The Virgin River
Zion National Park

November 4, 2009
8:54 AM

A vacation to Zion, jury duty last week – these things have filled my Wednesday mornings for the past weeks. Zion in the fall – gorgeous! 24/7 quality time with my family – priceless! Serving on a jury last week was also delightful – I’m not kidding. Other than lost time at work, doing my civic duty was an honor. Highlights included watching the lawyers do their job, both were exceptional, and getting to meet the other jury members during our breaks was great. I waver between introvert and extrovert, and I definitely was energized from my interaction with these folks. Deliberation was a fascinating experience. Enough of that. This is a blog about worship.

Sunday – sweet worship with the highlight being a very loud rendition of A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Our congregation has sung it before, but I don’t thing we had done it for 5 years or so. We’re a different worshiping congregation than we were back then. I’m a different worshiper, a better worshiper – more wholehearted, more in love with Jesus, more in love with my church family. That was a sweet realization on Sunday morning. People could hardly contain themselves, cheering at the end of the verses:

Does’t ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus it is He.
Lord Sabbaoth his name.
From age to age the same.
And he must win the battle! [cheer!]

The version we did, originally prepared for Promise Keepers, goes into an anthem, “A mighty fortress, a mighty fortress is our God.” It’s over the top! Give it a listen: A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

I was proud of my band. Our rehearsal of the song on Monday was a wreck. We committed to practicing during the week. I spent hours, as did most of the others. I couldn’t sleep very well Saturday night for the words of the hymn were playing over and over in my mind like a broken record (or should I say a stuck CD?). It was a good thing for I had a friend who was struggling with some spiritual warfare that same night and I was able to encourage her with the lyrics from verse 3:

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

Lord, let your truth triumph through us! And that, my friends, is the topic of our current sermon series, “Words of Life.” Jesus says in the Scriptures, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17 NIV) I encourage you to listen to Gary’s message this week, Here I Stand. It was great! These are good times at Trinity Church as we are being transformed by the Word of God.

Blessings!

Bill Born