2022 Worship Guide

2022 Worship Guide LINCOLN DAILY NEWS December 1, 2022 Page 9 By Pastor Greg Wooten Hope Chapel It was the worst of times. The once powerful and (occasionally) godly nation of Judah was in shambles. Jerusalem had been laid waste. Many of the citizens who didn’t die by the sword or starvation had been carried away to Babylon or resettled in distant foreign countries. Even Solomon’s once magnificent Temple, built to the glory of God, was nothing but a desolate ruin – a constant reminder of how they had fallen away and divorced themselves from their Lord. You can hear the wistful desperation in the voice of the prophet as he cried out to the Almighty: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1 NIV) The Other Side of Hope I feel that way sometimes. Haven’t you? I recall sitting in a darkened church sanctuary alone on the evening of September 11, 2001. With images of jetliners slamming violently into skyscrapers seared into my mind, I remember crying out to God. I knew He was still on Heaven’s throne, but I wanted Him to make Himself known here on Earth, especially to all the grieving and stunned Americans who were pleading for comfort… and for justice. Isaiah voiced a dangerous prayer – Come here! Shake the heavens and the earth! Scatter your enemies! Destroy wickedness and evil once and for all! But even as the words leave his mouth, the prophet sees a problem with his request: the people of Judah had traded Continued --