Healer

So, Hillsong has a new live cd coming out. I was excited about that, you know since I sing a lot of their songs on Sunday mornings at our church. But I became much much more excited after watching this video....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_ny8hMgRY&feature=related

Healer. I mean we always see Christ healing people, and we always pray for healing in our lives, spiritual and physical. But sometimes, personally, I forget to believe that he will. Some of those prayers for healing just hit my ceiling and land back on my lap cause I just do it out of habit.

I am sick. I got sick 3 days ago, a huge massive cold...in the middle of summer. Gay. And when I get sick, I am grumpy. I treat people bad and complain. Plus on top of that we had to move out of our apartment to a different one, so I was just a ball of mad. Then I watch this video and it put so much in perspective. This man with cancer still finds it "easy" to worship Christ and thank him for everything, then here I am complaining about a little snot.

We can praise God all the time, thanking him for all the blessings, the sunshine, the people in our lives, the clothes we have and ect... But this becomes worship, when we thank him inspite of not having blessings, not having that sunshine or clothes. That is when TRUE worship begins. Look at Job, he has nothing at the end, his friends are all telling him to just die and curse God. And he says, no. He doesnt understand why this is happening, but he stands firm and worships God anyhow. And that is what this video is an example of.

Remember that worship isnt just putting your hands in the air because you like a song, or singing in a "worship" service. Its a lifestyle.

Adequate.

So I have this big deal of a decision to make in the next few days. I am not a person that is easily stressed, so this past week has been a little foreign to me. And as always, when in "distress" you seem to go to the Lord more.
So there I am 1:30ish in the am, laying in bed, I decide to consult with God. So I lay there praying that typical prayer, "thanks for the day, blah...I pray for so and so and for this and that." We all do it sometimes, fall into the habitual prayer the old "fall back prayer," but anyways I was praying and truly meaning what I was saying, and I prayed specifically for God to not let me worry about feeling adequate, because I know I am... And then God slapped me and said what makes you think you are adequate, he practically yelled at me and told me I wasn't even close to being adequate, I was actually very INadequate.
As I laid in my bed I grew even more restless, and being confused and unable to sleep. I made a the decision to get back out of bed and watch some terrible scary movie that was bound to be on at almost 2 in the am on the Sci-Fi channel.
As I got up my mind began to race, "am I really not adequate?" Nope. It finally was clicking. I'm not adequate in the least, and sorry to bust your bubble (the one person that reads this) neither are you. Now, you may be good at something, have natural talent or just have worked so hard at something that you are now skilled in that one thing. But none the less, you are still not adequate.
The only thing that makes us adequate is Christ. Jesus' sacrifice was made so that we would become adequate. What is crazy is that the things we do, on this earth to become adequate at (fill in the blank), don't work at all for us later. We can work all our lives to become adequate in Gods eyes but it just won't happen, and we aren't born with it, like a natural talent! Its a crazy huge gift!
What's great is that the more we relize that we are inadequte without Jesus, the more we will strive to be like Him, which in turn makes us more adequate. So relizing your inadequacy equals being more adequate. I know pretty mind boggling, all at 2 in the morning.

all

I am a worship leader. I love it. I love the fact that I get to get in front of people and play music, but besides that I love that I have the "duty" or "responsibility" to lead people into worship. Its awesome. This week I am not at Northstar I am leading for a different congregation and I am looking forward to it. We are playing a song called Jesus Paid it All. Its an old hymn, but a guy named Kristian Standfill redid it and made it very cool. Anyways, I was just sitting here listening to our lineup for Sunday and got stuck listening to this song.
I know all of us know what the word "all" means, but I think therein lies the problem. It is such a common phrase that we sometimes just skip right over it. So I looked up the definition, just to refocus myself, heres what I came up with...

"used to emphasize the greatest possible amount of a quality"
"used to refer to the whole quantity"
"completely"

Wow. Jesus paid it all. Completely. Everything possible. HA! I know its common, the song is even common. But think about this. Jesus paid it all, every single thing. He did it for me and you. If you throw in a different word it completely changes everything. Jesus paid most, Jesus paid some, Jesus put a down payment on my sin.

