21st Century Worship

He Himself Knew What Was in Man (John #5)

2012-02-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Now when he was inJerusalemat the Passover Feast, many believed in

his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part

did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no

one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

(John 2:23-25ESV)

The Gospel of john is one of the most amazing pieces of literature in all of history. Even if one tried to separate the spiritual relevance of John’s gospel (which would be pointless and impossible, but please bear with me for the sake of the point I’m making), it would still stand as one of the most brilliant works of prose of it’s time. It’s written for the Hebrew and written for the Greek. It’s the first book recommended for new or non believers in Christ to read due to it’s simple to understand message. It’s also a book most studied by men of advanced theological study; there is no end to the treasures it holds in its 21 chapters. Likewise, this verse could be a sermon, or a book. But I will try to focus on a single point and the talking points that come from that one idea.

In this verse we see Jesus acting skeptically, or for those who hat the word “skeptical” I would say prudently or wisely. Jesus knows the ways of man and the hearts of men. In this context Jesus’ had impressed people with the signs he was doing and people believed. Even still, as much as Jesus was surely pleased to see people believe Him, he also still did not place his trust in them. He knew what was in man.

What is in man? What is in you and what is in me? In short: SIN. We fail, we miss the mark, we promise things and never do them. We pledge support and fail to act, we make promises, sometimes knowing even at the time they are not going to be filled. Sometimes it’s an accident, but often it’s not. We envy, hate and lust. We are selfish, greedy and corrupt. We are everything that is just the opposite of holiness, godliness and righteousness.

We need righteousness to suppress, drive back and overwhelm all these things that are in us and part of us. Without Christ, we can do a bit better. Make ourselves model something less selfish; less prone to evil. But to truly overcome the unrighteousness that is what we are made of, we need to insert righteousness. Righteousness is NOT something that is in man. An outside of man influence needs to provide righteousness for us. Something from outside of us placed inside us put inside us so we are changed, different… reformed. Reborn.

Paul points back to the words of the prophet Jeremiah (23:6; 33:16) when he says Christ is our righteousness (Rom1:17,3:22,5:18,8:10; 1 Cor.1:30; 2 Cor 5:1). Yes, he is our means and our provider, But even more so, we need to understand, He himself is our righteousness. This is good news. This means we can stop trying to be righteous ourselves, but instead should daily pursue more and more and more of Christ. And this, my friend, is a beautiful picture of what worship should look like.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

Do Whatever He Tells You (John #4)

2012-01-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and

the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the

wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the

mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And

Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants,

“Do whatever he tells you.”

(John 2:1-5 ESV)

This is such a wonderful passage, and for reasons sometimes overlooked as well as the more obvious.

The most obvious and beautiful lesson we learn from this passage is a simple matter of trust and obedience. We are to do what Jesus says to do. It’s very easy to look at all Jesus said to do, and not do, and dismiss large portions of his teaching and admonishments as unrealistic. But this is not what following Christ is about. It’s about… well, following Christ. Following in his footsteps. Following His instructions. Doing what he says.All of it.

This passage also testifies about Jesus’ life in the years that go before the time we read about in the Gospels. If he was delusional about who he was, Mary's reaction would have been entirely different. If he had been a poor son to his mother, she would not have called on his aid the way she did. The character of Jesus the man is fortified by this passage.

We also should consider the geographic/social aspect of the situation. The site of the wedding, Cana, is according to the maps I have about 10 miles from both Nazareth (where Jesus is from) and the Sea of Galilee (where the ex-fishermen disciples come from). The passage tells us Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. To assume proximity was the basis of their invitation would cause us to include the entire region of Galilee was invited. John (the baptizer) was a social pariah. Jesus was quite opposite (Luke 7:33-34). The invite was also extended to a zealot, a tax collector and a batch of fishermen. Fishermen tend to smell like fish. But they were there. Thought provoking.

Lastly, I want to consider Jesus’ answer to Mary’s first remark. He basically says, “No. I won’t do anything to fix this situation. It’s not my problem, and it’s too soon for me.” Mary trusts him to do what is needed nonetheless. This is interesting. Firstly, if I was the Gospel writer, I would never make up a story like that. I’d write how Jesus was all ready to jump all over the problem. So the story smacks of truth. Second, it tells more about Jesus’ relationship to his mother, and his willingness to do her bidding. Maybe out of respect. Maybe out of love. Probably out of both. He is a good son even to a mother who he has overwhelmingly surpassed.

For me there’s far more to “do whatever he tells you” than first meets the eye. Read it for yourself. What do you think?

Worshiping Him always,

Lee Gunter

Under the Fig Tree (John #3)

2012-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,

“Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered him,

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Nathanael answered him,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’

do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”

(John 1:47-50 ESV)

What I want to focus on from this passage is the "under the fig tree" reference that Jesus makes to Nathanael. I've heard more than a few sermons preached on this passage, and read even more print on what Jesus meant by "under the fig tree". I divide these into three categories: negative, neutral and positive. The negative runs contrary to the surrounding conversation. And the neutral is essentially a refusal to speculate at all. So we will focus on the positive approach.

The positive viewpoint is the most common, the best supported by the surrounding scriptures and where I tend to stand personally as well. If we follow the conversation backward, “I saw you under the fig tree” is an answer to “How do you know me?” which is a response to Jesus saying there was no deceit in Nathanael and that he was an “Israelite indeed”. So whatever was happening under the fig tree was something that showed him to be of good character, not someone being busted (i.e. the woman at the well) or just a passive observation.

Some like to point of the figurative/representative nature of the fig tree, which was often used to represent Israel itself. This bodes well with Jesus reference to Nathanael as an Israelite. The fig tree is also supposed to bear fruit before it gives leaves, alluding to Nathanael bearing fruit in his ministry early. Some point out that a fig tree would (or could. I’m skeptical) be a common place for prayer. That Jesus saw Nathanael praying under the fig tree. But I have trouble reconciling these with Nathanael’s amazement. Anyone could see him praying. so what?

Jesus knew something. His observations would need to be something unseen and unheard by anyone else. Did Nathanael ask God for a sign? He could have. But Jesus says a wicked generation asks for a sign (Matthew 12:38-39). Was a prayer answered, and Nathanael said something in thanksgiving that made Jesus’ remark make sense. This is a very real possibility. I like it.

Better yet, I like to think, and this cannot be proved of course, that Nathanael was praying for the promised Messiah and for Israel - specifically and recently. In verse 45 we read “Philip found Nathanael”… he could have very well found him under that very tree. Part of why I think this is based on Nathanael’s reaction, testifying that Jesus was both “Son of God” and “King of Israel” as well as “Rabbi”. Interestingly, Jesus’ answer was basically, “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” This aligns well with the fact that Jesus’ was frequently accepted as a prophet, but less often as The prophet. And the Messiah, while a sent one from God, was not fully understood to be God Himself made man.

That's what I think. What I really want to know, now, is what YOU think.

Worshiping Him always,

Lee Gunter

He Did Not Deny (John #2)

2012-01-16T23:04:00.000-08:00

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests

and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He

confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

(John 1:19-20 ESV)

In chapter one of his gospel John the apostle makes much of John the Baptist and his role as the herald of Christ. Between verses 1-5 and 9-18 we read verses 6-8 about the witness. Again in verse 10 we take up “ the testimony of John” and hew remains the focus of the narrative through verse 36. Much writing, preaching and study has been done on John’s relationship to Jesus as a witness, prophet and foreteller.

One small piece of this that seems to be largely overlooked is the phrase “He did not deny”. It’s just swept up with all the “John is not the Christ, but testifies of Christ” narration that surrounds it. But the verse specifically says, “he did not deny”. A denial follows an accusation. So what is John being accused of. The verse continues, “but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ’.” John confessed to not being the Christ. His denial is implicitly of being the Christ. Since John never would have claimed to be the Christ, why would they make such an accusation? There are a few possibilities to ponder.

1. Others testified he was the Christ - It happens. It’s how cults come to pass. Less extreme, it’s how people lose their focus on Christ and start thinking they can do ministry under their own power. A good leader… a good minister… a proper worship leader will always make a point to direct attention away from himself and back to Jesus.

2. His actions were Christlike in nature – this is a good thing. John’s personal testimony and the substance of his ministry was so powerful that he presented to the people of his time a messianic type figure. He spoke boldly. He lived a radically unique lifestyle. God was clearly with him. Jesus called him the greatest man born to a woman (Luke 7:28). And this will cause people to be confused. It was John’s job to set them straight, to point their attention and affections back to the true Christ. When we lead others into God’s presence we should be very deliberate about doing the same.

John denies he is the Christ. He says he is not worthy to tie Jesus’ sandals. He states that Jesus should be baptizing him in stead of the other way around. He states that his place is to be less and Jesus should be more. Remember this when you feel undervalued. John ate locusts. You can eat a little humble pie. Because worship is about Christ, not us.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

The Word Was God (John #1)

2012-01-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him,

and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life,

and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

(John 1:1-5 ESV)

It’s been my intention for a while to blog my way through selected passages of the Gospel of John. Not exactly expository preaching style, but not exactly not either. This will be, after all, a blog, not a sermon series. Circumstances have killed my blogging activity lately, but I decided that the beginning of a new year was a perfect time to resume and reinvent my worship focused blog.

Where better to begin than with a verse that starts with the words, “In the beginning was the Word”. This year I’ve made a few resolutions, a practice I am not actually prone toward. The Word of God is deeply imbedded in several of those resolutions. As is a recommitment to my commitment to worship: the practice, the preaching and the promotion thereof.

I love these opening lines of John. It is easily one of my favorite passages in all literature, not just the Bible. But today the phrase I really want to take hold of and savor a bit is “the Word was God”.

Whoever or whatever “the Word” is, this passage is clearly ascribing a status of Deity to it. It’s not cleverly veiled, or obtuse in any way. You could make it a math formula: WORD = GOD. No ambiguity whatsoever. As a follower of Christ, it is easy to jump straight to “and the Word is Christ” with no further proof. But I won’t do that. Some people like to divide the world between Believers and Skeptics. I am, I can reassure you, devoutly both. I believe in Christ, the inerrant Word and in God’s plan of salvation. But as I read, and study, I MUST see the passage exploded and reassembled to take it at face value. In this case we only need read down a few verses further, past the interlude regarding John, the Baptist. Verse 14 begins, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” It describes who they are talking about, and that John bore witness. John bore witness to one man and one man alone: the Nazarene Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Word. The Word is God. Jesus Christ is God. Two thousand years later it’s our turn to play the part John played: to bear witness. And that sounds a lot like worship to me.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

I Am Not My Sin

2011-07-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

In yesterdays Blog we talked about identity. The full post can be read HERE. The point was pretty simple: we should find our identity in Christ. Making my point I spoke of several things I personally tend to use to identify myself as well as mentioned several things that aren’t exactly the places I tend to go but are pretty commonplace overall. The blog makes it’s point, and does so within the confines of a single typed page (a frequently violated rule for when I blog).

There is one significant counterpoint that was inadvertently and serendipitously forgotten however. I spoke entirely of the positive things that we tend to ENJOY identifying ourselves by: jobs, hobbies, sports and intentional affiliations. But a significant amount of time we identify ourselves by our sins and failures instead.

A person who has been convicted of a crime is very aware of this sort of identifying. If you have stolen, you are a thief. If you have murdered someone, you are a killer. For those who have committed sexual crimes, there is a special list people can check to see who’s name is there. John Doe is a sexual predator. It becomes the noun.

The typical person reading this is not going to have murder or sex crimes to overcome. If you do, I am making no judgments about you here. In fact, if you are truly a believing, follower of Christ – someone has already been judged for you, at least in the significant, eternal perspective. But all of us have sins and negative baggage we let identify us.

Alcoholics and addicts identify themselves as addicts. Many denominations and churches see the divorced and assign that unfortunate adjective as the noun that defines them. Perhaps a business failure, a one time moral failure or an incident where you weren’t even guilty but instead were the victim is in your mind the pivotal truth about you that shapes your self image. Bad mother. Deadbeat dad. Unemployed. Underachiever. Maybe none of these are you. But you know what your own baggage is. We are all sinners.

This negative, unintentional form of identification is even worse than the positive, intentional identities we give ourselves. Both steal glory from God. Both put whatever we call ourselves on a pedestal above Christ. This is the definition of idolatry. And that is distinctly bad enough on its own. But negative identifiers also steal our hope. When we look in the mirror and see SINNER instead of BELIEVER we double the dishonor to God. Jesus took our curse and we try to take it back. We stand at the curb screaming at the garbage truck to give us back our stinking refuse.

Don’t do this. If you belong to Christ and believe, you belong to Him, not that sin. If you don’t have that reassurance over the sins you’ve committed and the wrongs you’ve done, you can. God hears your whisper of need and shouts back an answer of hope. You too can believe.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Who are you? Really. Who?

2011-07-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

Who are you? Really. Who?

2011 has been on all measurable and visible accounts a very rough year for me. Employment problems, financial crisis and physical injury have all put me in a place where I barely recognize myself.

Who am I?

I’m a worship leader. Really I am. Where do I lead worship you ask? Well, nowhere at the moment. Having vacated my prior position before finding the full time position I’m currently seeking has left me – well – between positions.

I’m an athlete; a soccer player. Really I am. How athletic am I these days? And how many soccer games am I playing? Well – none, actually. And I’m doing nothing remotely athletic at all. I’ve been injured since February. And getting myself right, fixed and fit has been a longer process than the time I broke my leg.

I am the head of my family. Really I am. But right now, to my shame, my wife (God bless her for her longsuffering love) is carrying all the weight. She believes in me on the days I waver. I’m sure she has “days” as well, but she never lets on.

Jobs, ministry, skills, politics, hobbies, athletics, family and other relationships and things we do can all be tempting tags to hang on ourselves. And while they may accurately describe us to some extent we need to be careful to not let any of them be the NOUN of who we are; adjectives perhaps, if you must. But the noun should always be BELIEVER.

Okay. Maybe you say Christian; or Christ Follower. I’m not fussing over terminology. My point is very simple: our identity should always be first, foremost and throughout IN CHRIST.

The One who gives us life and loves without measure; the One who made everything, sustains everything and reigns over all things; the One who called us to be His own has empowered us to know we are His. To know this – to know Him - Surely that means more than our political party, where we work, where we’re from or what sports team we support.

I’m a believer; a Christ follower. Really I am. How strong is my belief and in what do I believe? I believe in Christ, the Son of God, God made flesh, crucified for my sins and mankind’s advocate before the Father. He is who I worship; who calls me His own and makes me believe.

