Seek Ye First

This morning, in church, the pastor shared a story with us. He told us about a woman who was on a mission trip and landed at Singapore airport on the way. She was mistaken for a wanted criminal (she looked like the person), so she was thrown into a dirty, nasty prison. No phone call, no contact with the outside world. She spent a few days in there before the authorities realised that they had the wrong woman and let her go. While she was in prison, she understandably had some questions for God, as most of us probably would. Why me? I was on a missions trip, what did I do wrong? Why am I being punished? What is the meaning of this? If I were in her place I would probably have had the same questions. While she was in prison, she had the opportunity to minister to a woman and lead her to Christ. Talk about making the best of a bad situation.

I have shared about some issues which I have been dealing with of late, and I don’t want to appear to equate my problems with someone thrown into a Singapore prison, but we need to deal with all problems the same way. I wrote a post called Faith & Endurance which explains about this, so I won’t go into too much detail this time, although I wish to share what I have learned since the last article. We end up in problem situations sometimes, that is just a fact. There are two thoughts as to why we end up there – one says that God puts us through them to teach us something, and the other says that God uses situations to teach us but He doesn’t create the problems. I am a firm believer of the second one. Regardless of how the situation comes about, we should approach it in the same manner. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Whether God has created the problem, or whether we got ourselves into the situation, the way we should approach it is the same. The Bible says to trust God and have faith in Him.

Before the pastor shared this story, a verse came to my mind. Matthew 6:23. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. I thought that this fitted in nicely with what was being preached. I have been struggling through a few issues of late, and have been asking some of the same questions that the lady in prison asked (although my problems are nowhere as difficult as hers were). What I have learned is that I need to focus on the Kingdom of God, not on the issues. God wants us to have life in abundance but we need to use the problems to strengthen us. I kept asking the question “why me?”. Maybe it was because God is calling me into something that will require even more faith. Maybe this is providing me with exactly what I will need in the future. We all want to be in shape (physically), have low body fat and ripped muscles (maybe just the guys on the last one), but do we like to exercise? I’m not saying that I will enjoy what I am going through, but I will do my best to focus on the Kingdom of God and use this experience to grow and get stronger.

In the meantime, God has blessed us in unexpected ways that lessen the sting of the problem. It is by no means solved, but the effects have been lessened thanks to some answered prayers from God. I know that there will be an end to the issues in the near future but, until then, I want to thank God for the opportunity to learn and to grow, especially my faith in Him. I will endeavour to seek first the Kingdom of God. I will leave the ‘everything I need’ part up to God. Is this easy? No. Will I get it 100% right all of the time? Probably not, but I will make the most of the opportunity.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Richard

Out with the Old & In with the New

Here is a topic that I have touched on before, but I think that I need to discuss it in a little more detail, as there seems to be a lot of confusion. I was reading the Bible the other day, and I spent a while reading, so I was jumping around and reading various books. Some of the books were in the Old Testament and some were in the New. However, I noticed a distinct difference. The Old Testament books were all about condemnation and God’s wrath, and the New Testament books were all about forgiveness, faith and love. Now please don’t get me wrong, I only read certain books. This is not necessarily an accurate analysis of the Bible. There is, however, a string of truth in this.

Let me start with an image, if I may. I may sound a little flippant when explaining this, but I think you’ll get the point. Think of a timeline image, starting with God and Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, everything is perfect and humans are in fellowship with God. Then Eve decides to eat the fruit which she has been told not to eat (with some help from the devil) and Adam decides to join her. Next thing, they get thrown out of the garden and now they have been separated from God. They are no longer pure and holy, so God can’t have the fellowship with them that He had enjoyed before, the sin keeps them away from God. Now, we have the Old Testament. Do as you’re told or face the consequences, and the consequences often are not pretty. Then God decides that He’s had enough (which He actually knew He would from the beginning of time) and He wants to restore the relationship that He had with us (humans) in the past, so He sends Jesus. Jesus spends some time here, showing us how to do things here on earth, then He dies (and rises from the dead) and defeats sin. All so that God can have the relationship with us that He desires. We are made holy again in His sight! Before we get too excited, the plan is not 100% finished yet, but Jesus did say that it was finished, which means that the relationship between God and man has been restored. The problem is that we are still here and He is in heaven (although the Holy Spirit is here with us). The other problem is that satan is here with us, causing his usual trouble throwing sin into the mix (which still tries to keep us from God). One day, when Jesus comes again, we will be taken into heaven and will have a perfect life there, for eternity.

