Preparing for Worship This Weekend

I hope that as you prepare for worship this weekend, whether you are here or away on vacation, I hope your heart is stirred in adoration for King Jesus.

Hillsong United on Worship from Family Life on Vimeo.

Acts 13: Worship, Prayer, and Fasting The Road to Greatness

What is your take on prayer? Francis Chan, Pastor and author, says of his staff, "if you're not praying at least one hour a day, let me know and I'll find someone else who will." What if you spent an hour in undistracted prayer each day? Would that be a waste of time? For the rest of the world this sort of 'inactivity' would be considered a waste... but for the Christian there is nothing more essential and more productive than sitting at the mercy seat.

Prayer is the power horse of the Christian life. That's what was happening in Acts 13. "While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting... after they fasted and prayed, [the believers] placed their hands on [Paul and Silas] and sent them off" (Acts 13:1-3). So we see a few things happening that led to their send off. First, they were worshiping. They were gathered together praising God. Secondly, they were fasting. Fasting is a purposeful refusal of something to get something greater. Fasting is a forsaking of things to gain a supremely valuable thing... Christ. And they prayed. I can't imagine this being a canned prayer. I bet there were tears. I bet there was meditation. I bet there was guidance and direction from on high. 

Those were the precursors to the greatest missionaries being sent out. Worship, praying, and fasting led to 14 of the most productive years in history where Paul was preaching Christ crucified to as many as possible so that he might win as many as possible. This little paragraph in the bible is the beginning of a send off, it is the fire that sparked in the heart of my hero the Apostle Paul. And, the result of these few lines in the text is a colossal life of suffering, rejoicing, ministry, and the gospel. 

Do not neglect these items: worship, fasting, and prayer. It is through these things that God might be enlisting you to greatness. And it is by these things that you might recieve training and equipping for a service you can't perform on your own.

Acts 12- Deflecting Praise

How do you deal with praise? What happens in your soul when someone says something great about you? Herod gives us a great example of what not to do... "On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died" (Acts 12:21-23). 

What can we make of this? The first thing that I want to say is that there is a parallel between this text and the text of Isaiah 14:12-14 where Satan was cast down because he thought he will ascend to heaven and his throne will be above the stars of God. Pride. It is the deadliest of sins. It blinds us of our need for God and robs God of His godness. It places yourself on the throne and is absolute tyranny of the King of Kings. 

When Herod received the praise of man for his god-like stature, you have to read into the text the sin of pride. "He did not give praise to God, [therefore] an angel of the Lord struck him down (vs. 23). So, Herod enjoyed the praise. He took it to heart. He ascribed to himself the stature that he obtained. Herod, in fact, was quite the leader. He did accomplish many things with his life. He had built infrastructures that we still marvel at in the twenty-first century. He even constructed a mountain!? So he must have felt that he in some degree was a god. He did accomplish so much that maybe the people were right... wrong! So he was layed low.

This is a serious text. Because, if we are honest, we all climb on the throne. It is my favorite past time. Sitting on the throne and addressing people as the authority in my life is natural. I do a lot of great stuff, I deserve praise, I'm the king. Be honest, you do this too. So, why is the real king so gracious to us?

What is astonishing about this text is that I am not dead yet. That Herod got what he deserved but I haven't. I am a tyrant. I am a rebel against the King and yet he is so patient and gracious towards me. That is why the Bible tells us that His loving kindness draws us to Him (Jeremiah 31:3). When we see our rebellion and know that our offense is punishable by death, it makes us realize that His dealings with us are totally unfair and unwarranted. He does the opposite of what we would expect. He loves us, forgives us, redeems us, and clothes us with honor. That's why we praise Him. He is so upside down and backwards. 

So, next time you receive praise, think about that every good gift is from above, everything you have every experienced that is good has been a grace to you. You know the King and He is so loving and gracious. So, worship Him and deflect all praise to Him, the One who is worthy.

Consumed: Retreat

We are gearing up for our retreat... the facilities are decorated, the band is practiced up, and there are worship stations for people to express their creativity in worship either through painting/ drawing, or writing out prayers and placing them in the cracks of our prayer wall (wailing wall).

It has been incredible to put to practice what we will be teaching about this weekend. Worshiping even in the preparation. I have an anticipation of what God is going to accomplish this weekend and I cannot wait to see His might hand at work!