NO. He paid it all. Every last bit, so much in fact, that there is nothing left that I have to pay. There is nothing that helps me get a better payment, its taken care of. All I have to do is acknowledge his payment, and just hand over the reigns of my life. Something that I need to do daily.

Obsession.

Do you remember those old Calvin Klein ads where people would just be standing around without shirts on, and there was just a white backdrop; then someone would look straight into the camera and whisper "obsession." Oh I get it, the white back drop is a metaphor for life on earth and shirtless means you are still a child inside and um... wait, no it meant nothing!! Those commercials and ads were stupid, they did the job cause here I am talking about it 10 years after the fact, but none the less, stupid and very heroin sheik.

That really had nothing to do with anything I am writing about other then the name of the product they were trying to sell, Obsession. What is that? What does this word mean. Well I was pretty bored yesterday so I thought I would take a gander at the true definition, so here are two different ones for ya; 1. "The domination of ones thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, ect" 2. "An unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone."

I am a youth leader at the church I work at, and two of the girls in my group are obsessed with a Korean boy band. There name...Big Bang. They have played some of there music for me and I won't say its bad, but I will include the link so you can decide for yourself... http://youtube.com/watch?v=cYr9pkxUOrI&feature=related and yes they did steal the whole song from Maroon 5.

But I can't point my finger and laugh to hard at Ester and Olivia, because when I was there age I had obsession with someone, her name....Jessica Simpson. Yes, I was in love with this woman. Now, don't get me wrong this was pre-skank days of Jessica. Pre-Newlyweds fam. Pre-divorce-trashy looking days. I bought her first album and fell in love. "I wanna love you forever" oh it takes me back to my youth.... Anyways, everyone has some kind of obsession, could be sports, could be your g/f or b/f, it could even be facebook. But this all depends on the person.

So my thoughts of obsession turned to the Bible, and I asked the question, "out of all the Bible, who was obsessed with God?" You could probably name people all day, from Moses to Paul. But one person jumped out at me. David. David is the only one in the Bible who is referred to as a man after Gods own heart. It is a known fact that David himself wrote AT LEAST 73 of the chapters in Psalms! Try to grasp this, out of all the Bible the book of Psalms is completely different, its not history, or prophecy, its a book of songs. So David had at least 73 songs, published for people to read over the past 3000 years. I am sure he wasn't the only guy writing songs back then, but he was the standard. He was the Ben Folds, the Jay-z, or whoever you think writes good songs, Chris Tomlin? One of the best examples is Psalms 63. You can see his passion in the first verse.

Psalms 63:1 "..Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."

What in your life makes you feel like this. I am engaged and I don't ever want to live with out her, but the honest truth is I could and she could live with out me, even thought it would be very tough. But David is here screaming out to God saying "God I thirst for you! My body aches and longs for you, I am like a man wandering in a desert!" wow. David was obsessed with God.

You may think you feel that way about some new thing you have. An ipod, clothes, maybe even a girl or a boy. But its fleeting, it won't last. There will be a new ipod out next summer. You will get a hole in your jeans. That girl or boy will break your heart, even if he/she doesn't, you aren't going to hold hands and follow each other into the dark...thanks death cab. Bottom line is you can live without Jesus. You can go through every single day of your life with out him. But as soon as that second life comes around you won't be able to live without Jesus, and you will have lost your chance to.

Obsess over Christ. let me repeat the definitions, and put Jesus in this spot..."Jesus dominates my thoughts and feelings, I am persistent in bringing all my reasoning back to Him, I am compulsive and preoccupied with my relationship with Jesus." If you put any other thing instead of Jesus, it is wrong. But its okay to be obsessed with Christ. So do it.

Grace.

