Rhythms Q2 2020
In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth and all therein - and it was good. God created man to be in relationship with Him, to continually receive God’s blessings, and take care of all of God’s creation. Man was created to flourish as he loved upward and outward - to love God and His creation, completely. (Gen. 2)
But, man chose to love inwardly, selfishly disobeying the command and design of God. This disobedience is called sin and it has impacted all generations. Sin broke our communion with God, resulting in pain, toil, hardship, and death. (Gen. 3)
Though man rejected God, God still pursued man. God continued calling people to himself by revealing himself through the law, the prophets, and the writings - until the fullness of time had come.
In the greatest display of love and pursuit ever known God came down to man. He sent his own Son to show us how we ought to live and love. He, Jesus Christ, lived and loved perfectly. He continuously obeyed God’s command and design, loving God and creation completely. (Matt. 22:37)
However, an issue still remained. Man’s sin required a holy sacrifice. The Bible teaches that sacrifice is required for the covering of sin, for God bears wrathful judgment against sin. (Lev. 26) For generations men participated in the covenant through the sacrificial system through which God demonstrated grace and patience to his people. This was man’s attempt to appeal to God by faith. It was also God’s stark reminder that sin against God forfeits life.
When the fullness of time had come God provided the perfect substitute - the one who lived and loved perfectly; his own son. All along, God had been signaling that he would do something radical. That he would defeat sin and death. Little did people expect that God’s battle against sin would place his Son’s life on the line, as he would stand between God’s people and judgment. The godly would stand in the place of the ungodly as the perfect sacrifice. God’s Son would die the death that sinner’s deserved. Sinners would receive the righteousness that Christ achieved.
Death did not get the final word, however. Jesus miraculously arose from the dead after three days signaling that the sin and death that reigned for so long had been defeated. The curse of generations had been reversed through the first-born of God.
Hope was here. Light had broken into darkness. All things were being made new. And, all things will be made new. Death will cease and life will reign. Man can and will flourish under the authority and unhindered worship of God by faith in Christ.
The purpose of this worship guide is to remind us of this story and continually call us back to our purpose - to love upward and outward, to love God and His creation. We believe the Lord will use personal, family, and corporate rhythms of reading scripture, singing scripture, praying scripture, and memorizing scripture to stir our affections towards loving God. Then, the result of loving God is loving what God loves - his people.
