Lift Up Your Eyes

Stories in the Missional Journey of Bruce & Deborah Crowe

Page 69 of 212

Intern Update Video

It’s been so cool to watch God organize this past month.  From the students He’s assembled, to the teams and staff coming in/out to love and invest in their new journey with Christ, it’s been a pure joy.

We finished tonight with a BBQ, Ukrainian style with salads, fruit, and chicken.  We ship 6 of them off to the Kelly camp in Ivankiv (northern Ukraine) for a week of serving underprivileged/special needs children.  A few of the interns are staying back to work at the Cafe, not quite ready, but eager to continue growing for future opportunities.

Thank you to the particular sponsor family that made this program possible by helping to pay for the enormous amount of food.

There is one student in particular among us that we are praying about for YFM Bible College this fall.  Would you pray for her?  Her name is Anya.  She would need complete sponsorship as she doesn’t have any financial means at all – she may be able to come up with $50 for example in total for the year.  We are still needing a few more sponsors to help us make a full year of study possible in Minsk for more students like Anya.

We love what God is doing in this generation.   We are continually meeting and forging new relationships with like-minded missional folks who are as excited – I’m astounded by the communities emerging in Ukraine and Belarus of youth, led by youth, passionate for Jesus and mission.  It’s a season of harvest – we must invest, equip and send while this opportunity is before us.

To contribute to the YFM scholarship fund, click here! 

Bruce & Deb

Summer Update

[Our public updates are general in nature due to 
the nature of ministry.  Contact us to request 
private email updates if you don't already!]

Family Update

Everyone is healthy and back on Ukraine time zone thankfully.  The biggest adjustment out of the gate is only having 5 kids.  It sounds funny for small families to ‘only’ have 5, but you really do get used to having more.  Meal times require less food, traveling is faster (and less squishy), but also dynamics of not having older ones to help makes it different too.

Some of the ‘childs left behind’

Having less kids can actually be more of a challenge as it makes more work for the parents.. we feel our age much more when directly next to the energizer bunny toddlers. What. We’re. We. Thinking.  🙂  Deb and I joke about this regularly.  The older kids really scored with youthful energetic parents… poor Abbey and Claire, they get “Come here and sit on my lap.”

The kids really love having interns and visitors all around.  They soak up the social.  I love seeing them interact with different personalities.  Each kid seems to attach to various guests in our house or at the Cafe.  It’s community, it’s love, and I think keeps their hearts engaged with us (vs sitting at home while parents do ‘ministry’).

I love this about Ukraine and our world right now, a growing, emerging missional community.  I pray that we experience the same thing in Minsk this fall.  The dynamics of City life, Minsk being over 2 million, will bring some obvious rhythm and social changes for a larger family.


Lighthouse Update

The summer has seen a decent increase in sales, which doesn’t always translate to profit unfortunately (we sell some things at cost), but does mean there’s a healthy amount of foot traffic.  Pizza continues to be pretty popular but I’m not satisfied with it’s quality.  We’re trying new dough, it’s tricky to find consistent, predictable ingredients, especially that you don’t have to make constant trips to Kiev for.

I need to get a guest book for the Cafe, it’s truly remarkable the nations, tribes and tongues that enter through the doors of Lighthouse.  Some are friends, some are friends of friends, some totally random stories of folks who exploring Ukraine with only a backpack.

I love reading the Google reviews, folks are as much shocked that there’s a cool place in this remote village than the pizza or ice cream is pretty good.  All outsiders appreciate the affordable, if not cheap prices.

This is not the case for the struggling families, our neighbors here locally.  Lighthouse continues to be very pricey, a $1.00 large latte is not something they do often, it’s still an ‘event’ to go and sit down with a friend and enjoy the place.

A pizza, for a local, is mostly reserved for special occasions – many come and buy one to celebrate with a friend.

One of the coolest things I enjoy is randomly stopping in myself and seeing regularly families eating together.  This was something that didn’t happen the first year, and definitely not a regular occurrence in our town with the limited selection of dingy bars.  While 95% of the folks eat at home every day, you’ll see a little family regularly enjoying the Cafe with a pizza filling up the center of the table.

I’m still surprised to find believers that consider this type of outreach less than spiritual.  They hear Cafe and think, ‘but how do you tell them about Jesus?’, as if providing a place like this isn’t spiritual, or that telling a stranger directly about Jesus is the only way the Gospel prepares the heart.  We’ve been unfortunately trained to think of people as projects, we want them to pray prayers, make decisions, and sit in churches.

