Well, I have just done something that I thought I would never do...That is to say, never do again...I have submitted my name for consideration to my church...We are soon to have a need for a 2nd service (contemporary) worship leader/pastor...
It has been almost 5 years since my last gig/shot at this "worship" leading. But as I look over the last 10 years of my life, especially spiritually, I can see that "worship" is a topic that I have passionately pursued and studied for a decade now...Thanks be to God that I have stopped short of "worshipping worship". The first time I heard the phrase - "worshipping worship" - I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard, now I get it...But...
In my circles and in my life, I can say that I have been a part of, in some form, the "worship" movement that has taken place since 1997 or so...It did not take long, however, before "worship" ceased to be a verb and turned into a noun and almost a proper noun at that...And the moment worship became a noun, it became an idol...And it turns my stomach...
The mistake that has been routinely made is leaders thinking that "worship" can be done the same way everything else is - man-made and manufactured....The problem is that God does not work that way and He never has. The fallacies in our thinking are many but a couple of large ones that cripple our worship and quench the Spirit of God would include:
1). Man is the audience
2). God needs our help
3). God is required to 'show up' at our whim and on our time
4). Worship should be entertaining and friendly
Again these are just a few of the fallacies that have run rough-shod over the church the last, who knows how many years...
Simply put, worship is showing people Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit work from there...We are to make much of Jesus Christ and we are to plead with the Holy Spirit and let Him know that we want Him and need Him in our meetings and services...
May we make much of Christ. May the Holy Spirit allow "worship" to flow freely amongst us. We rebuke man-made performances that are sold to us as true, authentic worship...
Seeking the Light that has been shown in our hearts, revealed to us by the Father in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6).
Soli Deo Gloria
JW
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Thoreau's words apply to us today
The World Net Dictionary defines "desperate" in part as : "showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire."
It was Henry David Thoreau who said: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
I know most folks do not carry Thoreau's works with them to the woods, but I think Thoreau's words are applicable to us as children of God and believers in Jesus Christ. His words help to define for us the type of life we should live in our pursuit of the glory of Christ….
Although Thoreau was an agnostic, he spoke volumes about the struggle and fight that life can be and the resulting mental challenges that are raised from the issues that we battle….
For Thoreau, he believed that most men quietly struggled to sing the song of life that they had been given…The song of life that desperately needs to be sung, but for many, for some reason, is not able to be sung….
For us as believers, there is also a quiet struggle that we fight, not to simply sing our life songs, but to sing the songs that come from an intimate relationship with God…Our stated belief in Jesus Christ should help to free us from all the sin and struggles that hinder us or to quote James 1: Jesus enables us to be free from the sin that so easily entangles…
Folks, we are called by Christ to live desperately…Not as people who are lost, but as men who have been found and are thirsty and hungry for God…We are called to follow hard after God…We are to drink deeply of God….King David can be used as an example of a life that was lived in spiritual desperation for God…
May we be people that are desperate for God alone not because we are hopeless but because we are hopeful….May we live lives that fulfill this call and may we follow hard after God and may he reward our efforts…
Soli Deo Gloria,
JW
It was Henry David Thoreau who said: "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."
I know most folks do not carry Thoreau's works with them to the woods, but I think Thoreau's words are applicable to us as children of God and believers in Jesus Christ. His words help to define for us the type of life we should live in our pursuit of the glory of Christ….
Although Thoreau was an agnostic, he spoke volumes about the struggle and fight that life can be and the resulting mental challenges that are raised from the issues that we battle….
For Thoreau, he believed that most men quietly struggled to sing the song of life that they had been given…The song of life that desperately needs to be sung, but for many, for some reason, is not able to be sung….
For us as believers, there is also a quiet struggle that we fight, not to simply sing our life songs, but to sing the songs that come from an intimate relationship with God…Our stated belief in Jesus Christ should help to free us from all the sin and struggles that hinder us or to quote James 1: Jesus enables us to be free from the sin that so easily entangles…
Folks, we are called by Christ to live desperately…Not as people who are lost, but as men who have been found and are thirsty and hungry for God…We are called to follow hard after God…We are to drink deeply of God….King David can be used as an example of a life that was lived in spiritual desperation for God…
May we be people that are desperate for God alone not because we are hopeless but because we are hopeful….May we live lives that fulfill this call and may we follow hard after God and may he reward our efforts…
Soli Deo Gloria,
JW
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Waiting in a Dependant State
In Gary Thomas' Authentic Faith he makes a statement that is reality shattering for any American Christian...He says "In spite of our obsession with instant results, we serve a God whose calendar moves by millennia not minutes, and who thinks in terms of generations, not seasons. Unless we understand this about God - that he moves in millennia, not minutes - we will never understand his ways."
To illustrate the above point, Thomas notes that it took God 25 years to deliver on His promise to Abraham by providing Isaac…see Genesis 12…Thomas also uses Psalm 130: 5-6 to illustrate that God's blessings do not always come with the speed of a bullet, but rather with the slow, steady approach of a glacier…See also, Lamentations 3:24,26…
Thomas notes that one clear fact remains: God will not be rushed…
However, honestly, "this 'discipline' of waiting on God can be debilitating and suck our souls dry - unless it is marked by hope in God. Waiting, for the believer, is not the futile and desperate act of those who have no other options, but rather a confident trust that eventually God will set things right" - even if he is operating outside of our time frame (Isaiah 40:31)...
