I'll say this again in case you missed it before. The first 7 or so of my posts are going to be posts I did with the Ignite group. I'm sure a lot have you have already read this, but check it again if you like. Also, I forgot to give props in my last post. The definition of worship that I posted comes from a book by Gerrit Gustafson called "The Adventure of Worship". It's got a lot of, let us say interesting, ideas; some of which I agree with and some of which I disagree with. It is a very good book though.
OK. I’m going to be very blunt. I hope you don’t get offended when I tell you this, but I’m not going to apologize. You have to face the music and unfortunately I’m the one that has to break it to you. We’ve all been conned into thinking we are a little better than we really are. Don’t get me wrong, we have power. We have A LOT of power. But we forget where that power comes from sometimes. We get into this attitude that says, “If my circumstances aren’t just right, I’m going to piss and moan about it.” So I’m here to put you in your place with four words.
Dude, you’re a tool.
Yep, I said it. All of you are tools.
It’s ok, though. I’m one too and proud of it. Obviously, I mean a tool like a hammer or saw or something like that. What did you think I meant?
Yes, we are all instruments in God’s gargantuan orchestra that is being played in the biggest arena ever made: the Universe. This is what we have to remember when we don’t feel like worshiping. (Remember, Cain just did it out of obligation too.) We have the greatest gig in all of creation. We are a part of God’s band!
But, I feel a great need to tell you to stop thinking of your instrument (whether it’s a keyboard, guitar, soundboard, sermon, vocal, whatever) as something that makes cool sounds. It’s time to put that thinking behind us. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the first step. The next is to start thinking of your instrument as something that makes prayers. Errrr… What?
Ya, I know it’s weird, but before I lose you let me tell you a secret. God is fluent in the language of music. Not too many people know that. He can understand what we mean when we play even if we don’t understand what we mean when we play. I met a guy once who understood what it meant to pray with your instrument. He would strum a chord, and begin weeping. He came to my church once and played with us. I swear, it was as if the Holy Spirit just flowed from his guitar. That guy was one of God’s instruments in turning a Southern Baptist church into a Pentecostal church. Not literally, but it was awesome. It was the beginning of a worship revival at my church, and I can honestly say that there are probably a total of 0 other Baptist churches to this day that have people run down the aisles to the altar in complete abandon to the Spirit. Did I hear someone say “undignified?” Oh, it was you King David. Yes, you will be more undignified than this, you dancer you. (We will be looking at this story soon. Maybe my favorite worship experience in the Bible.)
I also want you all to get into the frame of mind that when you play your instruments, demons FLEE. I mean, when you play, they are jumping out the windows looking for cover. Our instruments are weapons, double- edged swords as a matter of fact and if you get in our way….well you just can’t get in our way. We have to take back our holy places. Sometimes we allow filth and evil in and do not realize it. Here’s a story about that very thing. It’s recorded in 2 Chronicles 29-30.
Most of you probably know that the history of the Israelites is like a roller coaster ride. They have a great king, then a crappy king, then a crappier king, then an awesome king. Well, one of the crappier kings was a man by the name of Ahaz. He got down in the dumps one day and decided to destroy some of the “articles of the house of God” and he closed God’s temple. He also set up altars to other gods. God wasn’t pleased.
When Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah took over. Hezekiah was an awesome king. “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. Then he brought in the priests and the Levites (That’s us!), and gathered them in the East Square, and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place.” (2 Chron. 29:3-5) Sanctification is a cleansing process and means “to set apart for the purposes of God.” So they did this and then had a party! This is totally cool. Check it.
He took the rulers of the city and some offerings to the temple. “And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals (aww junk), with stringed instruments (uh-oh), and with harps (no he didn’t!)… Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. So all the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed and worshiped…So they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. (2 Chron 29:25-30)
Now I don’t know this for sure, but I bet that song they sang during that offering wasn’t “Beulah Land”. (If you have never attended an old school southern baptist church, you may not know what this song is, but it’s probably the most boring song ever.) How cool would it have been to be a part of that worship team. Those folks took back their temple and worshiped!
Wholeheartedly worshiped.
I’m not saying that the churches that we ourselves attend are in need of sanctification. They may or may not be. The temple of God today is our bodies, so we have to be sanctified in spirit, soul, mind, and body, and this isn’t something that just happens once, but it has to happen daily.
