February 14, 2012

“I Will Be Found by You”

“This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:10-13 

Promises…giving your word…trusting. I gotta be honest, these are some of the hardest issues facing the human race today. Why? Because it’s hard. And we as Americans don’t like to do things the hard way. We’ve fallen so hard into this realm where we look for the quickest way out, the instant answer, the perfect escape if you will. I suppose we should add patience to the list, but let’s stick with these three.  

As we continue our walk through lament worship, I wanted to find a hopeful verse in one of our people we’ll talk about in the book, A Sacred Sorrow. And as God always does, He handed me Jeremiah. I wanted this verse (verse 11 specifically), and hoped I could make the connection myself. Now I don’t have to.  

But specifically today, I want to look at the promises God not only offers, but keeps in these verses. Let’s look at verse 10 first: God promises to bring His people back to Jerusalem. How awesome is that? God took them into exile in Babylon, and all they have to do is wait for 70 years and he’ll take them back to their land. Sweet! Yea…could you have waited that long? In a foreign place, away from all you’re familiar with, trusting that God knows exactly what He’s doing? Ouch, that’s a tough one, even for God’s chosen people. Anyone else makes that promise, and I’m tellin’ you, I’m not sticking around that long to make sure they do it. But that’s the joy of our God: He will fulfill His promises…just not in our time.  

Second, the verse I came searching for: verse 11. We use this verse a lot, perhaps too much in some instances, but again, if we’re looking for a verse of hope, here it is. How comforting to know that the God of the Universe, who created all things, who makes sure the Sun comes up in the morning and that we have enough oxygen in the air at all times, still remembers the plan He has for each and every one of us. That’s a whole lot of plans! And they’re good plans – “…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”  If you’re like me, the future scares you sometimes…ok, more than sometimes. And though I’ll never show it, even knowing this verse by heart, I still worry. Why? Because the future is a scary place…completely unknown…and we HATE that as Americans, heck, as humans. But what keeps me from totally freaking out is knowing He’s got it handled for me. It doesn’t mean I don’t worry or I don’t try to make my own plans sometimes, not in the least. But it does create a sense of peace, enough I can keep moving.  

And the last promise, a neat one: from verses 13 and 14. “You will seek and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you.”  Feel that peace come over you? It gave me chills. Why in the world would the Almighty God, Creator and Ruler over all, always be available, to even the lowliest among us? Think of the Kings of yesteryear: not just anyone could run into his chambers or approach his throne. There were many rooms to go through, a ton of guards to slip past, and even then, he may not accept you. But our God promises just the opposite: no hoops to jump through, no tasks to complete, and no rejection. All we have to do is search with our whole heart, something we should be doing anyways, and He promises we’ll find Him.  

There’s an amazing song by the Desperation Band called “Refuse to Be Denied” that they released a few years back. If you know me well enough, you know I’m an insane music critic – some records, even my very favorites, take 3 or 4 listens before I even like 1 song. I expect a lot, and I have to be swayed a lot of the time. But this song was different…it caught me right away. It was in my old apartment in First Street. Kyle had brought over their DVD to watch while we hung out and to be honest, I wasn’t impressed through the first listen. Until this song. Now that I know what it’s truly about I understand why it stopped me in my tracks…if I remember right, I stopped in mid conversation. The chorus is beyond simple: “I’m coming after You, I’m coming after You, I’m coming after You.”  That’s it. It’s set up at the end of each verse with the title of the song, and while at the time it didn’t register 100%, I knew this was special. Before Kyle even left, I was on iTunes buying this track. I had to have it, it had to be on my iPod to listen to all day long. It was the type of song I longed for, that said exactly what my heart always knew but couldn’t articulate. I feel like running after God almost every second of every day, because this world tears me down so much, and I need His presence all the time. “I refuse to be denied…” It’s all I’d think about, all I’d want. And because my heart led the way, I found Him, every time. Because I searched for His presence in love and in my brokenness, to further our relationship and dig deeper, I found Him. He never said, “Well, if you seek me at 9:00pm every Tuesday night, you will find Me.” He never said, “Once your life gets turned around and you have it all together, then you will find Me.” Nope, all He wants is our hearts, all He wants is that relationship with us and for us to offer every ounce of our being and our trust to Him. Yes, He’s the God who knows all things, even before they happen. But what brings Him joy is that we’ve grown to the place in our relationship where we WANT to share all of it with Him. No longer is there a part of us that we hide from God, knowing in the back of our minds He knows anyway. But we’re truly open, 100% committed, and ready to be changed.  