God is teaching us something more powerful I think, that bringing the Kingdom (as it is in heaven) is about bringing the Light of the Gospel in everything.  If it’s business, bring Kingdom DNA, bring ethics, kindness, love.  Love values others, values marriages, family, it says, “hey, I want to bless you because you are made in the image of God.”  This may look to the religious as un-spiritual activity, but it’s not, it’s the essence of being salt and light, impacting and touching culture vs incubated sub-cultures.

My favorite church ‘slogan’ as we traveled around the US was this, “Experiencing God’s love and giving it away.”  This church, from my experience, is realizing both.  That’s what the world needs.  A people, in every sphere, that know Him intimately, and express Him naturally in every day life.

Week 1 Interns. We now have 15-17 for the remaining 2 weeks. Some of these new believers are YFM candidates.

I love what Lighthouse is, and is becoming. I love that we’re training Ukrainians in business, giving interns invaluable life skills, mining their talents, providing a cool place for our town to enjoy.

We’re investing into our community, families, and relationships.  We’re ‘with’ our town, it’s not a mission per say, we are with people, and I think they feel this.

That doesn’t mean we don’t, as led by the Holy Spirit step out and do public or personal evangelism, but it does mean that we don’t jeopardize the platform we have established by undermining the bridges being built, and love realized.  Christians need to think long term more, we’re trying to be generational thinkers – it’s harder, and often forces us into new forms, but I think will produce more eternal fruit.

Thank you Crossroads Church for having this vision with us, for monthly sponsoring the Lighthouse, infusing it with the financial resources it needs to continue serving our community and  allowing other ministries like our Widows Feeding Program, Kids Park (still needs grass), Club 180 and Studio to function.

I think Cafe’s, in varying formats, are incredible vehicles for importing the Kingdom in relevant, culturally engaging ways.  I believe next year we will be either helping, or planting ourselves some more.  We have willing partners, and many ministries interested and asking for help across the Russian speaking world.  Even today a friend from Far East Russia asked to meet about helping them plant one.

This past week I taught a YWAM class via Skype on Business, youth here are hungry to learn new skills that will touch hearts that need the Gospel on a regular basis.  They are not excited about sitting in continuous Christian meetings.  Who is?

Pray for us, we want to move with the Holy Spirit.


YFM Update

Anya in Minsk is helping with PR/Social.

We are continuing to form up the Fall schedule as well as begin looking for apartments for students and our family.  It’s hard to believe that in less than 2 months we’ll start something that was just a vision same time last year.

We’re just now starting to target and tell the story of YFM via social media to the Russian and Ukrainian speaking world.  We have 3-4 students from outside Belarus coming (agWe have a cool team formed up for this which includes Vikente, Anya and Vova.  Please pray for our team, our efforts to find the kind of hearts hungry for growing in the Lord, and wisdom among us leaders as we interview.

I’m really grateful for the lineup of speakers coming to Minsk this fall!  In addition to several area leaders that will invest into the students, we have a neat mix of mission-minded teachers from outside of Belarus as well.

Before: main YFM classroom this fall. Stay tuned for the After photo!

In preparation for the mission phase in the Spring, Peter and I are considering an exploratory trip to Spain in the fall. There is a huge Russian speaking community there, over +10ok I’m told, and largely un-reached.

We have 26 correspondence students from Belarus already in Spain.  The thought is to scout out a ministry base for the students to serve in, maybe a pilot coffee shop for 3 months that we could build upon after the mission phase.

I never thought in a million years I’d be turning my gaze to the West.  The reality is however, the demographics are changing quickly all across Europe.  A mass exodus has been taking place over the last 5yrs in particular among the Russian/Belorussian.  Now, the “Russian speaking world” is all around us.  Pray for this trip would you?  Imagine teams this spring being sent out, not westerners, but comprised of Russian and Ukrainian speaking youth sharing the Kingdom to their generation.  Cool.

We even received a request last week to pray about Cuba and helping there as communism is breaking up quickly, and emerging hungry youth everywhere there.  I try to stay focused on the present, but this is a hard task for me.

