Fight for you

If you are anything like me you have faced some challenges and really hard decisions in your life these last few years. We made the move back to Michigan for a handful of reasons, but really felt like God was leading us home. We had been living in Nashville for a few years, we loved it. We loved the friends we made, we were involved in a sweet church there. From an outside observer it looked like we were on a normal path.

The reality was money was always real tight, even with my wife and I both working living is expensive. Rent, food, insurance, cars, kids, jeans, coffee... well the coffee was always entirely worth it. All this to say life was always a battle, but i tried to start with my eyes on Jesus. The days i didn't start right, the enemy would feed me lies and distractions like; you will never get ahead financially, you will never get promoted, you will only loose what you have, what are you really doing with your life... you know the lies very well i'm sure. And i fought, every day to keep my head up, to look for my hope, and i found it in Jesus. When you are seeking, you will find, and Jesus loves to be found by us each day. Sometimes we get so used to fighting our battles, we forget that He fights for us.

"Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." -Romans 8:33-34

Let us paint a picture of the battle in the spiritual places. The enemy, Satan condemns, accuses, calls us names, wants God to abandon us. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to kill our hope, wants to steal our joy, wants to destroy our potential for ministry. BUT while Satan attempts to condemn us before God we have the best attorney that ever walked this earth, Jesus. The one who was there when the foundations of the existence was spoke into being. Who was co-author of light, to whom all knees will bow and all tongues confess Him as lord. Yeah, i'm glad he is on my side. I am glad he lived a perfect life and died and was raised from the dead, and he sits at the right hand of God the father.


What does this mean for our worship?
It is easy to think about ourselves, it is easy to spend that one min we have in the morning to try and focus on God. It isn't easy to live our entire day with an attitude of worship, at least not at first. When we are focused on OUR battles we will stay focused on ourselves. We must first remember that He, Jesus fights for us. We don't need to take that on, we need to trust that we have the best and only blameless attorney in Jesus. Once we remember that our response should be worship, always our go-to should be worship. Our worship and our love, our obedience, thats what He wants.
All that time i spent fighting battles, i thought they were my battles, and the world told me they were, that was the cost i had to pay in life. Honestly those things don't matter in the big picture. I was following what God had told me to do, and that obedience had a purpose in retrospect. My family is in a wonderful place now, my marriage is stronger than ever, my kids amaze & challenge me every day. I have more love in my life, and i owe it all to Jesus the one who fights for me. So it is Him i will worship.

This is our battlefield, the stage where we join together and remember who has already won.

Gift of Jukebox

"Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." (Romans 12:6-8 NASB)

It is amazing to serve a God who gives grace. Having just celebrated Christmas and the greatest gift to man in history, Jesus. I am struck with the generousity of  our God. The depth of his love, that is constant toward us. Through that love He pours out gifts, and expects us to play with them. Like a child on Christmas morning, who upon receiving a new gift decides spend his day using the gift to its every possible application of fun. When was the last time we spent a day with God asking Him how we can use our spiritual gifts? 

The beauty of a gift is it's voulentairy, and we can't earn it. All you can do is receive it, and enjoy. I love the picture of a persons attitude that looks at life asking God what they can give. No matter what has happened to them, no matter what the world tells them they lack. 

The world wants us to feel empty, so we can try to fill those holes with what they are selling. We can apply that to ourselves, and wonder why we can't dance, sing, and be as funny as Justin Timberlake. 

The question is not if we have been created equal, which is a perspective of entitlement. Instead, have we prayed to receive our full portion of His grace? 

God is a giving God. He who is seated on the throne in full glory, whose robe is light. He who sent His spirit to dwell in us, He calls us to use the gifts He gives. I like to see Him like a father on Christmas morning helping us open up our gifts, and ask us what we are going to do with them. If we are dedicated to prayer we should be asking Him consistently to play  with us. Gifts are best when shared. 

I remember as a young boy a friend of my dad gave me a classic jukebox. Like any respectable jukebox it came preset on the local oldies radio station. Being young and enjoying oldies, I assumed for some reason that was the only radio station it could play. I mean why would a jukebox play country or hip hop? So for about three years I listened to oldies. Until one day my best friend asked me why I always listen to oldies. Before I could even respond, my friend had flipped down a secret panel and was tuning through the vast space of FM radio. My world was rocked, and my perspective of the gift I had been holding for years was radically changed. 