So I can know, without a doubt, who I am.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Book Review: The Longing

2011-07-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

Title: The Longing: Embracing the Deepest Truth of Who You are
Author: Joey O’Connor
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I suppose it’s a good thing to say, “This book is recommended for a type of person I can think of in a circumstance I am aware of”. It seems to me to be another thing altogether to say, “This book was for me in the place I am right now”. Joey O’Connor’s book “The Longing” asks the reader to look at themselves in light of Christ’s sacrifice and love for us; to examine our life I light of God’s promises. For such a short book Joey digs deeply into the subject of knowing who we are – and who we are not. I was consistently throughout the book thinking of other people I knew who would be blessed by the words of encouragement and Christ centered validation that make up the core message of this volume. And each chapters focus seemed to bring to mind someone new.

Joey writes as a real guy with real problems in a real world. My world. Your world. I suppose there are people out there who this book is not for. If you know exactly where you’re going, never doubt or waver, have believed unbendingly every promise God has ever made for every second of your life… if you live a perfectly balanced life of getting everything you want done accomplished, have a rich and consistent quiet time with God, balance work, church, family, devotional and recreation time perfectly and know beyond a doubt that every thing you do and sat is keeping you in the dead center of God’s will for your life, have never been sidetracked or had your plans go awry… this book is probably not for you. Go back to making toys, because your name must be Santa Claus. Otherwise, I highly recommend giving it a look.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

If you'd like to contact Joey O'Connor, visit his blog at http://www.joeyo.org/

Days of Why: Day 1

2011-07-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

I made a false start at a new blog/journal walking through my current experience of injury, unemployment, death and all things faith testing. I never found the voice for entries beyond the first. Partially due to the difficulty and pain involved with sitting at a computer desk (no, I do not have a laptop right now). I'm deleting that blog, but am moving the one entry I created here for whatever edification purposes it might someday have. So without further ado, here is that blog entry.

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“Why?” is one of the most foundational questions to the psyche of man. When anything bad happens, and frequently when something good happens as well, it makes us ask why. And sometimes when we have what is supposed to be the answer to the question of “why?”, there still seems to be a vast disconnect between the answer and the question.

I am unapologetically a reformed follower of Christ. I don’t force my theology into every life circumstance and conversation, but it makes who Christ is and my identification as belonging to Him functional, even if not on the surface, to everything I do. And this is VERY important when considering the question “why?”. Because every answer to a why question can be responded to the same: “why?” Most of us have at one time or another been stuck, frequently with a child, in the series of questions that never seem to supply a satisfactory answer. Every answer produces another question: “why?”.

There are varying definitions of what it means to be a reformed Christian. For me, it’s not foundationally about ‘TULIP’, John Calvin, Augustine, John Piper or Paul’s letter to the Romans. It’s about who God is and what that means for how I live my life. It’s about the Godness of God. God made a lot of promises for those who follow Him. One of my favorites and one difficult to theologically dance around is Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (ESV) One could do a little soft shoe around who is “called according to his purpose”, but the best contextual understanding forces one to understand this a promise to Christians. Because of this we should always assume that nothing that happens to a follower of God is outside of his control, irrespective of our relationship with him or is not for our ultimate good.

And this is hard. Often. We see earthquakes and tsunamis and massacres. Children die, good people suffer and bad people prosper and we as possessors of minds that at least sort of work have to ask why. And for those of us who know God’s promise we ask more than once and often times don’t get a fully satisfactory answer. We know God’s promises give an answer, but that answer seems so far away from the reality we see that it literally requires supernatural faith to allow that they have any relevance to each other at all.

But even the promise of Romans 8:28 (all things working for our good) does not take us to the ultimate answer to the question of “why?” The answer to the ultimate question is found through the entire Bible is well summarized in Romans 6:10-11, which says “He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.” (NLT) We live to glorify God. Furthermore, the universes purpose is the same. Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane shows us Christ’s concern even as his death approached was the glory of His Father. The Psalmist tells us “the heavens are telling the glory of God”. I could expand indefinitely, but for now, for the purposes of this discourse, you only need to understand that this truth is what I believe. And I will press forward to my point.

Right now I find myself in remarkably undesirable circumstances. I have been in a long term underemployment situation, and that part time job is about to go away. Furthermore, the circumstances of that termination have left me questioning a few of my fundamental ideas of what is right and wrong workplace protocol as well as the sincerity of several people I unquestionably called my friends. While this happens I have suffered an injury that has left me unfit for seeking work of any kind, and at a time when I have no insurance to deal with the problem. Nor do I possess the necessary wisdom to even act in my best interest for proper recuperation, if such a thing is possible. I have spent more money than I want to think about on a doctor who has provided me with valuable insights and information about my condition, but done little to nothing with respect to correction or healing.

So I find myself asking why this is happening, and looking beyond the visible horizon at the ultimate answer, “for the glory of God”. And I have no idea what kind of journey it will be to get me to the place where I think I can even see that promise having any bearing on my current situation - even dimly, or in the distance. I don’t see it there. I only know it’s there because I was told so by the One who I must trust unwaveringly.

And so I begin this journal. I’ll try to keep the entries from getting too long winded, My goal is to do this every day, but even on the first day I am doing my writing so late that it won’t be proofread and posted until early the next morning. So that may not happen. I’m calling this day one. Not because it’s day one of my situation, but day one of the response – and of my journal.

I will be looking at this situation from several vantage points, and probably try to address one at a time so no entry gets too long winded:

Spiritual: I will cling to the promises of God, and know that all this is happening for my good that I would live for His glory.

Mentally: I don’t have doctors, but I have the internet, libraries, networking and countless other ways to gain information. I will use this situation to become an expert on my problem as much as that is possible or useful.

Physically: this might be the hardest part. I can barely walk. Sitting at the computer is a challenge almost beyond me right now. But my goal is to return to full health and fitness or discover the limits of what I can do and reach them. And then do a little more.

Fiscally: meanwhile my wife and I are about to go under if I don’t make some money soon. She has been an angel to me, and I feel like a millstone for her. Somehow the bills must be paid.

There are probably other areas, but I’ve said enough for the first day. My prayer is that someone will read this and relate. I want all this to be a testimony of God’s faithfulness. I don’t know God’s answers now, or how or if I’ll ever be able to move beyond this place I’m in now. So I start telling my story before I know the ending… before I even know the next chapter. And I hope it helps somebody. I hope it helps you.

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Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

God Bless America

2011-07-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

God bless America.

It's a song everyone (in the good ol' U.S. of A.) has sung at one patriotic event or another. This last Sunday just before Independence Day it was sung in churches from coast to coast and a thousand points in between. And on the 4th itself it will be sung, played and performed at parties, parks, and civic events from New York to Nowhereville.

So I sat in church yesterday, listening to the pastor pray for God's blessing on this land and her people, just before we all put our right hand on our heart and recited the pledge of allegiance. The sermon was informative and we'll delivered. The church was very friendly and welcoming. But this struck me as just a little bit wrong.

Not a LOT wrong, mind you. But a little bit. Asking God to bless your nation is certainly not a new thing. Jesus prayed for Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-39) and the Old Testament provides consistent examples of petitions to God on behalf of Israel (Judges 6:7; Psalm 25:22; 73:1; 121:4; Isaiah 45:25; 49:3). But Israel was responding to God's promise given to Abraham as the descendents of Abraham and inheritors of that promise. Israel was the chosen people of God. America, contrary to many American’s assumptions, is not.

Our money says “in God we trust”. But in truth, today, it’s more accurate to say we have stamped our god with “In money we trust”. We pray in faith but plan nothing not in the budget. We redefine marriage, preach comfort and prosperity instead of Jesus and the Gospel and make Jesus out to be a nice guy who wants to be a friend and wants you to be more tolerant of others. Coexist. Judge not. Don’t be so dogmatic. It’s ugly and mean.

America, while in desperate need of a full blown ‘about face’ (which is the definition of ‘repentance’) deserves far fewer blessings from God than she’s already received. Instead of just singing (and praying) ‘God bless America’ this year, try a couple other ideas.

1. Pray that America become more worthy of God’s blessings. Pray we repent of our failure to know, see and acknowledge God for who He is: the sovereign maker of everything, every time, everywhere.
2. Pray for America to bless God. We were made to praise Him and give Him glory, something we do for the most part seldom and poorly.
3. Pray for the nations. You know, those place that are not America. Pray for people who are persecuted by their governments for their belief in Christ as their savior. Pray for the people who have never heard of Jesus and the Gospel and for those who still have no scripture in a language they can understand or relate to. Check out ministries like Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com), Desiring God International (desiringgod.org/io) and Wycliffe Bible Translators (wycliffe.org).

Lastly, I would suggest that instead of asking God to bless America, be God’s blessing to America – and anywhere else you might find yourself.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Fools

2011-06-10T02:09:00.000-07:00

Fools: thoughts from Seattle Comicon series of blogs (#3 of 3).

At Emerald City Comicon I saw some pretty amazing things. And for those who appreciate literary elements that sentence is what is known as an “understatement”. I met enough Star Trek personnel to fill the Enterprise three times. I think the NFL team that dresses like Wonder Woman was in town playing the Seahawks. No other answer makes sense. I saw Klingons, Boba Fet, Little Red Riding Hood, X-men (all of them I think, some many times over), Batmen and Robins, the Joker, the Riddler, Hellboy, a guy with an 8 foot wing span (very impressive) and a three foot tall Iron Man. Iron Girl? Whatever, she was five years old, really cute and her Dad (nice guy) had a heck of a time getting her Iron Man gloves on (“one finger per hole, sweetheart”). Some of the costumes were pretty impressive. Many were downright ridiculous. Which brings us to my point – and none too soon.

The thing every bounty hunter, alien, wolverine and anime at the Convention center had in common was that they decided they would be who or what they wanted to be in spite of whatever ridicule might result. No matter what I thought, no matter what my friends with me thought, they were there to proudly display there costume and make-up mastery and show the world that of the dozens of Spiderman(s) in the building, they were the Spidermaniest (why does MSWord say that word is misspelled?).

I, as anyone who’s spoken to me twice or more should know, am a Christian – a follower of Christ. The costume I wear is not external (t-shirts with crosses and Bible verses not withstanding) but internal. It’s a wardrobe that includes things like holiness, love, charity and kindness. So I do I wear these things everywhere I go or do I leave them in the closet.

I have to confess – there have been many times they did not go with me. I used to have a consistent problem wearing humility and kindness on the soccer field. I wore pride and anger instead. I like to think I do better now, but there are still times I have to remind myself not to go there.

But sometimes – on a soccer field or in the office or at school – wearing the characteristics of a Christian can be utterly awkward and feel downright humiliating. Kind of like the 6 foot tall guy at the Comicon who dressed up as Wonderwoman (both impressive and scary) showing up at work Monday still with his magic lasso and all the red, white and blue spandex hugging him in all the wrong ways. I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t do that.

But we need to. Christianity isn’t a part time job. Worship is not something we do part of the time and set aside other parts. One way we worship is through obedience. We don’t need to sing to worship. Choosing to resist temptation is absolutely worship. Loving others before ourselves is worship. Reading your Bible instead of watching TV is worship. Speaking kindly about someone when others want to tear them down is worship. Even, or maybe I should say ESPECIALLY, when it makes you look foolish.

Worshipping Him always,
LeeG

Ducks

2011-06-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ducks: thoughts from Seattle Comicon series of blogs (#2 of 3).

So I spent a Saturday at Emerald City Comicon. I’ve never been to one of these things before so it was pretty interesting for me. One observation takeaway I’ve made is about appearance. Most everyone has heard the expression, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck”. The quote is unattributed, which means we don’t know who said it first. My best guess is Donald or Daffy but you may disagree.

But a weekend at a Comicon will put that particular bit of wisdom right out the door. I don’t recall seeing any ducks but I saw a lot of other things. And very few of them were what they appeared to be. It was a day of costumes. If clothing and makeup were to be believed, it was a good day to be a super-villain, because every superhero in the known universe was at the convention center in downtown Seattle. I’m also pretty sure the entire crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise had beamed down for the festivities as well. There was even a young James T. Kirk there that looked more like Kirk than William Shatner did – and Shatner was there so I’m not just speculating.

But at the end of the day, nobody is beaming back up to the ship or flying home to Metropolis. None of the ducks are actually ducks after all. And some of them, giving credit where credit is due, had the look, walk and quack all down, allegorically speaking.

So my question is for all of you out there who call yourself Christians – or Christ-followers if your too hip for sad old terms your grandpa used. You look, walk and talk the part, but when you go home at the end of the day are you what you seemed to be at church on Sunday morning?

Does your lifestyle match your convictions? Does the conversation at work on Monday sound like the conversation at church on Sunday? Or are they drawing from two entirely different vocabularies? When you aren’t at the ‘Jesuscon’ (any gathering made up primarily of Christians) do you take off your costume and act differently?

The point is – be legitimate about who you are. As a fellow imperfect follower of Christ, I hope your intention is to be as Christ like as you can. But honesty is critical. Be who you are. The person who comes off as having it all together is not going to get the support he needs to actually get himself together. Make sure some – someone who can help you – knows what your struggles are and where you need help. Maybe you can help them too.

Christ is our righteousness. We are saved and being made perfect because of what He has done, not anything we can do. Yet part of the natural outcome of that “being made” is that we strive to cooperate with His work. Keep striving. Or better yet, in duck terms, keep swimming. It’s worth the effort.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Heroes

2011-06-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Heroes: thoughts from Seattle Comicon series of blogs (#1 of 3).

Last Saturday I was at the Seattle Convention Center for a day of the Emerald City Comicon. I’ve never been to one of these things before so it was a pretty singular event for me.

The best part of it for me was meeting a childhood hero.

In a room full of Spidermen (and women), wolverines and Wonderwomen (and man – that was just a little scary), I was wandering through a room full of exhibits and artists and actually ran into a true hero of mine: the world fastest cartoonist, Sergio Aragones.

I know who my audience is here. I talk about worship and the God who is worthy of worship, so for the most part my reader will be someone who is in church and, by virtue of the fact they are reading this, is trying to learn more about worship. So a lot of you won’t even know his name or anything about him. Very briefly, Sergio Aragones is an artist/writer from back in the glory days of Mad Magazine. I read that deliriously irreverent publication religiously as a boy. It’s not exactly something I would recommend to pass around in your Sunday school class your teaching, but man, it was funny. And Sergio was my favorite. His sense of humor, his drawing style, his stories were all the best. And the borders of the magazine they would have these little mini-cartoons here and there – easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention, but often some of the funniest bits in the whole mag. Later in life I got into comic books. I was a marvel comics guy, and loved my Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and the lot. But at some point I discovered a hilarious comic called “Groo the Wanderer”, which was sort of a take off on Conan the Barbarian. Except Conan is a hilarious little guy about as smart as stale bread. Funny stuff. A bit course though – lots of violence and a bit of leanings toward blue humor – as I remember it. It’s been years. But, back to the point, it turned out the same guy was responsible: Sergio Aragones.

