This we believe...Article 10

This post is part of our “THIS WE BELIEVE” series in conjunction with the “From the Desk” video bog.  You can see the latest entry at the end of the post.

Article 10: We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.  We believe that God will bodily raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment, and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord, in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. AMEN

Over the past few months, we have been talking about our Statement of Faith at FEFC, and moreover how the songs we sing on Sunday reflect our beliefs.  While every song we sing won’t necessarily have a direct correlation to each one of our articles, what we sing as a congregation should reflect our beliefs overall.  This week, we conclude this series with the final article on our response and our eternal destination.

There was a period of time in our recent church history where songs of heaven, but the trend of recent song writing has moved our focus from the eternal to the temporal… from heaven to the here and now.  This trend isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many songs from that period pull from extra-biblical sources or imagery that is often only loosely based on the beauty of what heaven will be. 

That being said, last year we sang a song as a special called “Soon” from Hillsong and arranged by Jon Guerra.  The gentle lyrics and melody serve as a reminder to one another as we sing that heaven is waiting, that there is an eternity ahead of us in the presence of our Savior.  Likewise, we sang “What if we knew” from Tommy Walker, reminding that life as we knew it could end at any moment and eternity could be upon us… should we not be eager to tell those around us before time runs out for our non-believing friends and family?  “Amazing Grace” reminds us that the end result of our redemption story is of a future that is limitless to worship our savior.  “How Great Thou Art” concludes in its final verse an image of worship of our great God for eternity.  Countless songs we regularly sing remind us that there is a transcendent reality that exists beyond what we can see.

As those who have obeyed in God’s command for obedience, our eternity is glorious and something to be eagerly yearned for.  We must never forget, however, that eternity lies for all of us.  It is fairly understandable that our worship songs do not include myriad verses on Hell and eternal punishment, but that, too should influence what we sing.  The Getty’s revival of the classic missions Hymn “Facing the Task Unfinished” encourage us to continue in the mission to go and tell the world of the good news of the Gospel!

Even if we don’t always have a song that directly correlates with our statement of faith I hope it’s been clear that what we sing as we gather each weekend is indicative of what we believe.  Part of our purpose in gathering for worship is that “in all wisdom teach and admonish one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16)  To that end,  we choose songs that do just that.  My prayer is that that was made clear as we have spent time together in this series!
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For His Glory,
-Pastor Zach