the hills are alive...

Ah yes, Jodie and I are sitting in front of the TV with our laptops watching The Sound of Music on TV (yes, I have it on DVD, but that would require getting up, putting the movie in, and besides, it’s already in the middle).  There are so many pearls of random blogging thought here, I don’t know where to start!  I feel kind of sorry for Jodie actually.  You see, I can’t just watch The Sound of Music.  I have to sing along.  I have to ask why in the world don’t people ever break into spontaneous song in real life (except Elf … "I’m here, with my dad….).  I can’t help but tell Jodie stories of when I directed the Mediapolis Community Theatre production.  Of course, she’s heard these stories so often (as in, every time we so much as hear The Sound of Music mentioned), that she could probably tell them better than I could.

So here’s the question.  Pastor Flack’s movie is Fiddler on the Roof.  He can quote from it, he can use it for sermon illustrations, I’m sure he knows it front to back.  Is The Sound of Music my Fiddler on the Roof?  Boy, if it is, that’s a really sad state of affairs.  Maybe I should branch out a bit.  I do have My Fair Lady, or West Side Story or ………..

Mystery

Lots of folks have asked me to post the lyrics to the song I sang on Christmas Eve, so here they are.

Mystery

A child was born on Christmas DayBorn to save the world But long before the world began He knew His death was sure The pain and strife secured

Mystery, how He came To be a man But greater still How His death was in His plan God predestined that His Son would die And He still created man 

Oh, what love is this;

That His death was in His hands

The Christmas trees They glow so bright With presents all around But Christmas brought A tree of life With blood that sacrificed The greatest gift in life

Mystery, how He came To be a man But greater still How His death was in His plan 

God predestined that His Son would die And He still created man Oh, what love is this; That His death was in His hands

I am just a man and Can’t begin to comprehend 

When You look into this traitor’s eyes

What do You see that justifies the Lamb

God predestined that His 

Son would die And He still created man 

Oh, what love is this; That His death was in His plan

Winter

time it took to scrape the car this morning:  10 minutes

time it took to drive to work:  2 minutes

arg

Hymns Quoted in "Knowing God"

For the last couple of days, I’ve been reading through J.I. Packer’s, Knowing God.  First of all, I can’t believe I’ve never read this!  Anyway, I’m on the chapter talking about God’s Grace, and Packer starts quoting hymns left and right.  He starts with an Isaac Watts hymn.

But there’s a voice of princely grace

Sounds from God’s holy Word;

Ho! ye poor captive sinners, come,

And trust upon the Lord.

My soul obeys the sovereign call,

And runs to this relief;

I would believe thy promise, Lord,

Oh, help my unbelief

To the blest fountain of thy blood,

Incarnate God, I fly,

To wash my soul from scarlet stains,

And sins of deepest dye.

A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

Into thy hands I fall;

Thou art the Lord, my righteousness,

My Savior, and my all

Where is this in the hymnal!  Matter of fact, when I did a google search of these lyrics, the chapter I’m reading was the first result!  To save on space, I won’t type the rest of them in, but there are several wonderful hymns that are no where to be found.  Here’s what Packer has to say at the end of his chapter.

“No apology is needed for drawing so freely on our rich heritage of “free grace hymns” (poorly represented, alas, in most standard hymnbooks of the twentieth century);  for they make our points more piercingly than prose could ever do.

I’ve got to go, but more thought is definitely needed on how the hymnal as it is today came to be, and what other gems are out there waiting to be rediscovered.

(editorial note: see the music section for my solution to this article)

Bonhoeffer on Congregational Worship

reformworship.com posted an excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible today, and I think it’s a good passage to think on, so here is the passage:

Psalms 27, 42, 46, 48, 63, 81, 84, 87, and others sing of Jerusalem, the City of God, of the great festivals of the people of God, of the temple and the beautiful worship services.  It is the presence of the God of salvation in His congregation for which we here give thanks, abou which we here rejoice, for which we long.  What Mount Zion and the temple were for the Israelites the church of God throughout the world is for us - the church where God always dwells with His people in word and sacrament.  This church will withstand all enemies (Psalm 46), its imprisonment under the powers of the godless world will come to an end (Psalms 126 and 137).  The present and gracious God, who is in Christ who in turn is in His congregation, is the fulfillment of all thanksgiving, all joy, and all longing in the Psalms.  As Jesus, in whom God himself dwells, longed for fellowship with God because He had become a man as we (Luke 2:19), so He prays with us for the total nearness and presence of God with those who are His.

God has promised to be present in the worship of the congregation.  Thus the congregation conducts its worship according to God’s order.  But Jesus Christ Himself has offered the perfect worship by perfecting every prescribed sacrifice in His voluntary and sinless sacrifice.  Christ brought in Himself the sacrifice of God for us and our sacrifice for God.  For us there remains only the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in prayers, hymns, and in a life lived according to God’s commands (Psalms 15 and 50).  So our entire life becomes worship, the offering of thanksgiving.  God wants to acknowledge such thanksgiving and to show His salvation to the grateful (Psalms 50 and 23).  To become thankful to God for the sake of Christ and to praise Him in the congregation with heart, mouth, and hands, is what the Psalms wish to teach us.