So there he was at the comicon: selling a few things and signing autographs (for free, versus the $20-45 charge some of the ‘big names’ were asking). I bough a book (en Español) and had him sign it. There I was, face to face with my childhood hero. And I’m glad to say he was a really, really nice guy.

Which brings me to my point. As a boy I loved drawing and had a very offbeat sense of humor. So the likes of Sergio made a deserving hero for me. Today I draw less and still have what most consider a very eccentric sense of humor.

But now I know Jesus. I’ve embraced the truth of the Gospel: that I am holy because he made me holy and all the punishment I deserve for the wrong I’ve done fell on Him at the cross. That’s big. That’s bigger than big. How can somebody know and believe something like that and not have it leak into every part of their life – like who their heroes are.

Everyone’s list will be different, but if you’re a Christian Jesus Christ Himself has to be first. It’s Him we emulate, it’s His perfect example we follow. If He drew cartoons, we would desire to draw like Him. If we went to a Jesus themed comicon (disturbing ldea to say the least, but follow me here), everyone should show up dressed as Jesus.

Meanwhile, in real life (no convention required) we should clothe ourself like Christ in a more figurative and meaningful way. We should clothe ourselves with humility (1 Peter 5:5) and serve one another out of love (Galatians 5:13). We should care for the needy as He did and keep ourselves unstained by the world (James 1:27) Robes and sandals are optional. Love, humility, charity and holiness are not.

Who are your heroes? Do you emulate them at all? How?

Worshipping Him always,
LeeG

I Have a Friend

2011-04-20T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have a friend: a good friend. Actually, more than a good friend, but I won’t say more because I’m trying to keep his identity a non absolute here. He’s in his 20’s and has never had a valid driver’s license. He’s not married, has a kid and is dating a girl who has two of her own. She is not the mother of his baby. He has a record which means he will never get to decide about any of the people who govern him or the laws that dictate his life. His girlfriend has a similar situation: a police record that does all that and makes it almost impossible to find work. Nobody hires a felon. Why would they when they have 30 people applying for the lousy minimum wage job they’re trying to fill? They are part of the upper poverty class – or perhaps the lower, LOWER middle class. They get by with a lot of help from family, friends and anyone who won’t immediately dismiss them.

Do you know anyone like this? Maybe you do. Maybe you don’t. Probably you do and don’t even realize it. Unlike the guy with the cardboard sign at the freeway exit, they don’t make the severity of their destitution a public matter. They suffer quietly and only those who are closest to them have a clue just how close they are to a sleeping bag under an underpass. When you invite them to meet you at the restaurant after church they politely decline. They won’t just say “I can’t because I’m broke”. Their phone is frequently “acting up” so they didn’t get your call. “Acting up” is secret code for they cut off my phone for non payment. I’ve heard it said that the average middle class family is two paychecks way from eviction these days. This person is much more precariously perched than that. One argument with the person who is letting them borrow their couch and they are suddenly homeless. No notice, no two paycheck buffer.

Why am I going on about this? Because it matters. Because my friend and his girlfriend matter. Because that person you know living on the edge of poverty matters. If we love God He is adamant that we should love the world also (1 John 4:11,12). It’s easy to love pastor, the elders and the girl who makes your coffee just right. In today’s world it’s easy to keep to yourself and live a life that takes care of you and yours. But that’s not how the Bible calls us to live. We should care about those in need. And we should do something (James 1:27). What happens next door, around the corner and across the world in Egypt and Sudan should be part of our thoughts, our prayer life and our daily life.

Worship is so much more than singing songs to God on Sunday morning. It’s more than a daily Bible time and family devotion; all of which is good: very good. True worship, worshiping in spirit and in truth, means we live our whole life to see God glorified. And when we show the unmerited love of God to others we are worshiping Him spiritually and truthfully. That is indeed the kind of worshiper God is looking for (John 4:23).

I hope this convicts you. It convicts me as I write it. For every time I have done the right thing, there are multiple times I’ve neglected to act. I’ll never be perfect. But I can be closer. And I pray that Christ be glorified every time I do as He would.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"I Have a Friend" also appears in March 2011 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. http://www.kenmorechurch.org/

Personal Ownership and the Sovereignty of God

2011-03-30T23:47:00.000-07:00

I just started reading yet another article that quickly descended into one more argument against referring to anything with any sense of ownership. The money is not yours, it belongs to God. The car is God's. The plans you make for tomorrow... everything is under the control and ownership of a Sovereign Creator. All is in God's hands. And this is all true, and unreservedly so. But it is not the sum of what's true; it is only a part.

People who believe wholeheartedly with life altering conviction in the Sovereignty of God (among whom I assertively count myself) would do well to study history to understand the relationship of Sovereignty and ownership. Arguments can and do occur between Calvinists (advocating God's sovereignty) and Armenians (advocating man's accountability). Ample Biblical support can be made for both assertions, so the arguments come and go with every new generation of zealots. No one ever conclusively wins, but lots of people lose. Words like Calvinist, Armenian, free-will, doctrine, orthodoxy and dogma become dirty words on the tongues of people in the opposing camp and outside the church. It should not be so.

We, the Church, are the Bride of Christ. Not brides, but bride. Singular (same is true for Church, by the way). This is neither an accident nor is it a problem with translation. God wants His people - His Church, His bride - to be unified. To love one another.

Also, there are few truths more important than both the Sovereignty of God and the accountability of man. The totality of God's authority is impossible to overstate. Few things in life - in fact nothing that occurs to me - are more important in life than how one views God. The bigger He is and the smaller we are makes the stunning beauty of grace real and life changing, not just a word we toss around at church. For God to be truly God, he must be sovereign. He reigns over our whole lives, not just an hour and a half on Sunday mornings. And to not acknowledge the full extent of our own culpability is a fork in the road that leads constantly to two different undesirable destinations. One is hyper-Calvinism: where the sovereignty of God produces apathy instead of urgency. The other is a lifestyle wholly disrespectful of God, where men abandon God's demand for holiness because our righteousness comes from Christ. And it does. But that righteousness should CHANGE us, not EXCUSE us. We are saved by grace for good works. Not by good works or from good works. The question must be asked: if Christ's righteousness is not visible in you, it is probably not in you at all.

And relevant to the subject of worship - both truths should cause us to worship God. Because he is sovereign, and holy, and countless other wonderful things, worshiping Him should be as natural as enjoying a favorite food or smiling at a loved one. And our accountability for our own lives and actions should compel us to do good - to worship God with lives of song and service: in spirit and in truth.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

"Personal Ownership and the Sovereignty of God" also appears in April 2011 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. http://www.kenmorechurch.org/

What's In a Name?

2011-01-31T23:21:00.000-08:00

The following article was written specifically for the people of my church in Kenmore, Washington and is found in the February 2011 monthly newsletter. While I use the name of the church - Kenmore Community Church - as a springboard for talking about what the church is supposed to be, the truths are just as real for a church by any name and in any place. Tell me what you think.
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On the surface, a church name like ‘Kenmore Community Church’ is about as simple as a name could be. But in truth, if we truly want to be who we say we are, we bear a name that makes a pretty lofty claim and bears a huge responsibility.

Anyone with a map and our address could tell you we are in Kenmore. But really, in a deeper more sociological, participational and practical sense, are we in Kenmore? Or are we just by virtue of geographical anomaly located in the middle of Kenmore. Is Lesotho part of South Africa? Is Vatican City part of Italy? Look it up. You’ll see.

Which presses us forward into the second word of the name: 'community'. Are we part of the community that surrounds us? Do we interact with our neighbors positively? Is a typical person from Kenmore glad that we are here? Do they even know we are here in any way that actually matters? Do we serve a purpose in our community or would Kenmore be better off if we leveled the building so the park & ride next door could have a few more parking spaces? These can sound like cruel questions, but that's not the point. The point is to be valuable, relevant and purposeful. People should not only know we are here but should be delighted that we are. More than a McDonalds, more than a Starbucks, more than a batch of freshly paved parking spaces we should be an entity that matters in the community of Kenmore. We must be the church.

The ‘church’ is more than a building and even more than the people inside it. The church, among countless valuable and useless definitions, is the embodiment of Jesus Christ within a world he wants to know Him. Again using a world geography type illustration, a church is much like Heaven's embassy located inside the borders of a foreign country called Earth. And this surely complicates matters, because now I have made two illustrations that basically contradict one another: we are part of and we are distinct from. No wonder the question doesn't have an easy answer!

It could be easy to assume as people who have spent a lifetime of Sundays at church services inside church buildings with our church family that we know what ‘church’ is supposed to look like. But do we? I suggest two tests to determine if this is true. First, we should look at the original model of what church looked like and how we compare. That original church is found, of course, in the book of Acts. Secondly, if we are to be Christ's presence in the earth today, we would do well to examine what it looked like when Christ Himself, in the form of man, walked the earth.

And this is where I stop asking questions and encourage you to ask a few of your own. I'm still considering my own answers. They are not easy to come by nor comfortable to live with. They aren’t easy to execute and are not always the same tomorrow as they were today.

We should be driven to desperation filled prayer, awe filled worship and greedy consumption of the Word of God - like our life depends on it. It does.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Church Music

2011-01-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

In the question of traditional versus contemporary music in church, the short answer is this: there is NO solution that is going to make everyone happy. There are, however, many ways you can make everyone unhappy! :-/

A lot of churches use the two services with two different music models (traditional v contemporary). This was only a handful of years ago the cutting edge model of how to deal with the complexity of ministering to both the old and the young in a church. However, in the last year or two I am starting to see some back lash from that trend. The two separate services with two separate music models, which is supposed to deal with the two differing ideas of how church sounds, turns out in many cases to be feeding the division. Several of the earlier churches who moved to that model have abandoned it. Not having a newer or better idea yet, they seem to have gone back to a blended model. Use of both traditional and rock music is common. Depending on the band you use, often the hymns are a little more contemporary in presentation and the rock songs are just a little less edgy - everything is moved a bit toward the middle. Generally speaking, only stayed and true traditional churches are using only hymns and doing them in the piano/organ/choir & song leader style. On the other end is the Gen X church. They are rocking the service with the best band they can put on the platform. There is a place for all three. But which one are you, right?

I have a few pieces of advice to offer. Take it for what it's worth:

(1) Know who you are as a church.

My own church is struggling with this right now. So I am not accusing, I'm sympathizing. An older church with an older congregation should be doing older songs. If your church is located in the midst of dozens of retirement communities, it would be grossly irresponsible to ignore that demographic in pursuit of becoming the latest cutting edge, Bono-is-our-worship-leader church in a city that already has two dozen Bono wannabe's. If your campus is near a college, you better being trying to use some fresh music and not just pulling your set from the tried and true hymnal every week.

(2) Know who you are as musicians.

If you have 4 piano players, all classically trained, in your congregation, no drummer, no bass player and a waiting list of singers you might not be ready to make the shift from traditional music to contemporary services. If you have a rock band on stage every Sunday morning, doing an organ led hymn is going to require lots of extra effort. I see a lot of churches who really WANT to be Gen-X cutting edge music on Sunday morning, but the band they have will not support that. Play what is natural for you and it will be more successful.

(3) Know your congregation.

Here are a few things you should remember: there are people in your church who will worship God like crazy every Sunday no matter what you do and there are people in your church who will not worship no matter what you - or Chris Tomlin or Paul Baloche or Israel Houghton or Darlene Zschech – give them on a Sunday morning. The rest of the church is who you are trying to move into a place of worship. Get the first group to pray for you and your ministry. And make a commitment to pray for the second group. They may eventually come around. The middle group? Watch and monitor what engages them. God is our audience of one, make no mistake. What I am talking about is giving God more people to watch.

(4) Know the music.

I don’t care what style you use. If you present it badly that dog won’t hunt for anybody. If it’s contemporary, get the guitarist to learn their part well. Get the singers to learn some parts/harmonies. If traditional music is used, make sure the organist and piano player work well together and that the music director knows what he/she is doing. These are examples and may or may not apply. The point is, know what you’re doing.

(5) Know your pastor's heart.

I saved this for last on purpose. This is so important, and so frequently forgotten. As we search for our musical identity and our church identity the key player, short of God Himself, must be the pastor. He is the shepherd of this flock, the weekly teacher, the vision caster and all pursuits of the church should coincide with what he is trying to do. This will mean playing some songs that are not your favorites, and abandoning a song or two you really love. Cope. It’s worth it.

So in summary, the best advice I would give to anyone trying to lead worship in a church these days is to make sure you are on the same page as your pastor. And make sure your team is on the same page as you. And know that if you do the best you can and present music that is well prepared and prayerfully offered God will honor that.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Emergency Blogcast System

2010-12-31T11:23:00.000-08:00

This life is a test.

It is only a test.

If this had been an actual life

you would be given further instructions

where to go and what to do.

I remember when I first came up with this hilarious little joke. I thought it was so clever and funny. Frequently, when something I think of is clever and funny it just means that I read/heard it somewhere, forgot about it, and then saw something that made me remember it and I imagined it was an original idea. But then again, I’ve seen a few of my actually original ideas show up years later in movies and on TV, so I guess the world gives as good as it gets, right?

But back to the test. And why I never actually use this joke. And why I speak in sentence fragments. Like this. And this. And. Thi. S. !.

After I made the joke I quickly realized why it was so wrong. We do, in fact, very-much-so have instructions. God gave us the Bible. As much as we want it not to be, it is the instruction manual for how to live life. Yet many will protest. They complain of ambiguity. “I want to know specifics, Lee!” they say to me. “How can the Bible be instructive when it doesn’t really tell us what to do?”

I assert that it does. In fact, far more so than we are willing to live with. The Bible tells us very specifically many things to do that we simply refuse to consider because they are impractical, improbable or unbelievable in our modern culture. We are told to love our neighbor as we love our self (Luke 10:27). Furthermore, we are taught that our neighbor is anyone we encounter who is in need (vv.29-37). If even a small fraction of us honored this command fully would the world look different? We are told to put God first above all things (Deuteronomy 5:7). But do we put God first over our job? Or our family? Or our stomach? Over our football team or our television schedule or our snooze button? How would my life be different if I followed this instruction fully, as if my life depended on it – as if there truly was an emergency and this was how to react to it. So for those who might complain of the non-specific nature of Biblical instructions for living, I answer this way: follow the instructions that are obvious and clearly stated, and afterward you will probably be able to discern the instructions that you are looking for but don’t see just yet. Radical idea, ain’t it?

