Isaiah 62:11-12
“They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.”

Matthew 21:9-10
“The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!’  When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and asked, ‘Who is this?’”

Revelation 21:2-3a
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.”

Holy One, the loveliness of heaven is your dwelling place, and yet you take up residence with us.

When you enter the lives we have allowed to fall into self-serving ruin, you restore the crumbling foundations we have built.  You inhabit the neglected places and reverse our desolation.

May we open wide the gates of our hearts to you and pave the way with Hosannas.  Come and be the architect of a new beauty in us so that the outcast finds shelter and the stranger a home.

This we ask in the name of Jesus, who sought after us and was exiled to a death in the barrens to welcome us into the city of salvation.

Listen to ‘Hide Thou Me’ by Central Avenue Church