Thoughts?

Psalm 34 (part 4)

 

The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

(Psa 34:15-22 ESV)

 

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Boy, I could read this Psalm over and over again! I have begun the extremely lengthy process of memorizing.

 

Totally off subject tangent. I’m bad at memorization. I mean really bad. There are songs that I have been singing for years, and I still don’t know them. It took me most of Friday night at Bethlehem Revisited to learn verse 2 of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. That’s four hours of constant exposure to learn 4 lines of text. Sad, huh? The really sad thing is that if you were to ask me next week to sing it, I would have no clue. Which brings us to the subject of poor excuses. I was struck at Monday night’s Elder meeting as the Student Mobilization staff used verses to answer every question just how pitiful my learned knowledge of the Word is. My excuse? I don’t memorize well. So! Moses didn’t talk so well. God’s Word tells us that His Word is our sword and shield. I suppose it’s about time I arm myself for the battle.

Tangent finished, back to the Psalm.  When I was a teacher, I was often accused of playing favorites. It used to bother me … a lot. I don’t know about you, but I never liked teachers who played favorites. Of course, looking back, those were the teachers that didn’t have me as a favorite. Anyway, I considered this for many years before I realized that as a teacher, I gravitated towards the kids who wanted to be taught. The indifferent kids (rightly or wrongly) were largely ignored in my interactions with the students that interacted pro-actively. The “bad” kids? My philosophy was to remove them from the classroom when they caused a distraction to the kids who wanted to learn. I’m sure you can see the connection here to the Psalm in my very imperfect example.

God looks towards the righteous and looks away from the wicked. It’s like He wants to spend His time on the people that want to grow. When they cry for help or are brokenhearted, He is right there, guiding and supporting every step of the way. To connect back to the teaching example, God is not like the Algebra teacher who explained the concept and then left the students to flounder on their own. He is like the teacher who would take whatever time it took (you know, the teacher available after class, who was willing to take precious class time to work through problems) to make sure their students understood the concepts at hand. God doesn’t leave His children to flounder! He is good to come alongside and guide us.

But! David says in Psalm 14, “The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no on who does good, not even one.”Doesn’t look so good huh? These two Psalms combined don’t say great things about our chances to be God’s “favorites.”

But! David points to our hope in both Psalms. In Psalm 14 he says, “Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.” He’s a bit more subtle in Psalm 34, but verse 20 sticks out like a sore thumb. “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”Where else in the Bible does it talk about broken bones?

Talking about the sacrificial lamb in Exodus, the Lord commands, “… and you shall not break any of its bones.” We have a Lamb whose bones were never broken. John 19:32-33 says, “So the soldiers cam and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.”

Crucifixion was a horrific means of punishment. You would think it would be the nails, or the exposure to the elements that would kill the person hanging there, but actually the person on the cross would die from suffocation. The way the Romans hung a person caused there to be terrible pressure on the chest and lungs, meaning the only way to get a breath was for the person to painfully straighten their legs. This meant putting pressure on the stacked feet with a nail through, scraping the back against the splintery wood, rubbing the skin raw. Often the person would hang for a long time, but the Jews were in a hurry because of the approaching Sabbath. To speed up the process of killing, the soldiers would break the legs of the victims so they could no longer stand. In other words, crucified people had their legs broken, but not the Lamb of God. This fulfilled the requirements set down in Exodus and alluded to in Psalm 34.

Also, as Christ took the sins of the world upon Himself on the cross, the Father had to turn away, as is His nature to turn away from sin. But, Jesus rose from the grave, gloriously conquering sin and death! What’s more, when we are in Christ, when the Father looks at us, He sees Christ. We can finally have God look at us! Psalm 34 then becomes the comfort and truth it was obviously intended by David to be! “The Lord redeems the life of His servants, none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.”

Bethlehem Revisited

Over this past weekend, I have sung O Come, O Come Emmanuel and Angels We Have Heard on High more than all the other times in my life combined I think.  What an amazing ministry Bethlehem Revisited is.  There were about 1,800 people that went through this past weekend with about 3/4 being first time visitors.  More importantly were the huge number of international students that went through.  One of the guides was commenting that a number of the Chinese folks were saying they had never heard of the Christmas story before.  Boy, that hits home to an American huh?  I wonder how many folks out there just don’t know the story of Christmas.  May we remember the truth of the season before us this year.  Let us not be so distracted by the hype that we miss the purpose and joy behind that birth in a stable 2000 years ago.

Mr Moto's and light jazz

You know, I’m starting to see why Pastor Vaughn spends so much time at the coffee shop.  I have no idea if Bluestem is anything like Mr Moto’s, but it’s really nice sitting here at the overly large table with soft lighting, listening to Miles Davis, looking out the window at the snow falls, drinking my orange crush, using the free internet, and yes, now blogging.  I just feel so cool!

(editorial note: Mr Moto's closed )

Harold Best Thoughts

I’ve been listening to a talk by Harold Best on the concepts of content and context in worship music.  I’m going to rip this comment out of the two hours of context around it, but the comment struck me as thought provoking, so here it is.

