{"id":669,"date":"2010-10-07T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/?p=669"},"modified":"2011-04-21T22:58:33","modified_gmt":"2011-04-22T04:58:33","slug":"waiting-for-worship-this-coming-sunday-at-living-word-free-lutheran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/waiting-for-worship-this-coming-sunday-at-living-word-free-lutheran\/","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for Worship – This Coming Sunday at Living Word Free Lutheran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ornamental<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you long to worship on Sunday mornings? \u00a0Do you prepare your heart throughout the week and look toward the weekend with joyful anticipation of what God will do? \u00a0I’m beginning to ask God to grant me that desire and one way I thought I could help prepare my mind and hopefully yours as well (especially those of you who attend Living Word<\/a>) is by giving you a preview of Sunday that can hopefully deepen your worship experience. \u00a0I’d love to start doing this every Thursday and I hope it’s beneficial to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Church’s One Foundation<\/h3>\n

We’re going to be singing this wonderful hymn after the message Sunday. \u00a0As we were rehearsing it I realized that there were some words in there that I wasn’t even quite sure what they meant, so I thought we could take a look together.<\/p>\n

First of all, the hymn is a bold declaration of unity within the church body as a whole. \u00a0It was written during a time of turbulence in South Africa in 1860 when a certain bishop declared some very controversial statements about the Bible. \u00a0At that time Samuel John Stone wrote a series of twelve hymns that explained the twelve sections of the apostles creed. \u00a0This hymn reflects the section “I believe in the holy Christian church, the communion of saints.” \u00a0You can read the rest of the hymn story here<\/a>, but I wanted to take a look at a couple of the verses to help us grasp them a little better. \u00a0Most of the verses are fairly straight-forward, but some might be slightly tricky to grasp.<\/p>\n

The Church\u2019s one foundation
\nIs Jesus Christ her Lord,
\nShe is His new creation
\nBy water and the Word. \u00a0<- Our baptismal water combined with the power of God’s Word<\/strong>
\nFrom heaven He came and sought her
\nTo be His holy bride;
\nWith His own blood He bought her
\nAnd for her life He died.<\/p>\n

Elect from every nation, <- That is, the church, all who were chosen by Jesus at the Cross and those in every nation who believe<\/strong>
\nYet one o\u2019er all the earth; <- Yet we are united by Jesus throughout the entire earth<\/strong>
\nHer charter of salvation,
\nOne Lord, one faith, one birth;
\nOne holy Name she blesses, <- The name of Jesus<\/strong>
\nPartakes one holy food, <- His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper<\/strong>
\nAnd to one hope she presses, <- The hope of eternal life<\/strong>
\nWith every grace endued. <- Endued meaning that we are provided with every Grace from God<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a great promise of being provided with every grace! \u00a0Let’s look at one more verse:<\/p>\n

\u2019Mid toil and tribulation,
\nAnd tumult of her war, <- Every day we are at war with our sin and face emotional struggle and agitation (tumult)<\/strong>
\nShe waits the consummation <- The finish, the end, the victory<\/strong>
\nOf peace forevermore;
\nTill, with the vision glorious, <- Actually seeing Jesus with our own eyes<\/strong>
\nHer longing eyes are blest,
\nAnd the great Church victorious
\nShall be the Church at rest. <- No longer fighting the daily struggle of our old nature vs. our new nature<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other Things to Anticipate<\/h3>\n