Here is a tough pill to swallow: there are things that God CAN’T do. One such thing is that He cannot coexist with evil. It’s time we use our instruments as weapons as well as instruments of prayers and cleanse our bodies as well as our places of worship.
So I’ll say it again….
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You’re a tool.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Worship
I go to a very unique church. It's a southern Baptist church, and, while many of its members are as red and country as they come, the love and mercy of God has done some incredible things there. What sets this church apart from any Baptist church I've ever been to is the worship. We do not have a "traditional" or "contemporary" service. We just have a worship service. A freedom-to-do-whatever-God-leads worship service. We haven't opened a hymnal in probably 5 years, and guess what.... the Spirit is thick in that place.
I believe one of the reasons it is that way is because God has revealed His freedom in worship. He has done this in several ways, some of which are music, teachers, and history. It's that last part (history) that has really opened my eyes (not to mention my church's eyes) and allowed us to understand the deeper meanings of worship. If you haven't been part of the Ignite study, you will soon see what I mean. However, you have to do something. You have to apply it. Take it and apply it to yourself, to your worship. If you have been part of the Ignite study, bare with me. I will get to new stuff eventually.
I have said this before and I'll mention it again. We are all worship leaders. What I mean by this is that though you may not be the "lead singer" of a song, if you are involved in the worship your part should be carried out as ministering before the Lord. I'm not just talking about the musical instruments. Sound technicians, power point people (or media shout, whatever), preachers, volunteers, as well as the musicians, should all be totally focused on worshiping before the throne of God. Before we can do this we have to understand what it means to worship.
We derive our definition of worship from 2 verses, Romans 12:1 and Mark 12:30. These are the "what" and the "how" of worship. Romans 12:1 tells us what we do: " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." I used this translation for a couple reasons. First, it shows that worship has a sacrificial aspect to it. We may not like to hear it, but worshiping should involve some form of sacrifice. Second, I like the term "reasonable service." In view of the "mercies of God" it is our "reasonable service" to offer ourselves to God. It just makes sense that since Jesus gave his life for us, we should do the same for Him.
Mark 12:30 tells us how we should worship. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." We should worship completely. Wholeheartedly. Without abandon. With everything we have.
Here is the definition. I urge you to memorize it. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. Again. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. The acts are the "what" of worship, while the attitudes are the "how" of worship. Note: you cannot wholeheartedly carry out an act of worship to God without having the proper attitude of worship, or vice versa. This is in the same realm with the verse in James that says that faith without works is dead. I will make another post with a list of some acts and attitudes mentioned in Scripture.
This brings me to a rather eye-opening fact. We, as worship leaders, are priests. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word priest? Unfortunately, today the word priest may be seen in a negative way. However, in the Old Testament, it was the priests, the Levites who ministered before the Lord. This is us. We have accepted the call. When the ram's horn sounded we went with Moses to the presence of the Lord. We cannot take this lightly either. The High Priest of Israel was the only one that could enter the presence of the Lord, the Holy of Holies. When he entered, he wore a breastplate with 12 precious stones representing the tribes of Isreal, as well as names that were written close to his heart. That priest was the representative for all Jews. This is us. We are representing the church, bringing sacrifices to the altar of God, to His throne.
(By the way, another rather scary fact about the High Priest is that when he went into the Holy of Holies, he wore a rope tied around his waist with bells on it. If there was unconfessed sin in his heart, he would die and the other priests had to pull him out. This is a huge responsibility we have.)
When a worship team understands and puts into action these understandings of worship, a congregation will change. When a congregation changes, a community changes, then a city, a county, a state, a region, a nation, a world. We have been blessed enough to live in a time of a worship revival. Not since the days of Bach has the church been looked upon for musical ingenuity. This is beginning to happen today. But if we are not using our instruments as instruments of prayer, offering, sacrifice, then it doesn't matter if we are playing "Holy, holy, holy", it will be no different than that of any secular song out there.
This brings us to a major (and obvious) point: Not all worship is acceptable to God.
I can hear the grumbling masses now. "B-but ... but Vater, how can it be unacceptable if we are singing hymns to God?" For an answer I will point you to Genesis 4:1-8. This is the story of Cain and Abel, which I'm sure you all know. Cain, a successful and religious farmer, and Abel, a successful and religious rancher both bring sacrifices to God. Cain brings fruit of the land, while Abel brings the firstborn of his flock. God accepts Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Cain gets jealous. Cain kills Abel. Not cool.
