“Too many Christians use prayer as an excuse for inactivity.”Â
I Have Fallen In Love.
I just love this book. Lately it’s words have really been more vibrant to me than usual. The Bible really is “God-Breathed” (2 Tim 3:16). Think about what that means – “God-breathed.” Adam was just a pile of dirt until God breathed into him. The Bible would be a just a bunch of words – but God breathed into it.
Prostitutes, Paths, and The Holy Spirit.
The imagery of a wedding to express the intimate relationship between God and his people is found all throughout the Bible (Rev. 19:7, Isa. 54:5-7, and Hos. 2:19). I’d like to show you one passage in particular. This is Matthew 22:1-14.
In the Bible’s imagery, God is the groom and the Church (Christians) is the bride. This husband and wife relationship should not be seen as feminine personification, but as a great description of the intimacy God wants with His church (past, present, and future).
If we truly want the Holy Spirit to move in today’s church we need to start living like it. God wants to marry a beautiful bride — not a whore! If this offends you, I’m glad — that’s kind of the point. It should offend. We say, “Holy Spirit come here and do amazing things among us” yet we don’t change our lives — we don’t clean up. God will come with great power when we have prepared for Him something better than a slutty prostitute.
God’s wants to move in our midsts. I believe God wants to blow our socks off. But we are not preparing the way for His presence.
Let’s prepare the way! Let’s put on our “wedding clothes.”
Unity on a Worship Team.
I was reading in Matthew tonight, and there’s one passage that totally jumped out to me. Check out these red letters, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). When I read this I immediately thought of the “gift at the altar” in the context of a worship team. Most of my blog posts are general and apply to everyone, but please allow me to speak directly to members of a worship team:
When we’re leading worship – we’re not only bringing our gift to the altar like its mentioned in this passage — its our job to help others do the same thing. How much more important, then, is it for the worship team to be in harmony before any rehearsing or “stage time.” IT’S VITAL. A worship team must be in harmony to remain a biblical worship team!
I’m blessed to be serving in an awesome church where the worship teams are nearly always in unity. But I’ve heard way too many stories of churches where this is not the case; worship team members build up anger against each other. In one extreme case, I heard about a guitar player who walked off the stage during a Sunday Morning worship set and announced to the entire congregation, “I’m not playing if HE’S going to be singing in the microphone!” Unfortunately this type of event is not a rare occurance in many churches. Praise God nothing that severe has ever happened at New Hope!
If you are mad at someone on your worship team, go fix the problem before any rehearsing. Talk to them or grab a pastor to help you — do whatever it takes, but do not try to lead worship with someone you’re mad at — it’s unbiblical and that negative spirit can drag the entire worship team down. It would be better for you to take a break from being on the worship team that week (of course that’s only if reconciliation in your heart is not possible).
Relevant.
This past weekend was a great service at New Hope. We were very blessed to have singer Jeoffrey Benward (of Aaron*Jeoffrey) ministering with us. He had come up for a special appreciation dinner of Gilbert Dilley, an older gentleman who served years as a pastor and evangelist. (Gilbert Dilley had a profound impact on many young people in the 70s during the Jesus Movement. He led many people towards the baptism in the Holy Spirit during late night prayer meetings in his house – among the group were both of my parents and Jeoff. We owe a great deal of gratitude to people such as Gilbert Dilley who influenced the lives of the people who are influencing us! Seeing the legacy that Gilbert Dilley has already left made me think – what kind of legacy am I leaving? Will the people who I am influencing influence others? I can only pray and trust God that my influence will be lasting.)
During the special time of appreciating Gilbert, Jeoffrey was saying a few words. I had never seen the prophet side of Jeoffrey Benward – but it was definitely there. He was speaking to Gilbert directly when he said words we should never forget, “You will never loose your relevancy when you are working with the Spirit.”
How true is this! The push among many young Christian leaders today is to remain “relevant.” Many of them say that to be relevant you must use proper technology, use special words to develop branding, advertise a certain way, and wear blue jeans on the stage. I’m not speaking against these things — but being “relevant” without working in the Spirit of God is wrong. We can never loose our relevancy when we are being led by the Spirit of God.
My fear (and what I have observed) is that while young Christians have a desire to remain “relevant” — they listen to U2, but they’ve stopped listening to God. U2 doesn’t bring relevance to your ministry (although their sound is really tight!) – the Spirit of God has stood the test of relevancy. That’s relevant.
Don’t Be Such a Sissy.
I think Christians are a bunch of sissies. There are a few of us who fight against sin and spiritual darkness — but I’m under the impression that most Christians just feel bad about their habitual sin, they feel bad about those around them heading towards an eternity in hell, they feel bad that the United States is already viewed as a “post-religious” nation — but they don’t do anything about it.
That’s not the attitude that this scripture shows us. That passage talks about “taking a stand” against spiritual darkness (and it provides a battle plan to do so). James tells us in the Bible that faith without works is dead faith. That doesn’t sound to me like a Christian can afford to be a sissy. Christianity is not for wimps, yet too many Christians are sissies because they think its all about “being nice.” Let me tell you about a fighter.