Now that we have established that, I would like to make two points. One, the Old Testament and New Testament have different functions and God responds to us differently. Two, our relationship has been restored with God, even though we don’t see it fully yet. As for my first point, we need to remember this when quoting scripture, or when reading the Old Testament. I have said to many people that they need to read the Old Testament in context, and they reply with a rather sarcastic, “But God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow!”. Yes He is, but His relationship with us is not. In the Old Testament, when He looked upon (most) humans, He saw sin, corruption, greed, hatred, immorality, idolatry and other evil. Now when He looks upon us, He sees Jesus. Huge difference. He hasn’t changed, we have. Not thanks to us, but thanks to what Jesus did for us. We need to read the Old Testament with that in mind. When we read about God unleashing His wrath, we can rest assured that we are saved by grace. We do need to understand what God’s attitude is to sin, so that we can understand what we have been saved from, so that we can appreciate what we have received from Jesus. This is why the Old Testament is relevant, not so that we can still try and follow all of the laws set. Paul states this in Romans 6:14, “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.”

As for the second point, our relationship has been restored. We may not see it to its fullest until we get to heaven, but it has been restored. We need to start seeing God in the light that Adam and Eve did before they sinned. We need to see Him as a Father and friend, but keeping in mind His majesty and greatness displayed in the Old Testament. We also need to keep in mind His attitude toward sin, all while remembering that even though we sin, we are forgiven.. thanks to Jesus!

I hope that this has cleared up what I mean by taking the Testaments in context. I know that I have taken a rather casual approach to this, but I think I make my point (without getting too serious).

All thanks to Jesus.

Richard

Faith & Endurance

This is the heading for a passage of scripture that I read. James 1:2-8 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

This is a particularly relevant passage for me, because I going through some troubles at the moment. All of you who regularly read this blog will have an idea of what I am talking about. The thing is that I don’t often see it as an opportunity to grow. I know that it will make me grow and I know that I will one day reap the rewards but, right now, it feels like anything but. Going through problems attacks your faith and it can play tricks on your mind. You start questioning everything and start to doubt what the bible tells you. This is the real enemy behind the problem, trying to get into your head and confuse you. When you are in any sort of trouble, this is much easier to achieve than when everything is in order. This is why James says what he does next. We can ask God for wisdom, and what is more, He WILL give it to us. This filled me with hope. I asked God straight away for just that. Wisdom, and plenty of it.

The problem comes in straight after that. If we ask for wisdom, we must make sure that our faith is in God alone. I paused. Is my faith in God alone? If I’m honest (which I usually try to be) I don’t think it is. You see, very often our prayers are about things that we need. Whether it is money, a job, clients, a car, friends, a church where we will feel welcome, even our health. Is our faith in God, or are we asking for something to put our faith in? Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it is wrong to ask for these things, nor am I saying that they are bad. I am merely asking where our faith lies. When business is slow, I’m on my knees praying for more clients. Is that because I trust God or is it because I trust the money coming in and I need it? It hurts just to ask that question, because I’m not really sure of the answer. Probably a bit of both. I could also ask if no business comes in, do I pack it in and get a job or do I continue to trust God? I guess that is why we need to ask for wisdom. I don’t think there is a right answer here, unless we have heard from God what to do, then we need to be obedient. The passage then goes on to speak about what happens if we put our faith in both God and the world, and it is not pretty. In fact it says that we should not expect anything from God. A bit harsh? It just shows how important wisdom and faith is.