It turns out that it wasn't what Cain offered that made his sacrifice unacceptable. It was how it was offered. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God. Cain did not understand this. His attitude did not match his act of worship. He was not giving himself wholeheartedly to God, but was making an offering out of obligation. His sacrifice was unacceptable.
Does this sound familiar? Not the story. I know the story sounds familiar. But I know I have been in the spirit of Cain before. Maybe not the killing part, but the heart behind the worship. I know we have all been there. We have to show up too early, or too often and play songs that we have played 9 million times and I'm hungry and oooh look Melissa's here or Josh is here, and what key is this song in again? It's so easy to get distracted, to forget why we are there. Here's a great question that I can't answer, but should be thought over...Why is it so easy to forget who we are supposed to be worshiping? In light of what Jesus did, and what God has done throughout history and throughout our own lives, how on earth can we not stay focused? You know the angels gotta sometimes sit back and go, "Hmph...silly humans..."
Abel on the other hand gave acceptable worship. What made it acceptable? Simple. He just loved God. I see Abel as that guy, or girl, that is way to happy about life. You know that person that's got this light shining from their eyes, always smiling, just in love with the Creator. I love being around those people. They make things fun.
I'm going to leave you all with some examples of acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices. It's amazing to see what God has done when His people wholeheartedly worshipped Him. It's also amazing to see what happens when people do not worship Him wholeheartedly.
Some examples of acceptable sacrifices: Abram's sacrifice (Gen. 15), Moses' sacrifice (Lev. 9), David's sacrifice (2 Sam. 24-25), Elijah's sacrifice (1 Kings 18), Paul's sacrifice (Acts 16:22-32).
Some examples of unacceptable sacrifices: The worship of false gods (the first 2 commandments), the worship of God mixed with the worship of other idols (2 Kings 17:41), the worship of the true God in the wrong way (1 Chron. 13:8, you have to pay attention to this one to see why it was unacceptable), the worship of God in the right way with the wrong attitude (Acts 5:1-11).
I believe one of the reasons it is that way is because God has revealed His freedom in worship. He has done this in several ways, some of which are music, teachers, and history. It's that last part (history) that has really opened my eyes (not to mention my church's eyes) and allowed us to understand the deeper meanings of worship. If you haven't been part of the Ignite study, you will soon see what I mean. However, you have to do something. You have to apply it. Take it and apply it to yourself, to your worship. If you have been part of the Ignite study, bare with me. I will get to new stuff eventually.
I have said this before and I'll mention it again. We are all worship leaders. What I mean by this is that though you may not be the "lead singer" of a song, if you are involved in the worship your part should be carried out as ministering before the Lord. I'm not just talking about the musical instruments. Sound technicians, power point people (or media shout, whatever), preachers, volunteers, as well as the musicians, should all be totally focused on worshiping before the throne of God. Before we can do this we have to understand what it means to worship.
We derive our definition of worship from 2 verses, Romans 12:1 and Mark 12:30. These are the "what" and the "how" of worship. Romans 12:1 tells us what we do: " I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." I used this translation for a couple reasons. First, it shows that worship has a sacrificial aspect to it. We may not like to hear it, but worshiping should involve some form of sacrifice. Second, I like the term "reasonable service." In view of the "mercies of God" it is our "reasonable service" to offer ourselves to God. It just makes sense that since Jesus gave his life for us, we should do the same for Him.
Mark 12:30 tells us how we should worship. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." We should worship completely. Wholeheartedly. Without abandon. With everything we have.
Here is the definition. I urge you to memorize it. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. Again. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God - spirit, soul, mind, and body. The acts are the "what" of worship, while the attitudes are the "how" of worship. Note: you cannot wholeheartedly carry out an act of worship to God without having the proper attitude of worship, or vice versa. This is in the same realm with the verse in James that says that faith without works is dead. I will make another post with a list of some acts and attitudes mentioned in Scripture.
