the passion of one heart the surrender of one life is all i have to bring there is no special time there is no special place, my song of love to sing
in my every conversation and my every meditation, Lord be glorified and may everything i do be a sacrifice to you that's pleasing in your sight
the beating of my heart is all my spirit needed to make music in my youth but what am i to do that my life would sing to you in spirit and in truth?
day by day and hour by hour i seek to serve you selflessly, my Lord step by step and breath by breath i sing this lifesong freely for you, Lord
Jesus' only words in scripture dealing directly with worship, remind us that truth needs to be an integral part of the offerings we offer the Divine. the truth of God is found in God’s word, the bible, and without it our offerings of praise and service are translucent at best.
scripture establishes who God is and why God alone is worthy of our worship. the truth qualifies our worship by aligning our practice with his person… and if life is worship, then the foundation of that worship must needs be the word of God if it is to be all that God desires for it to be. (Psalm 119.105)
If we are to worship in truth then the Bible must be the centerpiece of our worship experience. (Sammy Tippit)
when our lifesong is in direct response to the truth as presented in scripture, contextualized in life and relationship, that life is the realization of God’s greatest purpose for it…
that this life would be lived to the glory of God and the restoration of God’s shalom in the small, seemingly insignificant moments which are the foundational building blocks of God’s kingdom coming…
what do i love when i love you what is the object of my affection God? what is my God?
who do i love when i love you who is my hope and my salvation Lord? who is my Lord?
you shine into my soul where space cannot contain you you speak with a sound that does not fade with passing time the fragrance of your presence remains with me in essence the sweetness of your name does not grow stale
what do i preach when i preach you what is my message of exhortation word? what is my word?
salvation belongs to our God and our God alone all honour and praise to the one who sits on the throne “worthy is the Lamb, worthy is he…” is the eternal song of a soul set free
where do i go when i seek you where do i look for your revelation God? where is my God?
this is a song that came from some life, some scripture (revelation 5.6-14; 7.9-12) and a section of augustine's confessions. although at first glance the lyric might come off as faithless, in fact it is probably one of the most faith-filled lyrics i've ever put to music... it takes great faith to ask questions freely, knowing that God's answer is there, if only as yet unrevealed. as a call to worship, it invites us to explore just what it is we have chosen to accept about the nature of God- what outdated defaults may be in place and how we might, through the questioning itself, refresh our relationship with the divine creator of all things.
probably not an easy song to sing some days.
but up to my eyeballs in fallenness, i'm not sure true worship can come without some effort.
when we take in the scene as described in revelation 5 and 7, we are served up a veritable feast of cosmic worship imagery that makes even the largest earthly worship events seem a bit spare by comparison. however, too often we see revelation as a section of the bible that reveals to us things that are to come, and whereas that is true, it's not the only truth. revelation also reveals to us things that are taking place in this very moment at the throne of God.
time and space are created for us, and God exists outside of them, as does his throne and those who attend it. therefore, when we read of things that take place around the throne of God, we need to remember that these are things that are taking place in the eternal now, outside of this orderly succession of moments that we see (from the inside of them) as the dimension of time.
in other words, closing the worship loop by joining with all of the angels and heavenly creatures in an intentional and active giving to God of that which is his (1 Chronicles 16.28-29) effectively unites us with those who exist with God outside of time in a perpetual and ongoing glory party.
worship isn’t simply activity, it is being. it is not something we initiate- it is a response to the overtures and grace of God. it is not a flow we generate- it is a tapping into that which is already flowing.
Worship is the highest priority of the human race. It is what we were created for and it is why we are here. It is our defining characteristic. (Mike Pilavachi)
although i've said this before, it bears repeating here: worship isn’t a designated time or place- it isn’t a calculated emotional curve or a mosaic of isolated holy moments. no, although these can all be part of worship, it is a gestalt of all of them for the earnest servant of God… it is a day by day, hour by hour, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat song to God.
it begins at the foot of the cross, through the moment of acceptance and straight on ‘til morning. it is both active and passive and therefore all consuming. it is the reason that all of creation exists- to reflect back the glory and the love of Almighty God.
worship is saying ‘Your Are’ to ‘I Am.’
ascribe to the Lord all power ascribe to the Lord all strength ascribe to him and enter into the glory of his name and worship the Lamb for sinners slain
the word of the Lord can raise a mountain the word of the Lord can calm a sea the voice of the Lord has broken the silence of the fall so all who would follow shall go free
RE: romans 11.29... the Call of God has no expiry date there’s no hurry- don’t worry, you can’t be late God doesn’t grow angry the longer you wait because the Call of God has no expiry date
the hours pass for you and I but neither days nor years disqualify it’s not God who grows older, the longer we wait because the Call of God has no expiry date…
so- let me know when you’re ready to talk
the big question of God's call should probably be how might my own journey towards the realization of God’s dream for my life progress through my acceptance of God’s dream as my own…
RE: matthew 19.16-28 sometimes the call of God sounds like a love song… other times it feels more like a negotiation: a large-scale buyout in which God brings everything to the table and sits adjacent to this small independent that is hell-bent on protecting its small-scale autonomy in what is, most likely, the sad state of simply not knowing its place in the larger scheme of things.