Radical life changes are few and far between. Our lives would be wrecked completely if this were not so. Some changes are so radical we cannot achieve them in a single change. We need to embrace the change a step at a time. Maybe I can love one neighbor better today. Maybe I can turn off the TV a few minutes before I go to bed and actually pray for a few minutes. Or maybe I can pick up the instruction manual and see what it does actually say. Honoring God and doing His will before our own, while being a truly radical idea, is precisely what living a life of worship looks like.

And now we now return you to your regular programming.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Love

2010-12-29T17:41:00.000-08:00

When one has been in the church for a while it can be easy to lose track of what the fundamentals are. Many of the names who are considered the great theologians of our time are characterized by some distinctive of their ministry or theology. It might be a stance on the Calvinist/Armenian divide or a particular end times view. But there seems to be something that has become central to how they express God to the world around them. And I say this not as a criticism, because many of these men are my heroes.

Lately I’ve given a lot of thought about how Christ Himself expressed God to the people He encountered. And while much can be said, and has, it seems to me beyond question that the best one word summary of Christ’s ministry would be ‘love’.

Jesus loved common fishermen, Samaritan divorcees and tax collectors. Jesus loved those who were over zealous, had temper problems and even the crowds who followed him for all the wrong reasons. Jesus loved. So my first question I ask of myself is how much does love characterize my ministry and my relationship with those around me?

Second, I have to ask what does that love look like? Is it a blind love, that ignores sin and makes no demands for change where there is wrong? Not in the least. Jesus healed the sick, opened blind eyes and showed compassion to all who asked. But His love was always accompanied by the instructions that change was needed. “Go and sin no more” the common English wording for his dictate. We also can look to Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, overturning the tables of those who had made a market of the house of God. His love demanded purity. No one then, just as it is true of us now, was able to remain sinless once they had met Jesus. But this is where the truest measure of His love is seen.

Coming to earth as a humbled man Jesus showed the depth of His love for us. His perfect obedience to the Father for the fullness of His life proved his love for us and for His Father was greater than His love for anything else that might have tempted Him to sin. And then, after being condemned while wholly innocent, He died for our sins and took the punishment that was ours. His perfect love overcame the world and was proven to be perfect by His resurrection. If He had died unworthy we would all be lost. If He died unworthy He would never have risen again.

So the burden is on us to as much as God enables us to do likewise. To love with a love that sees the worth, value and beauty of every soul we meet. To be so marked by love that people will know us by it. And as we gather together on Sunday mornings our gatherings should make every guest feel like we have been waiting for them to arrive all our lives. And our love should be honest as Christ’s love was honest, expecting correction where error exist and repentance where there is sin. Never to push them away for sin, but to draw them in and offer the alternative of the Gospel, the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the kinship of we who are also sinners totally dependant upon God’s grace in our lives.

So join me in letting 2011 be the year where love truly found a fresh new place in your life, religion, relationships and your church. Is there a better way to worship God in Spirit and in truth in this new year?

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Love" also appears in January 2011 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

The Light

2010-12-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I watched a very cool video on Vimeo. Vimeo is a thing rather like YouTube, except for people too cool to place silly ol’ videos on YouTube. No, that’s not quite right. I guess it’s a more likely place to do a video blog and less likely place to upload the video of your cat knocking egg nog into your Aunt Peggy’s lap. I love those kind of videos. But this is not one of those. This was a serious video. And I liked it anyway.

The video used a lot of light, color and text visually while the audio was of little kids reading Bible passages relevant to Advent with some very Enya-ish music going on in the back. Here’s the link: http://vimeo.com/8360104. I don’t know much about this guy’s (Zach Fonville – aka Redferriswheel) stuff yet as he is new to me, but it’s pretty impressive. All the kids have that cute lisp thing going, some of them enough so that one wonders if they are trying to sound that way – almost. It’s so sweet I went into a minor diabetic seizure the first time I watched it. But, after I recovered, I watched it again, so feel free to draw your own conclusions. I have no small amount of disdain for how sugar-cookie-like the whole Christmas (I prefer Advent) season has become. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a cookie now and then myself. What can I say. The video is well made, the verses are awesome and the kids read them flawlessly. I wonder if I can get a voice like this for my GPS? I would drive all over the place for no reason.

There is a point to all this… part of the passages being read were from John’s Gospel, chapter one. It is easily one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. I think John 1 is the kind of passage that Shakespeare and Chaucer would read and think, “Yeah. I want my stuff to sound like that.” And it’s all about the majesty and wonder of Christ. Yesterday it was verse five that jumped out at me.

“The light shines in darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Amidst all the chapter giving great glory to God and speaking magnificent words about the Son of his love I had never singled this phrase out in my mind before. But this time I did. What a great truth. What a bold promise. The verse is written in the present tense. Every time you read it, it is still true now. The darkness has not overcome the light. And Christ is the light. This is awesome! Then my mind called me to another verse about light.

“You are the Light of the world.” (Matt 5:14)

The call for Christ’s followers to be as Christ for the world is not the least bit unusual. We are the body of Christ and are emphatically called upon to be his hands and feet acting on behalf of the word we live in. And if Christ is the source of the light we are showing, it must also be true that we will not be overcome. Yes. We know this already. Paul tells us so explicitly (Romans 8:31ff).

These are the kind of things I like to meditate on. And this is the kind of thinking that inspires me to worship. What should you be meditating on to cause you to worship today?

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Awesome Advent

2010-12-23T17:45:00.000-08:00

Advent: from the Latin “adventus” means “coming” or “arrival”. The season of Advent focuses on the coming of Jesus as Messiah – both as a baby before and a King to come.

Maybe this is why nobody talks much about advent anymore. It has two parts: a baby Jesus and a returning Jesus. If we made an advent movie, which once upon a time would certainly have somehow featured Charleton Heston and James Earl Jones as the voice of God, you could not have similar actors play both parts. Baby Jesus would of course have to be played by the child of someone famous: tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or whichever Kardashian got pregnant most recently. Returning Jesus would be a whole different matter. Think along the lines of the cast of the “Expendables”. The actor would need to be someone artificially created by an evil genius mad scientist who in a test tube combines the DNA of Rambo, James Bond, Jack Ryan and William Wallace. Except he should be even badder. Yet also be gooder at the same time. Yes, I said gooder.

So instead of ADVENT we celebrate CHRISTMAS. Once upon a time there were just 12 days of Christmas; hence the song. Nobody got burnt out on Holiday Hooplah. Unemployment was non-existent because everyone could find work as “Lords a Leaping” or “Maids a Milking” and such. Not to mention that the local bird farmer was stripped clean by new years. Now the duration of Christmas has overtaken even the four weeks that advent is supposed to be. This year my favorite radio station in Seattle switched to all Christmas Music in the middle of November. Some retailers had Christmas stuff on the shelf next to the Halloween candy.

Many Christians will defend ‘Christmas’ like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Tell them “happy holidays” and they will pummel you with a Holy Ghost anointed verbal smack-down of how we need to put Christ back into Christmas. Baby Jesus fits nicely into our 21st century world. We break him out of the box, set him up with all his adoring superfriends in the manger scene and sing our songs of how sweet and perfect of a baby he was. Just like the carol says:

“We love thee Lord Jesus,

Yes, we really do.

You ne-ever sinned

o-or even made poo!”

Okay. That’s not how the song really goes (in case you weren’t sure). But for a lot of people it might as well be. Jesus as an infant is both unrealistically idealized (“no crying he makes”? seriously? I have my doubts) and dismissive of his true substance and character (that ‘baby’ created the stars and made gravity work the way it does). We like a holiday that lets us embrace the creator of the universe as a cute little fella’ wrapped in swaddling clothes. If you ask people to define ‘swaddling’ the number one answer would easily be, “the kind of clothes baby Jesus wore”. Like a brand.

“On sale at the Baby Gap. ® All clothes by Carter ® and Swaddling ® half off now through Christmas! No coupon required.”

And it fits well with how we live our life all year. Work owns Monday through Friday. Saturday we live for our own pleasures. Then Sunday we go to church and avert our eyes if we see anyone who knows how we spent our Saturday. A cuddly cooing baby Jesus wrapped in Swaddling ® clothes would be perfectly happy with this sort of arrangement. No complaints. No crying – just like the song says, right?

But ‘baby Jesus’, even when we do get it right, is only half the story of advent. The other coming of Jesus is when we are revisited by the coming King. Now if somebody wrote a song about THAT Jesus that said “no crying he makes” I would be very inclines to agree with them. This time he’s coming in a way that can’t be missed, with a posse’ of angels, “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt 24:30). In the Bible, scripture after scripture paint a picture of an irresistible conqueror who is returning to take with him those he has already conquered. He won’t be very cuddly. And Swaddling ® doesn’t make anything that fits him anymore. He’s got his own private tailor by now.

The Jesus of the second coming doesn’t like to pop in on Sunday morning for a couple hours of your busy week. He’s not too keen on being forgotten 11 months out of the year, either. The Jesus of the second coming doesn’t fit inside your manger scene. The Jesus of the second coming doesn’t fit inside your universe; it fits inside Him, with infinite room to spare.

So to celebrate this all but ignored aspect of advent we have to move past words like swaddling, frankincense and myrrh and use other words like LORD, surrender, King and creator. To yet one more time reassign lyrics to more appropriate places, “he sees you when your sleeping. He knows when your awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good.” And yes – He’s coming to town. I’m beginning to suspect I’ve discovered a covert Advent carol. Hmm.… During the week He’s your boss and your boss’s boss. And when you have your “you time” that you don’t want Jesus to have anything to do with, rest assured He is right there with you the whole time.

Many people will insist on having a Merry Christmas instead of happy holidays. But maybe, and this is an idea in development here, we should be wishing one another an “Awesome Advent” instead. And in doing so not only be mindful of Christ’s humble time on earth as a baby but also of His promised return in power and glory “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28). And when we understand that his second coming could be at any time we realize we should always be ready (Mark 13:35-37) and faithful (Luke 18:8).

Be ready. Ready for a conquering King of Kings and not a sweet little infant in swaddling ® clothes. Ready for him to come soon (Revelation 3:11). Ready for Him to come unexpectedly (Revelation 16:15). I’d like to see that decorations for that down at the mall.

Have an Awesome Advent everyone!

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Know God's Word - Know God's World - Know God's Will

2010-10-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

I think I need to change my reading habits. Lately, a lot of what I’m reading just tells me that I need to be doing other things that are more impacting on the world around me: less reading and more doing.

One book I finished very recently is “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. It talks about the outlandish love of God for us, and the command for Christians to love the world and each other in the same way; very convicting and highly recommended. Currently I am reading World Vision President Richard Stearns’s “The Hole in Our Gospel”. The point of the book (poorly summarized) is to make the Christ-following reader understand that living a life of faith must include a heart of compassion for the needy, destitute and forgotten; a heart that demands action as well; again, highly recommended.

For a period of time I was reading both books at once, and was frequently unsure whether something I read was from one book or the other. I frequently read more than one book at a time, but try to avoid reading more than one book of similar theme. This was an unplanned but welcome exception.

So I go about my business trying to live my life. Sleeping, eating, working, playing soccer, playing guitar, watching television and trying to do all this with a mandate roaring in my skull that insists there should be – must be – more I could be doing. Pastor Mark recently preached about our need to commit to daily prayer and Bible reading, and he was 100% right. But when God puts it on your heart to do more – to try and live life as the hands and feet of Christ – then what?

I bet you were hoping I would answer that question, weren’t you? A nice tidy list of things to do and not do; a list of how to live a Godly life of Christ’s love for the world. That’s sure what I was hoping for as I was reading. But that’s not how it works.

Everybody’s answer will be different. We should know God’s word and know God’s world to know God’s will. He’ll tell you what he wants you to do. Eventually. Meanwhile more fervent prayers can never be a waste of time. And while we don’t have a direct pipeline for pouring blessings into the lives of starving African children, we can commit ourselves to simple acts of charity and kindness for the needy who live in our own home town. There’s plenty of need in Kenmore. There’s plenty of need in the town where you live and work, too. Acts of love done for the needy in the name of God is far closer to the heart of worship than any song we could sing.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Know God's Word - Know God's World - Know God's Will" also appears in November 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Faith Makes Love Happen

2010-10-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Both Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:8-9) and Jesus according to the Gospel of John (John 6:29) tell us that belief/faith in Christ alone is the single essential to salvation. Many people have a great deal of trouble with this truth because they don't credit faith for meaning all that much. This is the same mindset that says, "we've done everything else, so now I guess we can only pray.” They attribute no strength - no power, no substance - to things that are spiritual or unseen.

But faith that has no affect on how one lives their life is no faith at all. James says “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). While Paul rightly points out that no act or deed (or works) can bring salvation to an individual (Romans 3:20), we have to consider the truth of James at the same time. So if faith is not about things we do, as Paul says, how can it also be true that faith without works is dead (James 2:17&26), as James tells us? Because the change that faith effects is not one that lives in our hands, it's a change that lives in our hearts.

In 1 John 4 we read that loving one another is essential to truly loving God (1 John 4:7-11ff) and is the basis for our confidence on the day of judgment (v.17) . Jesus himself, when asked about the greatest commandment answered that it is to love: first God, and each other also (Matthew 22:36-40). So, you may ask, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? We were talking about faith and works and now you’re quoting verses about love.

Love is a motive. Love is a drive to action. True love lives in the heart, but gives reason for our hands, feet, mouths, eyes and backs to do good things. Even as we do them, knowing that they are as filthy rags before a holy perfect God, we do them nonetheless. Because we must. Because we love.

As a church and as Christ followers this should make every difference in how we relate to one another and our community. We should each be seeking out ways to serve - to express our love (Romans 12:9-13). Instead of holes in our ministry leadership due to vacancies, we should have a waiting list of people longing to serve. That's how Kenmore Community Church truly become the Church (big ‘C’) for the community of Kenmore. That's how you and your church become the Church where you live and worship. And that is what worship looks like when it is a lifestyle & not just an hour of singing and listening on Sunday morning.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Faith Makes Love Happen" also appears in October 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Furb

2010-09-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed the privilege of attending the graveside service for Jonathan Jolley’s father Furb on Friday (Sept. 10). I was, of course, there to honor the only part of Furber C. Jolley Jr.’s life I was aware of: his legacy, Jonathan. I was introduced to a man who, and I quote Furb’s pastor, “everywhere Furb looked he saw the glory of God.”