-=What does this mean for our Worship=-

Do you have a Jukebox? A gift you know God has given you that you kept to yourself. I think it is good for our hearts to share. If we ask God to flip down the panel on our jukebox to open up what He can do with our gifts, I think he answers that prayer. 

I know we can get distracted asking for more, more, more. When what we really need is perspective that what we already have is good. When I think about the family and friends God has blessed me with and the gifts He has grown in me, all I can do is worship Him. In a spirit of thanksgiving I give Him praise, and desire to spend time with Him. 

I pray that God would help you to open up the jukebox of your gifts, and receive your full portion of His grace. 

Make Your Name Great

"Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him... -Genesis 12:1-4A

This is God's promise to Abram, it is a foundation that God used and weaved through the entire bible, it is a pivotal point in the story of the redemption of man.We could look at all these promises for days and see how God fulfills them, how the great nation mentioned becomes Israel. How all the earth is blessed through Jesus who is a descendant of David who is a descendant of Abram. I feel led to focus on the "I will make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing." God places great significance on names, so we should not take them lightly. There is so much depth to names, they can contain who we are, what God thinks of us, and what He plans are to accomplish through us. In a name worship can be placed, or misplaced. A name can make or break hope.

Lets take a step back to gain some context. Before the story of Abram begins in Genesis we are left with the tower of Babel. We all know the story of how they rebelled against God and in their arrogance built a tower attempting to reach heaven. We all remember how God scattered them, how they were humbled and their language was confused. What we tend to overlook are a few vivid details, and names.



They said to one another, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." -Genesis 11:4
See how they reveal their motivation, exalting themselves, "make for ourselves a name." I am convinced that who or what we worship always has a name. They chose themselves, make ourselves a name.
Babel in the time of its construction meant "the place of canals." Canals are man made waterways used for industry and trade. In a time long before trains, this would have been the prime mode of transporting goods. This would explain how they were able to build and transport on a massive scale, but in the pride of their water ways they misplaced their worship. Once God scattered them, Babel was known in the Hebrew to mean "confuse." For it is where God confused man when he tried to build his own name higher than the name above all names. Babel became known as the place of division, and the name reflects what happened there.

Genesis goes from God humbling and confusing man to God blessing Abram and making a promise. The breaking of a name, and the making of a name. A promise of a great name, a name He will give. Abram means, "exalted father," or "the father is exalted." God built his foundational plan on a man who's name meant to exalt the father, not look to himself. Abrams name almost means to worship.

Fast forward to Genesis 17 where God changes Abrams name to Abraham.
Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And i will multiply you exceedingly." Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations."


-=What does this mean for our worship=-
In Matthew Jesus is speaking against the "look at me" style of the Pharisees, and says:
"Who ever exalts himself shall be humbled; and who ever humbles himself shall be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves."
-Matthew 23:12

As worshipers and worship leaders, we need to know at the foundation of our worship is a name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the HOLY TRINITY! In order to be a people who worship, we have to humble ourselves, we have to speak the name of the one true God who is the only one good and deserving of our praise. A name seems so simple, but the power of a people united under one name is great. When that name is the Exalted One, Lord of Lords, He who sits on the throne of grace and the Son who intercedes on our behalf. Because of Christ's sacrifice and victory when exalt Him as Lord, now the Father looks at us and sees the righteousness of Jesus. He no longer sees our sin, He no longer sees the name divided, confused, lost. He sees son, friend, beloved. He names us His own, we belong to Him. Our name should give us strength to walk in confidence, because He exalts us to be with Him. He promises to be our God, and we will be His people.

Let us remember the name of who we worship, that name is Jesus.

The Temple

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locus to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. I will listen to every prayer made in this place." -2 Chronicles 7:12-15

How amazing is it that God hears our EVERY prayer, forgives our sins, and heals our land. This scripture is right after Solomon obeyed God by building the temple. I also love God's mercy, notice he says "when i shut up the heavens so that there is no rain," when. He knows he will at some point He will be withholding rain from Israel. You may ask, why would God withhold rain? This is best answered with another rich scripture.