Please pray for all the students that will attend. We are hoping God would use this as a stake in the ground that will help students to develop habits of worship that will last a lifetime.

Acts 9- Growing In Numbers, Living in the Fear of The Lord

Do you fear God? I would say that the majority of church goers would quickly answer "NO." And, their minds would race to thoughts like "God is love," Or "Jesus died for ME," or even get upset that a question like that would be proposed. 'Fearing God is a ridiculous idea. Don't you know that he loves me.'

We have a 'gentle Jesus' approach to our faith. We want to know the patient and loving and forgiving God. We do not want to 'Fear' God. That sounds primitive and wrong. 

But friends, the Bible could not be more opposed to our 'gentle Jesus.' Yes God is love. Yes God does forgive. Yes God is patient. But to truly appreciate those aspects of Him you must understand the stark contrast of His wrath, His demand for holiness, His zeal for His namesake, His supreme authority and power that could snuff out earth in a millisecond if his wrath was released in fullness. We must see the depths of grace as it is juxtaposed against God's divine holiness. 

When you see the majesty of God it will illicit fear. You do not presume God owes you love. You do not demand that He forgive you. You do not tell God to be patient with you as you continue to sin. In fact, it is quite the opposite when you experience the real God. You realize "who is man that you are mindful of him? (Psalm 8:4)" 

The problem with modern Christians is they are veiled to the reality of God. They either get a misconstrued picture of God from ill equipped pastors. Or maybe even they read their bibles into their comfy assumptions of what God is like. Highlighting favored verses that make them feel good and dismissing others as, 'not a complete picture of the New Testament God.' Ps. there is no new testament God, there is only God. The God of both testaments that never changes. But, if they took some time to think through the these thoughts; "if I had no presuppositions of what God is like, and I read the bible for myself, what would I think of God?" First off, you would be thinking correctly. God reveals Himself through his word. It is like me saying, "My name is Cory, I am 26 years old, I grew up in Rockton Illinois, I love to surf, I love coffee, and I don't like missing sleep." Then you look at me and say, "that's not really like you." That is absurd. I just told you about me and you arrogantly think that you could better describe me than I can describe myself!?  That, my friends, is what we do to God when we do not take Him at His Word. We make God out to be a liar. 

The early Christians knew better. They feared God. They knew that He is infinitely greater than them and it caused a deep respect, a reverence, and trembling worship (Psalm 2:11). I am implying these because in verse 31 of Acts it says, "living in the fear of the Lord." And because of that the church grew in numbers. God was pleased to add to them because they made efforts to know Him. Not to try to make God sound more appealing by scaling down His Might, and Sovereign control, and Wrath, and Holiness.

Let us open our Bibles and cry out, "God show us what you are really like!" And the result will definitely have an element of fear.

Acts 5- What Kind of Church?

"... And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number" (Acts 5:12-14).

I can picture Luke reminiscing as he wrote about the church services he attended at Solomon's Colonnade. Isn't it strange that no one dared to join them? What's up with that?

Here is what I believe to be the reason why the others didn't dare join them. There was something supernatural that occurred when all the believers got together to worship. I mean it was a display of the Body of Christ and it was holy. It was different than a board meeting or a concert or a sporting event. This was spirit filled people getting together and the presence of the Lord was on them... lets not race over that. I will say it again. The presense of the LORD was on them. It makes me think of Moses on the mountain top with God in Exodus. The Israelites looked up and as the Glory of God descended to meet with Moses it looked like a fire consuming the mountain (Exodus 24:17). The appropriate response of the Israelites was that they didn't want to go near the mountain. In fact when Moses came down they made him cover his face with a veil because he was glowing just from being near the glory of God.

That is how church should be. The glory of God resting on the body of believers like a consuming fire. When an onlooker heard or saw this gathering they wouldn't dare join them (vs 13). I am not going near because I could be consumed by the fire. I am not sure if I am Holy enough to come anywhere near where God is... Yet they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and were added to their number (vs 14). 'Ah, those were the days,' I could see Luke saying. And I also say that in my head as I read.

