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We should . . . recapture the conviction of the early church that the corporate action of worship is a rehearsal of God’s plan of redemption. Worship sets forth the gospel. It proclaims the entire faith of the church.

Robert Webber, Common Roots: The Original Call to an Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 127.

 

Re-tuning my heart

When my guitar is out of tune, it sounds terrible.  But when you turn the tuning knob, especially on the high E string, and it hits the perfect pitch there is a shine to the sound.  It’s as if all is suddenly right with the world.  To use that analogy, when my heart is out of tune the world is dark.  But when I re-tune my heart to sing God’s praise, there is a ring to it.  And suddenly, the world has more clarity.  Everything might not be right…yet, but things come into focus and my heart sings true.

I’ve been ruminating on this idea for the last month or more as I read through the psalms and we study the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  The people of God saw some of the most amazing miracles in the history of the world and yet complained when they were hungry, thirsty and afraid of dying.  Am I any different?  Unfortunately, most of the time I’m not.  I tend to wander from the Lord.  I feel it.  I wander.  And even as I write these words, the hymn plays again in my memory.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”.

It’s true.  I do.  So for today, I’m again going to re-tune my heart to sing His praise through a rewrite of the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  It’s a daily decision made in the power of God…I will praise Him!  This rewrite is as much for me as it is for you, but I hope and trust it will help you re-tune your heart too.

1.  Jesus, come and shower blessing.

Re-tune my heart to sing your grace.

Streams of mercy overwhelm me

And demand unending praise.

Teach me some heavenly song,

Sung by angels around your throne.

“Praise the Lamb!” I praise His name,

The only God, who took my shame.

2.  I’ve made it to this point in life,

But life has cut me to the bone,

And I hope, if it is your will,

To safely make it home.

Jesus, you came and found me

When I was running still.

You take my orphaned life,

And with your Holy Spirit, fill.

3.  Jesus, your grace I can’t repay,

So, Lord, please remind me

Of your goodness here today

And with your love now bind me.

I tend to wander away.

(Lord, I know it’s true.)

I tend to wander away.

Here’s my heart, Lord, keep it near,

Til you come, keep me safe from fear.

New Song: 10,000 Reasons

As the Israelites spend their time complaining in the desert, we are reminding ourselves to be thankful and praise our God.  Last week we learned Matt Redmen’s song, 10,000 Reasons.  It’s simple, but draws directly from one of my favorite psalms…Psalm 103.  Yes, it is a simple song, but it has a difficult and powerful message.  It’s difficult because we are so influenced by our circumstances and powerful in that God saves us from everything and calls us to worship which is our purpose.  Praise God no matter the time of day or what is happening in your life or even if you are facing death itself…praise God!  So, in true Worship360 style, let’s dig in…

Chorus
Bless the Lord O my soul 
O my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before 
O my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name

Drawing from the NKJ, the chorus comes directly from the first few verses which read, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!”  Then Vs 1…

Verse 1
The sun comes up
It’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing 
When the evening comes

Jumping to Psalm 113:3, we see this first verse comes from  the psalms, “From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is to be praised.”  Verse 2…

You’re rich in love 
And You’re slow to anger
Your name is great 
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness 
I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons 
For my heart to find

Do you remember when Moses asks to see God’s face?  God tells him that he can’t handle it!  God hides Moses in a crack in a rock and shows his back while proclaiming His name.  ”The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness”   Jumping back to Psalm 103:8-13, we see the psalmist remembering the same story.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever…and then we come to the end of the song and the end of life…

Verse 3
And on that day 
When my strength is failing
The end draws near 
And my time has come
Still my soul will 
Sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years 
And then forevermore

Again, we see the verse reflecting the psalm from David’s experience.  I can relate to this too because just a couple weeks ago, I stood at my Grandfather’s grave and placed a red carnation on his casket.  Even though he lived to be 99 years old, in comparison to God it’s as if we are grass or flowers in the field.  My Grandpa Ward loved the Lord so in death, we know he was held safe by our merciful and eternal God.