This brings me to a rather eye-opening fact. We, as worship leaders, are priests. What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word priest? Unfortunately, today the word priest may be seen in a negative way. However, in the Old Testament, it was the priests, the Levites who ministered before the Lord. This is us. We have accepted the call. When the ram's horn sounded we went with Moses to the presence of the Lord. We cannot take this lightly either. The High Priest of Israel was the only one that could enter the presence of the Lord, the Holy of Holies. When he entered, he wore a breastplate with 12 precious stones representing the tribes of Isreal, as well as names that were written close to his heart. That priest was the representative for all Jews. This is us. We are representing the church, bringing sacrifices to the altar of God, to His throne.
(By the way, another rather scary fact about the High Priest is that when he went into the Holy of Holies, he wore a rope tied around his waist with bells on it. If there was unconfessed sin in his heart, he would die and the other priests had to pull him out. This is a huge responsibility we have.)
When a worship team understands and puts into action these understandings of worship, a congregation will change. When a congregation changes, a community changes, then a city, a county, a state, a region, a nation, a world. We have been blessed enough to live in a time of a worship revival. Not since the days of Bach has the church been looked upon for musical ingenuity. This is beginning to happen today. But if we are not using our instruments as instruments of prayer, offering, sacrifice, then it doesn't matter if we are playing "Holy, holy, holy", it will be no different than that of any secular song out there.
This brings us to a major (and obvious) point: Not all worship is acceptable to God.
I can hear the grumbling masses now. "B-but ... but Vater, how can it be unacceptable if we are singing hymns to God?" For an answer I will point you to Genesis 4:1-8. This is the story of Cain and Abel, which I'm sure you all know. Cain, a successful and religious farmer, and Abel, a successful and religious rancher both bring sacrifices to God. Cain brings fruit of the land, while Abel brings the firstborn of his flock. God accepts Abel's offering, but not Cain's. Cain gets jealous. Cain kills Abel. Not cool.
It turns out that it wasn't what Cain offered that made his sacrifice unacceptable. It was how it was offered. Worship is the acts and attitudes of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God. Cain did not understand this. His attitude did not match his act of worship. He was not giving himself wholeheartedly to God, but was making an offering out of obligation. His sacrifice was unacceptable.
Does this sound familiar? Not the story. I know the story sounds familiar. But I know I have been in the spirit of Cain before. Maybe not the killing part, but the heart behind the worship. I know we have all been there. We have to show up too early, or too often and play songs that we have played 9 million times and I'm hungry and oooh look Melissa's here or Josh is here, and what key is this song in again? It's so easy to get distracted, to forget why we are there. Here's a great question that I can't answer, but should be thought over...Why is it so easy to forget who we are supposed to be worshiping? In light of what Jesus did, and what God has done throughout history and throughout our own lives, how on earth can we not stay focused? You know the angels gotta sometimes sit back and go, "Hmph...silly humans..."
Abel on the other hand gave acceptable worship. What made it acceptable? Simple. He just loved God. I see Abel as that guy, or girl, that is way to happy about life. You know that person that's got this light shining from their eyes, always smiling, just in love with the Creator. I love being around those people. They make things fun.
I'm going to leave you all with some examples of acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices. It's amazing to see what God has done when His people wholeheartedly worshipped Him. It's also amazing to see what happens when people do not worship Him wholeheartedly.
Some examples of acceptable sacrifices: Abram's sacrifice (Gen. 15), Moses' sacrifice (Lev. 9), David's sacrifice (2 Sam. 24-25), Elijah's sacrifice (1 Kings 18), Paul's sacrifice (Acts 16:22-32).
Some examples of unacceptable sacrifices: The worship of false gods (the first 2 commandments), the worship of God mixed with the worship of other idols (2 Kings 17:41), the worship of the true God in the wrong way (1 Chron. 13:8, you have to pay attention to this one to see why it was unacceptable), the worship of God in the right way with the wrong attitude (Acts 5:1-11).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Wall Writings
I have been a worshiper for, well... my entire life. But I've been a worshiper of Jesus Christ for a little over 11 years. When I first started out on my Walk I understood that Jesus was the Savior; powerful and perfect. However, I also viewed Him as a kind and loving pacifist, forgiving this, and teaching that. A friend of mine calls this the "prom king" view of Jesus: the idea that we fawn over Him like He is the high school quarterback, or some rock star. Please do not think that I am minimizing His kindness, love, forgiveness or His teachings. I am merely trying to point to a trait of Jesus that has been revealed to me in the last few years and is very often overlooked: His awesome terror.
