Author: Uri Brito

While mainline Protestant Republicans continue to take the stage with their Sikh chants and porn actresses, the Protestants on the ground should stand their ground by not giving an inch of Calvinistic territory to these ethical thugs.

I have been encouraged by days 2-3 of the RNC, though whatever paints the stage on day one is typically the outward persona, and everything else is throwing bones to the base.

The Trump/Vance ticket seems appealing to moderate Republicans or the independents who have developed a romance with the former president after his heroic posture on Saturday. I understand that this is a calculated move. But that ticket, though the strongest in my lifetime, must be reminded that it is doomed without the Protestant/evangelical voices that will elect it.

I am sympathetic to the abolitionist apologists but not toward political movements that keep us outside the room when conversations about abortion happen. I want to see a national abortion ban, but I don’t want to be opining about it on X; I want people who are arguing the case from within. I don’t want four more years of watching demonic victory laps.

I see Trump and Vance surrounded by decent people (some whom I’ve met personally in D.C.) who have genuine conservative and Christian policies to pursue. These conversations around the president’s one remaining ear are worth pursuing. And this can only happen if we win; then, we can populate cabinets with the wise counsel of people who will move the agenda toward conservative American values.

There is nobility in condemning the RNC to the inferno where they belong. But nobility vanishes if we only talk about it on the back porch. We need to shape the GOP’s ethos and pray that God will set aside the right people to confront the mainline status from within.

Christians come into worship to inhabit time. When we forsake worship, we lose track of time; we live in a foreign time zone. But when we come into worship, we come into heavenly time; a time when the Church communes with the king of time, Jesus Christ. Worship allows everyone to be in the same rhythm, marching with the beat of the liturgy.

The pre-resurrection church was in the dark. They couldn’t read the time accurately, and everyone’s clocks were set according to their own schemes. The false teachers drew us away from real-time. They perverted the rules of time. They made up time and forsook the time of the Torah and the prophets.

But the resurrection of Jesus gave us uncorrupted time; without perversion. The Church walked in accordance with the time of heaven.

She has since been feasting since AD 33 with gusto! And as long as she communes with Jesus and continues in this long-time-tested tradition of gathering and lifting their voices, she won’t lose track of time.

The Church is a feast-factory; she produces clocks for a world gone mad; a world lost in sadness that arranges life according to her own time-zone. The world has no sense of time, so she makes her own time. But God has ordained one time, one day, to come as one.

While the world fabricates parties to make sense of time, the church parties on since that glorious day when time saw a stone rolled away and a resurrected Lord triumph over the gates of hell.

Time is on our side. And therefore, let us join the feast! Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

Psalm singing is experiencing a revival today. Sacred harp groups are increasing in the U.S. and Europe, and Sea Chanties have catapulted in popularity, chanting has also returned to the life of many congregations. Our little band of churches in the CREC has made Psalm singing a central part of our mission. And you may ask, “What is behind such a renewal of interest in singing sacred music?”

Three elements stand out:

First, people seek permanent things whenever a society undergoes tumult and confusion. They flee from the fleeting. They seek things that stabilize their culture and those who they love. Music, especially biblical music, offers consolation and strength when nothing else in society makes sense.

Second, many are discovering that church music is not as complicated as it appears. Reading music, or at least following sheet music, is achievable, even for those who did not grow up in musical homes or churches. All it takes is a few good practices, and suddenly, we are singing things that, on paper, look quite complicated. If you put a few folks together with a few simple songs with a few predictable lines, you can easily sing a metrical psalm, and then if you take it to the next step, you may learn a through-composed psalm and then a fugue tune, and then the sky is the limit. But ultimately, all it takes is a willingness to learn something new.

And finally, this renewal has come because parents have seen the benefits of singing in their own homes. Even if they did not grow up in singing homes, they now see the fruits of singing in their homes and among their children, congregational music moves from the eucharist table to the tables of our homes and even at work.

Tonight, we have a selection of Psalms (and a couple of hymns) that fit lots of these layers of knowledge. We have a chant, which is quite predictable, but then we have a fugue tune that will require a bit of work and several things in between.

I pray this evening will further encourage you to pursue Psalm singing. May this revival be more than a fad or a trend; it should be a way of life for God’s people.