WorshipPLUS

Advent 2 Reading Bookmark

 

 

O Little Town of Bethlehem

As we concluded our time of confession on Sunday, we prayed Let Christ come into the fullness of our time. It was only appropriate that we would sing the final verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem:

O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in;
Be born in us today

We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel

These words remind us that the Light of Christ comes to us, even now, and dwells within and through us. Thanks be to God!

 

Advent 2 Call to Worship and Prayer of Invocation

Call to Worship | Romans 13:11-12 (NIV)

“Do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

Come, let us worship God.

Prayer of Invocation | based on Psalm 80:1-7

The Lord is glorious and exalted.

Lord, shine in our hearts and lives.

God’s people are often in distress and sorrow.

Lord, show Your might and deliver us from evil. 

We sometimes do not feel the Lord’s presence.

O Lord, let Your face again shine on us.

The Lord was the shepherd of His people Israel.

Lord, lead us in our way and guide us in our walk.

In this Advent season we stand on tiptoe—

Immanuel, invade our lives. Amen.

From The Worship Sourcebook, © 2004, CRC Publications.

'O' Antiphons

This past week for Advent 2, we proclaimed the 'O' Antiphons and sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which is based on those antiphons. They probably originated in the 5th century or even earlier. Each antiphon would have been used in one of the vespers services leading up to Christmas, beginning on December 17 and concluding on December 23. Here they are, along with the related verse from the advent carol.

O Wisdom, O Holy Word of God,
 You govern all creation with
  Your strong yet tender care:
 Come and show Your people
  the way to salvation.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
and order all things, far and nigh;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and cause us in her ways to go

O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel,
 who showed Yourself to Moses
  in the burning bush,
 who gave him the holy law
  on Sinai mountain:
 Come, stretch out Your mighty hand
  to set us free.

O Come, O come, Thou Lord of might
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
in ancient times didst give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe

O Flower of Jesse’s Stem,
 You have been raised up as a sign
  for all peoples;
 kings stand silent in Your presence;
 the nations bow down in worship
  before You:
 Come, let nothing keep You
  from coming to our aid.

O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
from depths of hell Thy people save,
and give them victory o'er the grave

O Key of David,
 O royal Power of Israel, controlling
  at Your will the gate of heaven:
 Come, break down the prison walls
  of death for those who dwell in
  darkness and the shadow of death,
  and lead Your captive people
  into freedom.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery

O Radiant Dawn,
 Splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
 Come, shine on those who dwell in
  darkness and the shadow of death

O come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
and cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadows put to flight

O King of all Nations,
 the only joy of every human heart;
 O Keystone of the mighty arch of man:
 Come and save the creature
  You fashioned from the dust.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
all peoples in one heart and mind;
bid envy, strife and quarrels cease,
fill all the world with heaven's peace

O Emmanuel,
 king and lawgiver,  desire of the nations,
 Savior of all people:
 Come and set us free, Lord our God.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here,
until the Son of God appear

Advent 2 Music

Here are the songs that we sang for Advent 2 on December 5, 2010

O Come, O Come Emmanuel | based on Indelible Grace's Your King Has Come (downloads available on Amazon and iTunes)

O Little Town of Bethlehem (verse 5)

Marvelous Light | an amalgam based on City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise, City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia and City on a Hill: The Gathering (all 3 available from Amazon and The Gathering available on iTunes)

God Is With Us | from Sojourn Music's Advent Songs (downloads available on Amazon and iTunes and CDs here)

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Advent and Waiting

One of the key themes for Advent is that of waiting. While we're not really addressing that in our corporate worship this season, evidently I've decided to enact it by being late with posts for this blog.

So for all the hordes who have been waiting, upcoming shortly are the posts for last week's Advent service.

