Our Blog

Spare Change - April 2023

The Pattern of Prayer

If you study the patterns of Jesus’ life you will notice one thing.  He spent a significant amount of time in prayer.  The Bible records several instances when Jesus went away by Himself (Matt. 14:23, Luke 5:16, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46).  This was a normal pattern for Him.  Why would Jesus, of all people, need to spend a lot of time in prayer?  Maybe He
understood something about the power of prayer that we just don’t get.  

In Luke 22:39-46, Jesus takes His disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray. Verse 39 tells us that this was His usual custom.  This meant that Jesus regularly went to the garden to pray.  This fact was so known to His disciples that Judas is able to easily find Jesus when he betrays Him.  How many times did Jesus go to the garden to pour out His heart to His Father? This time, Jesus is grieved beyond what any of us can comprehend.  He knows that He will suffer greatly and die for the sins of mankind.  The fact that Jesus turned to prayer in this season should not be lost on us.  When Jesus is faced with the hardest test of His life, He goes to deep, soul-moving prayer.  He prayed so much, His spirit was so grieved, and He was in such agony that His sweat was like blood dripping from His body.

The fact that Jesus turned to prayer during this time should give an obvious indication of how important prayer is.  Jesus also instructed His disciples to pray so they would not enter into temptation.  What was the temptation of that night? To abandon their faith.  Even though Jesus had warned them that He would be tortured and killed (Matt. 16:21-23), they still did not fully understand what was to happen.  Jesus' main weapon was prayer and that is why He instructed His disciples to be committed to prayer.  During prayer, the disciples ended up falling asleep and when Jesus was arrested, they all abandoned Him except for Peter and John.  Peter ends up denying Jesus three times as He prophesied.  

This all points to the fact that prayer is essential in the life of a believer.  When the disciples were faced with their biggest temptation from Satan himself, what did Jesus tell them to do?  PRAY! Do you have the same emphasis on prayer in your life?  Do you underestimate its power?  I feel like many of us treat prayer like something we say is
important, but we don't really practice it like it's important.  It is one thing to say you value something, however, your actions show what you value.

If prayer is the weapon that Jesus says it is then we need to be committed to it.  Not just with trite promises like, “I’m praying for you,” but with actual prayer.  Why does it feel so awkward for Christians to stop what they are doing to pray about a situation wherever and whenever the need arises?  It should be the normal outpouring of God’s work in our lives to pray for people on the spot.  We should also be committed to daily times of prayer.  We should be persistent in our praying as Jesus told us in Matthew 7:7-11.  Jesus tells us to persistently pray as if someone is knocking at a door repeatedly until someone answers.  Let’s knock on Heaven’s door with our prayers until the Father answers.

Jesus believed that prayer was effective and lived it out in His life.  We should follow His example and make prayer the priority of our Christian faith.  I wonder what a difference it would make in our lives and the lives of those around us if we committed to being people of prayer.  The church needs to remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 21:13, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.”  Our churches, as well as our lives, should be filled with prayer.  Let’s look to Jesus and make prayer the normal pattern in our lives.

Worship Ministry - April 2023

Easter

In just a few days we will all gather together and celebrate our Risen Savior! I am looking forward to my first Easter here at Oakhill and worshiping our Lord with my church family. Easter Sunday should be one of the highlights of our year, for what greater privilege is there than to rejoice in knowing that Jesus Christ is alive, and He defeated death!

I hope all of you will plan on coming to the Good Friday Night of Worship. Worship begins at 6:30 pm and what better way to begin your Easter weekend than worshiping with God's people! That night will be filled with opportunities to sing praises to our King and to be blessed by our choir as they lead us in worship. There will be songs that everyone knows well and new songs that will encourage you. Plan to join us that night and bring friends with you! Easter is a time when unchurched people are more open to coming to church, so be bold in the Lord and invite your co-workers, neighbors, and friends.

Sing!

“We sing to Him, whose wisdom form’d the ear, our songs, let Him who gave us voices, hear; we joy in God, who is the Spring of mirth (amusement, especially as expressed in laughter), who loves the harmony of Heav’n and Earth; our humble sonnets shall that praise rehearse, who is the music of the Universe. And whilst we sing, we consecrate our art, and offer up with every tongue a heart.” - Nathaniel Ingelo

I've been involved in church music for as long as I can remember. I've sung in children’s, youth, and adult choirs, and had many opportunities to lead these groups throughout my ministry. I love church music! I love God’s people singing His praises in one mighty voice! I love the power song can have to encourage, challenge, and convict. However, this only can happen through the power of the Holy Spirit and with the people of God laying down themselves for the betterment of the whole. If we each come into worship expecting our four favorite songs to be sung, our favorite passage of scripture to be taught, and for the service to be wrapped up in under an hour so that we can beat everyone to lunch, we are going to leave every worship service frustrated and empty.

Church is a weird and wonderful place where God’s people, who come with different preferences, different baggage, and different lives bind themselves together under the banner of Christ, lifting their voices as one to glorify their King! It does, however, mean that we must approach this time together with the right heart attitude; with a heart willing to serve others, and a willingness to put the bride of Christ ahead of our own needs. Keith and Kristyn Getty said it best:

“That means you are going to be singing songs you may not have chosen because they are not your favorite, to arrangements or with accompaniment that you may not have chosen because they are not your favorites. You are going to need to be willing to lay down your own tastes for the good of the wider assembly. For as long as we have the health and the ability, we are each called to sing with the people of God, and to love our people enough to serve each other in the way we sing” (“Sing!” by Keith and Kristyn Getty).

Let us seek the truth of God’s Word, the truth in the lyrics we sing, the fellowship of other believers, and the edification of His church! If we are willing to do this and come with our hearts ready, I believe God will move in mighty ways!

I love you, and I love serving this church!

Lyric of the Month
He is risen Hallelujah, hallelujah
Christ is risen Let the whole world sing
Christ is risen Christ is risen from the dead

Philippians 2:8
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.