519 -- This is the Feast of Victory!
June 12 (7/12) in Godsfield -- Revelation 7:12
(For Better or Verse: Each day in 2025 I will begin this Godsfield e-mail with a Bible verse that corresponds with the month (chapter 1-12) and day (verse 1-31) it is sent. This month features a lot of seventh chapters! Those with eyes and ears, let them see and hear.)
Revelation 7: 12 — “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!
This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluiah, Alleluiah, Alleluiah. Power, riches, wisdom and strength, and honor, blessing and glory are his. This is the feast of victory for our God, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
For centuries across large swatches of the church, for decades of my life growing up and leading worship with the help of a green book called the Lutheran Book of Worship, and to this day these words have prepared hearts for the hearing of scripture, the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gathering for Holy Communion, by quoting from the book of Revelation, including this verse, all directed toward the One whose victory over death is the means by which he has overcome the world and the reason he is returning with a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem -- all fresh and perfect and forever.
Worthy is Christ, we sing, the lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be children of God.
Sing with all the people of God, we sing, and join in the hymn of all creation.
For the Lamb who was slain, we sing, has begun his reign, Alleluia.
This is the feast of victory for our God, we sing, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
And so I sing it for you, in celebration of the multitudes of ways that the Lamb-lovers express their praise, and shower their worship on the One for whom power, riches, wisdom and strength belong, and so, too, belong our honor, blessing and glory.
Now, that's a way to start the day!
Love ya,
Paul