As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
And its place remembers it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him…-Psalm 103:15-17

So sing like never before!  Bless the Lord, oh my soul!  Worship His Holy name!

This is the writer, Matt Redman, talking about the song…

And here is a recording of it…I used this one because I love the congregational singing!

Down&Dirty Theology: God’s will

It’s something you don’t anticipate.

It’s something you never thought you’d do.

But when the time comes, you do it.

The sun wasn’t even up yet at 5:40 as we parked the van in the Wilson Garage at Riley Hospital.  We walked past the ER, pushed the “TWO” button in the glass elevator and checked in for Silas’ surgery.  We were ushered back to a waiting room where the nurse took all of Silas’ stats and double checked the laundry list of meds.  And then the time came…

Like I said, it’s something you don’t anticipate.  And it’s something you never thought you’d do, but when it comes time to hand your child to a complete stranger so they can sedate them and cut them…you do it.  You do it even though you have a knot in the pit of your stomach.  You do it even though you don’t want to.  It’s horrible, but…you just do it.

And here is the thing.  I have had numerous people say these types of things to me:

“I don’t know how someone could give up their child for adoption.  I could never do that.”

Or, “I don’t know how you take care of someone with all those special needs.  I could never do that.”

Maybe it’s true.   Maybe they couldn’t or wouldn’t, but I wonder if it’s just a case of context.  My parents said at one time that they would never live in a trailer.  However, when they had the chance to purchase 6 1/2 acres of prime, already developed land in Pennsylvania, but didn’t have the money to build a house, they decided to live in a trailer.  And the examples don’t end there…

…I’m pretty sure Abraham never dreamed that he would tie up his only son and sacrifice him to God.

…I don’t think Moses’ mother, Jochebed, ever dreamed she would leave her son in a basket in the huge Nile River.

…The prophet Samuel’s mother, Hannah, didn’t think she would have trouble getting pregnant and probably never even considered giving back her first born child to God.

…In more recent times, Jews during the Holocaust sent their children away knowing they would never see them again.  And everyday, birth-mothers who can’t raise their babies put them first by giving them a chance at a stable family.

“But I would never do THAT!”

I wonder.  I also wonder if God knew we would be wrestling with this issue and so gave us a word in James 4:13-15.  He says,

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,we will live and do this or that.”

This specific passage is about boasting, but the larger issue is that we have no idea what tomorrow will bring.  Our lives are “a mist” and it is only by the God’s will that we do this or that.  We have less control than we think we do.

I’ve realized the hard way, that making definitive statements about what I will or will not do in the future isn’t the best idea.  The reason is that many of the decisions we make, for better or for worse, are based on the situation at the time and the limited knowledge we have then.  None of us can say what we will or won’t do in the future because the Lord is in control.

Today, I swallowed that feeling in the pit of my stomach, kissed Silas on his curly hair and handed him to the nurse.  Now I don’t mean to say that my experience was the same as Abraham, Jochebed, Hannah, Jewish-parents during the Holocaust or birth-moms.  My experience was nothing like theirs because after two hours, I was ushered into the recovery room and saw my little, curly-haired boy softly sleeping off his anesthesia.  But it made my realize I should be careful before saying, “I would never do THAT!“

There are things we don’t anticipate.  There are things we never thought we’d do.  But when the time comes, we do them…trusting again that the Lord is in control.

He is highly exalted…no matter what.

I’m a worship pastor.  It’s my job to give glory to God and to help others worship.  But God doesn’t just want my work.  He wants my worship and He wants me to worship whole-heartedly in the Spirit and in the truth.  I find it very interesting that as we turn to Exodus 15 this week that the first verse says this:

“I will sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.”

