An Occasional Choir

Throughout this summer season, I will be preparing formatted information, music, rehearsal dates, and performance dates for a choir at PFBC.

If this piques your interest, feel free to read the following:

Essentials

• believe that Jesus Christ is your Savior
• ample experience singing in choir(s)
• desire to share your love for God and musical gift
• ability, or desire the ability, to blend with others vocally
• strong desire to learn more about God 

I will be posting more information about choir at PFBC as the summer progresses. 

Please email me with any questions:  bethany.colgrove@gmail.com

blessings,

Bethany

"Ride On, Ride On, O Savior-King"

We sang this hymn today during 1st service to set the theme of this Sunday around The Triumphal Entry. I for one, had not heard the song before practicing it. But as I read the lyrics, I found it to be quite fitting to be telling the story of Christ's entry into Jerusalem just 4 days before His crucifixion.

The lyrics are:

Ride on, ride on, O Savior-King

To set the prisoner free!

To sin-cursed souls salvation to bring

And peace eternally!

Ride on to dark Gethsemane, 

To untold agony,

And on the cross of Calvary

Procure our victory!

Ride on, ride on, O Savior-King,

To claim the hearts of men!

Now death has lost its dreadful sting

And hope is born again.

O come, in human hearts to reign--

Suppress the pow'r of sin!

Our own endeavor is in vain--

Lord, Thou must help us win!

Ride on, ride on, O Savior-King!

Ride on o'er land and sea,

For Thou alone to men can bring

Eternal liberty.

Ride on to sin-bound nations, Lord

Until each hearts shall own

Thy saving, sanctifying word

And bow before Thy throne!

Written by a pastor, C.K. Solberg, at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, MN back in 1932, is among one of the recorded 11 hymns he wrote during his lifetime. Rather than translating hymns, Carl Knutson Solberg was gifted as an original hymnist; composing hymns with his own lyrics.

Among the 11 recorded (meaning, written down & kept record of; not necessarily an audio/mp3 file), "Ride on, Ride on, O Savior-King" is one of the most unpopular of his writings. Because of this, it has been quite difficult to find details on this particular hymn. 

Since it is labeled in PFBC's hymnal as "Christ: The Triumphal Entry" we have reason to believe that C.K. Solberg wrote this hymn with Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in mind.

Interestingly enough, this hymn ties together Jesus riding into Jerusalem with the real reason why He came; which was to teach us that Rome and other people are not the problem, but that the human heart is the problem. With each deceitful heart that seemingly welcomed Him into Jerusalem, betrayed Him just a few days later shouting out their desire to crucify Him. But Jesus died for every one of them who chose to crucify Him. Including us. 

I half-wonder if Solberg wrote these lyrics as what he would say to Jesus if he were at the entrance to Jerusalem on the day Jesus rode in on a colt.  

Whatever the case, I'm thankful God led me to this hymn. Its scarceness, yet with the lyrics having pure faith and trust in Jesus Christ to fulfill the true reason of why He came (to redeem us by dying for us on the cross to reconcile us back to God) makes it become a hymn to keep in my collection for years to come.

If you would like a copy of it, here are some hymnals that still have it in print:  

Revival Hymns and Choruses

and

Sing Joyfully

I pray this hymn blesses you as you advance on the journey that Holy Week has in store for you and your relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior King.

Striving to accept the Free Gift

The following questions were from a Lenten devotional I was reading today. The answers are my responses.


Why is it so hard for us to accept Christ's gift (of salvation)? 

We live in a world that shuns you if you don’t do enough. There are written and unwritten rules of this world that capture our time;  if you’re not doing something, it’s considered ‘laziness’. If you’re doing everything while neglecting yourself, family, friends, and other relationships, you’re considered ‘gifted’, ‘selfless’, and ‘worthy of promotion’. This world has little, if no, grace for those who try their best and then fail. If you fail at your job, you’re fired. If you fail in your marriage, you're forced into a divorce.

Whereas when we know and proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior; that He died for us and that we are called to live for Him, we feel like our relationship with Him has the same so-called rules as the ones we have here on earth. 