I know as I type this that it is going to come back and bite me as, next time I am worrying about things, my wife will refer me to this post. I guess this is what I need from time to time, that is one of the things that makes her such a wonderful wife. I don’t really know what the answer is (yet), so I’m not going to give any advice here. I just thought that I would share this in case others are struggling too. What I do know is that I need faith, in God not in the world, and I need wisdom. Lots of it. If there are any others out there who are also struggling with troubles (which I’m sure there are), please join me in trying to see the opportunity for growth (however hard it may be). My prayer for all of us is that God gives us all the wisdom that we require and that we are able to keep our faith in Him, and only Him.

Chin up.
Richard

Context Confusion

I have seen a few articles of late having a go at Christians who have a positive outlook. There is one verse in particular that people love to use as a promise from God over their life, and it is just as popular to be attacked by others in order to ‘prove’ that the first group of people are taking it out of context. I want to address that here so people can see what my views are, and also so that you can make an informed decision when someone says something to the contrary. The verse is Jeremiah 20:11 and it says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

Now this verse fills me with hope and enthusiasm for what I can achieve in Christ, however when someone claims that it is taken out of context, they imply (without actually saying) that the opposite applies. There is one post which I read a few minutes ago which said that this was Jeremiah writing to 10 000 Israelites who were exiled in Babylon, and it does not apply to us now. The article says that we shouldn’t think that this is about us because it wasn’t written for us. I have had an argument with someone on facebook over this, and it got quite heated. I said some things that I shouldn’t have said and I apologised because I did get angry about it and shouldn’t have. In the end it turned out to be a misunderstanding and what seems to be the issue is the word ‘plan’. The person in question claims that God doesn’t necessarily have a specific plan for everyone, only for certain individuals, however He does have a purpose for all individuals. Now ,as far as I am concerned, a purpose or a plan still shows that God is concerned about us and that He wants what is good for us. It means that we can put our faith and trust in God. Now I don’t believe that God has a specific plan for our lives as in where we shop, what we eat and what car we’ll drive, but He does have a purpose for us. If He didn’t have a purpose, why would He give us unique gifts, why do we all have different skills and strengths? What would be the use of praying, if God didn’t care what happened to us? If you look at a good earthly father, he wouldn’t have a specific plan for his kids, but he would want what is best for them. I believe God to be the same (only better). I think it is important not only to point out when scripture is taken out of context, but also say what we believe to be the truth. If you just oppose the verse, it stands to reason that everything stated is untrue, and that is not the case. At least not here.

Now, please don’t get confused, you see there are verses that we do take out of context. We need to bare in mind that things changed when Jesus died and rose again, so we can’t take old covenant verses at face value. We need to keep them in context. Also, we need to make sure that we read chapters and books to see what a verse really means. That is really important. But if we go around saying a verse applies to someone else, and it doesn’t apply to me, it is risky because in that case nothing will apply to you.

Unfortunately, there is so much brokenness in the world today that we lose faith. Sometimes we start to lower the message of the Bible down to our understanding. We start to think that scripture can’t possibly be true because we see the opposite happening here, so we start to look at ways to try and justify the scripture based on our understanding. I am trying to lift my understanding to fit with scripture. It is difficult, but I would rather that than the other way around. Is my life perfect? Far from it. Do I have everything that I want? No. Yet I still believe that God has a good plan for my life, which will give me a future and a hope. If He doesn’t, then He would be a pretty lousy father, but I know Him as the perfect Father. Some may well take the verse above out of context and take it to mean that God has a specific plan for our lives, but when others oppose it they make it seem like He doesn’t care what we do, the truth is actually somewhere in between. Maybe the verse is technically not true for us, but the fact is that God is concerned about us, He does have a will and purpose for us and He will help us achieve that if we are willing. Please don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I hope that this clears things up. We need to read the Bible in context. I find that getting an overall understanding of God by reading the Bible, praying and meditating on the Word will help with the context of scripture. This way when a verse says something outside of your understanding of God, check it out. Just make sure that your understanding of God is a biblical one, and not based on your circumstances.

