Convenience or Excellence? by KG

Sorry I didn't post on Monday - I was out of town and didn't have the computer with me or access until now.  But I must admit - I've been feasting off Rick's last post and could do so for another month!

But here's how it happened - I was in an email dialogue with two other staff members over something that most people would find very minor.  We were emailing back and forth about details pertaining to layout and all that exciting stuff :)  The final correspondence from the staff member who would be responsible for making all these changes struck me.  

The staff person acknowledged that they were trying to avoid a certain layout because of some technical frustrations but, and here's the kicker, that person sent a final email with the following declaration:  "I don't want to sacrifice excellence for convenience."  Thus, the additional work was done and the changes were made.

I was inspired and challenged by that statement.  Inspired by a heart that wouldn't settle for anything less than the 'best lamb' for God...even when no one was looking.  And challenged to examine my own heart and ask, 'where am I making decisions based on convenience vs. excellence?'

Excellence = giving God your personal best, whatever that looks like in each situation

Convenience = giving God what's left and often easiest

If we're going to make an impact in the world, if we're going to reflect Christ to our friends/family/neighbors, it starts with a heart that operates from a perspective of 'excellence' and refuses to live under the reign of 'convenience'.

The Christ life is not always going to be the easy way..it's not always going to be convenient...but it will always be worth it.

So...what will we choose tomorrow?  Convenience?  Excellence?  Maybe a combination of both?  We'll have lots of opportunities to make the choice...so what will you do?

Jesus received bad news about his friend. Lazarus was not just sick: he was going to die. And yet to the amazement of his disciples, there was no urgency in Jesus at all. He stayed where he was for two extra days before leaving to go to Judea.

This was especially not good news to the disciples: Jesus had nearly been stoned there only a few days previous. They weren’t looking for an encore.

Jesus was determined, however, to continue. He had set his course. He was not to be deterred. But his mission was not clearly understood by his disciples. Why bother to go? Jesus had already said that Lazarus was dead. What more could be done?

So in response to Jesus’ urging, the Twelve set out to Judea - to Bethany, near Jerusalem - where Lazarus had lived with his sisters, Mary and Martha.

None of them knew quite what to think about the potential danger ahead - only that they trusted Jesus. It is then that Thomas made a rather profound statement: “Let’s go so that we may die with him.” If Jesus was going to his death, then they would all go as well.

It was, and always will be, an issue of trust.

Do I love Jesus enough to trust him with my life? My job? My spouse? My children?

Do I trust him with my next step, my next meal, my next breath, my next heartbeat?

Do I trust him when the direction he is heading seems unbearable?

Do I trust him with my gifts and talents, that he could use even me?

Do I trust him to accomplish his mission, even when it makes no sense to me at all, when I would do it a lot differently?

Jesus allowed Lazarus to die to reveal an even more glorious truth: that Jesus was Lord over death itself. If Lazarus had lived - healed by the hand of Jesus - it would have been a miracle for sure, but not like the one that ended with Lazarus stumbling out of the tomb where he had been lying dead for three days!

Do I trust Jesus enough to say as Thomas did: Wherever Jesus is going, let me go there too, even if it means... death?

Sometimes I don’t trust him enough to walk across the room and say hello.

Look through the eleventh chapter of John. Read it through the eyes of the disciples, who had just seen their Lord nearly stoned in Jerusalem, and was now returning there. Read it and see the real fear in their eyes as they near Bethany, not knowing what was to happen. Certainly not knowing that they were about to have front row seats for one of the greatest miracles Jesus ever did.

And then look around. What adventure is he taking you on? What will be your mission the next time you are on the weekend stage? What area in your life will you need to trust him with?

And then watch for signs of life in places you never expected.

R

The heart of worship by Steven Gompers

I've recently been invited to share my thoughts on the heart of worship to a group of young people interested in leading others in worship through music. I decided the best way for me to pen my thoughts for them was to blog about it as this is the most comfortable way for me to communicate. I hope you enjoy. 