Wrong. The relationship Christ offers is full of forgiveness. Forgivefull. We live in this world, and therefore are easily conformed to the ways of it. Our senses are overwhelmed. However, Paul tells us to fix our eyes not on what is seen (or otherwise, “sensed” by our 5 senses by what is in the world) but to fix our eyes on what is unseen [2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV] (or otherwise, we shall focus on everything that is, and of, Christ--our focus should be heavenward). 

Is this a struggle for [me]?
Since I am of this world, yes, I do feel it is a struggle for me to continually and momentously accept Christ’s gift of salvation through the cross. This world tells and shows us that if we fail in this world, we gain nothing. Christ tells us that if we fail in this world, we gain everything; if we lose our lives for Him, we will find our lives in Him alone. 


Christ calls us to lose ourselves in His sacrifice; that we learn to love as He loved us. Our lives are to be a constant sacrifice to Him. In every activity we do, we are called to honor Him. “Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial…” and therefore we need to honor Him only in actions, words, and events that are holistically pleasing to Him. 

However, this world does not always approve of actions, words, and events that would be pleasing to Christ. But that shouldn’t matter. Christ is our treasure. HE. DIED. FOR. US. ALL.  “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him Who died for them and was raised again” [2 Corinthians 5:14-15].



How do we make it a non-struggle? 

My desire is to keep a constant relationship with Christ. By praying to Him; thanking Him for His sacrifice. “Pray without ceasing” [1 Thess. 5:17]. 

I desire to ask Him to reveal His Truth to His people. And “in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:” [Ph. 2:5 NIV]. 

I desire to “[g]ive thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” [1 Thess. 5:18 NIV].

And remember, Christ doesn’t look down on you if you fail. YOU. ARE. FORGIVEN. Our relationship with Christ is forgivefull; it is full of forgiveness. It is important to not become prideful of His grace, but to accept it as a gift; one that you never expected, but are overtly grateful to receive. For it is in Christ that we are saved. It is in Him through His sacrifice of love that we have the opportunity to be reconciled to God. 

Now all glory to God, Who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him Who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present and beyond all time! Amen.

-Jude 1:24-25

Lent: Giving up, while keeping the focus

Today is the beginning of Lent. As it is a season of self-denial, fasting, Christian growth, and simplicity, many people are "giving something up" in recognition of this time set aside in the church calendar/year. It is also a time of remembrance and reverence and reflection of what Christ did in the desert. He fasted 40 days and 40 nights (Matt. 4; Luke 4). Even through His many struggles during those 40 days and 40 nights, He overcame them all. Since we are called to be like Jesus in modeling Him in His words and actions, we can do that in one way by giving something up for Him. Our act of giving something up for Christ's sake, also imperfectly mirrors (at best) Christ's loving sacrifice for us; by giving His very life for us on the cross.

Grace is freely offered over to us and has been readily available since before the beginning of time (2 Tim. 1:9). I still don't understand it fully, and I may never understand it. For if I were to fully understand God's grace, I may become prideful and desire to do nothing for His glory. I desire to learn from Him, by focusing on Who He is and what He has done for us, rather than focusing on myself. But sadly, I don't always do what I want to do (Rom. 7). It is with the word "focus" that I want to continue discussing the season of Lent. 

When Jesus was in the desert, He was fasting and He was also being tempted by Satan (Matt. 4; Luke 4). The entire span of the 40 day period, Jesus was focused on God. He gave up food for the sake of the glory of God. He desired to show dedication to His Father God by fasting and keeping mind and heart full of the Holy Spirit (Mark 4:1; Luke 4:1) in His act of worship to God. 

Jesus not only gave something up for those 40 days (what we now call "Lent"), but during Lent, He was completely and utterly focused on God's Word. He quotes Scripture to Satan in response to Satan's attempts to sway Jesus to worship him instead of God The Father. When Satan tries to use Scripture against Jesus, He knows Satan's usage is out of context, and wins the battle even again. And why? Granted, Jesus is part of the Trinity, and therefore in constant reciprocating relationship with the other members, but Jesus was able to win because He was completely centered on God. Being in the Trinity helps a bit.

So for the Lenten season, it's not just what you "give up", it's also about Who you choose as your focus. If you give up chocolate, will you be doing it for the glory of God; to honor Him?  Or will you be doing it for yourself?  If you give up chocolate, you could try to see how Jesus felt when He gave up food in order to bring glory to God during those 40 days and 40 nights. In the Lenten time period when you feel like you are tempted to eat chocolate (or whatever you decide to give up; if anything at all), you could ask God to have your eyes and heart opened more to see what He wants you to see and do for His glory.