God bless!

Richard

Problems to Test Your Faith

Here is a topic that winds me up. It upsets me because people get it wrong and they ‘accredit’ God for things that He is not doing. Isaiah 5:20 says, “What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil..” Have a look at the attached photo. It says, “Don’t think too much about the problems in life, they are just test papers given by God to see how much we’ve learned in His subject called life. If you think you’ve failed, review it through prayers.” This is the kind of thing that gets posted on facebook and people just like it and share it on to others. But do we actually read it and think about it? If you did, you’ll probably agree with me that it is incorrect. It is not true. Now in another post I criticised people for claiming something was not correct and then not saying what is, so I will endeavour to explain what I believe to be the truth.

They probably get this from James 1:2-4 which says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” Now my point here is that it doesn’t say that these tests come from God. Yes, God does work them for our good (Romans 8:28), but He does not send the bad things. John 10:10 says so. Now I can hear some of you shouting at the screen now and asking what about Job? Asking if God allowing us to be ‘tested’ is not the same thing. Now I don’t believe that what happens in Job is entirely accurate today. In the new covenant, the devil has been defeated, when Job was doing his thing he hadn’t been defeated yet. Things have changed thanks to Jesus! The whole reason for Job is to show God’s faithfulness (see James 5:11), not to show us technicalities. Besides, even in the old covenant, satan still had to get permission to do anything. He has even less power now. 1 John 3:8 says that the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. John 10:10 confirms this. The first half of 2 Corinthians 6:15 says that there is no harmony between God and satan. They oppose each other. This also stands to reason that God wouldn’t tell us to resist satan, and then give satan permission to harass us. Jesus has defeated satan so now we have the power to resist him.

Now if we’ve established that bad things don’t come from God, yet God still uses them for our good, this means that we still don’t need to fear them. So what is wrong with the original statement? Well, the statement calls for a different response to what we should be giving. Let me explain. If something came from God, I’d like to think that we would embrace it. James 4:7 tells us to resist the devil. If something comes from God we should embrace it, but if it comes from satan we should resist it. Different responses depending on where it comes from. That is why it is so important. I’ve known people to say that God has made them sick so that His glory can be seen when He heals them. If that is the case, then I won’t pray for them. I won’t go against the will of God, and if He wants them sick then so be it. Yet Jesus showed us that we should oppose sickness, so that would effectively be opposing God’s will. That is not right. Illness is not from God. Finished. Neither are the ‘tests’ referred to in the picture. We need to oppose them. Not fear them, because we have the authority to overcome them (in Jesus name) and God will use it for our ultimate good, but we need to oppose them.

So when it says .. they are just test papers given by God to see how much we’ve learned in His subject called life.. We know that not to be true. They are from the devil and they are not there to see how we’re doing, they are there to try to defeat us. As for the rest of the comment.. If you think you’ve failed, review it through prayers. I have no idea what they mean here, if any of you can figure it out please let me know. As far as I am concerned, if you think you’ve failed read the Bible, it will show you that if you have accepted Jesus you have definitely not failed. The problem with these things is that they sound good and positive so we assume that it is true, but remember when satan told Jesus to turn the stones into bread? That also sounded pretty good and positive, but it was anything but!

Keep calm and carry on.

Richard

Spot the Opportunity

In a previous post, I have spoken about adverts and other media items that subtly try and lead us away from God (Monkey See, Monkey Do). This time I would like to look at it from a slightly different angle. This time I’m not talking about subtle tactics, I’m talking about when Hollywood takes on a Bible story, God-themed movie or demon-related horror. How do we as Christians generally respond? Are we maybe missing an opportunity? Probably.

