Rehearsals for November 25, 2018

No Children's Choir this Sunday.

Rehearsals Schedule for November 26

Same as last week. :-)

2:00 - All Drama Cast
3:00 - All Singers

Rehearsals for November 19

2:00 - all drama cast (speaking and non-speaking and angel dancers
3:00 - choirs and children join drama cast on stage

Rehearsals for Sunday, November 12

Rehearsals for Sunday, November 12.
2:00 - drama cast on stage
2:00 - dancing angels in foyer
3:00 - Sanctuary choir in choir room
4:00 - choirs, drama cast and children on stage for opening song
...

See you Sunday!

Psalm 142 - When There's No One Else

Poor David..... His spirit was fainting.

4 Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.

So what's a guy to do?
He cried out loud to the LORD. 
He asked for mercy.
He poured out his complaints and told God his troubles.

He knew God was his refuge.
And his portion in the land of the living. The New Living Translation says it this way, "You are all I really want in life."

And, David promised to praise God when He brought him through. 
7 Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. 

Psalm 141

Sometimes some of us have sins that seem to track us down and catch us over and over again. The writer of Hebrews called them "the sin that so easily entangles us." Hebrews 12:1

Psalm 141 has a good plan of action for us to combat sin.

1 I call to you, LORD, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to you. 

2 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. 

3 Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. 

4 Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies. 

5 Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head.

Call to God - ask Him to come quickly.
Pray.

Ask God to guard your mouth - to watch what you say. Don't let your words make your sin worse.

Pray verse 4. At times we can easily be drawn into sin. It's a different sin for each of us. But our old sin nature can still pull our heart strings. The Apostle Paul wrote quite a bit about his struggle with sin. Romans 7:14-25

Romans 7:21 NAS

http://www.biblestudytools.com/nas/romans/7-21.html

21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  

Have some good friends in your life - friends that you can share your struggles with. Give your friend permission to confront you when he/she sees you headed down the path to sin. (See verse 5)

You don't have a friend like that? You have to work to BE a friend like that and to develop that kind of friendship. That's a whole other blog post....

Psalm 141:4 reminded me of the third verse of the great hymn "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

O to grace, how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be.

Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter,

bind my wondering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, 

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Here's a modern version of this great hymn with some new words added.

Psalm 140 - Living in His Presence

After several verses of wishing the worst on his enemies, the psalmist concludes with these words.

13 Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

In the Old Testament times people had to work hard to live righteously. They had to follow the law. Many would live righteous lives wanting to please the LORD with how they lived. But the sinful nature in everyone made it impossible to completely keep the law. 

But God promised that a day would come when He would write His laws on our hearts.

Jeremiah 31:33 NAS

http://www.biblestudytools.com/nas/jeremiah/31-33.html

33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD , "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

In the New Testament we see that our righteousness comes from Jesus. (Read Romans 3 and the rest of Romans.

So....all of that to say - and I"m probably leaving out some connecting thoughts. 

If you have given y our life to Christ and are following Him then you are righteous before the Father. Then you will praise His name - not only in worship on Sundays, but during the week too.
And you will live your life in His presence - not just when you die and you're in heaven. 

Well.... I'm taking care of three grands after having two other grands here since Tuesday, so I"m not sure I've included all of the connecting thoughts in this post.