Worship, at it's core, is quite simple and more common and widespread than Christianity. Worship is giving affection. It's giving honor. It's offering your admiration and allegiance. And it's done by a means and with an attitude that is honest and heartfelt. It is not coerced or offered out of guilt. And it is only able to be offered if the person offering the worship knows and has reason to give it to the subject that is receiving it. 

This happens at concerts and sporting events. This happens at political rallies and book signings. However, as with all things God created, worship is expressed in its purest and most intense form when it is offered to the God whom we know and love. Matt Redman puts it this way, "Worship is always a response to revelation." Meaning, we must first have a revelation awakening to who God is in order to respond to His love in worship. God created the act of worship as an aspect of our interacting and communicating with God, and Him back to us. You see worship may happen anywhere, anytime for anyone. But it only fulfills it's perfect created intent when it is offered TO God FROM His created and beloved children, us. 

This, I believe, is an important distinction to make today as the word "worship" has been degraded to a musical genre and a title attributed to 20 minutes of corporate singing. That being said, I will not go into the immense detailed list of ways we CAN worship God. That would take a long time and my list would undoubtedly be incomplete. What I would like to talk about is HOW the Bible instructs us to worship GOD. Then, we can apply these principles to worshipping God in every way that honors Him. 

To begin, offering anything more than simple acknowledgement of appreciation for anyone other than the One and only true God, is idolatry. It's one thing to clap for a sports figure or applaud an excellent musical performance. It's another thing to esteem them in your heart as superhuman, infallible or divine. Notice I used the term, "in your heart." That's because only true worship can happen when it is birthed from the heart. The form it takes afterward is almost infinite in its options to be offered to God, but it must be expressed from the heart, or else it is not worship. 

Why? Because the heart is the constant core of true emotion. This ideal crosses race, language and geography. This is not only true of Biblical interaction with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We say to a loved one, "I love you with all my heart." Mark Lowry once said, "we don't say I love you with both of my kidneys." No, we don't. Because the heart is the seed of all emotion and the source of life. The heart provides for all of the other functions in the body. No body part provides for the heart. The heart pumps and circulates the blood. It acts as the great regulator for all other organ functions. It is the one thing that must operate in order for us to continue living. Therefore, to express anything from our hearts is, in effect, to say we offer the core of our very existence to this subject through these thoughts, emotions, words or actions. In this way, we say to God, "I love you with all of my heart." And that is HOW we are instructed to worship God. 

Now, to really drive this one home to those who say they want to lead worship. We must wrestle with, understand and grasp this principle of worship being an outflow of a revelational knowledge of God's love if we are to lead others in responding to that love. We must know, embrace and cling to this love. Paul instructed the church in Rome to "cling to what is good."(Romans 12:9) In conjunction, Jesus said, "why do you call me good, no one is good but One, that is, God."(Matthew 19:17) Now, if we connect the dots here and understand Paul and Jesus' choice of words, we will have a distinct insight into the revelational knowledge of God, which is, as we discussed, the principle basis for all true worship from man to God. Ready? 

The word here 'cling' is the greek word kollao. It is a verb tense of the root word kolla. This use of the word in this case means to press, fasten or otherwise permanently attach with cement or glue. It means to grasp onto it as if it were the only thing keeping you alive. Why does this matter? Because we're looking at the whole council of God here. So, if Jesus says there is no one who is good except God and that essentially only He, God the Father deserves the title of "good", and Paul tells us as Christ followers to cling to what is good, then the application for us looks like this: 

Fasten yourself, as with cement to be permanently pressed together and so tightly attached that we can't distinguish where one begins and the other ends with the only One who is good and that is God as if your life depends on it. 

This, my friends, is HOW we respond to God's great love. Only in grasping onto and clinging to the Father in a way that we can not be separated do we align ourselves with the instructions of the Bible. And only in this way do we return the love of God the way He has loved us and given His life as a sacrifice and visible sign of His great love for us. 

