Oh, There Are 10,000 Charms…

Over the last few months, several of our worship leaders have led a hymn called ‘Come Ye Sinners’  (I Will Arise and Go To Jesus). Each time it has been sung, a few individuals are bothered by the line, “And in the arms of my great Saviour, oh there are 10,000 charms”. The most common question that arises is something along the lines that charms have to do with witchcraft, so why are we singing about it in church? In fact, I’ve encountered the same concern on internet worship forums. Here are a few thoughts to help you overcome any hesitations about singing these words as an expression of your worship to Jesus!

First of all, I wanted to assure people that we as worship leaders take great pains to assess the lyrical content of what we sing in church services. These are acts of worship, proclamatory truths, and creeds. They are also songs of expressing our hearts and thoughts toward God, and about Him. 

Second, looking directly at the phrase in question, poetic language such as is written in lyrics, often takes the approach of painting pictures with words. Taking one single word out of its context, much like interpreting Scripture, does not give full meaning to the reader. 

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Soar Team Montreal wrap up post

“I can’t believe two weeks flew by so fast”  “I don’t wanna go home…I love it here!”  “I’m totally changed and can’t wait till Soar 2010” “I’m so in love with God now it’s not even funny!” “I broke through!”

These were just some of the comments from our team as we wrapped up Soar ’09 last night with a powerful time of worship, praise, prayer, testimony and commitment.  We began the day with another 2 sessions of team debrief, which mostly focused on the Re-entry phrase after a missions experience.  On Monday afternoon, Randy Friesen helped our team unpack some of the experience here at Soar, and got us to open up on our victories, breakthroughs, and frustrations.  Tuesday afternoon our team went for a celebration lunch together at the Montreal Poutine Restaurant in old Montreal.  We also took time to check out the St. Denis and Mont Royal areas for their unique shopping and store themes. 

Tuesday evening we again worshipped with passion and abandon for God.  I wish you could have seen the intensity and energy our students, and the majority of those at Soar, were engaging in the presence of God these past 2 weeks…every session was definitely a time of celebration, petition and running after God.  Randy Friesen again challenged us with stories of God loving His people with an aggressive love…he shared stories of how prayer and obedience has changed the hearts of some of the most hardened people his experience with MBMS has ever encountered.  He shared testimonies of transformation and salvation, and closed our time with a metaphor challenge for us to “break through” in our walk with God by letting Him break forth before us.  He had us pass through a make-shift gate (symbolism of Psalm 24), but only for those that wanted to see genuine breakthrough in our lives as we humble ourselves before God.  The challenge was not to pass through on our feet, but on our knees.  We ended with some very emotional and authentic prayer with each other on our team, as well as others we’ve connected with throughout.  I was completely blessed by praying with…and then stepping back to watch our teens encourage one another in prayer, tears, laughter, devotion, opening their bibles together…I was so STINKING proud of them, and honoured to be their pastor.

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Soar Team Montreal Day 13

Post From: Dominique Unruh

Hey it’s Dominique! I have had a wonderful time here in Montreal. I can’t even explain what I have felt and experienced this week. God has truly been at work in my life. Praise God! This mission trip has really been an amazing experience. Our team has grown closer and closer this week, which is why I’m sad to say that our trip is almost over!

Today was the first day of debrief. Philip Serez led us through some reflections of our past 2 weeks…what we Felt, Saw and Did.

I spent that time just talking to God. Later after lunch we did some sightseeing in old Montreal and did some browsing and shopping. It was a fun and relaxing time we spent together as a team.

At four o’clock our team had a debrief time with Randy Friesen, the director of MBMSI. He asked us questions about what we did this week. I got to learn how God worked through my team members, and also got to share with my team what I experienced and what I discovered.

 

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Soar Team Montreal Day 11

Post From: Brandie

Salut Mon Amis!

Brandie here today. I know…you’ve been waiting in great anticipation for me to post eh? Well I’ll make it worth the wait!

First a summary of the events of Saturday. Our team was scheduled to be in the park of Old Terrebonne for a second day…BUT the heavens unleashed a first class thunderstorm overnight and the park was soaked. So Patrice came to the college we’re staying at and encouraged the leaders to be in prayer and seek out what the Lord wants our teams to do today in Montreal. How sweet is that? If you don’t know that’s pretty stinkin’ sweet!

So after prayer and discussion it was the heart of the students to prayer walk. Something they were very excited to do! (ummm I pretty much LOVE these students!) So off we went to downtown Montreal. 

We spent 45 minutes prayer walking in pairs through some of the campus of a university called UQAM. After that we walked down Rue Ste. Catherine through an area known as le Village. It is the Davies St. area of Montreal. This was a great time of prayer ministry. Sinners praying for sinners. The students experienced feeling the heart of God for the lost—feeling a physical heaviness and turning it into intercession. Amen?! How good is that? SO GOOD! (I love God…and these kids!)

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Soar Team Montreal Day 10

Post From: Jessica Davies

I think we all slept pretty well last night; this morning I know I was refreshed, but still sleepy as usual.

We went down to breakfast mostly as a group, and we had these chocolaty baked Danish-like things for breakfast, which weren’t as good as the last time we had them. So not that many of us finished our breakfast, and after that we had worship where Dan spoke about distractions, his example being the ferocious and numerous Montreal squirrels, that are everywhere.

After worship and session we had a team time, where we prayed about the ministry we would be doing in the park that day. 

We hurriedly ate our lunch, then rushed out to the bus at noon, hopped on excited for what we were doing that day and headed out to Terrebonne. We dropped off the St. Rose team then went to a park and set up face paint, balloons and activities like soccer.

By then it was around 1:30pm I think. I did face painting and had my first real French conversation, coincidentally with a seven year old girl who wanted a butterfly on her cheek. 

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