I think back to Bruce Almighty. I remember going to the cinema to see this and was greeted by a bunch of angry Christians with posters urging people not to watch this ‘blasphemous’ movie. Now I watched it and yes, it is not Biblically correct, but it is not meant to be. If anything, it makes you think about God and it makes you realise what he is ‘up against’ and the fact that it is a job that you don’t really want, but He can handle. It also opened up some ministry doors as non-believers started asking me questions about God and what I thought of the movie. If that is not a witnessing opportunity then I don’t know what is. Now if we are here to spread the gospel, who had more chance of accomplishing that, the movie-boycotters or me? #Justsaying

Now as for the Bible story movies, I have not yet seen ‘Noah’ as I write this, but I have heard many different views about it. I still plan to see it. You see some people are moaning about the fact that the director is an athiest and he didn’t stick to the biblical details at all, it fact he claims that it is only based on the Biblical story and does not follow it. So what? As above, will it not bring up the conversation of God with your friends? Will it not maybe encourage people to pick up their Bible and check out what it says about it there? Does it not just create awareness for the Bible? Does it not raise some issues that we can discuss? I seriously think that we as Christians should spend less time criticising films like this and more time recognising the opportunities that they create.

The final category is an interesting one. I’m talking about the demonic type movies like ‘Paranormal Activity’ and the like. Now I won’t go and see these movies, because I know the truth about demons and quite frankly I don’t want anything to do with them. I hate them. I am here to fight them (as are all Christians) and break their strongholds, I am not here to be entertained by their ‘actions’ in the cinema. Having said that, I realise that other people will go and watch these movies. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t make them. So again, what are the opportunities. I have been able to talk to many non-Christians about spiritual-warfare because of them watching such a movie. Even though the movie is rubbish and usually completely inaccurate, it does bring up the conversation. It gives people a completely warped idea of demonic activity (which I guess is the demon’s plan), however it is our job to set the record straight. People are fascinated by these things, and generally Christians are scared of it so we don’t talk about it, so they go to the movies to find out. We need to use this opportunity to talk to people about this. Non-Christians don’t read the bible, the only way they’ll hear the truth is through us. Talk to them.

So now what do we do about this? Well, first of all, stop moaning about non-Christians getting ‘Christian’ stories wrong. They don’t understand. Take what they create and use it as a foundation to speak the truth, that is the only way that some people will hear it. Watch the movies (except for the demonic ones) but remember that it is only a means of witnessing, don’t start believing Hollywood over the Bible. Talk to people about it, referring them to the Bible. Haven’t you heard how everyone loves to compare the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies with the original books? Well now you can do the same, except the original book is the Original Book!

Take a chill pill and spread the Word!

Richard

Jesus – Son of God, Good Guy or Nutter?

I saw an interesting video where Bono was being interviewed, and he was being asked about prayer and his relationship with God. A certain part of this interview caught my attention because I have heard a sermon preached about this, and I thought that it was one of the most logical arguments that I have heard. I would like to make this point here, and add some of my own thoughts to it. See what you think.

Jesus said that He was the Son of God, well, He strongly suggested it and others claimed it. Have a look at Matthew 16:15-17 which says, “Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.” He also says this in John 10:36, “why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world.” Just in case you’re still not convinced, Jesus confirms it in Mark 14:60-62 where He is asked outright, “Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said,“I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” There are also other incidents where Jesus stops people from prematurely claiming that He is the Son of God, as well as demons that declare it when He is dealing with them. So what does this mean, what is my point here?

Jesus could have been one of three things, according to logic. He was either the Son of God, just like He said He was. He could have been a good teacher, role model or prophet but not the Son of God. Lastly, he could have been a complete nutter. As I see it, these are the only real options available.

Now, the second option is probably the most popular, but I don’t think this is really an option at all. Here is why I say this. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Just get onto Google and do a search for people who have claimed to be the Messiah. A list of Jesus and a complete bunch of nutters. If someone claims to be the Son of God, and isn’t, you can rest assured that they have probably made up some other outrageous claims. If someone claims to be the Son of God and isn’t, I would strongly suggest not listening to them. In fact, I would write them off as a nutter straight away. This means that Jesus couldn’t have been a good teacher and prophet, but lie about being the Son of God, this doesn’t make sense. It can’t be an option. This leaves us with two options.