:)

The Christ, Our Light

Throughout this Advent season, we'll be singing this new song for us at NPC: The Christ, Our Light | from Trinity Vineyard's Anima Christi (available from Amazon, iTunes and here). Here are the words for your ongoing meditation and worship:

When all was dark and without dawn
You gave us Light, you sent your Son
The Christ, the Christ, He shines, He shines
The Christ, the Christ, He shines, He shines
And drives all dark away, away
Yes, You drive all dark away, away

When we were enemies of the cross
When we were dead in sin, so lost
The Christ, the Christ, He died, He died
The Christ, the Christ, He died, He died
To drive our sin away, away
Come and take our sin away, away.

By Martin Reardon. © 2009 Bluepearlsnaps Publishing.

Advent Confession

Here is the text from the confession that we're using at NPC this Advent season (the portions in italics are from Isaiah):

Arise, shine, for your light has come.

O God, we live as if the light
  had never defeated the darkness
  in the world or in us.

And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

We confess that we ignore the Christ
  You sent to be among us, to be in us.

See, darkness covers the earth
  and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
  and his glory appears over you.

We’ve kept the birth of Your Son
  confined to the Christmas season
and do not yearn for His birth
  each moment in our waiting hearts.

Nations will come to Your light,
  and kings to the brightness of Your dawn.

Lord, You came to us in the fullness of time.
Forgive us for not opening our eyes to Your coming.

It’s time that we prepare for your coming.
Let the earth ring with song.
Let the light break forth.
Let us all rejoice in your miracle of love.
Let Christ come into the fullness of our time.

Amen.

from The Worship Sourcebook with Isaiah 60:1-3 (NIV)

Advent 1 Music

Here are the songs that we sang for Advent 1 on November 28, 2010

Joyous Light | from Chris Tomlin/Passion's Passion: Hymns Ancient and Modern (available from Amazon and iTunes)

Savior of the Nations, Come | from Bruce Benedict/Cardiphonia (available here)

The Christ, Our Light | from Trinity Vineyard's Anima Christi (available from Amazon, iTunes and here)

Come Lord Jesus (Advent Song) | from Vineyard Music's Is God Listening? (available from iTunes and here)

The Glorious Impossible | from Springhill Worship's The Glorious Impossible (available here...or hopefully will be in the future...this is increasingly hard to find)

Advent 2010

And so we have entered another season of Advent at NPC. The times and seasons come around regularly to remind us of the fullness of God's truth, God's grace, God's mercy, God's love, God's presence...all revealed, demonstrated and embodied in Jesus the Christ.

In this year of focusing on what it really means to be missional, Advent is a timely reminder of the greatest missional movement of all time...God in Jesus incarnated as human, as The Christ. And so we remember, so we celebrate, so we long, so we grow.

We remember the promise of the coming light:

Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)
The people walking in darkness
  have seen a great light;
on those living in the land
  of the shadow of death
  a light has dawned.

We celebrate that Jesus, the incarnation of God, is the light:

John 8:12 (NIV)
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

We long for Jesus to be more and more present in us:

Colossians 1:27 (NIV)
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

We grow in being Christ's light in the world:

Matthew 5:14 (NIV)
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 

The Christ | among us, in us, through us

Advent 2010

Lenten Resources

For all Lent resources and handouts, please check here.

We have set aside this season of Lent to return to this familiar place in our lives that we might catch afresh a vision for our spiritual lives in Christ, a vision wherein we are captured anew by God and (re)discover that it really is good to be near God. We want to see Jesus!

And so we will journey through the familiar, praying that the Holy Spirit will meet us in unexpected ways. The messages during Sunday morning worship will be based on texts we all know well. The songs that we will sing, especially those in this devotional guide, will be ones that we have journeyed with for some time. The spiritual practices that we will explore in the adult education class will not be new. But what will be new is that it is this time and this place in which we are opening ourselves up to listen, to see, to wait. In the words of C. S. Lewis: Further up and deeper in.

 

The Lord's Prayer

This is the version of the Lord's Prayer that we prayed during our worship this morning:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
  hallowed be Your name.

May Your kingdom come,
  and Your will be done,
  on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins
  as we forgive those
  who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation,
  but deliver us from evil;
For Yours are the kingdom
  and the power and the glory
  forever and ever.

Amen.

Corporate Confession

Here is the confession we used together during worship this morning:

Most merciful God, our faith is often far from a living thing.