But, what would it take to see that happen again? It isn't an ideal in history that can never be repeated... I believe that is God's desire for church every Sunday in every city. But what hinders that? First off I would say a lack of faith. We hardly believe that church would have been that powerful in bible times let alone in Beloit in 2009. So friends we must fight the fight of faith... believe that God is living and mighty and consistent with scripture. Believe that if we would take God seriously that He would be honored to show Himself mighty. Secondly, the reason I believe church is so flat is because we lack holiness. God does not honor his temple if it is defiled. He removes His spirit from the Churches that do not pursue holiness(Rev. 2). We can hardly expect God to descend like a consuming fire on a bunch of defiled sacrifices.

So, friends... let us prepare our hearts for Sunday morning. Let us do our work at the cross before we even come into the temple. Golgotha, where the cross was located, is outside of the city. Not in the temple. So we need to do our work of repentance and confession before we enter into the temple. "Let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore" (Hebrews 13:13). Take our sin to the cross before we even go to church. So that God would be pleased to attend the temple. Then, let us attend church with faith that He will make His presence known. We should pray that what happens at church is unexplainable. We shouldn't expect everything to go according to plan. We shouldn't expect church to be predictable. It should cause us to tremble.

Lastly, it is out of that sort of holy relationship with the Almighty that service and community outreach and evangelism happen. When the believers have it right first then numbers were added and they were highly regarded by all the people. When we put the priorities on adding numbers first and being highly regarded first then we endanger ourselves of loosing our treasure (Jesus Christ) and becoming a successful philanthropic organization. Which many churches have done. Programming takes the place of the spirit and outreach takes the place of spirit lead evangelism and community service takes the place of regard and respect for godly people. It is a danger that we cannot afford. When I read Acts I desire that we would repent and return to former ways. I ask for the spirit to move in my life so I can experience what those believers in Solomon's Colonnade experienced. And I pray that church would be anointed like that. Imagine what church could be like? It would blow our minds. I am praying for that.

Great Worship

Hillsong This is Our God. Integrity Music (c) 2008
Hillsong just released a new album this past week that is incredible! I always am looking for and enjoy good worship music. This was an album that was recorded live in March. There are some very powerful songs on this CD. Be sure to check out Stronger, Healer, Same Power, and With Everything. This is a powerful collection of God honoring praises and it would serve you well to join in the praise! Hope you enjoy even a fraction of as much as me.

John 4- Worshiping in Spirit And Truth

"...True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers that the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." -Jesus

Yesterday I was talking with some students about one of the more exceptional gifts... speaking in tongues. We were discussing what we thought by it and I was trying to be careful not to impose my thoughts on the topic but also not to allow anyone to have dumb ideas about it. But, I think I erred on the side of being overly cautious. God is spirit. And I think the church doesn't have a way to cope with this statement, "God is spirit." I mean we know that there is a Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. We know that the bible says that Jesus promises this spirit to his believing followers. We know that the bible says that he is transforming us by his spirit and that the spirit is living in us.

But, what the heck does that mean?! It is rare to see spirit transformed individuals... Usually, I find a bunch of people that say they know Jesus, but I couldn't tell the difference between them and anyone else!? So, I think because of an absence of the Spirit we don't know what to make of gifts that require so much of the Spirit to even be possible. Think about it; the only way that someone could speak in a different language that they have no training in and actual communicate the Gospel of God is by a phenomenal act of the Spirit. Most other 'gifts' can be faked and can ride on the strength of man. Unfortunately, in my experience they do in a lot of places... However, tongues cannot be faked. If it is faked then it sounds and looks stupid I am sure. We should pray for a deeper understanding of the spiritual realm because God is spirit. We shouldn't scoff at a display of the spirit simply because we are so unspiritual that it doesn't make sense to us.

Which brings us back to the text... "the time is coming when worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth." The time is coming. If it would please God, I pray that I am one of those worshipers. I pray that I would understand what it means to worship in spirit and truth. And I pray that I can help lead our youth group to be and do that as well. I understand worshiping in truth. I know there are plenty of people that worship false notions of God and he is Truth. He does not allow ignorant idol worship to pass as anything close to worshipping the One true God.... So we need a right understanding of who He is. And, this is found wed to the Words inscribed in his Book. But, worshiping in spirit is something that I know I need to work on. I need to pray for a display, for an indwelling, for a manifestation of God Himself in Spirit, and for an understanding of how to worship Him in Spirit.