He valued learning and loved books, even choosing them as gifts when he wanted to give someone something of true value. More than one person told of his incomprehensible “deliberate vocalizations” that had become his voice of worship after the capacity to sing understood lyrics had left him. He liked to make up music on the spot, and liked to live his whole life that way: on the spot, optimistic and impulsively, full of faith and hope. I want to thank Jonathan for being part of our church family and giving me the chance to hear the testimony of a wonderful saint who if our times had been aligned more closely we could easily have been great friends.

This week was Furb. Last week we held the memorial service for Don Loeffler, one of our own at Kenmore Community Church, right in the very room we worship in each week. Next Wednesday I fly to California to see my Grandmother who’s passing is imminent.

Every day is a gift. We are like a vapor. One way I like to express it is, ‘we are like figments of God’s imagination.’ The whole universe is just the patio of the house of God: a time and place for us to decide whether we will enter (by Christ alone) or we will decline.

Psalm 84:10 teaches us that a single day in the house of God is better than a thousand anywhere else. We are also told that to rejoice and be glad today - this day - the day that the Lord has made for us (Psalm 118:24).

Don’t let a single day go to waste. Follow Furb’s example and find the glory of God everywhere you look. God put it there so we could find it. Furb saw it, and so ca you and I.

Let’s worship him together. This day, right now, for ‘this is the day’ for us to rejoice in Him.

First Love

2010-09-07T00:16:00.000-07:00

What is the thing you most love to do? Think about it. Really. Stop reading for a minute and think about your answer - what is the one thing that you love to do more than anything else? Do you have something in mind? Until you do, don’t bother to read further. When you have an answer, then keep reading.

You got something now? Good! I want to ask you a couple questions about that thing, but before I do I want to explain something a bit embarrassing: I don’t like my own answers to the questions I’m about to ask. First of all, you don’t have to express anything out loud or in writing. This is all between you and God. Second, there is no way you are going to have all the right answers. If you do, I suspect your cheating or not answering truthfully.

First - what does the thing you love the most reveal about your heart’s desire? Is it food or leisure or have something to do with family? Where is the longing for God in the thing you love to do the most? Or does that thing reveal a longing for food to be greater? Or for relaxation. Maybe you have a loved one - a son or grand-daughter of spouse - who is the apple of your eye? Is time with that person more valuable to you than time with God? For me, one thing I love maybe more than anything else is quiet time when I can read a good book: some piece of great fiction that draws me into the story. Does that mean I value the fantasy world created by a novelist more than the real world created by God?

The short answer is “yes”. I am just as guilty as you are; probably more. But fortunately, that’s not the end of the conversation. There is a follow up question.

With a clear understanding that our hearts desire tends to NOT be toward God, the next thing to do is look at who we are, what we are and what we do and ask the simple question, “How do I make this more about God?” Paul touches on the answer when he tells the Corinthians, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We can, and are commanded to, do everything we do in such a way that god is given the glory.

First, we should not sin. If we are violating God’s commands, we are stuck until we fix the situation. Better said, we are stuck till we let God fix it for us. While it is true that God is glorified by our repentance and acceptance of grace, he is also explicit that sinning for sake of making grace increase is not how to live (Romans 6:1). Second, we should be thankful. The Westminster Creed (one of the very fundamental “this is what we believe” statements of the Christian church) states, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” Joy is part of God’s mandate to us. A wrong and harsh way to understand this would be to try and remove ourselves from anything other than God Himself that gives us pleasure. Much better, and much more focused on the truth that all things good are from God (James 1:17) and meant for our enjoyment (Philippians 4:8), is to give due thanks to God for the things we enjoy. God created the universe that His glory would be magnified. We are part of that universe. Thank God for the wonderful meal, the loving family and the beautiful sunset. Acknowledge Him as the creator and Lord of it all. Enjoy Him. Enjoy His creation. Give Him glory in even the simplest and smallest of pleasures in your life. He caused them all.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"First Love" also appears in September 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Too Wonderful

2010-08-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

“I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ~ Job 42:2-3

We live in turbulent times. The optimism of the 80’s has faded from our minds. The universality of duress and want is headline news. Everybody suffers; everyone needs. We could use a bit of the kind of wisdom the Bible has to offer in these sort of circumstances. But as we look to the Word of God for understanding - for some answer to the question ‘why?’ - we don’t always see the answers we were hoping to find. What we find instead is a call to faith and trust.

The first thing I would ask for is a sense of perspective. If you are reading this as a newsletter article that means you probably live in the greater Seattle area. You have a place you can call home. The newsletter you are reading is a publication of a church full of people who care about you. If you are reading this in a blog that means you have access to a computer, not to mention electricity, internet access and all the other taken-for-granted amenities that go hand in glove with such conveniences. We do well to remember that vast portions of our world have none of these things. To aspire to the standard of living that many of us have fallen to is beyond the imagination of most of the world’s population.

More importantly, not withstanding the fact that our ‘hard times’ are perhaps not so hard as we think, we need to consider God’s part in our situation. The quote above is from Job. The requiem we sing over our own sad tale sounds like cheers from a high school pep rally compared to the song Job could sing! And we could just as easily examine the life of King David (read Psalm 41 for example), the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11:20-30 provides us a nice summary of a few of his ‘challenges’) or the ‘faith hall of fame’ of Hebrews 11 for similar perspective giving insight.

But in Job we have a story of grand contrasts. Great wealth is followed by great loss. Unwavering faith is tested by devastating trials. Sixteen times in the book of Job we hear the question that seems to be the one word manifesto of the 21st century mind and the favorite prayer of wavering and overwhelmed Christians all over the world.

“Why?”

The key to our answer to this question lies in how God answers the question for Job. He doesn’t. As Jerry Bridges says, “God never answers Job’s ‘Why?’ Instead He answers ‘Who.’” (Trusting God, p. 124) The ‘Why’ question, while not entirely out of bounds (Job asked it, David asked it, even Jesus asked it), should always be a question and never an accusation. Sometimes ‘why’ means ‘‘I want to understand better’. Other times it means, ‘how dare you?!’ The book of Job is chapter after chapter of the question why and poor attempts at answers. It is not until the final chapter of the book where Job realizes no answer will do. Any answered that touched upon the depths of the truth of God’s wisdom, love and holiness were simply beyond his ability to understand. As Job says, “things too wonderful for me.”

Woven into the fabric of your life and mine, including every trial, hurt and crisis, are things too wonderful for us to understand. Such is the nature of God, who does all things for the sake of His own glory and the good of those He loves. Too often we blame God instead of trust Him. Sometimes God is removed from blame - somehow that one got by him on the sly. No. God works all things for our good.

Do we understand? No. Do we need to? Again, no. Do we desperately want to? Well, yes.

So how, then, do we worship God? In trust. We faithfully believe in spite of every evidence of the senses that God is always fully in control and has for us an end in mind that is ‘too wonderful’ for us to comprehend.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

a shorter version of "Too Wonderful" also appears in August 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Three Weddings and a Funeral

2010-07-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

A few years back there was a movie out called ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. It came to mind this afternoon when I was contemplating what the worship ministry of Kenmore Community Church is and isn’t supposed to be. I have, and have had, a three part focus of what I want the ministry to be. Today I even thought of three words that all start with ‘PR’ to represent each of those emphasis. Then it occurred to me that there was another ‘PR’ word for the thing I most do not want to do. And that’s when the movie came to mind. More the title than the movie itself. I had a list of three ‘yeses’ and one ‘no’ and even though the math is bad (three does not equal four, so they tell me) the illustration occurred to me. But enough with why the title. Let me get on with telling you what the worship ministry of Kenmore Community Church is and is not all about.

PRACTICE WORSHIP: no, this does not mean we rehearse a lot. Think in terms of a medical practice, or the expression “practice what you preach”. The actual act of worship is the essence of this mandate. No amount of great music can replace the real experience of exalting and adoring God. The practice of worship is an essential, validating point of why there is a church at all. We are here to honor God. Also, to contradict what I said earlier, we are ‘practicing’ in one sense. The praise and celebration we experience here and now are but a shadow of what we can hope for in heaven. Another expression says “practice makes perfect”. So let’s keep practicing. One day it will be perfected.

PREACH WORSHIP: this means I’m actually plotting to take pastors job. HA! Yeah, right. What I’m really talking about is the teaching element of the worship ministry. Just as preaching is the primary teaching component of the church as a whole, I’m borrowing the word to express the essentiality of teaching about worship. Worship means a lot of things to a lot of people. The crazy thing is, most of the people are at least partially right. Worship is music (in part). Worship is the time we meet on Sunday (a worship service). Worship is a lifestyle, an expression to God of appreciation for what he has done and a lowering of oneself to exalt another. A clear understanding of which of those definitions impact our lives (and, communally, our congregation) the most and in what way will have immeasurable impact on every part of our life.

PROMOTE WORSHIP: this means I’m still after pastors job. I want a promotion. Yeah, I’m still kidding – of course. This purpose (or should I say PROCLIVITY and keep the whole ‘PR’ thing going?) is about getting others to worship with me. Contagious worship is a term thrown around. A couple years ago Pastor Mark planted the word ‘winsome’ in my mind and it still resonates there. If the praise and worship I offer to God on Sunday morning is not helping others worship as well, it’s not fulfilling one of its primary functions. Sometimes I have to remind myself that if a person comes to church Sunday morning with no desire to worship God, there is little I can do to change their mind. Making people worship who don’t want to is like pushing a rope. But before I cop out entirely, I refer myself back to the teaching aspect of point two: preach.

PREVENT WORSHIP: hopefully you understand this is the ‘funeral’ of the list. We do not want to and cannot prevent worship. Failing this, instead of me taking pastors job, he’ll be looking for someone else to do mine. And well he should! Unfortunately, there are some unavoidable things that come up and worship is in fact prevented. Technical errors, human error and unplanned interruption can prevent worship. When the kids are brats on the ride to church and the coffee spilled all over the driver side floor mat effective and honest worship is inevitably harder to accomplish. My concern here is more about the things I can do to keep you from drawing close to God. If the music is performed badly, this can prevent worship. Also, I have learned that if the music is too GOOD this can distract from worship just as easily. Too many slow songs or too any fast songs; too many old songs or too many new songs; doing songs too often or too seldom… these can all prevent people from worshiping honestly and openly. Bear in mind, each person’s idea of where the extremes begin and end is different. I try to present an opportunity for worship that is as compelling as possible to as many people as possible. I use my best educated judgment, the consensus of my peers, input from my team and above all this I try to listen to God’s Spirit for direction. And in the end I defer to Pastor (Lee’s Rules #1: Pastor Mark is always right) as needed.

God wants us all to be worshipers. More specifically, he wants you to worship him. I pray I can help you do that, and pray I can do the same. But ultimately we are each responsible for our own response to God. Let worship be what each and every one of us is about, so we can enjoy the privilege of worshiping Him.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

God Knows

2010-06-30T23:43:00.000-07:00

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity;

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”

and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

(Psalm 32:5 ESV)

God is omniscient. He knows everything.

One of the most foreboding aspects of this truth is that you and I are part of ‘everything’. If you think about that a little bit it could be a bit scary. If you think about it long and hard, it becomes very scary.

We are human. We all have faults, make mistakes, do things we later – or immediately – regret… in short, we are sinners. We have secrets from our parents, our kids, our siblings and even our spouses. Psychology tells us we even have secrets from ourselves; there are things simply too painful, hurtful or demoralizing for our brains to hold onto. Sometimes the secrets hide our shame. Sometimes we know that disclosing the truth would hurt others. Truth gets rationed out on a ‘need to know’ basis.

It would certainly do us no good to confess every failure in our life to everyone we meet. But we should do just that when we talk to God. For one thing, the Bible tells us to confess our sins (1 John 1:9) and that confession to God brings us into covenant with God (Leviticus 26:40). Still, even if one sets aside the Biblical demands and promises related to confession, the simple inescapable fact is this: God already knows. Every sin committed and every sin contemplated, every bad motive for a good deed and bad deed left undone only because the opportunity passed, God knows. And that is scary. I’m talking wrath of God kind of scary.

But in the indiscernible wonder of how God made the universe, the greatest threat to us (God’s own Holy wrath) is resolved by the greatest gift to us (God’s own Son who died for our sins). There is a saying that goes, “He who knows us best, loves us best.” That tears my mind apart trying to make sense of it.

So where do we go from here? First we must recognize we are compelled to tell God everything. True, He knows already, yet he tells us still to confess. Second, we should find peace in knowing that God is willing and able to forgive us for every sin. Third, we should go forward committed to worshiping God with a life of love and obedience. And then when we fail again, know that God already knew about that one, too. That is why we always do and always will need Christ. The glory and the honor and our righteousness are all His, forever and ever. Amen.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

"God Knows" also appears in July 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Why Sing?

2010-06-29T03:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever come into church on Sunday morning and simply did not feel up to singing? Worship was the last thing on your mind? Surely we all have the kind of day at one time or another. For some, it might even be more regular than that.

Let me tell you a short story. A close friend of mine sat to eat with the few friends who were closest to him. They were the same guys he worked with, hung out with, shared his secrets with. At this meal he shared some very significant news with them. He was their boss, and they were all about to lose their jobs. He expected to die. In fact, he KNEW he was going to die. Among the close friends he had gathered with him was a traitor – the man who would cut a deal with his enemies to make the whole downwards spiral possible. And after this meal that was full of foreboding news of change and death and betrayal – they sang a song together before they left. Kinda’ weird, isn’t it? But this is my version of the story. Let’s hear a better one:

“And when it was evening, he came with the twelve. And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.” They began to be sorrowful and say to him one after another, “Is it I?” …And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take, this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (Mark 14:17-19,22-24)

Luke’s account of the story also talks about Jesus anticipating suffering (v.22:15) We also see this is the place where Peter’s denial of Christ is predicted. (vv.31-34)

Nonetheless, the next thing we read (Mark 14:26) is: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” [italics added]

How many morning do you experience suffering, denial, betrayal – knowing your day would culminate in things like an illegal arrest, a kangaroo court trial, or painful death. Me either. Long before anyone ever found my singing to be any kind of a source of joy, I found my joy in Jesus Christ and what he did for me. So when others sang the songs of celebration, thanks and encouragement, I sang, too. And I got a little better at it. People complain less now, at least.