I see the potential for a new wave of “ywam” type of bases with our YFM format.  I think it’s an incredibly agile, low cost and opportune discipleship path for this new generation but instead of youth leading youth on mission, we who have experience and resources create sustainable platforms for them to launch into.  We must ‘flow’ with God, stay near His heart, where He is, there will be resources.

Thank you for those who have helped us grow our Scholarship Fund! We’re at 60% of our $20k goal – still needing $8k to meet our goal.  To learn more about the MIR Student Fund, click here or to directly donate online at any level click here! 


Summer Interns Update

Worship each morning at the “big house”.

This has been so cool!  Have any of you read Bonhoeffer?  During the time of the Nazi tak over in Germany, the church of Germany was under a heap of pressure to conform.  Bonhoeffer, instead of conforming, retreated into the countryside for a season to continue discipleship of new believers.  They lived together, ate together, studied and prayed together.

While we aren’t in such hostile conditions, it feels a little bit like that may have felt like.  Maybe not as intense.  The students, of which there are 5, along with a variety of staff, helpers, and incoming visitors through the week, are getting up for morning worship, learning new songs, learning even what it means to meditate and sing Christ centered truth.  Some are truly open and God is doing amazing things.  It’s cool to look on Instagram and see them posting something about God, almost boasting in His love.

Instagram from an intern who just joined us.

Only a couple of the students are our regular Club 180 students, a few of them joined up last minute and started coming when we were in US.  God, nonetheless is grounding their faith and near to them.

Today, as I type, they are all in Kiev for the day, their first excursion out of our little town.  Andrea, from the US was excited to explore after spending the first 2 weeks incubated in rural Ukraine.  We have a team of 5 from Minsk arriving tonight by bus, and others planning to swing through next week.  In total we have 17 now at the ‘big house’.   It’s like a mini YFM.

At the end of July, the team has been invited to help lead a kids camp north of Kiev.  The Kelly’s, from Texas/Australia run a Christian camp among many other things, and the week was in need of some counselors and activity workers.  Perfect mission for our little team!  God is good.  These kids, I’m told, come from extremely impoverished situations, and some are orphaned.  Pray for the kids, our team please July 24-28th!


Other Praise Reports

[Ken, Vikente, Inessa, Peter in Minsk this week outside campus]

**We met with Ken Steorts from Skillet (co-found) in Minsk this week.  Really cool, humble guy with a passion to train up Christian musicians.  We feel this is a God connection, and together with Peter from XDH base in Minsk, we are praying about a ‘Pilot Program’ in the Spring with visible.edu.  With the studio, practice rooms, professional musicians already swarming around the base in Minsk, this, we feel, could only be the hand of God joining us at some level.  We are in prayer about this for the next few weeks, and really appreciate prayer too!  The connections could provide incoming teachers, seminars, concerts, and really help to globalize even more the ministry there – it’s a neat network of like minded kingdom thinkers.


**The recently released Russian Worship Album ‘Immerse’ (click here to purchase iTunes!) is doing really well, with +1000k likes/downloads in Russian social media.  We aren’t sure how many iTunes downloads because it takes 30 days before you get that information.  It’s already opened some doors for us this fall with some combined worship events with other ministries.  Cool!  More worship, more places, this is the heart of God.


As I’m writing this blog, knock knock, drive thru window for water in our kitchen.

**An entirely new crop of kids are on our trampoline daily.  This trampoline, amazing, 9yrs strong.  The front yard of our house looks like a used bicycle shop, lying everywhere.  If you want to be a missionary, buy or bring a trampoline.

**Dima, from our studio (lives in Khargalyk) traveled with me to Minsk.  Was his first time there.  It was neat to hear what God is doing in his life and how God is giving him a pastoral heart for the kids on the 2nd floor.  He admitted he didn’t quite understand the vision at first of working with kids on guitar/drums as a net to bring them to Christ – but now is fully on board as he sees some now growing in Christ.  He and his wife and daughter will be living down at the big house for the final two weeks of July.   Dima is a huge reason why we can even think about leaving for Minsk in the fall – God cares about His church, the emerging hearts responding to the Gospel.  Comforting we can trust Him!


**I’ve started a series of devotionals called, “Illuminate” with the desire to encourage Christ-centered messages for the Russian/Ukrainian world.  Dasha in Minsk is helping me pump them out!  Once I hit 10 or so, I’m thinking of printing them in a booklet for YFM.  I see so much legalism, a Christianity without a freeing Christ kills mission.  Pray for me, writing is a discipline and for those of you that know me, this is a weakness :/  You can read them here on this blog, there are 3 so far.


