What We Sang Yesterday

We were kinda' focusing on God being the Healer yesterday. We had a time of prayer over our sick before we sang Healing Is In Your Hands. I think it was a good time of surrender to the One who is able to deliver. So, here it goes:

Our God Saves
You Alone Can Rescue
Compassion Hymn
Praise The Lord, Hallelujah
Healing Is In Your Hands
Your Name [which we tagged the bridge of Exalted (Yahweh) to]

Purchase these songs on iTunes.

To Worship Leaders

The other day I was fortunate enough to attend SongDiscovery in the Round in Nashville, TN, a songwriting conference for worship leaders. I didn't know exactly what to expect. The line up of artists and speakers was incredible, so I knew that whatever it was like it'd be good. Jennie Lee Riddle (the lady that penned Revelation Song) was one of the teachers. I was in her workshop on writing songs for the church. She told us that our calling as song writers is to serve the church, the Bride of Christ. I'm sure most of us in the room had walked in thinking something different about ourselves from that. She made the statement that, "the Bride of Christ is not a walking billboard for our creativity." This laid me low. She wasn't only talking about the songs we write for our church's to sing. She was talking about everything we lead our congregations to say and do. As worship leaders we're putting words in their mouths. Those words better be good, and true. Glenn Packiam asked us the question in one of the early sessions, "if your church based their theology on the songs you sing on Sunday morning, what would that theology look like?" The fact is, most of us do base our theology on the songs we sing. Do you see the weight of responsibility on our shoulders? We're not playing games, trying to pick songs that elicit the greatest response, or worse, our desired response. We're giving the the church the words to sing to the God who has redeemed them, and called them by name. Kyrie eleison.

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

When Jesus was in the wilderness he was tempted in three different ways. He had been fasting and the Devil suggested He turn a stone to bread to eat. Jesus replied with Scripture. 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.' Two other times the Devil tempted Him and both times He replied with the Word of God. The Word is our defense in the hour of temptation. When I was younger and struggling with a particular sin, the Abecedary told me to focus on specific Bible verses in the moments of my temptation. Jesus said that we do not live by bread, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If we examined ourselves in light of this truth we would see that we have no need for the the things we are tempted by. We do not need that second plate of food. We do not need to spend the extra twenty dollars on another shirt. We do need to self indulge. We need every Word.

In planning for congregational worship I spend a lot of time thinking about which songs to use. I spend more time doing this than focusing on the Scriptures we use for worship each week. Have we given in to idolatry? Have we made our worship about music? Maybe we should spend more time in silence before the Almighty in corporate worship, listening for Him to speak into our being. Certainly there is time to lift our voices in praise. But there should also be time for reverent silence before the King of kings. Let the Word breathe in you before you breathe a word.

If our focus is on the Holy and our hearts are set toward the Kingdom and our desire the missio Dei our time and affections will be occupied in such a way that the temptations of the enemy will be of little significance. In a sense we will be too busy to get into trouble. I believe my grandmother always said that an idle mind is the Devil's playground. I say that a mind set on idolatry is his glory.

O Lord, help us to not make careless utterances before Your throne. Let Your Word be imbued on our hearts and lips that the 'Words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You our Rock and Redeemer.'


Grace and Peace,
Joel

Lift Up Your Head, O Worshiper

The phrase, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," has been in my mind a lot lately. I got to thinking about the old song that many of us know that repeats the words over and over again. Its funny how childhood works it's way into our adulthood.

Psalm 107:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south. [a] 4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. 6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. 8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, 9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.


We all come before the Lord thirsty and hungry. Each one of us is filled with the Cup and the Bread that satisfies our whole being for all time. Each one that partakes. Since I have been redeemed, I will glory in His name. It is in the nature of the redeemed to worship the Redeemer.

Before the rocks cry out,
Before the rocks cry out,
Lift up Your head, O worshiper,
The King of Glory comes.

Grace and Peace,
joel

Once Upon A Time

Growing Pains: Just a couple of years ago (when I was much younger:) I had a strong opinion about my calling for ministry. I felt strongly that I was not supposed to work in a local church. In fact, I believed my only connection to the local church would be one of support from the church, without me doing anything in return (other than attaching my ever so prestigious name to it). I'm sure many of my motives were pure and honest. I know many of them weren't. Its hard to get famous leading worship in the same congregation each week. The Preceptor sat and waited patiently, for years really, for me to 'grow up' (my own words). Thinking about ME two years ago makes me scared of what I'll think of the current ME two years from now.

Conversion: Before I married I took a position as a worship leader in a part-time capacity at a church. I married during my time there. My wonderful wife and I spent a lot of time frustrated with "church." Things just didn't gel. It was supposed to be glorious. It was meager at best for our paradigm. But subtly a shift took place inside of me. I started to lose my thinking of how church is 'supposed' to look. The global Church became more important to me. I started to see the local church as part of the global Church. All Creatures Of Our God And King, Lift Up Your Vioce And With Us Sing. What I've found is that the more I care for the global Church, the more important the local church is to me. The Body is made up of many members: great and small.

God-Sized: I get tired of these hook-phrases. Some friends of mine and I were on our way back to the Rock from Hot Springs after driving to a church, only to find that the worship event we were supposed to lead in had been canceled. All of our gear was in the back of a Ford f-150 pickup, no tarp, it was rainy. We were thrilled to say the least. Out on I-30, between Malvern and Benton we were passed and splashed by a huge RV pulling a large trailer. The trailer and RV had matching flashy paint jobs with some fancy, new-wave Christian symbolism (definitely not against symbolism, just let me finish the story). The text on the side of the RV read: "Doing God-Sized Things." As you may imagine this started a bit of a discussion in the cab of the truck. The rain kept coming. The gear was fine when we got home though. Thanks be to God.

• A water jug
• Five loaves, two fishes
• Gideon's army
• David, before he was king
• Moses'/God's rod
• Thorns and nails
• Pierced flesh
• "Let the little children come unto me..."
• A young virgin
• A carpenter
• Saul/Paul
• A cross of wood
• The early church
• St. Patrick
• Lottie Moon
• St. Francis
• Zacheous
• A heart, willing to worship in obedience

I am having to learn to lay aside what I think is God-sized, and learn that in God's Kingdom, and in God's hands, the weak are made strong through His power and for His purpose.

Grace and Peace,

joel