The point to all this is very simple. Why do we sing? Is it because we have a great voice and love to be heard? Or because we love the song the band is playing? Or perhaps because the worship leader is browbeating us to do so? No, no and no. It’s because we have something worth singing about. So when Sunday morning comes, sing out. Show a bit of the joy you feel inside. Tell Jesus I surrender all and testify of the wonderful cross and pray the prayer here I am to worship. I look forward to hearing you Sunday morning.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Why Sing?" also appears in August 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

In Many Ways

2010-06-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,”

And thus begins the letter to the Hebrews (1:1). When I read this I did what I usually do – ask myself questions about what is not said within the things that are said. When is ‘long ago’? While that’s not real specific, the question “how long ago?” is not especially interesting to me. The end of the verse is pretty clear. We see God speaking, the fathers (pre-Christ Israelites) listening, and the prophets used as a medium to communicate to them. The middle part of the verses discusses specifically how they were used. This part of the verse gives the great opportunity for question. ‘At many times and in many ways’ is the exact wording of the verse. I found that interesting; question inspiring even.

Their WORDS: If you are like me, it’s easy to jump to the obvious conclusion: God spoke to the fathers by the prophets through prophesy. But that’s not what it says. This is only a partial truth. Prophesy is surely one of the ways, and several of the times. But there are more times, and there are more ways. What are the other ways God spoke through his prophets?

Their SUCCESSES: The lives of the prophets frequently displayed great faith and great actions to accompany that faith. My mind immediately goes to Elijah’s contest with the false prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). I think also of Nehemiah who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. More than words were being used as God communicates his glory and faithfulness in both these events.

Their FAILURES:, Much can be learned from the failures of the prophets as well. The classic example is our friend Jonah, who when God told him to go to Ninevah tried to sail off the opposite way. In the end, the will of God would not be thwarted and God’s mercy was shown to a once ungodly city. And we need look no further than Elijah (again!) to see God speak through the failure of his prophet when on the heels of his great victory he is found fleeing for his life from Jezebel (1 Kings 19).

This of course was in Old Testament times: ‘our fathers’. ‘In these last days’ as Hebrews goes on, there is another way God speaks to us: ‘he has spoken to us by his Son’. God speaks to us! Surely this is cause for worship? The writer of Hebrews thinks so. The next three verses (1:2-4) go on to magnify and glorify the works and virtue of Christ. Let’s read and worship with him.

“but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom
also he created the world. He is the radiance of the
glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and
he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as
much superior to angels as the name he has inherited
is more excellent than theirs.”

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"In Many Ways" also appears in May 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

The God Box

2010-06-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago people would frequently refer to creative or innovative thinkers as people who think ‘outside the box’. Eventually, the expression was so overused using the term ‘outside the box’ only proved you were quite clearly inside the box. But the need for thinking that broke traditions and expanded traditional borders never went away. Our world and lives are richer because people are able to take what we have and come up with new and better ideas.

Computers, televisions, cars, airplanes, architecture… we could go on for days trying to exhaust the list of things that are today unthinkably advanced to the mind of only a few dozen years ago. And these are all finite things. So what about the infinite?

What about God?

The desire to know and understand God is good. The risk lies in how we go about it. We see in the Bible similes to help us understand God: He is like a Father (Luke 15:11-32), a judge (Luke 18:1-8), a shepherd (Psalm 23), a landowner (Luke 20:9-16) and countless other things. And just as it is desirable to learn about and understand God, these passages – and the whole Bible for that matter – exist for the express purpose of making God knowable to us.

The risk is this: just as the Psalms, parables and other scriptures are an effort to describe some part of God – some aspect or truth of his nature – there is always a limit to our understanding. Finite minds contemplating an infinite Deity are not going to be able to find, know or understand the whole of Him.

Which brings us back to the box. As human beings we tend to define things in human terms: our understanding of love, justice, truth, good… all exist inside the box we call our brain. So as we (rightly so) try to impress these attributes upon God we compress our understanding of God into that same box (wrongly so). The results vary. For some, they ask questions like “How can God let people go to hell” or “If God is all powerful and loving, why do we have earthquakes that kill thousands?” For some the question is more personal: “Why did God let my baby die?” “Why do I never have enough money to pay all the bills if God is my provider?” “Why does life hurt so much?”

First, it’s okay to ask questions. Questions like these make up half the book of Psalms! But we must remember when we ask these questions, we are looking into a box and trying to figure it out. The Psalmist inevitably concludes with words of trust and praise. He sees no answer inside the box and concludes that the answer – God – lies outside the box.

If we see God’s love lacking in some area, we need to shift our viewpoint. God’s love has no lack, so any lack we perceive indicates lack of understanding how perfect love works. If God somehow seems unjust, the measure of injustice is instead a measure of lack of understanding about true, divine, timeless justice. Where we see lack of goodness in God we reveal lack of goodness in ourselves. God is the rule, and we are the measured. Not the other way around.

Worshiping him always,
LeeG

"The God Box" also appears in June 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Why Would God Love Me

2010-05-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

"I grew up in Sunday school

I memorized the Golden rule

And how Jesus came to set the sinner free

I know the story inside out

I can tell you all about

The path that led Him up to Calvary

But ask me why He loves me

And I don't know what to say

But I'll never be the same

Because he changed my life when He became

Everything to me…"

Thus begins the song “Everything to Me” by the contemporary Christian group Avalon (words and music by Chad Cates & Sue C. Smith). I’ve sung along with it on the radio countless times. The tenor has the first verse and does an awesome job, so I try to sound just like him when I sing it.

Today I cut myself short, though, as I pondered the words a little bit more than I usually do. “But ask me why He loves me and I don’t know what to say…” I like a good question, so I thought about the one inferred here: why would God love me? This is a good question, but not quite as imponderable as the song lets on.

The song is about loving God – about making Him your everything. And this is why the question has no answer, because the question “why does God love me?” has no answer that’s about us. It’s about Him. It’s about the bigness, the greatness, the immeasurableness – of the love of God. Paul writes in Romans “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Before we made one move in God’s direction; before our first prayer, our first act of kindness from a pure motive, God, who will not ever be in the presence of sin, loved us.

Were we worth it? No, not even close. That’s the dilemma of the song. But the answer is not found in our worthiness. It’s in God’s capacity for love – to love. As always seems to be the case, once you start looking for solutions that give the most glory to God, questions start getting answered. He loves me because He is that wonderful, because he is that glorious, because He is that worthy of worship.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Why Would God Love Me" also appears in July 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Rule #3 (b) - Exclusion Whenever Absolutely Necessary

2010-05-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

Lee’s Worship Team Rules #3 (part 2 of 2):

… exclusion whenever absolutely necessary.

(If you have not already read the blog for part one of rule 3 – “inclusion whenever possible” – I would strongly encourage you to do so before reading this material. I would hate for things to be taken out of context or inappropriately applied.)

And this is where we address the second part of rule 3, ‘exclusion whenever necessary’. There are a few circumstances that can bring this to pass.

First, and most obvious, is simply a lack of skill. Every group of worship leaders I have ever been involved with has had this conversation at one time or another: “what about the person with a genuine heart for ministry but a voice for silent film?” you handle the situation delicately and with love. Every situation will be unique. There is no boilerplate answer to how to deal with situations like this. They may need to be encouraged to pursue another ministry or they may simply need further training. Again - each situation is unique.

Second, there are times when a person’s lifestyle disqualifies them from ministry. I won’t go into what that means here. You know what that means for you and your ministry. My only advise would be, whatever your standard is, stand by it.

A third situation that is not uncommon is the simple situation of a poor fit. Sometimes a person has the needed skill and there are no sin issues preventing them from participating, but they simply don’t fit into the team. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. As is true for all situations where person might be asked to stand down from a ministry, this needs to be handled with discretion and lavish amounts of love.

When forced to exclude someone from ministry, there are few rules that can make a significant impact in how painful it needs to be: (1) pray (alone) about the whole thing, for wisdom and grace, (2) pray with the person effected, (3) be in agreement with the senior pastor in the matter (reference rule #1), (4) continue praying for and loving the person even after they leave your ministry circle, (5) seek ways to improve the persons situation: whether they need more skill, more holiness or a whole other ministry opportunity help in whatever way you can to make those things happen. Actively seek to help and improve their situation.

Ideally, when someone has been excluded, it will eventually lead into the circumstance that is best for them and most honoring to God. If they lack skill or training, they will be trained to do better or in many cases find a ministry that more suitably exercises the talents they do display. If sin is the issue, we of course desire for them to overcome the fault and become more Christlike (a good prayer for ALL of us!). And if there are issues with the person fitting in the team, pray for bonds of love and friendship that will eventually allow the person to take part in the future. Short of that, ask God to join your hearts and minds in Christ in ways irrespective of your worship ministry. In other words, don’t let a ministerial ‘bad fit’ cause any kind of rift between you (or your team member) and their brother/sister in Christ.

When handled with discretion, wisdom and most importantly love, the exclusion of a person from your ministry does not have to be a crisis. Well handled, it could even be the launch point of something great.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Rule #3 (a) - Inclusion Whenever Possible

2010-05-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

Lee’s Worship Team Rules #3(part 1 of 2):
inclusion whenever possible, …

(Part two of rule #3 is being addressed in a separate blog article. Short rule, long explanation…)

As we strive in our ministry to pursue excellence and consistency, this is an easy rule to ignore. It would be easy, at least in the short term and even medium term, when building a ministry team to always move from strength to strength. Find better players. Make the band better.

I have been involved in the game of soccer since I was four years old. I have coached or managed numerous teams over the years. When I was younger and more competitive (fiercely competitive actually) there was a model for how I maintained a team. First, you gather together the best group of players you can persuade to join you. Get good players. Second, you use each person in such a way as to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Put your goal scorers up front, your hard men in the back, speed on the wings, etc. And whenever you lose a player, always do everything possible to replace him with someone stronger and better. This model won my teams more than a few championships.

This is not an invalid model for how to manage a music ministry. Find the best singers and the most skilled musicians and practice, rehearse and team-build to till you have a solid group with a solid sound. Then drop the songs that are troublesome, write and arrange music that plays to your strengths and build a playlist that allows your people to shine. Everything I’ve said here should be a part of how you do ministry. A part.

More important, however, to how I see worship ministry (versus music ministry, I would point out) is the need for inclusion. There is a place – a very necessary place – for individual worship between the believer and his God. Do not let anything I say about ‘corporate worship’ make you think I’m teaching otherwise. It’s just not what I’m talking about.

In a corporate worship setting, specifically in the gathering of the body of Christ for a church service, the ultimate point of leading worship is to lead people into worship. I know that statement sounds a bit ridiculous. But if it truly is so obvious, why is it so frequently forgotten? Sometimes evangelism becomes the primary focus when we over apply the ‘seeker sensitive’ model. Sometimes musical excellence can overcome genuine tribute as the primary focus of our worship. Sometimes the goal is to entertain, so as to receive the praise of man as our validation. And sometimes, as most who have done music long enough will have encountered to some degree at one point or another, the music itself can become the goal – the groove gets all the love.

But our role as worship leaders demands we encourage participation in worship. I don’t want the congregation to watch me worship. I want them to worship with me. And anytime someone feels the calling to step up and help others worship, I want to encourage that. Duplication is a vital part of any successful ministry. So the first part of rule 3 says, ‘inclusion whenever possible’. If there is any way to allow that person to be involved, I want that to happen. If I have to let my star singer take a week off to let a weaker voice participate, I should be willing to do that. And I should be willing to come along aide that person and help them be the best singer they can be. While the two roles are certainly by no means exclusive (and should truly never be), there is a difference between being a worshiper and a worship leader.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Dieing and Living - with Christ

2010-05-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

As we celebrate the Easter season our minds return to the familiar theme of the Cross of Christ and justifiably so. The death of Jesus was the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system. Every saint who had trusted God’s promises before Christ saw their faith fulfilled when Christ cried out “It is finished.” Every believer since Christ has looked back at the cross as the payment made for their sins. All of human history pivots on the balancing point that is the Cross of Jesus Christ.

But we can’t stop there. While the death of Christ payment made for the sins of man, his resurrection is evidence that the payment was accepted and sufficient. While Good Friday recognizes the cross, Easter Sunday is all about the risen Christ.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Why is this statement and responsive so common in churches – and not just liturgical churches. Some people are guilty of never moving beyond the baby Jesus. They focus on a Savior who came to earth as a vulnerable infant – a humble, hand outstretched God. He is. Some look at the life of Christ and see a Savior in love with his creation – a loving, compassionate God. Again, He is. Some focus on the cross and see the bloody sacrifice Christ made for us – a broken, atoning God. Amen again. But the Christ we find in the New Testament from Acts forward – the post cross Christ – is a resurrected Christ. A Christ who both lives in us and has ascended to the throne of the Father.

Paul is emphatic to tell us that as followers of Christ we are called to die with Christ. But he also reassures us that we are also resurrected with Christ. We should live our lives every day in a way that remembers who gives us life. A life of worship embraces death (to our old self and sin) and by doing so embraces life: a gift from Christ, lived in Christ, with Christ as our goal.

The gospel is this: Christ died for us, and we die with him. Christ lives in us, and we live in Him. As spring promises new life, we should never forget the eternal life that Easter celebrates. The grave is empty, and our hearts are full. This is why we worship.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Dieing and Living - with Christ" also appears in April 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Worship in the Deep Mire

2010-05-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

As the worship leader at KCC, one responsibility I greatly enjoy is selecting the verse we open the service with each week. I like to present a verse that relates to the sermon, but sometimes have trouble finding a passage to compliment the message. My next choice is scripture related to the music we are using in worship. This isn’t always a plan that works, either. This brings us to the default idea of presenting a passage that relates to worship in a more general sense.

And where better to find such a verse than in the Psalms? The psalms are nothing but praise after praise, glory heaped on glory. The psalmist was just a happy-go-lucky guy with a peachy keen life who saw everything as roses and sunshine because God was on his side. Right? Well, no.

The Psalms are certainly full of worship and adoration for the one true living God. But there is more. If you read more of the Psalms, you soon see how much time is spent crying out to God because of the writer’s dire circumstances. Listen to just a few examples: “O Lord, how many are my foes?” (3:1), “Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (13:1), “I cry by day but you do not answer” (22:2), “I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold” (69:2). I could do this all day.

As I study the psalms looking for something useful for congregational reading, I skip past these verses. We could open our time of worshiping together with “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” (90:7-8) But I suspect it would do little to help our hearts and minds find the place of reverence and awe that is appropriate for a time of worship.

But it has its place. And it is very much part of the worship experience. David suffered hardship, and made mistakes of mammoth size and significance. Times are pretty hard right now. I’m glad to say none of us have a king and his army chasing us about the country trying to kill us (1 Samuel 18-26) nor are our own kids trying to bump us off (2 Samuel 15-18). But we have our own challenges. Money is scarce. Jobs are hard to come by. We live in a society that seems a little more broken all the time. Maybe – just maybe – we are ready to read those uneasy verses and find meaning in them? We should be.