Moses is the one writing and he doesn’t say that the LORD is exalted because it’s Moses’ job to exalt Him.  He doesn’t say that the LORD is exalted because the Egyptians have been destroyed.  (Although in the interest of full disclosure, that comes in the next sentence!).  No, the first reason to praise God is because he is highly exalted in Himself.  We don’t sing because we get paid to do so or because God has answered our prayers or because we feel like it.  We sing to the LORD because he is God.  As I reflect on this, I am reminded of the question from David Platt.  He writes,

Do we find God useful for our circumstances or do we find Him glorious regardless of circumstances?

He is always glorious no matter our circumstances.  I plan to sing His praises.  I hope you come and join your voice with mine.

Communal worship

The official term is “corporate worship”, but I prefer “communal” instead.  Either way, the point is the same.  In an iPod world, God still calls us to come together and worship as a group to do something we can’t do by ourselves.  Jim Altizer unpacks the three “R” words (what we should do) that we need to consider in communal worship.

I appreciate the way Jim unpacks this.  He challenges us to not be so “possessive” of God’s word in the communal worship gathering…He points out that actions help us experience the story of God.  While I appreciate his explanation of anamnesis and his challenge to get more creative, I was hoping to hear some more creative ideas that are still rooted in biblical and historical example.  For example, how about performance art in the style of Ezekiel?  How about outdoor services on opposing hills in the style of the the Israelites reciting blessings and curses to themselves?

Now, I know that Jim’s goal was basic understanding.  He wasn’t trying to push the envelope for physical action.  And his explanation becomes a challenge.  Are we creating worship experiences that are truly communally driven or are they performance driven?  What do you think?

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Worship is the “summit” toward which we always proceed.  For we take to worship the issues we deal with on a day-to-day basis with an expectancy that God will bring healing into our lives.  But worship is always the “fount” from which our lives flow because worship not only brings healing to our life issues, it also empowers us to face the realities of our life in the world with the conviction that the last word is not the death evil brings, but the resurrection Jesus gives.

-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation

Jesus in the Passover Changes Everything

This Sunday we begin Holy Week but this year we are going back to better understand God’s feast day of Passover and how it was fulfilled perfectly in Jesus.  I don’t want to steal any of Pastor Denny’s thunder about this, (Side note:  it’s not a good idea to steal your friend’s ideas and in my case it’s also bad for job security! :->) but I wanted to give a little bit of a preface to share why I’m excited about this upcoming week.

First, it’s important to remember that all the feast days have three meanings: a seasonal celebration, a historical remembrance and then a future meaning.

Seasonally, it’s about new life seen most easily in the season of spring as creation comes back to life.

Historically, it’s about the Israelites redemption from Egypt.

And it’s future meaning is us.  Believers from every nation redeemed from sin through the work of Jesus, the lamb of God.

So what am I so excited about?  Think about it.  Passover with this understanding changes everything.  EVERYTHING!  When the Israelites came out of Egypt it changed their status from slaves to free people.  It even changed their understanding of time.  Their New Year still starts with the month of Nisan because of Passover.  We are also changed and now new because of the fulfillment of Jesus as the lamb of God.  As Peter writes,

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. -1 Peter 1:18-19

We have salvation and have been brought into a new, free kingdom of God.  As Denny will point out, that means that all of us are now apart of the Jewish Jesus.  That has ramifications for us in terms of salvation, race, time and more.

Passover.  Jesus.  Change.  New life.  Freedom.  Everything is different.  Everything.

A Softer, TREMBLING Heart

   The ”Letters to the Editor” section has been a regular fixture in newspapers for as long as I can remember.  I’ve been threatening to start one here on Worship360 because I get some good feedback from time to time about what is printed here.  And again, anyone can comment here at anytime and start a online conversation too!  This week, I decided it was time because the email I received led me to a better understanding of worship and what it means to have a “hard heart”.

