I don’t have our normal worship recap for yesterday – as it was our Christmas worship service that took the entire service time. I’ll post the videos here, this week for additional viewing. So thankful for the three folks that stepped out and shared their stories.
I will say this – one of my favorite songs from yesterday was from Tim Hughes’s new worship album. I don’t think he intended it to be a Christmas song – but the lyrics are undeniable as one. The title is God is Coming – and the chorus lyric is “Here You come, running to find me, King of the Universe, yes our God is a God who saves….”
Brilliant lyrics. One of my other favorite tunes yesterday was Philip Phillip’s Home. Put those lyrics, probably not intended to be about Jesus, into the context of a Christmas program, and that’s EXACTLY what they become – a beautiful declaration of the promise of Christ.
Here’s my “bulletin note” from yesterdays service…
Welcome to All Things New. I picked that title for our program – not because it’s the title of one of our songs this morning, because it isn’t, but because if you listen closely – you’ll pick up on that thread throughout the entire program. It’s a prayer, it’s a cry of desperation, it’s a declaration, it’s a promise. HE is the only one that makes all things new – He has come, and He has promised to come again.
Oak Mountain is very special place – and a very unusual place. You see, we tend to break out of the typical “southern” culture. You know the one – where you just finished screaming at the kids, got berated at work, the car broke down, you haven’t spoken to your dad in years, AND you’re in a fight with your spouse, but you smile and walk into the Christmas party telling everyone that “things are GREAT!”?
Nope – we have the freedom to come as we are – acknowledging that our lives are messy, fragmented, broken, and the ONLY thing that can make them new is Jesus. Every one of us has a Jesus-sized hole in our lives – whether in our parenting, marriages, work, friendships, finances … the blessing of being at Oak Mountain is that together, we can declare, cry out, and proclaim that Jesus is the only thing that can make us new – and we’re, together, counting on that to happen on a daily, minute-by-minute basis.
What if that way of thinking escaped the walls of this church? What if it started to permeate 35242, and then the surrounding communities? What if we were free to declare that our stories are messy? And we’re expecting Jesus to show up… all the time.
Come this morning with your pain, your joy, your wounding, desires, brokenness, doubts, and fears, and let’s join together as we celebrate the ONE that makes all things new.