Bottom line for today: God’s promises are real, and you can always trust He’ll come through. Continue to seek Him, because you WILL find Him. Refuse to let go when things get hard – do everything you can to find that place. Sure, it’s gonna be hard…you may get very discouraged in the journey. But it’s all worth it…  

“I will be found by You.”

~Brian

Sources: Jeremiah 29:13 picture is 2005 copyright Heartlight, Inc.

February 10, 2012 

He Has Overcome 

~As we study through lament worship, here’s a song to encourage you

Take Heart – Hillsong United (from their album Aftermath)

Verse 1:
“There is a light, it burns brighter than the sun; He steals the night
And casts no shadow
There is hope, should oceans rise and mountains fall; He never fails”

Chorus:
“So take heart, let His love lead us through the night
Hold on to hope, and take courage again”

Verse 2:
“In death by love, the fallen world was overcome
He wears the scars of our freedom
In His Name, all our fears are swept away
He never fails”

Bridge:
“All our troubles, and all our tears
God our hope, He has overcome
All our failure, and all our fear
God our love, He has overcome
All our heartache, and all our pain
God our healer, He has overcome
All our burdens, and all our shame
God our freedom, He has overcome”  

Bridge 2: 

“All our troubles, and all our tears
God our hope, He has overcome
All our failures, and all our fear
God our love, He has overcome
God our justice, God our grace
God our freedom, He has overcome
God our refuge, God our strength
God is with us, He has overcome”  

As I continue to walk through lament worship, I’ve been diving through music trying to find perfect examples of artists who wrote songs in this vein. I have some great songs lined up that deal with being on the other side of lamenting – from the perspective of those who have walked the road with Christ, and came out worshiping on the other side. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. 

I know that this is a scary notion, to fully offer every ounce of your innermost being to God, and let him see even the messy stuff. You feel like you can’t be good enough for the God of the universe to love, that you’d be wasting His time by coming to Him with your problems, your fears, your scars. Or maybe you’re in a lower valley…where you’ve lost faith that God can even fix you. Let me say first: this is absolutely normal. We’re humans and in our nature, we can’t comprehend how God works. So we generalize, and we take our issues to the extremes. Again, please don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with you, like you’re a freak or something. Everyone goes through these times…everyone.  

Below I have a video, from Joel Houston, the songwriter and head worship leader of Hillsong United. He wrote this song after the financial struggles that have plagued our world, in response so that he could hopefully encourage those back to trusting Christ. He pulled his lyrics from John 16:33, which says:  

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” ~NLT  

What I love so much about this verse is how honest Christ is with us. When we come to Him, He never promises life will be perfect – never once has He ever promised we won’t still struggle, that we won’t go through heartache. But what He does promise is that He’ll always be with us, always comforting us, always wrapping His arms around us. I love what the chorus of “Take Heart” proclaims:  

“So take heart, let His love lead us through the night; Hold on to hope, and take courage again”  

That’s what Christ promises. He’ll restore your hope, your courage, and get you back on your feet. And what are we holding on to? That our God has overcome! No matter the situation, no matter how far we’ve walked away, or how deep the cut, He has already overcome the world, and we can stand on the fact that our God rules all, and is offering that victory to us as well.  

I know this is a hard first step, getting over your fears and opening up your whole life. I can never promise it will be easy; neither does our God. But always hold on to the fact that our God has overcome, He continues to battle Satan for you, and that in the end, He ALWAYS wins!  

~Brian

September 13, 2011

Pure Worship Motivated by Love  

http://gatewayworship.com/content/pure-worship-motivated-love-kari-jobe
 
Based off Pure Worship Motivated By Love by Kari Jobe 
 
No strings attached…Really??? Is that possible??? It’s hard to fathom, but it’s so true. It reminds me of Pinocchio, a puppet who can function without strings. Everyone who came to see his show was so amazed, because never before had they seen a puppet with no strings. But there he was, right before their eyes, singing, talking, and dancing without a puppeteer. 
 
It’s how we sometimes view God’s love too, isn’t it? Could the God of the universe, who created all things, with the power and might of all things…is it even possible that He loves me just for me? What do we find ourselves asking? Ok, what’s the catch? Oh I know, we have to earn His love, by doing all He says and giving everything of ourselves to Him. See I knew it wasn’t that easy. Sound familiar? It does to me too.
 