Prayer Request: Misha, from the band Nuteki (based out of Minsk), is touring around Russia right now sharing their music and Christ-centered message.  They are facing a lot of challenges, but seeing incredible favor and results.

You can encourage them by praying this week, and if led by donating directly here.

Thank you supporting friends and family!

If you’d like to add some fuel to our mission, all tax deductible:

Projects: Click here  MIR Website Here
Our Family: Click Here
Canadians:  Go Leafs –  Click Here!

Bruce & Deb

Освещать, часть 2

Палки и камни

“И тот, кто упадет на этот камень, разобьется, а на кого он упадет, того раздавит” (Матф. 21:44).

Мы живем в культуре, которая насквозь пропитана мнениями.

Человек  всегда имел свое мнение, но никогда ранее не было таких возможностей и площадок, чтобы озвучить его так, как мы это можем сделать сегодня. Подумайте об этом. Столетиями это был удел высокообразованных людей, посвятивших всю свою жизнь изучению конкретных тем, что гарантировало им, что их услышат.

С появлением печатного станка начался взлет мысли. Если у вас был талант сочинительства, который высоко ценили другие, или, по крайней мере, немного денег, вы могли представить свои мнения миру. Сегодня единственное необходимое условие для распространения глубин нашей мудрости – это, как минимум, палец. Кликнуть, лайкнуть, поменять, прокомментировать, опубликовать – готово.

Мнения. У всех нас они есть. Некоторые мы слегка придерживаем, некоторые держим мертвой хваткой. Мы считаем, что мы правы, в другом случае мы бы вовсе не придерживались наших взглядов. Если мы принимаем другое убеждение, мы тихонько меняем наше мнение и обновляем наше мировоззрение. Чем старше мы становимся, тем дольше мы придерживаемся своих точек зрения, и тем труднее нам согласиться на перемену. Мнения могут стать убеждениями, частью нашей индивидуальности, в особенности если это касается культурных аспектов, которые передаются из поколения в поколение.

Иисус вошел в мир мнений. Большинство мнений, высказанных против Него, были враждебными, особенно среди представителей религиозной власти. Закон Моисея, обряды, традиции, обетования, содержащиеся в Ветхом завете, все казалось категоричным и противоречило естеству и характеру Иисуса. Никто из религиозных представителей не верил, что этот “самозванец”, сын плотника был обещанным Мессией.

Посмотрите, что происходит, когда мы слишком крепко держимся за свое мнение и не желаем ничего прояснить. Мы считаем себя выше этого, с гордо поднятой головой мы поднимаемся над очевидным правильным представлением. Мы ставим человека или мысль, с которой мы не согласны, ниже нас, подчиняя его нашему суждению. Мы вступаем во вражду, сражаясь даже с Создателем вселенной, и тем не менее, думаем, что у нас еще есть шанс? А в это время наше мнение становится высокомерием!

Такой была позиция иудейских лидеров, когда они слушали Иисуса, а потом начали презирать Его и замышлять против Него злое. Иисус предупреждает их о безрассудстве и говорит невероятные вещи, из которых мы и сегодня можем извлечь для себя урок.

Когда ты отвергаешь Иисуса, ты отвергаешь главный краеугольный камень, на котором утверждается твоя вечность. Твое мнение о Христе действительно очень много значит!

Я вижу поколение людей, которые с радостью прислушиваются к своему мнению при любой возможности, но почти не заботятся о своем мнении о Христе. Они приближаются к личности Иисуса с банальным легкомыслием, словно оценивают новый фильм – я дам ему 3 звезды. Когда в последний раз кто-нибудь из них спрашивал себя: “Что я думаю об Иисусе? Отличный вопрос, никогда об этом раньше не задумывался!” У всех есть свое мнение, но мало кто имеет обоснованное убеждение – это и вызов, и возможность для тех из нас, кто следует Его благодати.

Для многих все, что имеет значение в этой жизни, – это то, что можно попробовать, потрогать и увидеть. Мы работаем, чтобы удовлетворять наши земные аппетиты. Потому наше поколение так сосредоточено на том, чтобы кликнуть, посмотреть, съесть, послушать, что Иисус становится просто другой точкой зрения.

Иисус говорит, что Он камень, и тот, кто упадет на этот Камень, разобьется.

