Out of Darkness (Lyric Video)

A great song about all of us held in prisons. Thank you Ryan!

ryncust's avatarGrace in the Margins

“Out of Darkness” by Ryan Custead.

Father, we lift up to you in prayer those who have found themselves in prison. Comfort them by the power of the Holy Spirit and direct their lives on a path of peace, justice, and love. Cleanse the hearts of those who have been both rightfully and wrongfully imprisoned. Gracious God, we pray also for those who are imprisoned by addiction. Remove from them all the anger, resentment, and fear that has led them astray and keeps them in illness of the mind, body, and spirit. Reveal to us the things that we can change in ourselves and our society to work toward the end of all darkness. We ask these things in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Visit http://www.ryancustead.bandcamp.com for free downloads of this song and others!

If this meant something to you…

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grace was always there…

Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4, MSG)

The people of the Exodus are all of our ancestors! We can trace our linage back to people around that time and even if we are not blood relatives of one of the Israelites, due to our adoption by God they are our family. They were led from enslavement to salvation or life in God through the waters of the sea and they all ate and drank of the heavenly food provided by God.

We are joined together in the grace that saves us all!

You see it was God’s grace that brought Israel out of Egypt! It was His grace that saved them from the waters and it was His grace that fed them and took them into the promised land!

All of us are constantly covered by His grace. The question is do we notice it or follow it?

Keep close to God and realize how much He loves you as you are covered in His grace!

Listen and hope…

Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known: ‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it. ‘But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their doom would last for ever. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’ (Psalm 81, NRSV)

I answered your plea and then you turned your back on me!

God here says He answered the plea of His people for help and then they stopped listening to Him!

They got what they wanted and then turned their backs on Him.

Have we ever done this? Treat God like a magic cosmic vending machine?

God gave us free will and frequently lets us hang ourselves on the noose we create with it. The Psalmist tells us that He turned them over to their stubborn hearts and let them follow their own council.

But only if we would listen to Him and walk in the paths that He has set before us, because He would take care of those who come against us and feed us with the riches and most wonderful foods!

So listen to God and allow the hope of His promises be your life rather than trusting in your own council!

Justified!

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:1-11, NRSV)

Rarely would a man die for another when he already loves them and adores them.

I think about the events that would make me lay down my life for another. Anything that were to happen to my wife or children would make me lay down my life. I would step in front of a bullet or a knife for them.

Then I think about my friend who is a Secret Service agent, and could have to be on protection detail for the president some day. Here they protect the position and possibly not a person they believe should be in the position. But they detach the person and die for the position.

Maybe that is what happened for us… God disconnected the fact you are His creation a beloved child from your sinful nature and died to protect the child He created. And now He asks us to do the same.

To disconnect the sinful person from the child He loves and love them as He loved us.

Because He knows that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because it is the hope of the promise of God!

Sing!

O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.’ Therefore in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ (Psalm 95, NRSV)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Come into His presence with thanksgiving and praise His holy name!

Just thinking about all the things God has done for me makes me want to sing! I can’t help but praise Him, even if it seems like everything around me is falling apart, because when I get right down to it, He has done more good things for me than things are going wrong now.

That is what the psalmist is getting at here. If we really just took a moment and did an evaluation of things, we would find more good things from God than things that are going wrong and that is reason to sing!

One of my former pastors always said if you sing well sing loud, because God like to hear you sing, and if you don’t sing well sing even louder to annoy the person next to you, because God really loves hearing a joyfilled noise! And that is what our singing is when we realize all He has done for us, a joyfilled noise!

Shared Reading of John 9, Lent 4A

Great idea!

michaelrinehart's avatarMichaelRinehart.com

The readings for Lent A are long stories. Lent 4A is the entire ninth chapter of John. An interesting way to present this gospel may be through a dramatic reading. Find someone to coordinate this effort. That person will only need to find 12 people and rehearse them. Pick people who can speak up and won’t be too nervous.

Speakers may sit wherever they wish, scattered throughout the congregation. Parents should sit together. Pharisees might sit together. Have each person remain seated unatil their first line comes. When their line comes, they should read it, then remain standing for the rest of the reading. Read through it together 30 minutes before the service.

​E – Evangelist

​1 – Disciple 1

​J – Jesus

​N1 – Neighbor 1

​N2 – Neighbor 2

​N3 – Neighbor 3

​B – Blind man

​P1 – Pharisee 1

​P2 – Pharisee 2

​P3 – Pharisee…

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