Lampstand Review, March 2018~Julie

Bethany Oakes led us in a beautiful time of worship in which we were lifting our voices as the Bride crying out “Come, Lord Jesus!”  It’s hard to write a “description” of a time of worship.  More than we can write out what was said or done, worship is a thing that we engage in and that we experience.  So, we try to capture some highlight of these times together just to remember what the Lord was doing, but more than anything, we invite you to come and just enter into worship with us!

Matthew and Julie both shared at this Lampstand.  Matthew sharing a brief encouragement from a book called “When People are Big and God is Small.”  He described how before we are followers of Jesus, we are looking for all kinds of things to satisfy us.  Then, we become followers of Christ and we then look for Jesus to satisfy that same place within us.  However, this is incomplete because we are still the center.  The shift is that we want to see Jesus be the center and then we certainly do find fulfillment, but the point is that we are looking to love and please Him, and as our focus is on Him and not ourselves, we find ultimate satisfaction!  Ultimately, we are not the point.  He is the point.  Our lives, our stories are all part of a BIGGER picture.

Julie shared from Revelation 5, finishing out our series on Revelation 4 and 5.  We looked at the end of Revelation 5, “He is worthy!”  A critical aspect of this chapter is the invitation into something bigger than ourselves.  We see the Son taking the scroll from the Father on the throne and the importance of it that caused John to weep that no one could open it, and I always pause and think, “What is this scroll all about?  This is something so much bigger than just my life!”  This passage of Scripture draws our eyes up from our own circumstances and causes us to see the Lamb who was slain and to sing with those around the throne, “He is Worthy!!”

We finished out our time by listening to a song by Andrew Peterson called “Is He Worthy” (which you can find HERE).  This beautiful liturgical song is a call and response that again lifts our eyes to the One who is worthy of all of our worship and all of our praise, and all of our lives.