Could Jesus have been a nutter? How many other people do you know that have claimed to be the Son of God, done miracles, got raised from the dead and 2000 years later still have people following them and praising their very name? Even non-Christians who want nothing to do with God, or atheists, who go out of their way to try and disrupt any mention of God, can’t fault Jesus. If Jesus was a nutter, with the number of anti-Christian people out there, they would have pointed it out. All they do is denounce that Jesus is God, they don’t attack His character, because they can’t. He was a good teacher, He was a wonderful, caring person. He still is. He can’t be a nutter.

So that leaves one option really. He must have been the Son of God, which means that everything else he said is also true. He is the only way to God. You can’t believe in most of what Jesus said, it is either all or nothing. Now most of us who know Christ don’t need this reasoning, but for those who don’t, you may want to think about this. Even atheists, who apparently don’t believe in God, probably spend more time trying to disprove Jesus that I do trying to prove Him. I don’t need to prove Him, they feel the need to disprove Him. How many other Messiah-claimers get that much grief from people who don’t believe in them?
I’ll leave you with this, Jesus said He was the Son of God, who do you say He is?

Richard

Thank You for the Music

I have had a small issue of late, nothing too dramatic, but something that has come to my attention. So many worship songs are not actually biblical (as far as I’m concerned). They sound good, and they have what seems to be all the right words, but technically they are not actually true. I am not going to name songs or artists as I don’t want this to become a mud slinging match, as most artists (even some of my favourite) have some songs that are questionable. I must also say that there are plenty of good, biblical songs out there, and even the ‘incorrect’ ones are still uplifting. Up to this point, you may be getting rather defensive and thinking that I am being unreasonable, but let me explain what I mean.

Most praise and worship songs are OK, but some of them may contain one or two lines that are not entirely true, or slightly misleading. Just to give an example, songs that talk about bringing us into the Holy of Holies. Are we not already there? When Jesus died, did the curtain not tear to let us in? So why are we still asking to go it? You see the sentiment behind the song is fine, the desire to be with God is excellent, but it is not entirely true. There are also others that imply that we need to do something before God will bless us or show up. Not going to mention any specifics here, but just bear it in mind next time you are in church singing, and you’ll see what I mean.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should boycott these songs, and I am not casting a shadow over the artists. I am merely saying that we should pay more attention to what we are singing. If you are a worship leader, possibly spend a bit of time going through the songs to see if you agree to the lyrics before choosing them. My dad has a pet hate, and that is a song that has made its way into the list of Christmas songs, which I have to agree shouldn’t be there. Listen to the lyrics of ‘When a child is born’. It is supposedly about Jesus, but if you listen to it, it is completely incorrect. In fact, biblically, it makes more sense if it is about the anti-christ (if you believe him to be a person) than Jesus. Either it is and we are oblivious, or the writer intended it to be about Jesus and just got it horribly wrong. Now this one is bad, but most worship songs that have issues, are not as dramatic as this.

Having said all of this, I still value praise and worship and the people that make it possible for the rest of us to sing along. In fact, I heard this a song the other day and really like the lyrics. Here it is.

Lost are saved; find their way; at the sound of your great name
All condemned; feel no shame, at the sound of your great name
Every fear; has no place; at the sound of your great name
The enemy; he has to leave; at the sound of your great name

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up; and all the world will praise your great name

All the weak; find their strength; at the sound of your great name
Hungry souls; receive grace; at the sound of your great name
The fatherless; they find their rest; at the sound of your great name
Sick are healed; and the dead are raised; at the sound of your great name

Jesus, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us, Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up; and all the world will praise your great name

Redeemer, My Healer, Lord Almighty
My saviour, Defender, You are My King

(Your Great Name, written by Michael Neale & Krissy Nordhoff)

Let the words we sing be what we want to say. Don’t just sing for the sake of it. Mean what you sing, and sing what you mean.

Thank you for the music!

Richard