Its hilarious that we sing songs all of the time about grace, and yet not one of us even comprehends how much grace God freely gave to us. I sin everyday. There are things I hope no one ever finds out about because they would either automatically hate me or just avoid me completely. But the thing is, God already knows. Which really makes me feel crappy, you know that feeling after you did something you know was wrong, small or big, you just don't want to look at yourself or make eye contact with anyone, including yourself, you avoid your own eye contact, turn the rearview mirror away so you dont see yourself, thats the feeling I get when I remember that God knows everything ive done. eee. But the incredibly amazing thing is... he has already forgiven me for it. !!! Thats what grace is! God didn't have a form we had to fill out to make sure we qualified for grace, we just have to say yes! I am not only referring to that initial grace when you put your faith in Christ, but the continual grace. I sin everyday, multiple times a day, why? Because I am a dumb sinner. I slip and fall, and God once again bends over backwards, says hey man its okay, and lets me try it again.

Now, dont take this wrong, we all take advantage of Gods grace, but we should never purposely take advantage of his grace! Like saying "oh its okay to do this, cause God will forgive me." Wow, I once heard that said to me, and i wanted to slap the person. That is incredibly wrong thinking. God didnt give us grace so we could live whatever life we wanted and ask for forgiveness later. He gave it as a gift. If you view grace as just a get out of jail free card, you are in the wrong and I would be as bold to say, that you need to look at your relationship with Christ.

God could have done whatever he wanted to us, we were made for HIS glory not ours. "Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come" This is straight out of Revelation chapter 4. He has 4 angels, around him saying this repeatedly, then he is surrounded by other angels, then he has 24 "elders" who have their own thrones, and who bow down every-time they say Holy, what is crazy is that these elders are humans. In all the commentaries that I have read can really place who exactly these people are, but most say that they are people from the old testament, old testament saints if you will . But anyways, picture that, a God that created these things so he could be worshiped, sitting on the throne and surrounded by colors we have not yet even seen, with lightning all around him, enclosed by at least 28 beings all worshiping him. And this creator, had such a mercy on us that he gave us grace, grace which we never have or will deserve.

What made me want to write this was something one of my friends said in passing. He said "I wish churches acted more like Jesus. He didnt have a set of prerequisites to hang out with him." He was right, he wasn't like a bank loan or credit approval, we were accepted no matter what. And sadly the church isnt like that. We will act like it, but we go home and say "jeez did you see that guy, he was wearing shorts, in the sanctuary!" or "that guy smelled like alcohol." --- As I look at what I just wrote, Shorts to alcohol, I can see the vast difference, and it dawned on me, that in a lot of churches these things are pretty much on the same scale in "church offense." ---But anyways. Wouldnt you rather have these people in the church hearing the name of Jesus then sitting in a bar, or drinking by themselves??

The next time you sing amazing grace, put the emphasis on the word "amazing," cause it is definitely that plus all its synonym counterparts. And on top of that realize that the amazing and the grace part, dont just apply to you, they apply to everyone that accepts it. Even the guy that has shorts on in the sanctuary...

spontaneous worship

So this story is definitely going to make me look a little girly, but I think it is one that I need to tell anyways. So this past Sunday (palm Sunday) I was flying out to do some wedding stuff with my future Mrs. And as a plus I did get to hang out with the boys who happened to be on spring break as well. But anyways, I went to church led worship, got something quick for lunch and then headed over to the office to get ready for the easter practice. I got there and started running thru the music and before I even got to the Easter music I got stuck on the song Jesus Blood. Mind you, this was the Jake Holman version from about 3 years ago, one of my favorites. But this time there was something that made me listen to the song 3 times back to back to back. On the last time I don’t know why but the word forever just was just yelling at me. “King forever” is the actual phrase that I just couldn’t seem to fathom. And I was thinking about that, the chorus hit me, “Jesus blood NEVER fails me.” This song uses these constant words. There is nothing iffy about them. He will be king forever, and his blood never has or will fail me! But as it so happened I couldn’t think to long about this, I had some singing to do.
After practice was over, I didn’t remember this instance, I had to much on my mind trying to get ready to leave town. So, I guess it was a fleeting moment of the past…but it did end up catching me again.
As I sat waiting for the plane at the airport I was full of thoughts about college basketball, as today was the holy day of the selection day. But the couple in front of me wanted to watch the news, and since they were paying customers of this restaurant, I really couldn’t say much. So as they turned the channel, I turned to my ipod. I clicked one of the play lists and sat there looking at the planes coming and going and how odd it was that every single person outside had orange on. The song that came on was a song called “Revelation Song.” And as I came to a certain part I remembered the thoughts I had earlier in the day, and how the hurriedness of my day had drawn me from them. As I picked up my ipod to go back to the song Jesus Blood, the chorus of Revelations Song kicked in, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” I froze and thought there it is again. There is no questioning this chorus. It isn’t who might have been, and maybe could be, and who just might come again. No he was, He is and He forever will be. This is the girly part I mentioned before, as I listened to these songs, and thought about my Lord, the assurance of my salvation, and the fact that I am so blessed to have faith in the one true God, I began to cry. I was overcome with humility at why me and not someone else. Now I didn’t start bawling my eyes out, it was more like a single tear, like the Indian from those ads back in the 90s who was crying over all the litter in America. So I guess you could say I had a Navajo cry.
All of this to say God can grab you anywhere, out of any circumstance. I was busy, I had a frustrating morning, and was trying to get everything together and God was like slow down, take a minute. Think about me. And finally I did.

