Faith Community Church

This is a catch up post to allow you to have a place to listen to 4 new songs that you have been hearing in Weekend worship lately. Enjoy.

The gospel is more than the salvation Jesus provides us from the punishment our sins deserve. While this is critical, there is much more to the good news. Jesus resurrection from the dead has begun the renewal all of creation. This renewal and restoration is already evident in the hearts and lives of His followers and will culminate in His triumphal return to reign over a new heaven and new earth.

This week we will celebrate this “already but not yet” victory which is moving forward — life by life and city by city — as we sing “God of This City.” The song starts by recognizing that Christ’s authority is already established over all worldly powers as well as the powers that oppress the human soul. “You’re the God of this city,…these people,…the nations, You are. You’re the light in this darkness,…the hope to the hopeless,…the peace to the restless…You are.” If all this is true (and it is) we should sing the obvious but profound truth that “There is no one like our God!”

While Christ’s authority is established and secure, until He returns our lives and our cities still experience the terrible consequences of the sin that mars us and our world. So we look forward to God’s triumph. It comes quietly as we are “salt and light” within our city. And it comes ultimately when history reaches its conclusion, prophesied by John in Revelation 21:2 – “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband.” That is the city of our hopes, the city we anticipate as we seek to love and serve, the city that is yet come. “Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city.”

It’s difficult to wait on the Lord when we’re weary of struggling with persistent sin; with physical, emotional or spiritual pain; or with injustice. Bound in time and the limits of our physical bodies, we’d often trade immediate release for eternal reward. Yet in these moments of weakness, we’re given access to timeless perspective and strength beyond measure.

These are the themes of “Everlasting God,” a new song we’ll sing this week. It evokes the exhortation that concludes Psalm 27 –“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and take heart, and wait for the LORD” – an appropriate way to end a Psalm that starts with David stating that “The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?” If God is the source of our salvation instead of our own meager power, we can have faith that, as the song says, ‘Strength will rise as we wait upon the LORD.’

The song expands on the reasons for our hope in God as the source of strength, drawing on Isaiah 40:28-31. This scripture points to our creator God’s infinite nature, tireless strength and unfathomable understanding as our ultimate assurance. He is the one who renews the strength of the weak and weary. And so we sing… ‘You are the everlasting God, you do not faint you won’t grow weary. You’re the defender of the weak, you comfort those in need, you lift us up on wings of eagles.’

May God lift our hearts and spirits as we raise this song of praise to Him!