I think the issue here is our concept of purity of His love. Yep, another example of God blowing our limited human minds. As Kari Jobe says in her above article, we as humans look at love in what we can get from people, or what we have to do to get their love. It’s limited, because we’ve been taught that way. Want the girl or guy of your dreams to love you? Find of what impresses them the most, and do that. Want your best friend to continue being the rock you lean on? Better keep them happy. And in reference to God’s love, we go through our day making sure we sin less, to pick the right songs in worship, to pick the perfect verses and passages to read, and to make sure we’re helping people around us at every point…because THEN God will love us. How messed are we really?
 
I put then in all capitals because that’s where our biggest problem is. It’s the “If-then” disease. And I really should say “ONLY If-then”…isn’t that us? It’s because our love is conditional. But the joy we have in the Gospel is that God’s love isn’t conditional. His love is pure, meaning it’s unstained, undilluted, and unchanging. Listen, we can’t buy His love, but we still try, don’t we? I think it’s the guilt in our human nature, and it’s the way we’ve been taught. But we have to break through this…this is God we’re talking about…how could we ever compare His love to ours in the first place?
 
Two things I think we have to do:
1) We have to stop treating His love like we have to earn it. The joy of who we are in Christ is that it’s a gift, free of charge. God doesn’t give us a laundry list of things to do before He gives it. He gives it freely. And the best part is we don’t have to be something we’re not to accept it. God never tell us “Well, when you have this figured out and your life back in order, then come back”. Nope, He tells us to come as we are, exactly how we are, and He’ll take care of it. That’s God’s love.

2) We have to stop treating what we offer to Him like He’ll revoke that love. I run into this constantly as a worship leader. When I prepare to lead, I meet with a team now, because I got into the terrible habit of simply picking the best songs. Why? Because in the back of my mind, if I chose the best songs, if we played them flawlessly, maybe God would smile a little more, and I’d feel like I did my part for the day. How stupid have I been, right? Instead, now we as a team look at the scope of it all, the big picture, and we pick songs based on what we want to express, what we want to offer our God, and we try to make our choices as authentic as possible. And now that we’ve done that, our worship has soared. Why? Because we’re giving God our PURE love now. Instead of doing what we hope will earn His love, we’re choosing to offer what our hearts honestly desire to say, and we stand knowing He accepts it just as it is. 
 
So let’s try that this week: Let’s love God purely, with no strings attached and with no ulterior motives. I can’t tell you how it’ll change your life, and your relationship with our Father. 

~Brian 

September 8, 2011

Being Authentic

Paul Baloche is a modern worship leader, one of the most popular of our day. In this article (http://www.praisecharts.com/missing-a-beat/), he was looking into what it takes for the new generation of worshippers to feel involved, and to create that longing to want to come back, no, to need to come back. So he interviewed and talked with specifically twentysomethings….and you know what he found? They want LESS gimmick…
 
I fall into this trap all the time leading worship for kids. I look for what the next big thing is – what can we do as a worship band to bring them in, to get them excited, to make them want to come back? We’ve changed styles, gone to a more fun musical stance. We’ve added higher quality equipment, heck, we’ve even gotten stage lighting. But at the end of the day, I have a feeling if I were to ask them what they want, them being 1-6th graders, they’d say the same thing: We want authentic, we want real, and we want to feel involved. 
 
Isn’t that what we’re all looking for? We don’t want the taught at, we don’t want to be led at…we want to be part of it all. It’s why I really love one of the new aspects of our worship on Sundays. We’ve taken a specific time in our worship for our 4-6th graders, to go a little deeper, and prepare them as they get ready to move up into Student Ministry. And as I talked with Ken Ekers about it, one thing grew out of that conversation I hadn’t planned for: Building our relationship with the kids. Now, we’ve only just started this new format just this past Sunday, but I can already see it working. In our time with them, we do one song with them, deeper in subject, but before we sing, I do a small devo with it – who wrote it, what they were feeling and wanted to say, and how it applies to us. I got to come off the stage and hang out in front with them…and all those eyes were locked in attention. Was it because my message was so engaging? I’m sure not. I’d put my money on the fact that we were creating a new relationship with each other, that we were no longer separated in stage vs. congregation, but we were simply having a conversation, and growing together.
 
I hope you enjoy this article and it challenges you as it has me. Again, I know it’s directly about worship, but you can apply it anywhere in your walk. Be genuine, be honest, and be authentic with people – that’s what they’re looking for. Our history hasn’t been great in this area, especially big name Christians in the media. They’re looking for something new, and all we have to do is be that Christ-like example we’ve always been called to be. Pass it along to anyone and everyone; it’s a great message to start a day with :)

~Brian
 

August 29, 2011

Love the Sinner  

It’s not a new concept, but it is one we don’t always follow: “Love the sinner”. Now I can hear your questions already, and that’s why I wanted to cover this. Yes, it’s a tough issue to figure out. Yes, it’s HARD. But it’s necessary, and we’re commanded to do it, so we better get on it. 