And when we do, we should read on. Or else we would miss great verses like: “But you, O Lord, are shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head” (3:3), “I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” (13:5), “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” (22:3) and “my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.” (69:13)

If these verses are appropriate for worship but at the same time not appropriate for when we worship together, it’s clear there is more to worship than our time together on Sunday. The need for the Bible to be part of our daily routine is clear as well. So tell me – do you know where your Bible is right now? Great! Go get it. You know what to do next.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Worshiping in the Deep Mire" also appears in March 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

One Worship, All Worship

2010-05-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

The distinctness of what worship is when I am alone and what worship is when I am with other believers has been something consuming a lot of my thought lately.

When I stand at the front of the church every Sunday morning, it’s my job to begin the worship service. First we read scripture together, then we move into a time of singing. We worship by learning more about God and His word during the sermon and we worship with our giving during the offering. We do these things together. Sunday morning is a time for communal worship. We are honoring the command in Hebrews, “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (10:25). And while we are “beginning our time of worship together” as I often state it, we are not beginning to worship.

I’ve said it enough times before that I will only state this next fact once: all of life is worship. So as we go through our week – even Monday – we should be worshiping God all the time. And while everything we do can and should be an offering of worship to God, the individual’s time of prayer should be considered essential to our life of individual worship. And as we can learn from Jesus’ model for prayer (the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. 6:9-13), worship is an essential part of prayer (v.9). As we walk into the house of God on Sunday morning we should already be in an attitude of prayer and worship.

This is why we read the scripture together: as one voice. What God hears is not a lot of individuals quoting his word but a single voice called Kenmore Community Church. And when we sing it is as a unit, a body of believers. We all worship, and we worship as one.

In closing, I’d like to point out one interesting truth that is part of this. The pressure to sound great when you sing, if that happens to be a bit unlikely for you, is gone. Sing your best, sure. But if you feel like you don’t impress anyone, remember: we don’t sing to impress anyone anyway. We sing to worship God. And your voice is one note of a song. Your contribution is a single brushstroke of a beautiful work of art. Maybe by itself it seems odd, unattractive or out of place, but in the context of the whole, it’s art. And God likes what he sees and hears when our worship is real.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"One Worship, All Worship" also appears in February 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Breakfast

2010-05-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

No, not the meal - the breaking of a fast.

In this case, the fast has been from blogging. I've had trips out of state, family emergencies and a few good ol' fashioned life crisis to deal with. But these are just excuses. I still could have found time to post if I had mad it a priority. I did some writing elsewhere, but that's a subject for another time. We move forward.

More material is pending. I have the rest of my "Lee's rules" posts to deliver, and have written 3 or 4 more newsletter submissions for my church which I make a habit of posting here as well.

So wake up, reader. I will have something for you to read very soon. Also, if you are reading and I've never heard from you, this rare 'stream of consciousness' update gives me a seldom seen opportunity to ask you to drop a note. Let me know you're out there. I would be blessed to know you're out there.

Rule #2 - Nothing Happens Without Prayer

2010-02-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

Lee’s Worship Team Rules #2: nothing happens without prayer.

There are two perspectives to worship ministry in the church. How you view this rule could very well reveal which side of the aisle you’re on.

View one: the musician perspective. Tacit agreement might occur, but deep inside your question is, “Nothing? What about practicing? What about learning the music? What about working the groove in that new song, tightening up our sound? These are not prayer things, are they?”

Yes, they are. I’ve argued in earlier (and easy to reference) writing that all of life is worship. I would add one aspect of that truth in this context: for better or worse, all of life is worship. We always pay tribute to something, honor something – with our time, attention, affection, money – and if we are living right that tribute is going to God. The Scriptures call us to a life of constant prayer (1 Thess. 5:17). It is only more necessary when your concerns are with ministry focused matters.

View two: the minister perspective. You agree fully, and your question could easily be, “Is this not obvious? Of course prayer is required. How could anyone imagine not praying when ministry is happening?” I agree wholeheartedly, it must happen. But I disagree with the idea of reducing it to an assumption.

Our prayer must be deliberate. We must have prayers and times of prayer that are focused specifically on the matters of our ministry.

Pray for your people involved in the worship ministry. By this, I mean be in their life in such a way that you know how they need you to pray. [bonus points: in what ways can you be an answer to prayers in their lives?]
Pray for the church you serve. Ask God to be conspicuously present in every service. Identify ministries other than your own to pray for.
Pray for your pastor. Serve your pastor. (refer to rule #1)
Pray for the music you use, that it would be effective for God’s purposes and that you can perform it for God with excellence. Pray to know the right song for the right time.
Pray for wisdom not just in your song selection, but in your interaction with your team and with how you relate to others in your church as well. Even if there is no “pstor” in your title, your role is often pastoral in nature.

None of these things are optional. As much as the definition of “music ministry” and “worship ministry” can be confused for one another, prayer is more essential to worship ministry than music is. If you don’t get it, it only means you need to all the greater. Put down the guitar, set the music aside, and find a quiet place where you can talk to God. And more importantly, where you can listen.

Rule #1 - Pastor is Always Right

2010-02-06T05:20:00.000-08:00

Lee’s Worship Team Rules #1: Pastor is always right, even if he’s wrong.

This is the first rule on purpose. It’s also one of the rules that most fluidly can be applied to any part of your life where you want to have long term success. To be a good leader, you should learn to be a good follower first. But nowhere is it more important than in the church.

The pastor of the local church is the shepherd of that flock. The same Greek word translated as pastor by Paul (“he gave some as apostles… pastors and teachers” Eph 4:11) is used by Luke to describe literal caretakers of sheep (“… there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night” Luke 2:8). The sermons we hear during the services are the meat and potatoes of what that congregation is being fed. After the pastor the most influential and visible teacher in the body is the worship leader. While the message the pastor presents is and should be the core of a church service, it’s not very often you head out for lunch on Sunday humming point two of the outline. The music lingers. It sticks with us in an irrepressible way. Most of us have even had the misfortune at one time or another to get a song we don’t like stuff I our head. You can’t find a radio fast enough to try and erase it with anything! My point being, it’s not even a voluntary thing. Music makes things memorable. People will remember what they sing. They are learning. We are, like it or not, teaching.

We need to present a consistent unified message with the pastor. He holds a Biblically defined role in the church (Eph. 4:11) It’s his function is to insure that what the church is learning is truth (1 Tim. 2:15). So while the pastor dutifully presents his message with well delivered humor, relevant life applications and makes all the major points start with the letter “S” to help us remember the lesson, all the music guy has to do is repeat the chorus two more time and nobody is able to get that song out of their head for days. We need to be on the same page – teach one lesson.

The role of worship leader has plenty of challenges. I would follow this fact up with two things that should be remembered. First, as the head of the local church, the pastor probably has every stress you are experiencing doubled. He needs your support. You are supposed to be one of his assets to meet those challenges, not be one o f the challenges. Secondly, if you want to survive and even thrive in the church, you want the pastor to have your back as well. No music/worship related challenge you are going to encounter in the church setting will be too much when you know that the pastor is behind you. He is the one living, breathing person most able to help you through any challenge. (free extra bonus info: if you are married, next is your spouse)

And there is a sure fire way to insure the pastor always has your back and will fully support you. Always have his back. Fully support him. This is not an overnight process. Some requirements will be made of you. Expect to use some songs that may not be your favorites. Expect to lose some songs that are. You will eat a little crow now and then. Don’t let is freak you out. Accept criticism and reproof with humility and grace. Make yourself really, REALLY trust that the pastor does have your best interest at heart. Granted you come after God (first) and after the congregation (second). If you think it should be any other way, quit being a worship leader and go play your music at bars or coffee houses.

Lastly, I’ll briefly address the situation of those who feel they cannot fully support their pastor. His preaching is weak. He doesn’t have a pastor’s heart. He represses the Holy Spirit and doesn’t understand my vision to make the people really become worshippers. If you cannot make your vision part of his vision, it has no place. Forgive me for being plain and brief, but you should resign. If you can’t support the pastor, the vision and the congregation as a unified ministry, you don’t belong in the place of worship leader. Get out of the way and let the pastor and the church find someone who can. And if your argument is that you have the best interest of the church at heart, but the pastor doesn’t – why are you part of his staff and supporting his ministry?

Be a servant to God by being a servant to his people. Be a servant to his people by being a servant to your pastor. Make it a rule.

Worshiping Him always,

LeeG

Lee's Worship Team Rules

2010-01-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

I have been a worship leader at my church for several years now. This is a part time job that requires me to work a second job to keep the bills paid. It is my hope to eventually do this same job in a full time capacity. And before I was ever part time staff I performed the same function on a volunteer basis. As time progresses, I go deeper into the role I feel God is directing me into.

Years ago before I was a worship leader on a regular basis I handled and oversaw the video and audio technicalities at my church. There were others more qualified (and consistently very helpful to me) but I was the one willing to grapple all the “why is it doing that? It wasn’t doing that last week?” questions that came up every Sunday morning. It was during this time I really began to immerse myself in the ‘worship culture’. Web sites, mailing lists, books, magazines, and online forums were all part of my indoctrination. I wanted to know what people were doing that worked and what they weren’t doing anymore because it didn’t work. What were their biggest problems and what were the solutions? Meanwhile I was learning from the worship leader in my own church and the churches I have been part of before. I even drew from other life experiences, such as my time as a soccer coach and manager.

In time, an overarching idea of how to go about serving a church as a worship leader took shape. I had a lot of ideas of how a worship leader should do their job. In time, what I considered the essentials (versus preferences and opinions) of doing the job began to become clear. I took the time to write these down, and this list of rules became “Lee’s Worship Team rules”. The name sounds more like rules for the people on the team, but that is a bit misleading. They are almost exclusively about how I perform my role as the leader. And now, while I am far from being an expert in the field, I have accumulated a little knowledge in what does and does not work, at least for me. And I find that I frequently refer to these rules when talking to someone else in those various worship related mailing lists and forums who inevitably is struggling with the same problem I and others have seen before.

It’s time to go public. Listed you will find the seven rules on 'Lee’s Worship Team Rules'. I will follow up this entry with seven more episodes to unpack each rule a little bit. I also have an inclination to offer a “things that are not on the list and why” submission, but that idea is still developing. We will all know in time. In the meantime, enjoy, and please feel free to give me any input you feel inspired to offer.

Lee’s Worship Team Rules

1. Pastor is always right, even if he’s wrong.
2. Nothing happens without prayer.
3. Inclusion whenever possible, exclusion whenever absolutely necessary.
4. If we let God lead us, we cannot go wrong, no matter how skilled we are or are not; no matter how good or bad of a day/gig/set we are having.
5. We may practice music, but we never practice worship. We just worship, and it becomes more fluid and smooth as we learn to (a) integrate our skills with the worship, and (b) let the worship be in control.
6. Worship does not equal music.
7. The key to great worship on Sunday morning is a life of worship from Sunday afternoon through Saturday night.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

Solving Resolutions

2009-12-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the New Year! We made it! It was touch and go for a while there, so I’m pleased to have reached this point.

New Years is, of course, a time for fresh starts, new beginnings and (yes, he’s going to say it) resolutions. I am not a fan of resolutions. I don’t really believe in them. But to be honest, I find myself to be a bit dishonest in my contempt, because I tend to quietly make a few resolutions each year in spite of my insistence that New Years is no better a time for such a thing than any other day. I tend to be a bit like the guy who says, “I’m not superstitious. It’s bad luck to be superstitious.” I know too many people who like to stack the deck when they make their resolutions, too. “I resolve to eat no liver this year.” Well done, Skippy. You already never eat liver. Pointless stuff. Then there’s the lofty ambition goals: “I will climb Mount Vesuvius, write my memoirs and learn to speak Mandarin fluently.” By the second week of January they realize they don’t even know where Mount Vesuvius is and haven’t done anything interesting enough to bother writing about. Diets and realistic lifestyle changes are better goals, but fail far too frequently. As for me, I tend to use new years (and birthdays) as a “reset the course of the ship” opportunity.

But I don’t like the term resolution, at least in this context. If I need a resolution, it sounds to me like the original solution has a problem. When Christ died for our sins 2,000 years ago, God offered His solution to everything wrong we do. Instead of looking for new habits we might want to remember the habits we have already committed to, and solve the problems with those. Do you pray as much as you should, or every time you promise to? Is the Bible a significant part of your daily routine? How relevant is the continual presence of Christ in how you go about your day? If these questions make you feel uncomfortable, this is a good thing. If they have no effect on you at all, you most likely have either set your expectations way too low or have no idea what God’s expectations are for us.

My advice to you – my advice to myself – is to resolve to commit to God’s solution. Let Christ rule over your life more fully. Surrender the things that you have been holding back. Trust him to help in the areas where you have always been fearful. Make the presence of Christ in you and with you bigger in how you see life and live life. That would be a great start to a happy new year.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Solving Resolutions" also appears in January 2010 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

New Years Worship

2009-12-09T13:43:00.000-08:00

As Christmas closes in and we get closer and closer to the new year, I am willingly forced to consider how the music is going to look at my home church, Kenmore Community, in the upcoming year.

At KCC we use a wide range of music in our worship. One phrase I like to use to describe it is “the old and the new, the universal and unique.” We use popular hymns and relatively unknown hymns. We sing 22 of the current top 25 worship songs in the country with writers from all over the world. The choruses we sing are written as early as the 70’s and as recently as the just concluded year. A few songs we sing are even unique to our congregation.

And there is a point to all this. What we do between 10:30 and 11:00 every Sunday morning is not even remotely about music. It’s about God – about Christ; about celebrating and acknowledging his virtues, actions and attributes. Jerry Bridges says, “Preach yourself the gospel every day.” We need to remember on a daily basis how dead we were because of sin, and how great a gift we have been given by Christ. The same God who spoke the world into existence looked down into a world full of sinners and decided to make you his own.

How do we react to this information? What is our response? As we take time each day to pray, do we rattle off a few frequently repeated meaningless words or throw our laundry list of things we want before God? Or do we praise Him? And when we come together for a WORSHIP SERVICE on Sunday… do we worship? Or do we just sing? Or do we even sing?

Not everyone worships the same way. We aren’t all soloists in the choir who wave our hands in the air as soon as the music starts. Worship is a heart thing – not a singing thing and not a hand thing. And worship is between you and God. You worship the way you worship.

See you on Sunday.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"New Years Worship" first appeared in Jabuary 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Testimony of the Enemy

2009-12-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

I am a soccer fan. One of my favorite players I’ve ever got to see play was an Italian named Gianfranco Zola. He was a brilliant player all over the field, especially in front of the opponent’s goal, and gentleman on and off the field. One of the most unique things about Franco was how highly respected he was even by his opponents. In the same year he scored the deciding goal for the Italian national team in a game against England, he was voted as the MVP of the English Premiere League (the top soccer league and England and arguably in the world). In interview after interview of opposing players and managers, any question about Zola would always elicit a response of respect and admiration. As a fan of the player, you would expect to hear accolades from the likes of me. But for him to be praised so highly by his enemy – this is a true and believable testimony of how great a player he was.