When 9/11 hit us, praise and worship music had nothing to sing, nothing.  The repertoire was exhausted.  Nothing of lament.  Nothing of grief.  Very little of repentance.  Nothing of anger.  All we could sing is, "We’ve come to worship," and God says, "I already know that," but we say, "I want to sing it over and over again, even though you already know that."  Now I’m being a little sarcastic, but sarcasm is often born out of something quite real, so here we are in the face of an international, global tragedy, and there’s nothing to sing.  A lot of tunes, yes, but no texts.  The secret of the future of praise and worship music will be when its textual content matches that of any good hymn book.  Because any good hymn book covers the counsel of God, from stem to stern, and the behavior and responsibility of mankind, from stem to stern.  So you have in the hymn book, and I’m not saying bring the hymn book back, even though Jars of Clay would like to see that happen.  You’ve seen their liner notes.  Their next to last album says, "Save the hymn!  Save the hymnbooks!"  So I’m not arguing for the reintroduction of the hymnbook per se; I’m arguing for a body of church music we can call contemporary, texted music that covers everything having to do with God and Christ in history, and man with or without Christ, and his need for Christ, whether he is in Christ or away from Christ.

I think he has some wonderful points. Interestingly enough, I think that the praise and worship movement realized this, possibly as a result of 9/11, although, I think that textually ambiguous music could only hold its weight for so long.  I see the modern P&W movement heading in this direction that Best speaks of.  For example, the newest Baloche or Tomlin cd has far deeper and richer texts than even albums of theirs 2 or 3 years ago.  However, I would say that we’re not there yet.  My question is, why is it an either or thing?  Harold, who is in his seventies I believe, having been a professor at Wheaton for a number of years, still says, I don’t think we need to bring the hymnal back, we just need to deepen the lyrics of modern worship.  Personally, I like the contemporizing of hymn songs.  We have a deep store of theologically sound songs right in front of us.  Why not use them?  I do think that there is a style issue.  I’m sorry, but the up and coming generations have an adverse reaction to the organ.  I’m not making a judgment about the value of the organ, because the organ is a beautiful instrument, but my generation and the generation below me are don’t connect with the sound of an organ (generally speaking).  That being said, I think that it is wonderful to modernize hymns.  My personal philosophy when choosing music for services and for personal worship is to draw from every source that I can.  Christ honoring music did not either start (as contemporary says) or end (as traditional says) at 1980.  Why do we set barriers on our music?  Just some thoughts.  Any responding thoughts?

Psalm 34 (part 3)

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psa 34:8-14 ESVESV)

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Don’t take my word for it. When was the last time you used this statement? Usually we say it when something just sounds too good to be true. Statements like, “Ireland is green,” or “Hawaii is a paradise,” or “soft boiled eggs on toast is good.” Until you’ve seen Ireland or Hawaii or tasted soft boiled eggs on toast, these statements don’t incite a visceral reaction. It’s almost like David is daring someone here. He’s saying, “See for yourself, the Lord is good.” It also evokes a visceral reaction for those who know that the Lord is good! It brings us to nodding our heads in emphatic agreement.

Do we say this in our words and actions? Do we say, “Look! The Lord is good. Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.” Who are we saying it to? I don’t know about you, but I’m awfully isolated. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m antisocial, but doesn’t the Word say, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” How can we step out of our comfort zones? Are you praying for friends to come to the Lord? It certainly won’t happen without the work of the Holy Spirit, and we need to intercede on their behalf.

There we are, right? Share your faith with your friends. Ah, but as the author of The Great Omission points out, we can’t stop there. David goes on to teach us how to taste and see. Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Wait a second! Doesn’t He mean go and make converts? Maybe it was translated wrong. It’s all Greek to me…. Never mind. The word here means either to follow precepts and instructions or to teach or instruct. Teach or instruct. That sounds an awful lot like what David is doing in Psalm 34. It’s not enough to pray our friends in the door, we’re called to make disciples. Who are you pouring into? Whew, talk about Christian jargon. Who are you deliberately teaching and instructing in the Way? Pastor Flack said Sunday that the Gospel isn’t the safety instructions at the beginning of the flight, it’s the whole flight plan. Who’s co-pilot are you?

My reaction to this kind of teaching? I don’t have it together yet. I’ll disciple when things are going right. After all, look at the heroes of the Bible. They had it together. David, Peter, all the other disciples…. Oh wait, not exactly stellar flawless guys. Matter of fact, doesn’t it seem like God uses the unlikely guys to do His work? Why? “When we are weak, He is strong.” Brings us right back to God receiving glory! When it is so terribly obvious that we can’t do something, and God works through us to get it done, it just shows how the Lord has worked.

I’m always reminded of this on Sunday mornings when things don’t go so well. You know, everything sort of collapses in on itself. The screen doesn’t sync perfectly. The guitar strings snap in the middle of a verse, forcing an a capella chorus. My brain fries in the middle of a prayer. Almost without exception those are the Sundays where I hear how wonderful the worship was. Certainly not me, but God be praised. This is how we should be with discipleship and evangelism. Let’s step out in faith. We’ll mess stuff up, because we are only human, but at the end, God will be praised!

