Music
Conductors: Ryan Murphy
Organist: Brian Mathias
Announcer: Derrick Porter
“Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah”
Music: John Hughes
Lyrics: William Williams
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
“In the Garden”
Music and Lyrics: C. Austin Miles
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
“Psalm 19" (organ solo)
Music: Benedetto Marcello
Arrangement: Diane Bish
“I Know That My Savior Loves Me”
Music: Tami Jeppson Creamer
Lyrics: Tami Jeppson Creamer and Derena A. Bell
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy
“My God Is So High”
Music and Lyrics: African American Spiritual
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy
“O Love That Will Not Let Me Go”
Music: Albert L. Peace
Lyrics: George Matheson
Arrangement: Ryan Murphy
The Spoken Word
Strong, Positive, Hopeful
August 1, 2024
Written By Lloyd Newell
Delivered By Derrick Porter
A university student recently had a life-changing insight. But unlike most things he was learning as a student, this insight didn’t come from a lecture or a textbook. In fact, it was sparked when he forgot something from his textbook.
While enrolled in a science class, he was fascinated as he read about how stars are formed. He noticed that if someone asked him about stars when he was studying the book, he could accurately describe the exact conditions necessary for star formation. But if someone asked him the same question a month or two later, he might have some hazy memory that hydrogen gas was involved in the process, but he would be unsure about the details. In time, he might even start second-guessing himself—was he remembering correctly? Was hydrogen gas really essential to star formation? Time spent away from his studies caused him to doubt things he had once known with confidence and certainty.
And what was so life-changing about this simple observation? The young man realized that this basic principle of academic success also applies to his spiritual growth.
Truth is independent; it does not change. But our confidence in the truth varies according to our connection to God, the source of truth. That’s why spiritual habits are so important. If we take time each day to connect with heaven through prayer and pondering God’s word in purposeful study, we can more readily respond to life’s difficulties with faith and clarity. We can even respond more confidently to questions that might challenge our faith. When those challenges come, we don’t have to try to pull from a hazy memory of what we once read, felt, or knew. It’s much better instead to draw upon recent experiences with the divine. Life’s questions, confusions, and problems become less overwhelming and not so dark as we bask in divine light each day.
We are here on earth to learn and grow. And like every other living, growing thing on earth, we grow gradually, consistently, day by day—not in occasional growth spurts. Devotion to God, at its best, happens regularly, even daily. Spiritual experiences or feelings of the past may not be enough to carry us through tomorrow’s hard trials and hard questions. But taking time for holiness each day will keep our spiritual memories bright and powerful.