Dear Brothers and Sisters, Prayer will be held at the Daming home.

How does a family make Christ the center of all things? How does a family know that it is not simply going through the motions? How does a person know if he has simply embraced a set of propositions and embraced Christ? Our scripture focus this week, Isaiah 12:1-6, helps us understand.

But first, notice a few details about this chapter: It is the shortest chapter in Isaiah; it is actually a song; it brings us to the end of the first section of Isaiah. Isaiah 1-12, explains His judgment against Judah and their only hope. He summarizes that hope in the personal experience of the redeemed, “you will say: “O Lord, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.” This is simply another way of saying what the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Isaiah gives us some of the most beautiful language in the Bible to explain the comforts of salvation from belief in the shed blood of Christ that has propitiated the wrath of God toward us. Songs are like that – they gather up the emotions and the words that move our hearts, helping us to love Him from the innermost parts of our hearts. The comforts of God abound in those who trust in His atoning sacrifice. Isaiah says, “Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.”

As you read these things and meditate on them in your homes this week, see how God has desired that at the center of our experience is the water of life and the joy that it brings. Let us draw bucket after bucket of the wells of salvation out of hearts that rejoice in His atoning sacrificial love. Let us meditate on the miracle of the propitiation of Christ. Let us sing of His love. Let us rejoice in His salvation. Our friend Paul Washer named his organization, “Heartcry.” This is what Isaiah is speaking of – a genuine cry of praise from the heart for the comforts of Christ. This is the essence of a gospel centered home. Do you know the “comfort” of Christ. Do you believe that His “anger is turned away.” Let the praise and the comfort begin. “for He has done excellent things (12:6).

The songs are as follows;

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty #210
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord who hath fearfully, wondrously made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and when heedlessly falling hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee

Praise to the Lord who when tempests their warfare are waging;
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord who when darkness of sin is abounding;
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him!
Let the “Amen” sound from His people again,
Gladly forever adore Him!

Complete In Thee
Complete in Thee, no work of mine could take, dear Lord, the place of Thine.
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and I shall stand complete in Thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought!
And sanctified salvation-wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Complete in Thee, each want supplied, and no good thing to me denied,
Since Thou my portion, Lord, will be, I ask no more, complete in Thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought!
And sanctified salvation-wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Complete in Thee, no more shall sin Thy grace has conquered reign within;
Thy blood shall bid the tempter flee, and I shall stand complete in Thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought!
And sanctified salvation-wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Dear Savior, when, before Thy bar, all tribes and tongues assembled are,
Among the chosen I shall be, at Thy right hand, complete in Thee!

Yea, justified, oh blessed thought!
And sanctified salvation-wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me, and glorified I, too, shall be.

Not What My Hands Have Done
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, and set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, my God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
Come let us worship and bow down
Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our Maker
For He is our God
And we are the people of His pasture
And the sheep of His hand
Just the sheep of His hand

Ye Nations of the Earth Rejoice
(Tune: Duke Street, as in Jesus Shall Reign 375)
Ye nations of the earth rejoice
Before the Lord, your sovereign King;
Serve Him with cheerful heart and voice,
With all your tongues His glory sing.

The Lord is God; ‘tis He alone
Doth life and breath and being give;
We are His work, and not our own,
The sheep that on His pastures live.

Enter His gates with songs of joy,
With praises to His courts repair,
And make it your divine employ
To pay your thanks and honors there.

The Lord is good, the Lord is kind;
Great is His grace, His mercy sure;
And the whole race of man shall find
His truth from age to age endure.