you get to know a musician by listening to their music, and a carpenter by looking at what they build, or a dancer by watching them dance, what is one way that …
How Can We Sing?
A group of shell-shocked refugees stood in the midst of an unending plain under the hot scorching Babylonian sun. Their homes were piles of ash hundreds of miles to the West. Their temple, the center of their worship, was a pile of rubble. Then one of the refugees began to sing a mournful tune: Psalm …
John Gray and Stephen Furtick
Conversations about race are even more terrifying than talking about politics. They are fraught with emotion. There is the fear of being misunderstood. So we say nothing and over the years the church has largely been silent. The result is that we live in a country where our churches are segregated on Sunday and violence …
Tuesday, August 18
Psalm: 121, 122, 123 Meditation Acts: This is an intriguing event in that it shows how desperate people can get because of fear. These “Christians” are upsetting the Jewish status quo and the Jews fear a challenge to their deeply held traditions. Jesus faced the same issue: His disciples were caught eating something without first …
Community Worship
It may seem to be an odd time to be talking about the necessity of community worship when we have not been meeting together in person for several months. But then again, perhaps at no other time have we felt the importance of gathering together with fellow followers of Jesus more than right now. Sometimes …
The Lord’s Prayer
Prayer is one of two daily spiritual practices that are key to keeping spiritually fit. We learned in our last post that prayer is a two-way conversation with God that involves both listening and speaking. We already covered silence as the listening aspect of prayer, this week we will look at our part of the …
Small Church Guide for Easter Sunday
Opening Prayer Read Psalm 118:1-2,14-24 together.This psalm gives us a number of reasons to praise God, central among them is the resurrection.Jesus is "the stone builders rejected [which] has become the capstone." Offer a prayer for thanksgiving to God for the hopethat comes with Jesus' resurrection. Worship (Non-Musical Version)How have you experienced God this week? Go around and …
Worship Guide for April 5
Opening Prayer Read Psalm 31:9-16 together.This is a psalm of David, but it is prophetic of Jesus' death.Read this psalm, imagining Jesus praying this psalmas he went to the cross to die for us. Offer a prayer of thankfulness for Jesus' sacrifice in response to this psalm. Worship (Non-Musical Verison) How have you experienced God this week?Go …
Worship Guide for March 29, 2020
Opening Prayer Read Psalm 130 together.This psalm is a “song of ascents”, meaning that it was a song sung by worshipers as they went up to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple. The Jerusalem and its temple were situated on Mount Zion. So no matter what direction you came from, you were always going …