"I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord. I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither; so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me, declares the Lord." -Amos 4: 6-8

Yet you did not return to me. God is trying to get their attention, Amos is prophesying regarding Israel's disobedience, rejection of God's law, greed, and their abuse of the poor. So God takes away their wealth their comfort, and livelihood to get their attention. Let me clear, God wants our attention not just our belief. He wants to spend time with us and be a part of our lives, as he gives us breath he wants us to talk with Him and listen to Him.

-=What does this mean for our worship=-
Satisfied.
Note that when they wondered from town to town, they were not satisfied. Only God can give living water, and is the only pure and true satisfaction we can gain. Like Jesus talking to the women at the well, we only need to ask and he will give us living water. Seek His face, return to Him constantly. By His grace and mercy He heals our land, listens to our prayers.

These scriptures are from the old testament where the temple was a physical place. We know now that His temple of the Holy Spirit is in our hearts. Substitute that physical temple and God is saying, I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. He chooses us as vessels of the Holy Spirit, and we become a living sacrifice. We are called by His name. Woah. Talk about healing our land.

Designer Goodness

Genesis 1:26-28, 31 NASB
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."

Every time I read Genesis I learn something more about our creator God the designer of our hearts.
I love that He says "Let us create man in our image." This references is also made in John 1 all things were made through Him the holy trinity. God was not alone creating the cosmos, the Father, Spirit and Son were in agreement creating all of existence.

I love how He pauses and says everything is good after he creates it. I imagine a master craftsman impressing himself and enjoying his handwork. Kicking back and enjoying what he has just done. When God rests on the 7th day it is not because he was tired, or needed a break from all that hard work. Scholars maintain that "rest" in the Hebrew is closer to the meaning of the word enjoy. On the 7th day God enjoyed his creation. (There is a great book called Sabbath by Dan Allender, if you are interested.)

Now sitting in His presence where He enjoys us I can't help but think about how He created us in His image and called us good. God calling us good has more to do with who He is than what we are. We tend to think we have been good or bad, but the bible says there is only one who is good. The Designer. Now Jesus died and saved us from sin so now the Father sees the Son's righteousness instead of our sin, and we are covered by His sacrifice. Yet again it is about who He is, not what we are.

I am beginning to understand creation more when I realize design is about the designer, not the designed.

-=What does this mean for our worship?=-
We worship God for who He is. We should worship Him, worship as designed, in accordance to His will, with His Spirit, in His presence, made possible through His sacrifice.

Surrender our idols and sacrifice only to Him, for Him. Jesus' life was an example of worship for us to follow. God who designed the worshiper shows us how to worship, to seek him in spirit and in truth.

I surrender my preferences and styles of worship to His will, Lord teach me how to worship. Show me your design.

Holding Nothing Back

What does this mean for our worship?

We were dead, and because He died and conquered death we now have life. Life to the full, more abundantly. What do we do with this new life, now that we are free? How could we use this time for anything other than thanking the one who gave it to us? Worship can be a thanks to God, for all that he has done for us, before we were even born. 

Yet i will Rejoice!

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."
-Habakkuk 3:17-19

I will have days when it seems like God isn't near to me, or i am not near to Him. On those days or hours, minuets, seconds what attitude should i take? It is easy to pout, or be grumpy and say things like, "Lord why?" or, "I just don't feel like praising you right now, I'm not in the mood."

The word of God says something should be different in the heart of a worshiper. The example of worshipers in the old and new testament are like Habakkuk, Job, Paul... the list goes on. They worship God regardless of the day, what has happened to them, how they feel, or what He wants them to do. (Jonah isn't in this group, his fish might be)

What does this mean for our worship?
God is to be worshiped always, regardless of our mood, our state of heart, our worldview, our distractions, our sin. Simply because He is God. Worship is taking joy in God, delighting in Him, and giving everything to Him no matter the times. This is a state of worship, to be giving to God.
We tend to talk about "corporate worship" as "worship," when we sing and pray together, and that is when God moves in us together. I cherish those times, but maybe God is calling you to one-on-one worship. To grow your heart, and shape it like his, into an obedient joy.

I think that complaining is the enemy of giving praise. Pray against the spirit of complaining.