First, let me say this clearly: I am in no way saying that we should overlook or accept sin. EVER. Sin is the reason we’re separated from God, and as Christians, we must strive to keep ourselves in check. But we also have to remember what our goal in this earth is: We’re here to spread His Word, and plant seeds to let God work in as many lives as possible. The only way to do that, of course, is to seek out those who don’t know Him yet, those who continue to struggle in their own mess they’ve gotten themselves in. Let’s dig in deeper; check this story out…

“Later, Matthew invited Jesus and His disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors, and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do”. Then He added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” 

Matthew 9:10-13 (NLT) 

There’s two key phrases in there; let’s start with the first retort Jesus makes: “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.” Seems simple, right? But don’t we act just the opposite when we’re going about our day? We make those quick judgments of everyone we come in contact with, and avoid those we don’t like, right? This is a big issue in our world today, and we’ve gotta get out there and start touching everyone. Let’s use the analogy Jesus used to help us: Healthy people don’t go to the doctor. Sure, we do every once in a while to get checked out to prevent big things from happening, but we never wake up in the morning, feeling great, and say to ourselves “I need to go to the doctor today; I feel great!” That’s counterproductive, and just plain silly. It’s why Jesus used this analogy – the “sick” are the sinners, and our loving Father is the doctor. Should we seek out those who are already saved? Or should we be looking for the lost, the broken, the “sick”? Tell yourself this every morning when you wake up: The saved sinner doesn’t need the Good News – the lost sinner does. 

As you probably noticed, I didn’t use the terms “saved” and “lost” by themselves. It’s because of the second phrase we need to dive into: “For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Again, this ties in with our first idea: God didn’t send Jesus to earth so He could save people who are perfect. First off, no one’s perfect, and no one deserves anything but the punishment that comes with sin. Derek Webb, during his live CD “The House Show” made an incredible point: “What’s the point of a Savior, and loving and following a Savior, if no one needs saved? If you haven’t grasped the idea that you are truly sinful and need saved, then why would you ever believe in the need for a Savior?” (paraphrased) This is exactly where the Pharisees and Teachers failed in the Bible: they thought because they memorized scripture and knew the law that they were superior, that they were righteous in God’s eyes, and everyone else, as the verse says above, were “scum”. Chew on this verse, from Romans 3:10 (NLT): 

“As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is righteous – not even one.’”  

We gotta keep our mindset clear, and our intentions pure. We must continue to remind ourselves that we’re sinful. Sure, it’s no fun, but on the other side of knowing you’re sinful is knowing you’re saved. And once we celebrate in the fact we have a Savior, we’ll want to tell everyone, right? And because we have a Savior, we recognize we’re still sinful, so no one gets left out. We have to reach out, get out of our comfort zones, our metaphoric “boats”, and truly reach the lost. Love as Jesus loved, love as He loves us still, and if you truly do, with all your being, you can truly love the sinner.

~Brian

July 14, 2011

What’s the Point?

I’m listening to the Abundant Life Church Podcast from England, from their recent convention, Stronger. And their first interview was with their media leader, and he and his team have a very interesting way of looking at all their projects, and I think it fits into all our lives in ministry:

So what’s the point?

He gave this example: When he’s created a new video, or a new lighting set up, etc., his team will always ask themselves this question before they put anything into action. Sure, it looks amazing, yes it’s true that it’ll awe people…but is it fulfilling our main job – and that’s giving everything to our God and making sure He’s our center. If not, no matter how awesome it is, it’s gotta be changed…

And that focus must bleed to all ascpets of our body, and in each and every ministry. For me as a worship leader, that means that when I create a set list, when I put songs together, in preparation for Sunday morning, I have to look at all those aspects and ask “What’s the point?” Here’s the sad part for me, my answer isn’t always “I think this glorifys God the most.” A lot of times the answer is “This is what the kids will like most” or “This is my personal favorite grouping of songs” or even “This will sound the best together.” And that’s where the fine line of performing vs. leading worship rears its ugly head, coupled with Wants vs. Needs. It’s also the place I feel God has allowed me to grow the most over the past 6 years, and where I hope we can build upon for years to come.

So what’s your point? What is God calling you to do for Him? And are you doing it for His purpose and not yours? The Holy Spirit is an amazing teacher…listen for it today, and as you plan for your ministries…and the point will become quite clear :)

~Brian