Согласно комментариям, в этом месте Иисус избегает побивания камнями. Человека, достойного телесного наказания, вели на отвесную скалу или яму довольно большой глубины со скалистым основанием. Преступника побивали и сбрасывали вниз.

Мне кажется, Иисус говорит что-то похожее: “Друзья, вы пытались оклеветать мой характер, ваше неприятие меня и злые намерения – все это не влияет на действительность. Я есть тот, Кто я есть. Когда вы отвергаете меня, вы набрасываетесь на меня как хрупкие палки, которые бьют по валуну – валун побеждает, ваше отвержение меня, в действительности – ваше собственное уничтожение!”

Удивительно, что на этом Иисус не заканчивает свою речь. Он добавляет: “А на кого он упадет, того раздавит”.

В иудейской традиции, если человек, осужденный на смерть через побивание камнями, оставался жив, то брали большой камень и бросали его на преступника. Этот камень был настолько тяжелым, что двое человек с трудом его несли. Так можно было гарантировать окончательную гибель, суд обрушивался на несчастного.

Иисус говорит не только о том, что отвержение Его не принесет никакой пользы и даже при этом навредит, но и о том, что в результате тот же Камень, который они отвергают в этой жизни, будет низвергнут на них на суде.

Каждый, кто отказывается открыть свое сердце и убеждения реальности Иисуса Христа как своему Создателю, будет сокрушен Его совершенным судом.

Наши убеждения имеют значение, я благодарен за свободу выражения мнений. Нигде наше мнение не имеет такое огромное значение, как когда мы рассматриваем историческое, чудодейственное, неопровержимое значение личности Иисуса Христа. Если где-то нам и нужно развивать свои убеждения и твердо их держаться, так это конкретно в этой сфере. Если Иисус прав, никакое другое мнение не может с этим сравниться.

Я бы сказал, что все наши убеждения по каждому отдельному вопросу вытекают из источника этого убеждения. Я захожу в сеть и вижу статьи, блоги, комментарии, которые кружатся как буря гнева и замешательства. Каждый убежден, что его должны услышать, и его слышат, но слушает ли его кто-нибудь на самом деле? Мы говорим в наших социальных сетях, которые похожи на зеркальные отражения поверхности нашей души. Тысячи голосов, злой и запутавшийся мир.

Именно в этом контексте наше поколение должно пойти к людям и принести им истину Евангелия. Помогите им оторваться от экранов своих компьютеров, за которыми они прячутся и чувствуют себя смелыми в выражении собственного мнения. Полюбите их, поделитесь с ними любовью Бога во Христе – Он один принесет порядок в их хаос и освободит от заблуждений.

Когда мы полностью принимаем Иисуса Христа, мы тем самым отказываемся от нашей гордости. Когда мы полностью принимаем Христа, мы перестаем быть теми, кто громко хвалится своими мнениями и приходит ко Христу со своими палками как будто Он просто очередная тема, которую нужно закрыть.

Важно то, что Он думает, Его мнение о нас – это цель нашей жизни.

Он Бог любви, сострадания, вторых шансов. Если ты знаешь о Христе, но не посвятил Ему свою жизнь, представь себе, в какой опасной ситуации ты находишься. Ты неверно осуждаешь Его, ты как палка, которая ломается о предвечную скалу. То, что ты отвергаешь Его, наносит вред только тебе и нанесет еще больше, если ты закончишь свою жизнь будучи Его врагом.

Писание говорит, что отвергающие Его неразумны, даже глупы (лишены элементарного смысла). Нога глупого спотыкается на скользких местах. Грех обманчив по своей природе. Под его влиянием и силой никто не признает, что обманут. Лишь сила Евангелия в сердцах искупленных сможет достичь наше поколение.

“Господь Иисус, я верю, что Ты Сын Божий. Прости меня за то, что я боролся с Тобой в своей гордости и неведении. Помоги мне построить свою жизнь на Скале, которая есть Иисус!” Аминь.

Прочитайте: Втор. 32:35, Пс. 91:5-7, Ис. 8:14-15, Матф. 21.

Illuminate Pt. 3

Illuminate Pt. 3 Hosanna?

In the Christian religion, we have a few universal words.  With only slight annunciation variations, you can recognize them in any culture.  From my experience so far, there’s “Jesus”, “Hallelujah”, “Amen”, and “Hosanna.”