God please crush my puny understanding of you. Blow in here in a way that shatters windows and knocks down walls. Don't let my stupid understanding of you stifle what you want to do here!? God teach us to be worshipers that worship you in spirit and in truth. Let us be a group of worshipers that you are seeking! If it pleases you, teach us to worship you!

Rejoice! I Say it Again Rejoice!

What a beautiful Sunday afternoon! As I look out my apartment window I am reminded that God is meant to be enjoyed. The apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" God is a treasure. He is so good. Look at His creation. Marvel at his handiwork. God is good.

Today I am focusing on just enjoying him. I am meditating on his grace for me and the saving work that he performed on my behalf. He went to the cross for me just so he could be near me. I am forever in his service! I am so enamored with my King! I am so in love! He is so magnificent and so beautiful. Enjoy God today. That is what he desires most from you. He wants you to look at him and think, "NO WAY!?! I can't believe God is in love with me?!?" Worship him today.

Good Worship Music

I just want to let you know that worship music is incredible! Christianity is a singing religion! Think about how weird it is that we sing every Sunday?! Even dads that look like they have never shed a tear and would simply say to friends, "I don't sing". Old men singing, women, children, everyone sings at church. It is actually pretty bizarre to think about. We come together and sing and when you think about it, it is hard not to sing. God has done so much for me that sometimes I just want to yell from a mountain top what he has done.

Psalm 47
clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! He subdued nations under us, peoples under our feet. he chose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.
Selah (Musical interlude to contemplate)
God has ascended amid shouts of Joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.

Think about verse 6... "sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.
I was just listening to some incredible worship music. Hillsong just released the I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One album on itunes. So I am overwhelmed by the presence of God as I sit at my desk and worship the one worthy of all my praise! It is weird how simply singing to God can change everything. It helps to refocus your thoughts and energies towards the one that worthy of our praise. In fact most people that are martyred for the Christian faith actually sing in their final minutes. God gives them a song! Their lips profess His beauty through song?! Isn't that crazy?! I just wanted to take a minute to note how incredible it is to praise God. And, it is so good for me today to just sit at His feet and worship Him!

Matthew 26 -Reckless Abandon and The Art of Failing Well

Reckless Abandon: I love the text Matthew 26:6-13. It is an account of a woman who pours perfume on Jesus as he is reclining at the table with his disciples. It is interesting because in the eyes of reason what she did does not make sense. A whole years wages?! Think about what Blood: Water Mission could do with my salary for a year!?! How many wells and how many people could be blessed! But, she pours the perfume on the head of Jesus and he says, "she has done a beautiful thing..." Now my question for myself and you is this, "are we that crazy in love with Jesus?" Have you ever felt like you worshiped him in a way that it didn't matter what others thought, or in a way that could be looked at as reckless? With your time? Money? Energy? Life? Honestly, I have a hard time with this. I want to be known as someone who loses myself in worship to Jesus. And, I want our church to be an expression of this too! A whole group of people who would blow a ton of resources on our Savior! And not even think twice about it. Reckless abandon!

Failing Well: Many of us have been Christians for a while. The truth about being a christian is that it is hard. If you think being a christian is easy than I think you should examine if you are really living up to the calling. Have you died to yourself? Daily? Taken up a heavy cross? Endured suffering? Peter had. Infact, for 3 years he followed Jesus and abandoned family, friends, and his profession to follow his Rabbi (Jesus). Jesus was Peter's best friend and he respected him dearly. But, Jesus was honest when he talked to Peter in verses 31-35. "You will disown me..." Peter you are going to fail. When Jesus wants him to be most couragious, supporting, loving, Peter fails him in the worst way. He not only scattered, he literally denied even knowing who his rabbi, teacher, best friend is!?! Peter failed and the thing about this story is you can expect to fail too. Don't be surprised that as a christian you will mess up. Your flesh is waging war against the spirit and Satan is cunning! Jesus knows this! In fact he prays for you when this happens. In Luke 22:31 Jesus says, Simon(Peter) satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. The "you" in that verse is plural in the greek. Satan wants to sift you as wheat. To destroy your faith. But, Jesus is praying for you. He loves you so much that he is constantly before the father asking that he spare you! (Hebrews 7:25) Not if you fail, but when you fail, I want you to know that Jesus is cheering for you! He is saying, "when you return" (Luke 22: 32), when you turn from your sin he is there waiting with open arms to not only recieve you but to give you more responsibility, "Strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:32)