Random Thought for the Day

Most uncomfortable thing I do:  Direct the congregation in the singing of hymns 1st hour

Most edifying thing I do:  Direct the congregation in the singing of hymns 1st hour

Lesson Learned:  Put aside personal preferences when necessary to edify the Body of Christ

Psalm 34 (part 2)

 

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

(Psa 34:4-7 ESV)

 

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“I sought the Lord.” “Those who look to Him.” “This poor man cried.” Do you catch a pattern here? What gives God glory? I think that question should be our primary concern in life. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” I’m sure most of you have heard John Piper’s statement concerning God’s glory. I think this is what David is talking about here. David doesn’t sit back on his heels and wait for the Lord to work. I don’t want to be mistaken, David has to wait on the Lord, but it’s a proactive kind of waiting.

It’s like the kid in last year’s 6th grade band who really wanted to play #92, Trombone Rag. By this time, we would inevitably be on #200 something, but a favorite song is a favorite song. Teaching wise, it’s a good song. The trombones get to gliss finally, the trumpets have to learn some measure of syncopation and dynamics. Little Brendon would get it in his head occasionally that he wanted to play the song, so every five minutes or so, he would ask if we could play #92. I would string him out of course, because as long as he was focused on the expectation of playing #92, he was focused on something, and let’s be honest, a focused 6th grader is a blessing. Of course, both of us knew that I would give in in the end, but he was persistent in seeking.

Are we that way with God? Not pestering, but persistent in asking. Asking knowing that God will give us our answer. Look how David was answered. He sought the Lord and was delivered. He looked to Him and was no longer ashamed. Boy, I could camp here for a long time. So let me camp here for a short time!

The enemy tells us that if we look at God we’ll realize how far off the mark we are, and we will be ashamed. So what is our response? I don’t know about you, but out of shame, I start avoiding God. Of course, this results in more shame, so I avoid more. Then I’m ashamed that I’m avoiding God, so I’m even more ashamed. See where this is going? There’s a whole snowball effect that happens. Then we end up sitting there wondering why we are so far from God.

The truth of looking to God is so much better. If we look to the Lord, not only do we see where we lack, but we see the mercy and grace of Christ making up that lack and more. What an amazing Grace! No wonder that David says that those who look to Him are radiant! We always know it too. If you’re anything like me, when you finally come to the cross, God is faithful to renew a right Spirit within you and He heals once again.

Something that’s been convicting me for some time is the concept of God sized prayers. Do we put God in a box? How big do we think our God is? Are there things that we’ve decided aren’t happening, so we don’t pray for? What do our prayers say about what we think about God? As I look through the Word, I see a God who loves to take huge prayers and bless the socks off the people crying out. (Random note, don’t you love the phrase, “Bless the socks off?” Pastor Mark used it all the time, and slowly yet surely it caught on.) I think God loves to bless the socks off of things. Why? Because it brings Him glory!

What can we take from verse 7. I certainly see application in the area of spiritual warfare, but I think there’s something else that we can take from this. This statement continues the same thought that David has been on for the last three verses. He’s talking about a close proximity to the Lord. David shows us that if we’re close to the Lord, He is faithful. What a joy to serve a faithful God. We certainly aren’t by nature a faithful people. We’re too easily distracted. We all have spiritual ADD. We can be going along fine, and then something distracts us.

The distraction isn’t always something bad, matter of fact, usually it’s something good. However when something good becomes the thing, it becomes an idol. Whoa! I just pulled out the “i” word. We are after all an enlightened society. You certainly don’t see anyone bowing down before a little wooden statue asking for rain or something like that, do we? How many people “bow down” to stuff, asking it to make them happy? How many of us “bow down” to our deeds, holding them up to show how we don’t need God today? How many of us put other things before a holy God? Every single one of us, every single day.

God tells us, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” I don’t think He says that for His sake. I think He tells us that for our sakes. He’s saying to us, “Hey, there’s one thing in this whole world that truly satisfies… Me.” The more we draw close to Him, the more He shows us the areas in our lives that we are letting get ahead of Him. May we be a seeking people, a looking people, a crying people, for the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Great new album

Every Tuesday, I check out newreleasetuesday.com to see what the new Christian music of the week is.  This week, a guy named Jason Gray released a new album.  Never heard of the guy, but the blurb made the album sound cool.  Wow.  I haven’t bought many CDs since we moved and I don’t drive a half an hour everywhere any more.  I just listen to stuff on Rhapsody instead.  Saves lots of money and as long as I have an internet connection, I can listen to anything I want.  Tangent!  Anyway, Jason Gray’s new album.  Great stuff.  One of those albums that I think I need to listen to again and again to catch stuff. The CD is really a recording of one of his live concerts, complete with tracks of him speaking between songs.  There’s humor, seriousness, and most importantly a depth to his lyrics that I long for when I listen to music.  Here’s a link to the album on Rhapsody.  I think you can listen to like 21 tracks free each day without a subscription, so voila, you can listen to the CD.  I think you’re going to need to listen without distractions.  I know that I’m going to have to go back later and listen again.

12 String Guitar

Okay, so I was reading an article by Paul Baloche on the open chord concept.  This part seriously made me laugh out loud.

Perhaps some brave souls among you play with 12 strings.  To you I say, “God bless you and I hope you have a good tuner.”  Incedentally, I’ve always wondered if the 10-stringed lyre referred to in Psalm 33:3 was really a 12-string guitar with two broken strings.