   All you ECC-ers out there know that we are going through the book of Exodus and have recently dealt with the issued of a “hard heart” because of the way that Pharaoh hardens his own heart and has his heart hardened by God.  It is in that context that this dropped into my email inbox…

So I’ve been thinking about this “hardness of heart” issue somewhat this week.  I agree with what Pastor Denny said, as I get older I find myself needing to guard more against becoming hard hearted in certain areas.  I’ve concluded that one way to maintain a softer heart is thru “intentional” worship.  It seems when I focus on the words we are singing and get a real sense of who God is thru our singing, it continually brings me to my knees internally before an awesome, holy, yet loving God.  

 

Understanding that and being weekly reminded of that helps keep me soft and open to Him…I’m not one to express emotions easily, but it seems almost each week I am brought to tears when singing one of the songs.  I’m grateful for that as well, because I see it as just one more sign that my heart is soft to the things of God.  

 

I wanted to express that to you while it was still on my mind…

With thanks from a grateful, softer heart,
G.J.

   I sat in my office speechless.

   I closed my eyes and silently thanked God for His calling on my life to be apart of Worship Ministries at ECC.

   I thanked God that he is working at all times and sometimes he even uses me, you, music, drama, lights, creation…and all for His glory.

   And then I started to wonder what it means to have a “hard” heart and how I could foster a “softer” heart.  I think it’s obvious that I don’t want to have a hard heart before God, but what is the opposite?  A quick study brought me to Proverbs 28:14.  ”

Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.”

   So this seems to indicate that the opposite of a “hard” heart is a heart that trembles with awe and wonder before God.  I tend to think that having a “soft” heart is simply being open to do what God asks me to do.  And that is true.  But this seems to indicate that it comes down to awe, to wonder…to trembling.

   The writer of Hebrews deals with this idea too.  Quoting Psalms, he points back to the wilderness wandering and the Israelites constant grumbling and unbelief.  (We’re going to get to this section at ECC after Easter!).  He writes…

So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the wilderness…

See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts…”

There is so much here we could unpack…Psalm 95, how sin and unbelief leads to a hard, DEAD heart, the need for daily encouragement among believers in faith, and how sin is inherently deceitful…but we don’t have time.  For now, hear the heart of the both these authors.  Be encouraged to believe and soften your heart.  And may you be blessed as one who always trembles before God.

Psalm 42: Hope in God

And here is the irony…after doing my recent psalm rewrite, I had a nagging throughout, call it deja-vu, that I had done this before.  So after sifting through a few posts I realized that yes, I had done it on April 1st almost one year ago.  And to add injury to insult, last year’s was better.  But I should let you be the judge of that.  Anyway, I had another one fermenting in the back of my mind so I thought I’d pull that one out too.  Wasn’t planning on it, but here it is…

Psalm 42

As the dog next door pants in the heat

so my soul slobbers for you, O God.

Messy, sloppy, broken, I thirst,

but where to find the divine?

My tears taste salty adding flavor

to my empty stomach day and night

as my sinner’s side lobs questions like grenades,

“Where is your healing God?”

And my thoughts return

as my soul starts to burn:

how I praised, arms upraised,

safe and protected,

among the faithful of God.

 

So, why are you so down, my soul?

So anxious of things beyond your control?

Put your hope in God,

because I will praise him again,

forever and ever, Amen.

 

My soul is still down and blue,

but there I will remember you.

From the Midwest plains,

with birds singing of spring,

Robin sings to jay

With creation’s song,

Rising up and around, sweet and strong, loud and long.

 

The sun overhead shines His love,

At night His song is still with me-

Becoming my own prayer to the God of life.

I say to God my Rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must my son suffer,

oppressed by sin and the enemy?

3:00 AM.  My heart feels worn and weak.

Coughing, he struggles to breathe or speak

and my sinner’s side lobs questions like grenades,

“Where is your God?”

 

So, why are you so down, my soul?

So anxious of things beyond your control?

Put your hope in God,

because I will praise him again,

forever and ever, Amen.