Maybe you don't decide to give something up for Lent. Rather you decide to begin a new spiritual discipline that will grow your relationship with Christ in learning more of Him and His love. Since the season of Lent is garnered from Jesus' 40 days and 40 nights in the desert being constantly tempted by Satan to do the wrong thing (the worst thing), choosing to start a new discipline--a focus on a spiritual discipline--could be a way to observe it.

Whether or not you choose to observe Lent, I pray that during these 40 days and 40 nights that you are renewed by God's transforming love, grace, and mercy. I pray that you are not overcome by evil, but that any evil you encounter; that you overcome it with good (Rom. 12:21).

Why Do We Worship?

One of the many books I'm reading recently is entitled, Christian Worship. In the second paragraph of the first page of his book he gives different possibilities of why some people worship God. He resolves to say that there is no "one-size-fits-all answer". Rather, people tend to:

1) worship to meet someone else's expectations

2) worship out of pure habit

3) worship in spite of--or because of--the fact that they are locked in some sort of struggle with God

4) worship because they are awestruck by a God who deserves a life of praise...and so much more.

I find it interesting that there are four ways listed. To me, these four ways could be broken up into seasons; seasons of life maybe?  

Granted, these ways have not been fully extrapolated. There are many more ways and reasons why we worship God. Spiritual disciplines are just one way to honor God, yet spiritual disciplines like an intricately-spun spider web filled with silk strings of countless ways to show love and honor and praise to God. 

One of my friends and I were talking about what God is doing in each other's lives recently. When she asked me, I said that I felt Him pushing me to be more mindful of the words I say and how I say them. The meaning counts. After the conversation, Jeremiah 29:13 kept going through my mind... "you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." 

Not half-hearted. Whole-hearted. I wonder if whole-hearted worship is the season of life I desire to always serve for God. 

Why do we worship? 

If our answer to this question results in something epitomizing half-heartedness, we may not be worshiping God with our whole heart. Prayer, solitude, service, fellowship, study, and many more spiritual disciplines are ways we can learn to give God all the glory in the lives He has so lovingly given us to live for Him. Doing these things together with a friends/accountability partner is a beautiful way to engage in fellowship. "For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am with them." --Matthew 18:20

As believers in Christ Jesus, God needs to be our foundation; not just in one area, but in everything we do. I'm learning more and more that as long as we seek Him, and give Him the glory for what He accomplishes through us, the more we honor Him as the creation He made us to be for Him.

Creative Worship Stations: some examples

In my last post, I brought up the phrase "creative worship stations" (a.k.a. "worship stations"). I have found some imagery online that will give a mental picture of what a projected station looks like.

This website provides a somewhat bare-bones example of what some creative worship stations appear:


http://gatheringinlight.com/2009/02/24/stations-of-the-lords-prayer-a-worship-resource/
*pictures are provided at this website

Creative worship stations are heavily used within the Emergent Church/Worship movement, but such stations are embraced across other denominations.

If you are interested in learning more about the Emergent Church, books by Dan Kimball such as Emerging Worship or Emerging Church.

Thoughts on Lent 2011

I went into staff meeting today with some sacred space ideas for the five Sundays of Lent (March 13th, 20th, 27th, April 3rd, & April 10th). I came out of the meeting with a more refreshed, complex, and more concrete foundation on the meaning behind this season.

We're trying something different for Lent 2011. During the five Sundays listed above (not included Palm Sunday and Easter), we'll be having creative worship stations that emphasize themes such as thanksgiving, confession, yielding, and intercession. When a Sunday is the first Sunday of the a month during Lent, we'll partake in Communion in place of the stations.

The four of us sat around the Senior Pastor's office brainstorming about specific themes we could emphasize during Lent. We took a field trip (minor as it was) to the sanctuary for approximate measurements on what materials we might need and where they would be placed during the service. We finalized our field trip by discussing possible scriptures that could explanatorily epitomize each station.

I will be posting more on what we're doing for Lent.

Feel free to share what you have learned recently about this season!