It is true that without a willingness to wait on the Lord, we will become "regularly frustrated" with God and we can, as a result, become disillusioned with our faith…Sometimes, we will have to wait until the present becomes the past before we can make sense of what is happening at present….
We must remember that this "discipline" of waiting on God is the single place that belongs to us as children of the Living God...As Andrew Murray pointed out, this place of utter and sole dependence on God is the only place or state in our lives that God has promised to bless and commune with us...
May we seek this place of dependence...May the "waiting" that is required of us so that we grow in maturity and faith be a place of worship not whining...
JW
To illustrate the above point, Thomas notes that it took God 25 years to deliver on His promise to Abraham by providing Isaac…see Genesis 12…Thomas also uses Psalm 130: 5-6 to illustrate that God's blessings do not always come with the speed of a bullet, but rather with the slow, steady approach of a glacier…See also, Lamentations 3:24,26…
Thomas notes that one clear fact remains: God will not be rushed…
However, honestly, "this 'discipline' of waiting on God can be debilitating and suck our souls dry - unless it is marked by hope in God. Waiting, for the believer, is not the futile and desperate act of those who have no other options, but rather a confident trust that eventually God will set things right" - even if he is operating outside of our time frame (Isaiah 40:31)...
It is true that without a willingness to wait on the Lord, we will become "regularly frustrated" with God and we can, as a result, become disillusioned with our faith…Sometimes, we will have to wait until the present becomes the past before we can make sense of what is happening at present….
We must remember that this "discipline" of waiting on God is the single place that belongs to us as children of the Living God...As Andrew Murray pointed out, this place of utter and sole dependence on God is the only place or state in our lives that God has promised to bless and commune with us...
May we seek this place of dependence...May the "waiting" that is required of us so that we grow in maturity and faith be a place of worship not whining...
JW
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
I want some of whatever Tozer was Drinking!!!
It never ceases to amaze me (and honestly make me a tad bit jealous) when I read or hear Christian folk who, by what I am reading or hearing, are or were at such a deeper level with God than I am. So much so that it makes my heart and brain hurt at the same time. Talk about a paradox. It begs comparison of my life to theirs almost without thinking about it.
To many, A.W. Tozer would fall into this category of foregone folks. Although Tozer's last words were spoken in 1963, his words live on and speak almost prophetically to the American church in 2008. I will give one such of his quotes from the "preface" of his "The Pursuit of God", originally "The Divine Conquest"...Again this is from the "preface"...
"Within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself...They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep from the Fountain of Living Water..."
When I read this recently, it knocked me back like a high-n-tight fastball...It spoke deeply to my heart. Why? Because there are many days that go by that I feel a little lonely in this pursuit. Not so much lonely in my relationship with the Lord, but lonely in relation to my fellowships and shared experiences with the brethern. It is hard to find someone who have even heard of guys Tozer, much less talk about what Tozer commented on 60 years ago...Kind of like a lone ranger or Elijah...But Tozer went further.
"...this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders. Current evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Mount Carmel...But God be thanked there are a few who care...They are those who, while they love the altar and sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continues absence of fire. They desire God above all..."
Wow!!! How much time do I spend worried about the forms and external pressures that drive my worship and our worship as a people? Do I notice that there is a lack of fire coming from our sacrifice of praise? Do our "religious leaders" give a rip about feeding this hunger and fanning the flame or are they more worried about numbers and offerings?? I like to think that I desire God above all things. But to desire God above all things means that I have to be concerned about and look for fire in my worship. May we seek the "fire" and may we kick anything that does not help stoke the fire to the curb! SDG. JW
To many, A.W. Tozer would fall into this category of foregone folks. Although Tozer's last words were spoken in 1963, his words live on and speak almost prophetically to the American church in 2008. I will give one such of his quotes from the "preface" of his "The Pursuit of God", originally "The Divine Conquest"...Again this is from the "preface"...
"Within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself...They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep from the Fountain of Living Water..."
When I read this recently, it knocked me back like a high-n-tight fastball...It spoke deeply to my heart. Why? Because there are many days that go by that I feel a little lonely in this pursuit. Not so much lonely in my relationship with the Lord, but lonely in relation to my fellowships and shared experiences with the brethern. It is hard to find someone who have even heard of guys Tozer, much less talk about what Tozer commented on 60 years ago...Kind of like a lone ranger or Elijah...But Tozer went further.
"...this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders. Current evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Mount Carmel...But God be thanked there are a few who care...They are those who, while they love the altar and sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continues absence of fire. They desire God above all..."
Wow!!! How much time do I spend worried about the forms and external pressures that drive my worship and our worship as a people? Do I notice that there is a lack of fire coming from our sacrifice of praise? Do our "religious leaders" give a rip about feeding this hunger and fanning the flame or are they more worried about numbers and offerings?? I like to think that I desire God above all things. But to desire God above all things means that I have to be concerned about and look for fire in my worship. May we seek the "fire" and may we kick anything that does not help stoke the fire to the curb! SDG. JW
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