New Music Tuesday!

 

I love new music and that makes today feel like Christmas! FOUR big new releases come out today and I intend to go buy them and listen much.  NEEDTOBREATHE, Gungor, Matt Maher, and Leeland are among my favorites and they all release new projects on the same day! today... why am I still here blogging? I've got a lot of listening to do.  Go get your own, I'm going to be busy for a while.  Oh yeah, and I'll also be picking up the new Jason Gray.  And if you don't have them already get the new collection from Big Daddy Weave.

Give Forgiveness (What'cha doin' with that rock?)

Of all the things the modern church needs to stop procrastinating with, it's forgiveness!  Christ DIED for FORGIVENESS!  Some friends brought a paralytic to Jesus and what was the first thing he said? "Take heart my son, your sins are forgiven."  We live forgiven lives, because of Jesus death - His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sin.  Do we hold his death in contempt when we withhold forgiveness from others?

Sunday we dealt with this issue of forgiveness.  Not one of us can escape.  We all need to forgive. We MUST! No evil could be done to us that cannot be forgiven.  Yet, because we've been hurt, we will hold on to a grudge or a conflict because it helps us justify our pain.  There are couple tricks our enemy likes to use to encourage us down a path of unforgiveness.

1. We can hold it over their head. - Somehow we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that withholding forgiveness gives us power over the person who hurt us.  That is a Lie!  An unforgiving heart is not empowered, It's imprisoned! 
2. Withholding forgiveness legitimizes my hurt. - No.  It doesn't.  It only lengthens your hurt.
3. They should suffer for what they did to me. - Ummm, I don't know how to tell you this, but... They probably haven't given it another thought.  How much time have you wasted meditating on their crime and your pain?

As we entered the service yesterday each of us was given a rock.  We were to hold that rock throughout the service.  Awkward doesn't begin to describe it.  Hindered, restricted, annoyed also fit the bill.  I had to put it in my pocket and it rubbed my leg as I tried to worship.  I attempted to focus on God, but my mind kept returning to the rock rubbing a raw spot against my leg.  When I sat down I took it out and held it in my hand.  My leg was relieved by now I only had one hand free to follow along in my YouVersion bible app.  I was afraid I would scratch my iPad with the rock.  I couldn't hold my wife's hand, which we sometimes do while sitting together in church.  The rock came between us.

Finally, when I got up to sing the song of response, I let it go, laid the rock down at the alter.  I'd held it long enough that I could describe it in detail.  I could go back later and among all the rocks, I could tell you which one was mine.  The thought came to me after the final song to go back and pick it up.  THAT would have been a mistake.  I would not have wanted to answer the question later.

"What'cha doin' with that rock?"

I would have answered honestly. "It is a reminder to me of the bad things people have done to me.  And how I need to forgiven them."

"Well, if you've forgiven them, then why do you want to be reminded about what they've done?"

...good question

Father, help me to forgive as you did.  The same death you died on the cross for me is given to the ones who have hurt me.  I have no room to stand and judge anyone.  Thank you for forgiving me.  I celebrate your forgiveness and pass it on to those whom I need to forgive.

Where do you stand on the subject of forgiveness? Have you been restored after a broken relationship?  

Is there anyone from whom you are still withholding forgiveness?  Please leave a comment below.

Love Deeper (oh to be the kind of worshiper the Father seeks)

Have you ever sat in a restaurant and, overhearing the conversation at the table next to you, wish you could pull up a chair and listen, or even join in?

Today, at lunch, I overheard five men who were engaged in a conversation regarding the worship at their church.  Scratch that. Two men were talking and the other three were listening.  Four, if you count my wandering ear.  But I really couldn't hear everything that was said.  You see, the music in the restaurant was too loud... (irony?)... maybe.  So you understand why I wanted to pull up a chair?

From what I could make out, the man doing most of the talking was expressing his resistance to the addition of guitar and drums.  He didn't seem angry, just resistant.  He admitted that there was nothing "technically" wrong with guitar and drums in worship.  It's just that he was, well, uncomfortable with them.  He didn't like it.  He said He found himself gripping the back of the pew as they all stood and sang along and when the songs were over and he could let go to sit down, he felt relieved.  He seemed to regretted how he felt, but he wanted to be honest about it.

His friend was trying to encourage him, saying that the church needed to be relevant to the culture.  He seemed to agree and commenced to chase a rabbit wondering if it was society in general that rubbed him the wrong way; too noisy, impatient, self-absorbed, performance oriented.  And he just didn't want to see that happen in his church.  My mind wandered after that and it sounded like their conversation did too.  I found myself thanking God that theirs was a pleasant conversation between brothers and that there was a "Truth in Love" aroma to it (and a hint of moo goo gai pan).

As a worship leader veteran of 18 years, I may have heard it all; all the complaints, criticisms, humble questions & sincere support.  I've received my share of anonymous letters; "God hates rock music" "Rock music has no place in the church"  "drums are a tool of the devil."  Some of the most non-biblical statements I've ever heard within the church have been about worship.  And I think all our self-righteous and self-wrongness about worship comes down to us using a wrong criteria when we evaluate worship.

How do we evaluate worship?  This is a tricky business.  First, let me say, as a worship leader, I'm appreciative of every compliment I've received over the years.  Please don't stop.  Your loving words are a wonderful encouragement for me.  I love my calling and my job.  And I love the people that God, in His grace, has allowed me to serve over the years.

It seems to me that most of our evaluating statements regarding our worship services utilize the words "like" and "I" a little too often.

Now, I'm not offering condemnation here.  I want to be a better worshiper!  I don't have all the answers.  I'm still looking and learning.  I'm seeking here, to discern the premise of our worship evaluation.  I think every worshiper would agree that we worship because God commands us to in His Word.  And, moreover, we would probably agree that we worship because God is deserving of our worship.  Why then, when we evaluate worship, do we seek to resolve whether or not WE "liked it?"  Shouldn't we be asking God what He wants?