LOL.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that I love playing my 12 string guitar.  I probably only love it because it has a tuner built in to the guitar.  You’ve also probably noticed I haven’t played it in weeks.  That’s because I still haven’t gotten around to replacing the stings after one snapped in the middle of a Sunday morning worship set.  Ah, the memories.  The total confusion as we sang a totally unplanned a capella chorus of Forever before cutting the song off really early.  The really confused look on Wendy’s face as I asked her to run to my office and grab my other guitar while I went through church life announcements.  The loud and very obvious pops in the sound as I unplugged my 12-string and plugged in my 6-string.

Come to think of it, I really should replace those strings.  I do love my 12-string guitar…..

Psalm 34 (part 1)

 

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!

(Psa 34:1-4 ESV)

 

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Do you ever have a song in your head? I’m bad at this. It bothers my wife something fierce because I always seem to get the song stuck in her head too. This is probably because I just can’t not sing out loud. Yesterday was a good example. I was listening to a worship CD on Rhapsody when I heard Lincoln Brewster cover that Hallelujah song from Shrek. Anyway, I played it several times while blogging, and then it was done. It was stuck. Of course, when Jodie got home, I had to share this appalling interpretation of worship with her. It’s just such a catchy tune! I’ve been singing it ever since.

Our praise for the Lord needs to be like that song. Our love for Him needs to be something we just can’t get out of our heads, and we shouldn’t try! What’s more, it should be such a catchy thing that we can’t wait to share it with friends. His praise should be infectious. Who are you giving credit for stuff to? David says our souls should make their boast in the Lord. Are you noticing stuff? Are you praising the Lord throughout the day?

Today had a pretty rough start to it. Let’s be blunt, last night wasn’t exactly an uplifting night for Republicans. Slow getting up, I ran over to Panera to grab Jodie a Mocha and a scone (don’t get me started on the disgustingness of the scone). I walked back out to my car at the precise moment it started raining. It was one of those cold, sheeting rains from the side. You know, the soaking, make you cold and shivering rains. I took Jodie her food, hopped back in my car, and the windshield wiper promptly popped off. Arg. Now I had to get out of my car, in the cold rain, to fix my windshield wiper blade so that I could see to drive. What a miserable day….

“This is the day the Lord has made; rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

That’s what ran through my head at that precise moment. Wow, talk about getting smacked over the head by the Lord! I took that moment to praise Him for being a sovereign, loving God.

When we gather Sunday morning, our worship should be a corporate continuation of what we’ve been doing all week long. Too often we get into a habit of struggling through the week. We get to Sunday having praised him maybe occasionally, rarely or not at all. We wade our way through the foyer, greeting folks, letting them know how great a week we had. We settle into a pew, glance through the bulletin and get ready for another hour or so of worship. Somewhere in the second or third song, we get into it and really start to worship. We listen to the sermon, seeing how far off we are in our lives. We sing a final song, and we’re done. Yep, that’s right, done with worship for the day. We turn around, and start talking about all the things that life has thrown at us in the last week. Though edifying, we notice that often the Lord is far from our lips. As we head out into the world for another week, we vow to do better this week.

Is this the Christian walk? I wonder what our walk would be like if we were to bless the Lord at all times, and praise him continually. As we have been extolling the Lord throughout the week, we would gather on Sunday morning, sharing with each other the blessings of the Lord we’ve seen. We would gather as a body, and magnify the Lord, exalting His name together. May we be that kind of follower of Christ!

Missing the Boat

I’ve been reading a book called unChristian by David Kinnaman for Seminary.  In essence, the author has done research on perceptions of Christianity by both believers and non-believers.  The results are staggering.  Most concerning is the apparent lack of difference between Christians and non-Christians on many issues.  Here is an excerpt from the book.  He has just finished talking about the generational gap among believers concerning what they believe to be morally acceptable.

Here is another interesting point of comparison:  just 5 percent of born-again Busters say they have recently given someone “the finger.”  But compared to this vulgar gesture, born-again Christian young people are three times more likely to have had sex outside of marriage in the last month (18 percent), five times more likely to have gotten drunk (24 percent), and five times more likely to have purchased a lottery ticket (25 percent).  They hold up thier middle finger much less frequently than they use profanity in public (36 percent), view explicit sexual content in a magazine or a movie (36 percent), or say mean things about each others (40 percent).

Thoughts?

