Search us, Oh God, and test our hearts.
Is there anything keeping us apart?
Reveal to us anything that grieves You,
So we may repent and bear good fruit.
This is the wonder of Your amazing grace,
That Your mercies are new - every single day.
Today is the day we celebrate Christ our King-
Creator, Lord, Ruler of everything!
You stepped down from Heaven to the world that You made
And came to those that would reject You so we could each be saved.
We can’t understand why You would give Your life
To redeem such sinful people - to pay the highest price.
But to us who call You Lord and Savior,
We’re forever grateful for Your undeserved favor.
We thank You, Jesus, for conquering death
And interceding for us until Your final breath.
And now as those You call Your own,
We know that we can come boldly before Your throne.
You even save us a seat at Your table
And tell us to remember You and have supper with You NOW as often as we’re able.
This must be important or You wouldn’t have said
To come together regularly as a family to break bread.
This is a privilege for all Your daughters and sons,
A joyous celebration of YOU, the Risen One!
We want to come to Your table with pure hearts and clean hands;
Having examined ourselves, that in Your presence we may stand.
As we lift up the cup to take a sip,
We remember Your precious blood that was spilt.
We thank You, our Savior, for covering our sin,
And leaving us the Holy Spirit, that we can be born again.
And now, we take Your body and eat the Bread of Life,
While meditating on and praising You for Your incredible sacrifice.
You deserve everything - all we have to give.
For us to become YOUR living sacrifice, as long as we each shall live.
May we sit here in silence and consider Your cost,
Thanking You profusely that we’re no longer lost.
As we rejoice in this day of fellowship and rest,
Let us cherish this time together and leave here refreshed;
With cups overflowing with compassion and love,
Hearts full of grace - empowered from above.
We know we’re on a mission - You have work for us to do.
You’ve filled us up to send us out, after focusing ourselves back on You.
We’re leaving our seats and going out with this call–
“Jesus invites YOU to the table and there is room for us all!”
Hi everyone and Happy Resurrection Day!! This is my first blog post here at HCI and I thought I would share with all of you a poem that the Lord had me write last night. In case you don't know, my name is Angela and I am married to this handsome fella and my co-laborer in Jesus, a.k.a. Pastor Will. Together, we have been giving our all for the better part of the last five years or so in trying with all our might to implement what we see in the book of Acts, living out our faith in close community with others and being the hands and feet of Jesus to all those around us.
Today, with our little home church family, we had a very special time of celebrating the Lord's Supper together. We have all been examining ourselves all week, confessing and repenting of known sins and walking closely with Jesus and each other so that today would truly bless Him firstly and each of us. We had times of prayer, worship and praise, communion and fellowship, and I shared this poem with the group. And it was a joyous time for us all.
I think this is one of my favorite things about our house church environment - that we are all getting to discover and utilize our various gifts. Will has continually urged me for many years to use the gifts God has given me in writing poems, sharing prayers, and encouraging others through my words. He's always told me to write a book and I'm considering and praying about this endeavor right now...how I may most effectively be used of the Lord and what direction He'd have me take in it. So if you would like to pray for me for that, I'd greatly appreciate it--that rivers of Living Water would flow out from the Holy Spirit through my fingers onto paper, and that Jesus would get all the glory, honor, and praise He so rightfully deserves!!
I know this post is long enough already with the poem, so I'll keep it short (but fair warning, I am a woman of many words). I look forward to writing more blog posts here and will share poems as the Lord leads. May your hearts be full to overflowing as we give praise to our risen Savior today (& every day)!!