Forgive us for professing to live by faith, while in reality, trusting in and clinging to material things and people for our security.

Forgive us for worshipping idols, for worshipping created things rather than our Creator.

Forgive us for growing comfortable and complacent with evil, allowing our minds to be conformed to and shaped by the ways of this world rather than by your word.

Forgive us for believing and spreading lies rather than truth.

Lead our hearts back to Your beautiful Gospel that we may become full and complete in Christ.

We long to lay hold of the eternal kind of life you’ve promised to us and made available to us by the blood of your Son.

It’s in his powerful name we pray,

Amen.

May these words draw us to the place of the Spirit's restoration.

Sunday Song List (February 14)

Today's congregational songs for worship:

Doxology
on The Spares' Glory and Grace

Holy, Holy
on Vineyard Music Canada's Believe

Holy Is the Lord
on Vineyard Music's Holy Is the Lord: Touching the Father's Heart #27

Grace Flows Down
on Passion's One Day Live

This Is Love
on Vineyard Music's You Shelter Me: Touching the Father's Heart #34

You Are My King
on Passion's Better Is One Day

[When links are provided, they are for specialty sites for the given recordings. Note that many of these songs, whether linked or not above, can also be found on iTunes and Amazon. worshipmusic.com is another good source for worship music recordings.]

Sunday's Coming (February 14)

This coming Sunday's worship will be led by Keith Scherer. We'll be celebrating as we prepare to enter the season of Lent the following week.

Chris will be preaching The Tongue that Tears and Its Antidote from Ephesians 4:29-32.

Heidelberg Catechism | Questions 60 and 61

Here's the text from questions 60 and 61 in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) that we confesse today in our worship together:

I am made
    right with God
  only by true faith
    in Jesus Christ.

Even though my conscience accuses
  me of having grievously sinned
    against all God’s commandments
  and of never having kept
    any of them,
  and even though I am still inclined
    toward all evil,
  nevertheless,
    without deserving it at all,
    out of sheer grace
God grants and credits to me
  the perfect satisfaction,
    righteousness,
    and holiness of Christ,
  as if I had never sinned
    nor been a sinner,
  as if I had been
  as perfectly obedient
    as Christ was obedient for me.

All I need to do
  is to accept this gift of God
  with a believing heart.
 
When I say that by faith alone
    I am right with God;
  it is not because of any
    value my faith has
    that God is pleased with me.

Only Christ’s satisfaction,
  righteousness, and holiness
  make me right with God.

And I can receive this righteousness
  and make it mine
  in no other way
  than by faith alone.

Sunday Song List (February 7)

Today's congregational songs for worship:

Holy, Holy, Holy

Mighty to Save
on Hillsong's Mighty to Save
on Hillsong United's The I Heart Revolution

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
on Chris Tomlin's See the Morning

So Good
on Christ for the Nation Institute's Desperate Hour

Everyday
on Hillsong's For This Cause

[When links are provided, they are for specialty sites for the given recordings. Note that many of these songs, whether linked or not above, can also be found on iTunes and Amazon. worshipmusic.com is another good source for worship music recordings.]

Sunday's Coming (February 7)

This coming Sunday's worship will be led by Pam Shortness and will include the choir singing another old favorite, Order My Steps.

Chris will be preaching Becoming a Giver, Not a Taker from Ephesians 4:25-28.

Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant

Here are the words for the liturgy that we use following each celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism. The Apostles' Creed has been included in baptismal liturgies since the earliest times.

RENUNCIATION

I ask you, therefore, once again to reject sin, to profess your faith in Christ Jesus, and to confess the faith of the church, the faith in which we were baptized.

Do you renounce evil, and its power in the world, which defies God’s righteousness and love?

I renounce them.

Do you renounce the ways of sin that separate you from the love of God?

I renounce them.

AFFIRMATION

Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior?

I do.

Do you intend to be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying His word, and showing His love, to your life’s end?

I do.

APOSTLES’ CREED

With the whole church, let us confess our faith.