Contemporary and Traditional

I was sitting here reading a couple more pages from Unceasing Worship.  It seems to be one of those books you can only read a bit at a time, so that you can digest and wrestle with the ideas presented.  Anyway, as I was reading, I had an ADD moment.  I think it’s sad that Pastor Flack, the video guy, the sound guy and I are the only ones that get to worship in both the traditional and contemporary services.  I think it’s such a shame that so many members of our congregation are missing out.  Of course, for me, the traditional service is where I’m confronted by new music with new melodies and new thoughts in lyrics.  I mean really, here at 8:00 every Sunday, we sing the great (and sometimes not so great) hymns of old.  The senior saints gather with a couple of younger folks and we sing together from a foundation a century old.  There’s something nice about that.  There’s a bringing together of sorts.  Then there’s the "contemporary" service for second and third hours.  Oh how I wish that the senior saints could worship with us in the third hour.  A group of people largely consisting of college age and young professionals packs into the sanctuary and sings a new song to the Lord.  We sing old songs too, but sometimes in a new way. ;-)  But what I think is the best part of the third service is the volume level.  Not that singing louder is more spiritual, there are just more people in the space!  It’s cool to be in a room with the next generation (of which I’m slightly a part of) that is sold out for the Lord.  Not sure how to facilitate this (space problems), but some time we need to have one service for the entire congregati12pt;">be the body of Christ.  We need to introduce the hand to the foot, the fingers to the toes!  We need to realize that worshiping Christ is not about meon.  We need to sing out the hymns of old alongside the new songs of this generation.  We need to , it’s about us.

Worship Matters

Worship Matters just posted a set of videos from Bob Kauflin on worship leading. This first video was great, and I thought what is presented applies to us all, not just worship leaders.  See the rest of the videos at Worship Matters.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/teY8g8TBmUU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00

Hallelujah?

Okay, so long time, no write.  I need to get back into the habit I suppose.  Matter of fact, after I write this random thought, I might even add another entry on David.

So, here’s the thought.  I have the album, Arise: A Celebration of Worship playing in the background.  It’s a great album, it has tracks by Paul Baloche, Don Moen, Jared Anderson and Lincoln Brewster to name a few.  Anyway, I’ve listened to this CD before, really, I have.  Many times that I have listened to it, I have never reallylistened to the whole thing I guess.  Anyway, here’s the link to the song that caused this blog reaction:

A New Hallelujah (Lincoln Brewster)

Listen to it.  Remind you of anything?  Yeah, that’s right, Shrek.  Can you take a song that was used in Shrek as a worship song?  Here’s the original song used in the movie written by Rufus Wainwright (I could write a whole blog entry on naming your child Rufus).

I’ve heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don’t really care for music, do you?

It goes like this:

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty

in the moonlight

overthrew you

She tied you

To a kitchen chair

She broke your throne,

she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe I’ve been here before

I know this room, I’ve walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch

love is not a victory march

It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you’d let me know

What’s real and going on below

But now you never show it to me do you?

Remember when I moved in you?

The holy dark was moving too

And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above

And all I ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

It’s not a cry you can hear at night

It’s not somebody who’s seen the light

It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I track with the song through verse 1.  I start to track the Biblical story of verse 2, then he looses me big time.  “Maybe there’s a God above.”  Really, do we not know?  “It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah.”  Wow.

Here’s my point.  Lincoln Brewster has kept only the parts of the song that maybe could be interpreted as worship.  Here’s Lincoln’s version:

I love You Lord with all my heart

You’ve given me a brand new start

And I just want to sing this song to You

It goes like this the fourth the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

My heart and soul are praising

Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah

I know that You’re the God above

You’re filling me with grace and love

And I just want to say thank You to You

You pulled me from the miry clay

You’ve given me a brand new day

Now all that I can say is

Hallelujah

Does this work?  I mean the lyrics are spot on.  They really are.  Can you detach a song from its connections to Pop Culture? People would have the reaction of, “I think I know that song.”  You could probably make a good case for the seeker sensitivity of the song.  But is that really the goal of worship in the church?  I would say no.  What are your thoughts on this adaptation?  Does it work, or not?

Rush of Fools

I’ve been listening to the new Rush of Fools album for the last couple of weeks, and I’ve really gotten into it.  In particular, I’ve been listening to The Only Thing That’s Beautiful in Me.  Look at these lyrics.

Just like the ocean waves

You crash on me

Just like a tidal wave

You ruin me

Just like a hurricane

You devastate ev’rything

that needs to change

(And) You are the only thing that’s beautiful in me

That’s beautiful in me

And You are the only thing that’s beautiful in me

That’s beautiful in me

Just like a mountain peak

You lift me up

Just like a desert stream

You fill my cup

And like a heart that beats

You are the blood that covers me

You cover me

(And) You are the only thing that’s beautiful in me

That’s beautiful in me

And You are the only thing that’s beautiful in me

That’s beautiful in me

And all I can say is thank You

Thank You

And all I can say is thank You

Lord thank You

And all I can say is thank You

Thank You

This makes me think of Romans 8 where it says, However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit , if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you… If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Then follows the scripture I cling to, Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword…But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer though Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor delpth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Unceasing Worship (part 2)

Here’s an intersting thought from Unceasing Worship.

If we took music out of worship, would we have the same problem and the same set of solutions?  I do not think so.  It is not pleasant to realize how much of a burden is placed on ministers of music and worship because of the dependence on style change as the core of the solution.  Ironically enough, while a music minister is expected to make distinct style jumps from one service to the next, the preaching pastor my do nothing more from one service to another than to take off his or her robe or move from the pulpit to the chancel floor.  How out of proportion!  How perplexing to think of the burden we have placed on music, this fleeting human construct!  The problem is not with any one style but with the reluctance of people to rub up against a multiplicity of styles, for it is the rubbing - the creative friction - that could bring about the stylistic syntheses that the body of Christ so desperately needs.