I know one Christian teenager who was overcome by temptation and used his computer to access a pornographic website. He sinned. And he knew it. Most Christians would just feel bad but not do anything about it. Not this guy. He decided that he would not be sucked into such spiritual bondage. That same day, he un-installed the internet from his computer. Now he can only access anything on the internet through his parents’ computer (in a public room). Furthermore, the privacy in his own bedroom led to his struggle, so he got a screwdriver, and literally took his bedroom door off his hinges. His door is now sitting in his garage. He cannot even change his clothes in private. All because he didn’t want to sin.
This same Christian teenager realized he had become too lazy. So he fasted — from his bed. For 7 days straight he slept on his floor, rejecting the comfort of a bed. All because he wanted to be vigilant for God.
I’m not suggesting we all do these things. But I wanted to show us all that Christianity is not for sissies. We need to pick up our weapons and fight!
Aslan is on the Move!
I took a walk yesterday and my dog came with me as usual. I live on a dirt road with very little traffic so I wasn’t concerned with a leash or anything. I was surprised to see my two cats come on the walk though. They just followed me everywhere I went a few feet behind mine. Sometimes they stopped to smell something, and then they had to work extra hard to catch up. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to them because I was on the move, but they were constantly following me. Were they expecting something? I don’t really think so. They followed after me because I was the Master and they didn’t want to miss what I was doing.
“Aslan is on the move!” This popular line comes from C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This fictional story is an allegory of the true story of our salvation through Jesus, represented in the story by Aslan the lion. In the story, the main characters are told that Aslan had been away for a long time, but he was coming again very shortly. Then came the noted phrase, “Aslan is on the move!”
I got some news, guys. “Aslan” is on the move again.
God is on the move!
Do you really believe that? Are you following Him as intensely as my cats followed me, simply because they didn’t want to miss something that their Master was going to do? If Jesus Christ were just outside your front door right now, would you pursue Him with the same intensity that you are pursuing Him right now?
Faith.
I was at a prayer meeting recently and when we were praying for specific requests, someone asked God to reveal His will beyond a shadow of a doubt. We prayed for this person, but not until someone spoke up:
“For faith to exist, there must be a degree of uncertainty.”
Consumerism.
Consumerism is a part of our society, and boy is it great! I love being able to walk into a store and buy shampoo that smells good. I enjoy the convenience of purchasing nearly all day-to-day items in a “Super-store” all-in-one format. I enjoy being able to walk into a burger joint, grab a Big Mac, and leave. I come in, I eat, I leave. The companies produce a product for me, the consumer. Many times I have a wide variety of types of product to choose from — which makes the “market” competitive. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. This becomes a negative issue; however, when we apply this same concept to the church or worse yet – a Christian life.
To the Generalized American Church:
Stop treating the church like a burger joint. So many of you walk in, eat, and leave. Church is about community. Find your gift — the thing that God has “wired” you for — and use that thing for the Kingdom of God. In the end you’ll be “pumped up” for serving in your area of gifting. Don’t just eat and leave. That is disrespectful to the Word of God. Let your faith be living faith; faith without works is dead.
To Church Leaders:
Remember we only have one person to please – and that’s God. Don’t be swayed by the consumerism mindset of the generalized American Church. The weekend service is not a product.
American Gladiators.
I feel old. I saw American Gladiators on ESPN Classic. ESPN CLASSIC! ESPN Classic is for old sports shows, like Superbowl I or a basketball game in 1968. ESPN Classic isn’t supposed to show sports shows that I can actually remember. Oh well, this was bound to happen sooner or later.
I used to watch American Gladiators all the time when I was little. Nitro was my favorite. There was also Gemini, Storm, Ice, Lace, Turbo, and Viper. In the show, these American Gladiators dressed in spandex and competed against challengers in different events.
On the show, my favorite event was “The Assault.” In this event, the Gladiator was positioned high up on the end of a playing field with a tennis ball canon. The challenger had stations, the first was far away from the Gladiator, and the following stations were positioned closer and closer to the front where the Gladiator was shooting at them with the canon. At each station, the challenger had one opportunity to shoot a target near the Gladiator. If the Gladiator shot the challenger with a tennis ball — he won. If the challenger shot the Gladiator’s “target,” then the challenger won. It was a great event of strategy and suspense.
I’ll never forget this time my parents were in a meeting at our old church building. I was probably 8 years old. My brother would have been about 14 or 15. Our parents were in a meeting, so we set up an “assault court” in one of the classrooms. On one end of the room Nathan climbed on top of a high stack of chairs with a Nerf gun. We set up “stations” of chairs around the room. I started on the opposite side of the room and ran from station to station of chairs while my brother tried to shoot me with the Nerf gun. I remember diving, rolling, and sliding behind chairs. That was so exciting.
We got in trouble — but it was totally worth it.