As an English speaking westerner, you grow up assuming they are originally English words.  After realizing there’s a world that exists, and in fact existed for most of human history outside of the English language, you need to dig a bit deeper to understand their roots than defined in Websters Dictionary.

Hosanna!  It’s usually exclaimed.  It’s found most commonly in songs, hymns.  It shows up around Easter or the Passover.  If you were to transport yourself on a Sunday morning to a worship service in Canada, then to Ukraine, hop over to Mexico and finish in Finland, it’s quite possible the only word you’d be able to join them in would be “Hosanna”.  Your ears would perk up, and you’d think “Yes!  I know that one!”

The reason for the continuity, at least in the pronunciation of it, is that it’s actually a Hebrew phrase (hoshiya na), translated into Greek as Hosanna (ὡσαννά).  Each language has then generally maintained the ‘sound’ of this word, using their own phonetic spelling.

Russian: Осанна
Japanese: ホーザン
Nepali: हसन्ना

When pronounced, they all sound the same!

We have this universal word, but I wonder if most, like myself, have spent most of my Christian journey oblivious to it’s powerful meaning?  The most common use, at least in English, is in Praise, but it’s much deeper than a general exalted praise of the Creator.

The Hebrew phase is actually used once in the entire Old Testament.  Doesn’t that make it even more interesting?  You’d think perhaps it would be a something frequently throughout the O.T. to gain such universal stature.  Nope.  One tiny little reference.

“O Lord, do save, we beseech Thee;”
Psalm 118:25 (Russian 117:25)

Do save.  Most literally, “Save now!” (hoshiya na).

There’s something so fundamental about this, so simple, we might miss it.  Give me your mind for a minute, I promise there is a feast for your soul if you can catch the beauty in this.

The history of the Jews was one of waiting and trusting God for deliverance.  Waiting for the promises given to Abraham, that through his offspring, ‘all nations on earth will be blessed.’ (Gen 22:18).

This waiting was fraught with challenges, war and even captivity.  As they clung to their observances, as their hope waned in the grip of suffering, a cry arose from the soul of the people.  This cry was heard echoing from prophets, psalmists and kings.

The cry for salvation, for rescue, comes from an awakening realization of deep, desperate need.

The people were holding out for their coming rescuer, their Messiah.  He would settle accounts with the wicked nations, restore all that was lost, and faithfully fulfill all of what God had promised.  This prayer for salvation came in many other words and phrases, but it was this particular, once used phrase, that was imported emphatically, and even prophetically into the Gospels account in the final Passover.

You may recall the scene.  Jesus, knowing it was His final hour, comes one last time into Jerusalem, riding on a colt.

“And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.  And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
Mathew 21:9

The people recognized their hope was in fact found in Christ.  He was the Messiah, and while they may not have fully grasped the nature of His Kingdom yet, their deep cry for a Savior was finding resolve in Christ.

Hosanna is much more than a universal singable praise anthem.  It’s a universal exclamation that Christ was, and continues to be God’s answer to humanities plight, our separation from our Maker.

As the enemy wreaks havoc on our souls and humanity lies in the prison of this separation, there’s an ancient melody echoing in the distance.  The cry of salvation, for help, for deliverance is being sung. Can you hear it?

The Gospel is incredible news:  The dirge has become celebratory praise.  The cry heard, the promise fulfilled, the King and His Kingdom has saved us!

The next time you sing the words Hosanna, think about the condition your heart has been in without Christ.  Perhaps even now you feel alone in defeat.  We need to need.  We often think that we must ignore the desperate cries in our soul, suppressing them into a faux happiness as if to convince ourselves we are ‘un-needy.’

Don’t do that.  We come to God through Christ, we are freed from sin through Christ, our hope is in Christ.  Salvation has come in Christ.

He is near the broken, comes quickly to the naked, blind and sick.  The contrite heart He does not despise (Psalm 34:18, Psalm 51:17).

The moment we come to God in worship, we must enter through the door of Christ.  Every song, every prayer, every gathering around God’s Word should be careful to not stray from the very reason we can sing, pray and gather in the first place!

Like the gathered Jewish crowd waving their palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna”, we who have tasted of the riches of His grace also declare the Savior of the world is still saving!  We are testimonies and even trophies of His grace (Eph 2:7).

We have been delivered through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Salvation is Person and He is worthy of our praise.

Hosanna in the Highest!

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