Traditionalists have much to answer fro in their reluctance to understand that tradition does not mean stasis but change.  In their reaction against contemporary styles, they fail to understand that what they have gotten used to was once contemporary and often objectionable.  Contemporists likewise fail to understand how blunted their tastes are when only "their music" seems to do the trick and when what they are doing has, ever so quickly, frozen itself into a tradition.  So we end up with two kinds of shorsightedness, one supposedly old, the other supposedly new, and both wish fulfilling.  The separation of worhsip into preference groups is everyone’s fault, in that narrow musical satisfaction has turned out to be more important that style-proof outpouring.  I encourage people of all practices to become intently and intensely curious about each other’s ways.

Hard hitting to both sides I think. My question is, how do you change what is?  We will never experience perfect worship on this side of heaven, but yet we are called to be a Body of Christ.  How do you do that when the Body tears itself apart in the process?  No answers here, just more questions.

Unceasing Worship

I was reading Harold Best’s Unceasing Worship today and this following passage was so good to read.  It was one of those thoughts I had to chew on a bit, and I hope you agree.  This is from a section where he draws a comparison from the concepts ofin and about. He uses the example of the musician who thinks in music from experience as opposed to someone who thinks about music from a theory standpoint.  Here is an excerpt:

Going even further, my knowing about Jesus does not necessarily mean that I am in Jesus.  I am not even sure that knowing Jesus is the same as being inJesus; otherwise, how can the unbelief of his earthly brothers and sisters or Iscariot be explained?  Certainly one of the greatest obstacles to a sweetened and purified spread of the gospel is explained by the difference between witnessing to people from within the truth and simply stating the facts of conversion with little understanding of how radically extensive conversion is.

So we have this differntiating word in.  It goes as far as any word in describing the richness of continuous outpouring both within the Godhead and from him, toward every particle and person in his creation.  With respect to our ultimate condition, we are either in Christ or outside of him.  There is no middle ground.  Outsideness is not vagueness or ambiguity.  A lost person is not only outside of Christ but also in Satan.  Lostness is not a vacuum, nor does it imply that there is no service, no master, no hierarchy.  Lostness is a choice demanding an exchange of gods as outpouring continues.  The question then is, outpouring to whom?  If I am to evangelize, I will do so knowing that I will be talking to a continuous outpourer, an inverted soul, whose only hope is to find his or her outpouring converted and washed clean by turning from bing in Satan to being in Christ.

There is only one worship war that can be properly described as such.  It is the war between God and Satan, in chich being in Christ or in Satan is the bedrock issue.  Our petty skirmishes about worship, as ignoble, silly and demeaning as they can become, are nothing compared to the violence and tearing of the real and only war.  This war is simply not ours at our dithering local level.  It is the Lord’s and if we were to better understand this one splendid fact, we would be placing far less emphasis on what we do, what style we do it in, what we keep and what we throw out, and what latest poll or societal "insight" we choose to use as our template.

Boy, it just keeps going on from there, but my hand is cramping up.  I would highly recommend getting your hands on this book and pouring over it.  Do so with the Bible next to you.  Dive in, struggle with the text and ideas.  Don’t take anything he says for granted, but rather investigate and wrestle with concepts presented.  Thoughts?

KSU Orchestra Concert

So Jodie and I went to the KSU orchestra concert tonight.  Couple of thoughts.  First of all, I hadn’t really realized that I haven’t actually sat and listened to a concert like that since college.  When the strings started warming up, I realized just how much I really missed it.  The orchestra really sounded good (except for the violinist behind Anna).  The Bach was a wonderful descent into counterpoint, and I found myself sitting there, absorbed in the sound.  The Schubert was nice, and I really enjoyed the final piece.  I couldn’t help but notice that the audience was well trained, knowing when to applaud and not, etc..  It’s really great to be in a city where we can go to concerts (for free) on a weeknight without having to make a huge deal of it.  Dr. Brown would be proud.  I couldn’t help but sit and notice "stylistic characteristics" throughout the whole concert.  Thanks to Anna for inviting us, Jodie and I are so excited to keep going to stuff!

Sunday Worship

I love to worship on Sunday mornings.  In particular, I love third hour. I’m sure you would be surprised, but I love third hour not necessarily for the reasons you might think.  I love third hour for the volume.  Not typically a numbers guy, when you pack a sanctuary seating 500 with well over 400 and then those 400 sing their hearts out, you get an incredible volume from the congregation.  Like the kind of volume where you can hear them better than you can hear yourself.  There’s the best part, with that kind of volume, I don’t feel like I’m leading per say, but rather participating.  Someday, we need to get all three hours together so that everyone can experience what happens with that group.

Youth Worship

I just got done leading youth worship over at the annex, and I was struck by a couple of things.  First of all, what a great job Vaughn is doing with the youth at Grace.  I think it is so important how he is proceeding with high expectations of theology as he works through spiritual disciplines. This may sound odd, but the three or four songs over in the annex are great worship for me.  I think it’s the opportunity to sit off to the side in the back, leading from an acoustic guitar with not amplification or microphone. It is so healthy for me to lead from the back.  It gets me out of the spotlight, cuts the separation I feel when I’m on a stage and allows me to worship as a part of the community of believers.  I think it’s great that there is a talented group of kids here at Grace that match my volume of singning, so I don’t feel like I’m dragging them along kicking and screaming.  Finally, there’s just a simplicity to the time that I long for.  No complex orders or arrangements.  No need to keep the band together. What an awesome time!