You see, we tend to think only of the traits that we, individually or corporately, see as advantageous. For example, if I commit a sin, I think of Jesus' forgiveness. If I want or need something, I think of His provision. What we have forgotten, or never really learned, is that He is down right scary. This notion was reinforced to me recently by a sermon given by Louie Giglio. He mentioned that when the Bible says to fear God, we have always said that just means to revere Him, to respect Him, but not to be afraid of Him. But there are times that the Bible says "fear", and even times when it doesn't say that, that we should be afraid... be very afraid. One of Louie's examples was during creation, when God opened His mouth and billions of galaxies containing billions of stars flew forth. Yes, I agree. We should be terrified. I like the way C.S. Lewis said it in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." " 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
What does this have to do with "The Wall Writings?" I have taken a very curious passage from the book of Daniel and used it to describe this blog. (By the way, I can't stand the word blog. I might start calling it something else... maybe snot or something else.) In chapter 5 of the book of Daniel, we read the story of the writing on the wall. This is one of those times I would be scared. Maybe not quite as scared as Belshazzar was in the story, but still scared. No doubt you have heard the saying "the writing's on the wall." Yes, it comes from the Bible and it means that danger is imminent. Obviously, if you read this snot (maybe I should come up with something else) you aren't about to get stabbed to death or anything. The danger I speak of isn't necessarily physical. I am only warning you that you may not like anything I say. I am not a traditional person and I am not going to say traditional things, or say things for the sake of tickling ears. It is highly likely that I will say something that really ticks *blank* off. (Yes, I put blank in there on purpose. That is where your name goes, not an expletive.) As a matter of fact, I am challenging you to voice your opinions, especially if you think I'm a nutter. I am not trying extra hard to be controversial. I am trying to be honest.
That said, for those of you who were part of our online worship study, this isn't going to be that different. I am going to post the studies that we have already done (though some things will be added and/or edited) to start out and then continue where we left off in our study of the history of worship. After that, we'll see where the Lord leads. I'll leave you with one of those scary times in the Bible.
2 Samuel 6:2-7
And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines on sistrums, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
You see, we tend to think only of the traits that we, individually or corporately, see as advantageous. For example, if I commit a sin, I think of Jesus' forgiveness. If I want or need something, I think of His provision. What we have forgotten, or never really learned, is that He is down right scary. This notion was reinforced to me recently by a sermon given by Louie Giglio. He mentioned that when the Bible says to fear God, we have always said that just means to revere Him, to respect Him, but not to be afraid of Him. But there are times that the Bible says "fear", and even times when it doesn't say that, that we should be afraid... be very afraid. One of Louie's examples was during creation, when God opened His mouth and billions of galaxies containing billions of stars flew forth. Yes, I agree. We should be terrified. I like the way C.S. Lewis said it in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." " 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
What does this have to do with "The Wall Writings?" I have taken a very curious passage from the book of Daniel and used it to describe this blog. (By the way, I can't stand the word blog. I might start calling it something else... maybe snot or something else.) In chapter 5 of the book of Daniel, we read the story of the writing on the wall. This is one of those times I would be scared. Maybe not quite as scared as Belshazzar was in the story, but still scared. No doubt you have heard the saying "the writing's on the wall." Yes, it comes from the Bible and it means that danger is imminent. Obviously, if you read this snot (maybe I should come up with something else) you aren't about to get stabbed to death or anything. The danger I speak of isn't necessarily physical. I am only warning you that you may not like anything I say. I am not a traditional person and I am not going to say traditional things, or say things for the sake of tickling ears. It is highly likely that I will say something that really ticks *blank* off. (Yes, I put blank in there on purpose. That is where your name goes, not an expletive.) As a matter of fact, I am challenging you to voice your opinions, especially if you think I'm a nutter. I am not trying extra hard to be controversial. I am trying to be honest.
That said, for those of you who were part of our online worship study, this isn't going to be that different. I am going to post the studies that we have already done (though some things will be added and/or edited) to start out and then continue where we left off in our study of the history of worship. After that, we'll see where the Lord leads. I'll leave you with one of those scary times in the Bible.
2 Samuel 6:2-7
And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines on sistrums, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
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