Do you believe in God the Father?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
 creator of heaven and earth.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

I believe in Jesus Christ,
    His only Son, our Lord,
  who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
    and born of the virgin Mary.
  He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, died, and was buried.*
  The third day He rose again
    from the dead.
  He ascended into heaven,
    and is seated at the right hand
    of the Father Almighty.
  From there He will come again to judge
    the living and the dead.

Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
  the holy universal** Church,
  the communion of saints,
  the forgiveness of sins,
  the resurrection of the body,
  and the life everlasting.
Amen.

* At this point the traditional creed generally states "He descended into hell." This phrase is a later accretion for the earliest forms of the Apostles' Creed did not have this phrase. Given the difficulty in explaining this phrase biblically, we have joined with those who have chosen to omit it.

** The creed here uses the word "catholic" which means "universal". We have substituted the word for clarity of understanding.

Sunday Song List (January 31)

Today's congregational songs for worship:

Shout (Psalm 100:1-3)
on Seeds Family Worship's Seeds of Praise

Heavenly Father, Beautiful Son
on Sovereign Grace Music's Valley of Vision

Everything
on Tim Hughes' Holding Nothing Back

Psalm 62 (My Soul Finds Rest)
on Aaron Keyes' Not Guilty Anymore

All Must Be Well
on Indelible Grace's Wake Thy Slumbering Children (Indelible Grace V)

[When links are provided, they are for specialty sites for the given recordings. Note that many of these songs, whether linked or not above, can also be found on iTunes and Amazon. worshipmusic.com is another good source for worship music recordings.]

Sunday's Coming (January 31)

This coming Sunday's worship will be led by Sue Omanson and will include the Sacrament of Baptism.

Chris will be preaching The Process of Human Metamorphosis from Ephesians 4:17-24.

John Calvin | Death & Resurrection

"Both things* happen to us by participation in Christ. For if we truly partake in his death, 'our old man is crucified by his power and the body of sin perishes', that the corruption of original nature may no longer thrive. If we share in his resurrection, through it we are raised up into newness of life to correspond with the righteousness of God."

John Calvin, 1559
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.3.9

* "Both things" refers to the dying to ourselves and being made alive by the Holy Spirit that are an integral part of our repentance.

John Calvin | Hold Fast Bravely

"For we await salvation from him not because he appears to us afar off, but because he makes us, ingrafted into his body, participants not only in all his benefits but also in himself…But since Christ has been so imparted to you with all his benefits that all his things are made yours, that you are made a member of him, indeed one with him, his righteousness overwhelms our sins; his salvation wipes out your condemnation; with his worthiness he intercedes that your unworthiness may not come before God’s sight. Surely this is so: We ought not to separate Christ from ourselves or ourselves from him. Rather we ought to hold fast bravely with both hands to that fellowship by which he has bound himself to us."

John Calvin, 1559
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.2.24

John Calvin | He Is Yet Our Life

"Indeed, he states that 'he has chosen us in him' from eternity 'before the foundation of the world,' through no merit of our own 'but according to the purpose of divine good pleasure'; that by his death we are redeemed from the condemnation of death and freed from ruin that we have been adopted unto him as sons and heirs by our Heavenly Father; that we have been reconciled through his blood; that, given into his protection, we are released from the danger of perishing and falling; that thus ingrafted into him we are already, in a manner, partakers of eternal life, having entered in the Kingdom of God through hope. Yet more: we experience such participation in him that, although we are still foolish in ourselves, he is our wisdom before God; while we are sinners, he is our righteousness; while we are unclean, he is our purity; while we are weak, while we are unarmed and exposed to Satan, yet ours is that power which had been given him in heaven and on earth, by which to crush Satan for us and shatter the gates of hell; while we still bear about with us the body of death, he is yet our life."

John Calvin, 1559
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.15.5

John Calvin | Christ the Only Food

"Now Christ is the only food of our soul, and therefore our Heavenly Father invites us to Christ, that, refreshed by partaking of him, we may repeatedly gather strength until we shall have reached heavenly immortality."

John Calvin, 1559
Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.1