Jesus often used loaded words. just go to the red-letter bits in your bible and note how Christ's wordchoice was intentional. buttons were pushed on purpose; challenges were issued; the world changed forever.
still, we sometimes forget that the words we read are not the words Christ spoke. english, as a language, hadn't even been invented yet. everything that we read as the words of Christ has been translated and interpreted in the translation- yet through all of this 'due process' the Holy Spirit is at work, ensuring that somehow the intended meanings remain his.
so when we read Jesus' words spoken in john 14.15-31 about the sending of the Holy Spirit, we need to read these words with an open heart, seeking to understand the Divine through the lenses of our context and experience, as well as through the translated words provided for us by God's grace.
the word that is translated as counsellor in the NIV appears as comforter in the King James version. It’s not just that we would be receiving one who gave advice and direction, but would do so from a place of personal, relational interest, desiring our peace…
This comforting counsellor came upon the people gathered in the upper room to pray at the beginning of Acts 2, and spread like wildfire through the crowd, anointing each person who would receive him with God’s capacity to be instrumental in the redemption of the world… to bring a sense of ongoing jubilee and restoration to our fallen planet; to become love to, for and with others.
it is a wonder that, as we read in acts 2.47, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved…not because somehow the disciples were fools and blowhards (although this was probably true to a varying degree for them all) but because the movement of the Holy Spirit to bring about new life and restored shalom to an environment rife with so much to the contrary is, if nothing else, wondrous.
and that we are entrusted with this legacy, with this anointing to bring salt, light and God's comforting counsel to a world gone mad a couple millenia later is both exaltive and humbling at the same time.
sudoku is usually played on a 9 by 9 board, divided into 3 by 3 cells. the solution of the puzzle is to place symbols on the board such that each row, column or cell contains each symbol exactly once, without moving the initial clues. it's what my parents do on Sunday afternoons to keep their minds sharp in their autumn years...
i'm sure that, when God made prescriptive remarks through the prophets about rest and the day of the Lord, he wasn't talking about this...
but are we able to look beyond the obvious? i mean, could it be that this addictive activity gives us a glimpse into the mind of God somehow?
we know that there are no wrong numbers- simply numbers that are in the wrong place at the wrong time. we know that each number in each row and each square relies on the others to be part of the solution to the puzzle. displace one and the whole thing collapses.
the thing about sudoku is that the puzzle is already complete: the numbers are already there- we just can’t see them.
when God looks at his kingdom, does he only see the numbers that are currently 'actively serving', clues to the order of the entire puzzle, or does he see them all?
you may work in a barbershop- you may know how to cut hair… (Bob Dylan)
self-pruning is a lot like trying to give myself a good haircut… in my desire and effort to accomplish balance and realize or release inner beauty outwardly, i run the risk of taking a little too much off here in order to compensate for having taken a little too much off there…
in our earnestness or our lack of discernment, we can begin an intentional self-pruning process that eventually cuts away everything in our lives including the vine itself... and the branch that cuts itself from the vine withers. we are unable to self-sustain. we must be fed and replenished.
so what to do? if we self-prune we run the risk of cutting our own heads off, but if we fail to see to it that we receive this pruning somehow, we cease to bear fruit in our lives and the bearing of fruit seems to be the point.
Jesus says we are not to worry. the trees of the forests and the grasses of the fields do not prune themselves, nor do they require conservation officers to attend to them- and yet they thrive in the environments in which they are placed. they live in complete submission to the Divine, and as such are exactly what the Almighty Vinedresser intends for them to be.
God is the gardener. what do we need to do become part of in order to allow him to truly prune us that we would be truly fruit-bearing branches, delivering the nutrients and life from the vine to the rest of the world…
remember that fruit is God’s distribution system for seeds.
scripture: john 15.1-6; galatians 5.19-25; matthew 6.25-30
Worship music is part of our preparation... It readies us for an encounter with God. It affords us a sense of sanctuary, a cleansing of the heart and mind from all distraction, baggage and fallenness that has attached itself to us, rendering us incapable of sensing the presence of God and experiencing a life-changing encounter with God that will fuel us into the coming days and relationships where we are to be, as Jesus said, salt and light for him.
A friend of mine made some observations about worship gatherings- in particular, those times when we are released from the imposed structure of the lyric in order to just sing and pray within the worship space:
I have noticed when the spontaneous song is released, so often that is when the pictures and visions are seen. It's as though when the singer taps into the song, the sound being released by the Father, those who see tap into the visual. There is a higher level of faith released corporately when we work together like this, we can go higher than we can individually and we see His creative words and ideas released corporately. There is joy in sound that enters my heart. (Joanne Lepp)
During such a worship time in the small group I meet with, God gave me a picture of his person which I wrote down…
the man of darkened face, unshaven because he's been tirelessly working, covered in mud but smiling- delighted to see new life rising up through the soil. the field/garden is already green. he is not planting- he is tending to these new seedlings, able to recognize the weeds from the desired plants, but pleased to have them grow together for this time.
john 20.14-16 man didn't recognize...
it is the gardener that recognizes the plants, not the plants that recognize the gardener. the plants turn towards the light and the gardener makes this possible by tending to the garden....
still sorting out what it means 'to lead people, both familiar and unfamiliar, into life-changing encounters with God through music, the spoken word and God-honouring relationships'