You see, worship is simple. It is expressing love back to God. But we must first know God's love and our heartfelt response to His love which results in actions in order to worship Him, and further, lead others into true worship in its purest, most perfect form on this side of eternity. 

Thanks for reading. I love you all.

So What's This Cart Anyway? by Gompers

(my apologies - this was to be posted on Monday but I was taking in the wonder of "Dollywood" and forgot to hit 'publish'!  Enjoy the read even though it's a few days later than normal.  KG)

A timeless expression, "getting the cart before the horse."

 

As a worship leader at Meck, I have the privilege of helping equip next generation leaders for service in this great thing we are all part of called the church. One part of that privilege is knowing when a person is ready spiritually to lead people and represent Christ to others physically. Or in other words, I need to prayerfully, intuitively, intelligently and by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, know when a person is ready for public ministry. As I was reflecting on this responsibility and some people who fall into my "sphere of influence," I thought of this old phrase, getting the cart before the horse.

 

You know why the cart expression is so timeless and makes more sense than we even realize?

 

If this cart gets in front of, instead of behind, this horse a lot of bad things happen. The cart undoubtedly gets turned over, possibly destroyed or at least damaged. The cargo can be lost, broken or otherwise rendered useless. The horse could very well be dragged to the ground, twisted turned and even killed under the wreckage from the cart and horse being out of position. It's not that the cart was poorly made or the horse not conditioned for the job. No, quite simply, things just got out of wack:)

 

Now I know I'm really looking deep into six little words, but consider the implications if the horse were a person, and the cart a public ministry and the cargo...people's eternal salvation. Really puts things in perspective huh? Suddenly we're not picturing an old Amish guy on a horse and buggy.

 

If we get this wrong in terms of ourselves, and leading others the implications can look like this: The horse is a good person who loves the Lord who is suddenly elevated to a platform for which they are not ready. They may gain a false sense of spiritual maturity and never really learn they need God and His power and blessing in order to accomplish anything good for the cause of Christ. Subsequently this person's spiritual walk is stunted, stifled and creeps to a halt with their new found status and pride. The cart is filled with people looking to this horse to make spiritually mature decisions and lead them toward Christ and godliness. Only the horse can not even hear God's voice for being so detached and distracted from a relationship with Him. The cart itself is a public ministry that the person is not ready for and the cart ultimately causes the horse's demise.

 

This may seem a little dramatic. But I've witnessed it first hand and it's sad and ugly. Everyone involved is left asking themselves, "How did this happen?" This is why these blogs are so important. This is why our response to this challenge of growing a heart like the heart of God is so important. This is why it is so vital that WE, all of us are reading, studying and talking about the Word of God. Because without us taking the initiative to seek the very face of God by diving head first into His Word and applying the words to our lives no matter how difficult, painful or challenging it may seem to be, we are all destined to either witness or be part of this tragic analogy. We must get this one right, as leaders and potential leaders and followers of Christ.

 

I'd like to challenge you to consider your platform. Think long and hard about the responsibility we have of leading others. Consider what God has entrusted you with and make certain you don't become part of this mistake. And we do that by applying the difficult instructions of Christianity to our lives. Instructions about self examination, pride and motives. We ought to pray as the great men of the Bible prayed. And if we are lying to ourselves and God when we pray these prayers, then there's our first area to allow God to work.

 

Here's a good starting point for all of us. God says this to Isaiah in chapter 55 verse 8 and 9:

 

   "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

 

And then in conjunction we can consider Jesus' prayer found in Luke 22:42:

 

   "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done."

 

If we can pray these two scriptures in conjunction here's what that prayer might look like:

 

"Lord, your plans and thoughts are higher, more noble, wiser and ultimately just better than mine. I know I've asked for this or for that, but Lord your will be done in a through my life, and not mine."

 

Can we all pray that honestly? If no, there's step one. If yes, there's also step one:) Let's let God decide what role, platform and influence we have and let us only be concerned with seeking God's face. (Proverbs 3:5-6) Let's not get the cart before the horse. People's eternity is at stake. People God loves, created and died for. Thanks for reading. I love you all.