"Worship Wars" Part 2

Yesterday I talked a bit about worship as a concept. Today I want to talk about music in worship. I would reemphasize that music does not equal worship, but music in the church today has become a battle often called the worship wars. What concerns me most about these “worship wars” is that I feel like we’re missing the point. I came across an article the other day that was explaining how we were missing the point on music in the church because contemporary music was off in its purpose. The gal had put this chart in her article:

Definition	Religion/Christianity	Business	Entertainment
People	sinners/redeemed sinners	consumers	fans
Leadership	pastors/elders	CEO	directors/actors/singers
Purpose	honor & glorify God repository of truth	sell the product	please the crowd
Atmosphere	reverential/serious	reverential/serious	flippant/fun/easy
Style	contemplative/slow	efficient/pragmatic	fast paced/upbeat/trivial
Results	long term/eternal	temporal/transitory	quick fix/temporary
Demands	introspection/discipline	competition	none/indulgence
Authority	God/Bible	profit/money data/results	feelings/likes
Orientation	Word/substance	money	earthly kingdom
Real	spiritual kingdom	earthly kingdom	earthly kingdom
Rules of Conduct	formal/structured	orderly/methodical	informal/relaxed
Tools	Word/Spirit sacraments/prayer	economic formula investment of money and time = yield	props/lighting/band
Goal	spiritual maturity complete in Christ	satisfy the customer	attract an audience

Here’s my problem with charts like this. What is the Biblical basis for these statements? Don’t get me wrong, there are several statements that are very true in the categories like people, leadership, purpose, authority, etc., but these too are earthly observations. Where people go wrong in charts like this are in spots like atmosphere. Where in the Bible does it say that worship must always be reverential and serious? I have heard 1 Corinthians 14:20 quoted as a justification. Paul says, “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” The problem with using that verse is that it totally blows away the context of this passage. Paul has just spend the last chapter explaining the use of spiritual gifts in the church. The church in Corinth was apparently engaging in some wild church practices, and Paul was addressing this church. Matter of fact, just a few verses earlier, Paul says, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law says.” Out of the context of this letter, this statement sounds incredible, and we certainly would not use it to muzzle the females in the church. So why should we apply verse 40 broadly to our worship? I would make an equal case from 2 Samuel 6 where David brings the ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. Starting in verse 14, it tells us, “and David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn.” When David’s wife reacts to this outpouring of joy with scorn, David replies, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord - and I will make merry before the Lord. I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes…” So would I use this passage to say that worship must always be unabashedly joyful? Heavens no! Rather I think that these two passages along with passages from the entirety of scripture make available to the worshipper a broad range of reactions and emotions. To say that hymns are the music of God is just as wrong to say that praise choruses are the music of God. I have a feeling that when we are singing before the throne, anything that we could come up with in this fallen world will pale in comparison. My problem with the “worship wars” is that it has caused people to draw up lines saying things like, music must be dignified always, or on the other side, music must be current and relevant. I would say that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to either, but rather avail ourselves of the full spectrum of music that is available to us. We need to let go of our generational prejudices and worship the Lord our God together. All of that being said, I am a realist, and I realize that this is an area where a congregation needs to grow together with time. I think that it is irresponsible to suddenly throw a century of tradition out the window for folks. The bringing together of these generations by necessity must be a process, not an abrupt change. May we grow together in Christ graciously!

"Worship Wars"

I’ve been working on writing a worship philosophy for Grace Baptist Church for a couple of months now.  I think it would be good for the congregation to know where I’m coming from with worship.  In preparing to write this philosophy out, I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs on the subject of worship.  What concerns me so much about the worship discussion is that so often we miss the boat completely.  The first major misconception is that worship is the music that happens on Sunday morning.  Wow, do we as a people miss the point when we think this.  I’m not saying that the music on Sunday morning isn’t worship, it is (otherwise, my job wasn’t very aptly titled).  What we as a church miss is that music on Sunday morning is just a small chunk of worship.  Expanding out, the whole service on Sunday morning should be an act of worship, from the announcements, to the fellowship, to the Word preached faithfully, to the offering, to the music.  Beyond that, all of the Lord’s day should be an act of worship.  We should be worshipping with our very lives!  David Peterson, in Engaging With God, defines worship as “… an engagement with [the living and true God] on the terms that He proposes and in the way that He alone makes possible.” Notice that nowhere does David mention an engagement on Sunday morning.  Harold Best explores this idea of living a life of worship in his book,Unceasing Worship.  In it, he gives a great definition of worship as, “… the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”  What I like about this definition is that it draws to light the idea that we possibly can worship other things in our lives.  What chosen gods have you replaced with the One living and true God.  Jesus tells us in Mark 12:30 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” We will never reach this standard on this side of heaven, but the Lord is constantly transforming us to this goal.  How we can look forward to standing before the throne of heaven, singing “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” Until that day, let us commit to not just praise God on Sunday and ignore Him the rest of the week.