My February 14 aka Valentines day.

Well, I have a fiance. But she is about an hour and a half away and i cant make it down there till sunday night, so we postponed our valentine stuff till then. Which is fine. Disappointing but fine. So I went to work, then had some errands to run, then I came back to the office to pick up some things before I have worship practice. Luckily I checked my email and saw that about 5 of the 7 people had cancelled on me. I was a bit frustrated, but thats life, things come up. So no big deal. So I called my fiance, we chatted for 30 minutes or so, she tried to talk me into coming down for the night but I just didnt really have the money and it just wasn't feasible. So, I hung up the phone once again frustrated because I couldn't spend time with the gal I am gonna marry, but I knew it before hand, so no biggie. Well I finally get all my stuff together and go outside. I look to the left then right....and I couldn't remember where I parked. But then I remembered, and it just wasn't there. Well, I had parked in the Mexican restaurants parking lot, because I thought that I was going to be there for a max of 20 minutes, but that had changed because we didnt have practice. So worst case it was stolen, bad case it got towed. So I went inside the restaurant, ate a taco so I wouldnt be as mad when I talked to the manager and after I was done spoke with him. The manager said yes, it had been towed and had waited till 6 to tow it, I left my office at about a quarter after 6. good timing. Horray.

So I called the tow service. $120 wow. That sucks, and I dont have that in my bank account so I planned on picking it up tomorrow, after I get my pay check. So I decide to hoof it to main street. So I can get a cab. I go hang out at shesha cafe. As I wait for the cab it then dawns on me that I will need cash to pay the driver. Trying not to be angry, I walk down to the 7/11 and take some money out of the ATM. As I walk back to the cafe, in my flip flops, I put my hand in my pocket and discover I had a 10 in there the whole time. Great.

So finally, after I stand outside for about 45 minutes, the guy pulls up. As I get into the car me and the driver, Steve, start to chat, I am asking about his job and how everything works. He tells me he is on hour 2 of a 12 hour shift. He does this 4 days a week and is married. He then tells me its nice to pick up someone that isnt drunk and doesn't need to stop every 5 minutes to throw up. He then tells me that some of the drunk people tip him the most because they really dont realize what there doing. He then asks me what I do and I tell him I am a worship pastor/youth pastor at Northstar church. We chat a little bit about that. He doesn't say a whole lot after that. As we pull up I have already decided to give him the 20 that I took out of the ATM and not the 10 I already had for my 8 dollar fare. As I give it to him I said "Im not drunk but I do want you to keep the change," he looks at me and says are you sure and I said yup. Then he said, hey I've been meaning to get back in church, where is yours at.

So, for people who doubt Gods sovereignty and his plans for our lives, well I think this is a pretty good example. Im not saying I, myself, am some great Christian and good a this Christianity thing, and yes it sucks that I will end up shelling out 140 dollars that I really dont have to spend. But I know that this was somewhat a test, a test of patience and a test of me trusting and following God. And I think I passed, and I know God will bless me for it. Heck, he already has started to, I got to see the end of "Abominable" a horribly bad movie on Sci-Fi. Hilarious.
Happy V-day everybody.