Our worship evaluation gets off track very quickly if it doesn't begin with this question; "God, how do You want your people to worship You?"  If we first seek to satisfy this question we are led to verses like Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.  You will not reject a broken and repentant heart."  When was the last time you and I left worship with a broken and repentant heart?

We are also led to verses like Romans 12:1 "give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you"  OUR WHOLE SELVES!! "This is truly the way to worship him"  Do we come to worship service seeking to offer ourselves to God?  Or are we interested only what we can get from it?  Are we looking for a tingly feeling and calling it worship?  We should be throwing our lives at His feet, begging and pleading to give Him more, all of ourselves.  Instead, we can't get out the door fast enough when worship is over.  We start checking the clock on our phone fifteen minutes into the sermon.  We prefer to sit instead of stand through the singing because our feet hurt or our back hurts or we stayed up to late last night.  We worship a Savior who had nails hammered into his feet and hands and we can't stand for 10 minutes of singing to Him? Or sit through 30 minutes of Bible teaching?  What must God think of that kind of worship offering?  No wonder we don't asking Him if He felt worshiped.  We probably wouldn't like His answer.

We should be begging to stay and to sing one more song or pray one more prayer and hear one more testimony of how great our Lord is and what miracles He has done in the lives of those who surrender to Him.  "More, more! I'm not done yet.  Let me stay. Let me sing one more sing, fast or slow, I don't care,  I MUST declare the greatness of God!"

When the service is over, may we no longer ask "Did I like this worship service?"  but instead, ask "Did God enjoy my worship?"  "Did we worship in a way that was worthy of the One we worship?"  Instead of saying "that was a great sermon" let us declare "Oh, what a great and marvelous God is our God."  Rather than saying we like or didn't like the music, may we proclaim "Oh, how I love Jesus!"

The growing intensity of my tone here is meant to reveal that I long to be that kind of worshiper.

If we are going to Love our God Deeper, then He will shine through in the way we worship and the way we think about worship.

Father, oh how easily my eyes drift from You.  Forgive me when I'm more disheartened by the lack of singing than I am by missing the presence of Your Spirit.  And when I'm more impressed by loud singing than by the greatness of You, please forgive me.  I am humbled in Your presence and I am a beggar, desperate for a few crumbs from Your table, yet you are inviting me to pull up a chair and sit in the place of honor with You as Your beloved child.  Thank You for what Your grace means in my life.

Do any of my thoughts here resonate with you?  Are you needing a freshness to come back to your worship?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Using Technology to Deepen My Sunday Experience

Each of the last two weeks at FSBC, we have tested out the YouVersion app as a compliment to the worship on Sunday morning. If you haven't heard of this app, it is available on any smart phone or iPad as a free download. It's a new experience for me as I stated, so I thought I could take this opportunity to layout how I intend to make use of our live events, should we continue to provide them. The above pic is from my laptop, but the examples listed below will demonstrate the iPad since that's what I'm using as I follow the sermon. 

Before the pastor begins His sermon, I open the app and search for a live event. Since I have my app set to recognize my location it finds that live events closest to me. There's only one and, of course, it's our live event; FSBC Lawrence. So, I select it and it opens in the drop down bar you see below, on the left.  Each of the scripture texts the pastor is using are in the sidebar but beneath them is a link to turn to that page in my digital YouVersion Bible.  Selecting that link will take me to the corresponding verse in the specific translation being used. 

This shows the drop down with scriptures and outline.

I can close the sidebar and
view the scripture separately.

 You may noticed in the above right picture that there is line in the drop down, highlighted in blue.  It says "Add your notes."  Selecting this takes me to another drop down box where I can add my own notes and thoughts to the Pastor's.  I tend to write tips to myself for later application.  It looks something like this;

I add my own notes to the drop down window.

At the top of the "added notes" box is a place for my email.  I won't enter that until later.  As of right now, our live event is kept open until Saturday.  So I can go back and add more notes later, before sending a completed copy to myself.

Once I vote in the poll I can see the results.

The poll included this week allows me to consider the main reason behind what keeps me from showing more love to those around me.  I pray for Jesus to help me conquer this in my life, so that I  can get down to the business of "Loving Deeper."

After the service, at home, I open the live event again, add a couple more thoughts to the "Add your notes" option and then I email it to myself.  I chose to email it straight to my Evernote account.

I email the notes to my Evernote account

The email includes everything that was in the drop down bar; all scriptures, the outline plus my added notes.  I don't make any changes before I send it.  I can do all that easier once I open it in Evernote.

Here it is. (pulls out the dish prepared before the program)

In Evernote, I select a folder

3 different tags means 3 ways to
find this note at a later date

Once I open it in Evernote, I create a folder called sermon notes and tag it with the themes.  This time it it tagged "love" since the title of the message is "Love Deeper."  Additionally, I tagged it with our pastors name and our series Title.  Now I know I'll have at least three ways of finding my notes later.

After I create the folder and add the tags I decide to make some adjustments for easier reading. I bold the scriptures and italicize the notes I added so the stand out from the rest of the text.  I could delete the poll since now it just appears as text.  But instead, I chose to leave it and create bullet points for the five options.  Looking at those later might remind me of what I still need to overcome.

This is still new to us at FSBC Lawrence.  I may change the way I'm using this tool later on, but for now, I expect this will deepen the impact of the message for me and allow me to think about my action response throughout the week.

Have you tried the YouVersion live event feature?  Do you find yourself coming back to it later in the day?  Do you add your own notes and email yourself?  What do you do with that email afterward?