I mention Franco Zola to illustrate a point I wish to make about Jesus Christ. Many religions, including Christianity, claim to have a true God, a true belief, and will be pleased to give lengthy testimony to promote their beliefs. I would like to take a minute to use the testimony of the enemy to make the case for Christ.

Minimal Facts: in apologetics (arguments in defending Christianity) there are 5 basic truths which are considered virtually untouchable: Jesus was killed by Crucifixion, the disciples believed Christ rose and appeared to then, the conversion of Jesus’ half brother James, the conversion of Saul, and Jesus’ tomb was empty. Two of these five are significant because they are historically provable cases of men who were skeptical or even or even aggressively opposed to Christianity embracing the Gospel.

Swearing: how many times have you heard someone cry out the name of Krishna, Buddha, Allah or anyone other than Christ, or generically ‘God’, when they were angry or injured? This is of course cases of using the Lord’s name in vain, which we are told not to do, but what we can take from the improper usage is this: even the enemy recognizes power in the name of Christ.

Christmas: the season is upon us, and we will all be out shopping in the coming weeks. We will find two things happening as we shop: (1) testimony of the glory of Christ in songs known and loved be believers and unbelievers alike, and (2) specific, fearful omission of Christ themed music during a season that bears his name. Consider this: people who don’t believe in Santa Claus do not write letters objecting to Santa Claus music. By unique inclusion or exclusion the message again is simple: Christ is singularly focused on as an entity of overwhelming importance.

Christ is not one of many. He is the truth, the life, the way. He is God, come to earth. So let’s worship Him.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Testimony of the Enemy" first appeared as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

What Worship Means

2009-12-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Worship is one of those words where if you asked 10 people what it means you would get 13 different answers. Some people think of a time on Sunday morning: the worship service. Others think of a specific time in that service, when the worship music is played. Others picture a scene from a time and place very unlike the one we live in, where Kings, Queens and Emperors demanded worship from people who would be required to bow before them when they passed. The most common Old Testament word for worship meant to “bow down to”. The Latin word for “worship” breaks down conveniently – “worth-ship”, or to attribute worth. Some people talk about ‘living a worship lifestyle’, but few people really know what that means, including a lot of people who say it.

First chronicles 16:29 tells us “Give to the LORD the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come to worship him. Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor.” (NLT) How do you cross the bridge from defining worship to doing it? How you answer that question can shape how you live your entire life. First, to do or practice worship, we must think in terms of action, or a verb. And in all cases, regardless of what specific definition we give to the word in our personal dictionary, worship requires a sense of obedience, reverence, and adoration. Can we worship and not obey? Can we worship that which has little value to us? Can we worship what we do not love?

My purpose is not to tell you what worship means. That’s the subject of thick books, not slender newsletter submissions. What I want you to do is look at your life, and look and what God has done and who he is. Consider His son and his love. And then ask yourself what the word ‘worship’ means. And finally, decide how that answer should effect how you live, how you think, and how you feel about the opportunity to worship him with others on Sunday morning.

Worshipping Him always,
LeeG

"What Worship Means" first appeared as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Ascending the Hill

2009-12-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his

holy place? …. He will receive blessing from the Lord and

vindication from God his Savior. Such is the generation of

those who seek him, who seek your face,

O God of Jacob. Selah (Psalm 24:3-6)

Have you ever read this passage and just wondered, “Wow. How on earth does this work for anybody, especially me?” Clean hands. These hands? And a pure heart. My heart? This is NOT me at all.

What we have to remember is who wrote this passage: King David. The same man who had a man (a soldier in his own army no less) killed because he had already taken his wife and gotten her pregnant. Even still, mysteriously, David is the one figure in the Old Testament who is called “a man after God’s own heart.” How did he bridge the gap between ‘murderous adulterer’ and ‘man after God’s own heart?’ More importantly, how do we find that bridge ourselves?

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and
are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of
atonement, through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:23-25a)

It is, as always, all about Jesus. None of us could ever “ascend the hill.” Not David, not me, not you, not the Pastor – no one. But years after David wrote these words Jesus ascended a hill. A cross stood in that place. Christ made an exchange with us: our sins are made his, and his righteousness is made ours. By his action, through faith, we are given clean hands and pure hearts. We can become men and women after God’s own heart.

We go to church. We listen to sermons and sing songs. But are we worshipping “in spirit and in truth”? Are we expressing something out of our hearts, something from deep inside us, where the Spirit of God lives in us and longs to give glory to a holy, loving and merciful God? Are we offering tribute to God that is reflective of how we live our lives: not perfect but always looking for a way to walk holier and more closely to God?

We can worship in Spirit and truth. For that to happen, we have to have His Spirit in us. We have to know the truth and believe. Jerry Bridges says it this way: “preach yourself the gospel every day.” Examine your own heart. How does it react to the reminder of Christ’s dieing for your sins? Is there joy, or a subdued acknowledgment? Which one do you think is appropriate for the situation? If your response seems to fall short of what you think it should be, change that. Pray. Read your Bible. Talk to a pastor, an elder, or whatever spiritual leader you find accessible and think you can speak with honestly and openly who has the thing you’re missing. For His glory, for your joy, with eternal consequences.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee G

"Ascending the Hill" first appeared in June 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

What the Father is Looking For

2009-12-02T04:13:00.000-08:00

“Jesus replied, ‘Believe me, the time is coming when it will no longer

matter whether you worship the Father here or in Jerusalem. You

Samaritans knowso little about the one you worship, while we Jews

know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But

the time is coming and is already here when true worshipers

will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father

is looking for anyone who will worship him that way.

For God is Spirit, so those who worship him

must worship in spirit and in truth.’”

(John 4:21-24)

The Father is looking for anyone who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Exactly what this means has been interpreted many, many ways, often with far reaching ramifications. But the real meat of the matter is not far reaching at all. It’s very simple.

The Father is looking for worshipers: true worshipers. We could extrapolate out a deeper meaning from ‘worshiping in truth’, but I am comfortable with insisting that it at least means our worship must be true – not false. Likewise, we could look for the deep theological implication of what ‘in the spirit’ means (and I have heard and read many). But within each deep meaning is the simple fact that worship is a spiritual act. Physical, mental and emotional activity is occurring when one worships, but the essence of worship is happening at the spiritual level. Even so, having given some meaning to these words, they are in actuality only sub points to the main point, which bears repeating: the Father is looking for worshipers.

This is why I do what I do. This is why every Sunday morning I try to help God find what he seeks. Music is both emotional and mental, and playing music is a physical task. When we go one step beyond all that and truly ‘worship’ we commit ourselves to a spiritual activity.

The next time you are in church and the music starts, remember this. The worship leader doesn’t need you to sing with him so he can make music. He (or she) wants your help making worship. The question to ask yourself is simple: when the Father looks at you, is he finding what He’s looking for?

Worshiping Him always,
Lee G

"What the Father is Looking For" first appeared in May 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Tower of Babel, part 2

2009-12-01T08:45:00.000-08:00

In the previous blog I was talking about the tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). We talked about the foolishness of trying to build a tower to heaven, and compared it to some of the foolishness we are guilty of today. Towers of spirituality and education were compared to the stone, brick and mortar used in the days of Genesis 11.

The last tower I want to bring to earth is even more deceitful than all the others. It’s made of virtually impregnable material which we have access to in abundance. This tower is known to hold up against siege after siege and have barely a scratch to show there was any assault at all. This is a tower we build from our sin and our guilt.

The “I’m too far gone” or “Why would Jesus ever want me. I’m damaged goods” mentality is both pervasive and subtle. We see it in movies, TV, and culture as a whole with no restraint. Stop. Think. Yes, it’s pretty much everywhere. The subtle part is how it works in the lives of even God’s Elect. Christians constantly let towers of guilt over the wrongs we have done be our tower to heaven. Allow me to get down to the nitty gritty of it a bit as to WHY this is like the tower and why it is so bad.
1. It places the sovereignty of God in question. “God is all powerful – except for dealing with me and my sin. He can’t overcome THAT.”
2. We are making the way to heaven something other than GRACE based. I need to be a better person, live a better life – WRONG. A better person who lived a better life IS our righteousness. We are good enough because HE is good enough.
3. We dilute the blood of Christ. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was PERFECT, all sufficient. You cannot be too far gone.

Often, for a Christian, we don’t let our sin convince us we aren’t saved, we just let it keep us from ascending the TRUE tower that reaches heaven: the praises of the saints in Christ. The next time you are sitting in church on Sunday, or hear a worship song on the radio, or just have the thought of how wonderful God is flash across your mind, remember this, and climb with Christ.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Tower of Babel, part 2" first appeared in July 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Tower of Babel, part 1

2009-11-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

Genesis 11:1-9 tells us the story of the tower of Babel. The people begin construction of a tower that is supposed to reach to heaven and be a monument to their greatness (v.4). There is more to this story than I can cover briefly, but the one thing that most amazes me has always been the folly of it. Reading the story it’s very easy for us to think how foolish they were to think they could build a tower that reached heaven. Just recently it occurred to me that we do the very same thing today. Except where the people of Genesis 11 used brick and mortar, we tend to try to reach heaven with less substantial building material.

Some people try to build their tower to heaven spiritually. They construct semi-Biblical ideas of how the world should be, defining God in ways that fits their own reasoning. God becomes less than sovereign, Jesus becomes one of the ways to get to heaven, and we compare God’s love to our love and see Him as falling somehow short. I don’t know any better than anyone else who gets to heaven and who does not, or how it can be considered fair that some die without ever having heard the gospel. But I do know there is only one way to the Father, and it is the Son (John 14:6).

Many people are equally convinced they have educated themselves into heaven. With modern technology, sciences and philosophies, we have come to a place where the idea of a supreme creator of the universe is simply passé. God was great for our parents, but now we know more – we know better. We look at the Bible with an intellectual eye and see a collection of semi-fictitious children’s stories meant to scare simple people into living nice. The 21st century man is too intelligent to fall for such nonsense. Who needs faith when you have science? We think ourselves smarter than God.

It’s hard for most people to see the foolishness of these mindsets. In Genesis the bricks were physical. Today we build with bricks of ideas and learning. It’s not until we step back and survey what we’ve built that we realize we are doing the same thing they did in Genesis. The foolishness of thinking we can measure God’s compassion, or learn enough to fathom his understanding. When Paul tells us that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight (1 Cor 3:19), it’s almost like he could see our modern world. The God who made us, the earth, the sun and the stars is not impressed by what we know. Only through Christ can we reach heaven. Only by Christ can we know God. The sooner we realize that, the better.

Worshiping Him always,

LeeG

"Tower of Babel, part 1" first appeared in June 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

The Love of God

2009-11-20T21:51:00.000-08:00

Speaking to the people, Jesus says the following:

“The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it again. No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given this command.” (John 10:17&18, NLT)

Talk like this had the crowd divided. Some thought he was amazing. Some thought he was demon possessed or crazy.

Jesus lay down his life willingly. The Father loved Him perfectly. The love of the Father sent the Son to be a sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9&10). The death of the son of God, surely the greatest crime, the greatest tragedy, in the history of mankind, was carried out for our sake by God, because of His love.

With finite eyes, we look at the state of the world and of our own lives, and we have a great deal of trouble knowing how some things could ever “work together for our good” (Romans 8:28) as God has promised. Death, illness, injury, tragedy, crime, injustice – all things that surround us every day. We peer out through the wreckage of our worlds desperately hoping to catch a single glimpse of something that reflects the goodness of God. God’s many promises are that goodness, and we are given more than a glimpse.

God’s love for us is – for the world, for sinners – is one such promise. He has given us his Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love, because of His love for us (Romans 5:5). He proved this love for us by sending his son to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8). The character of love is to do good, not wrong, for the object of affection. Love does no wrong (Romans 13:10) and cannot be removed from us (Romans 8:39). If we believe the Word of God to be true, we are forced to accept that love is the reason we suffer. The Father’s love for Christ the Son led to Christ dying an excruciating death. But it didn’t end there. Christ rose and rules in Heaven. The suffering, trials and tragedies of this world are similarly only the beginning of the story. There is more to come, and for those who endure it will be amazing beyond our wildest imagination.

So I leave you with this thought from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:17-19, NLT)

Worshiping Him always,
Lee Gunter

"The Love of God" first appeared in April 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Bartimaeus

2009-11-18T02:21:00.000-08:00

As a reader I like books that allow me to relate to characters in the story I’m reading. As a Christian I am doubly inclined to do this as I read the scriptures. As a worship leader I am even more so inclined to look for the worshippers in the things that I read. One character who captures my imagination has a cameo mention in two of the four gospels: the blind beggar Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus came to Jesus asking for his sight to be restored. In Mark 10:46-52 we read the account of his encounter with Jesus. We see a story in Luke 18:35-42 where the blind man is not mentioned by name, but the story is similar enough to safely assume it is the same incident. Before continuing this narrative I would highly recommend reading the actual passages.

There are several things I notice about Bartimaeus that make me value him and want to be like him. Consider the following:

• He knows he has nothing and is nothing. When he asks Jesus for mercy, it is not because he deserves it or has earned it. It is because Jesus is able.
• He knows who has what he needs. Bartimaeus calls out “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” He has probably sat in this same place on this same street for years, no other can give him what he needs. When Jesus comes by, he calls out.
• He doesn’t care what people think or say. Bartimaeus calls out repetitively and loudly. In fact, after they try to hush him, he only gets louder. We could all be more like this when we call out to God. We could all be more like this in our worship.
• He casts what little he has aside to go after Jesus. Verse 50 tells us that he “threw aside his cloak”. It is very likely this cloak was his only possession. But Bartimaeus wanted nothing to hinder his access to Jesus.
• He “jumped up and came to Jesus” even though he was blind. There is an element of risk here, being blind. Sometimes moving toward Jesus involved walking in places where we can’t see what will happen next. Bartimaeus did not hesitate, he jumped up. And then he sought the one he was calling for.
• With all that, he had a sense of practicality. When Jesus asks him what he wants, he could have given many answers. Bartimaeus knew the most practical problem in his life was his lack of sight. His answer, “I want to see”, could for all of us be said with the very same words. It could also be said in other ways: “I want to know” or “I want to understand”.

Summarizing the whole situation: he had faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Jesus is pleased with Bartimaeus and gives him request: his sight is instantly restored. Which draws my attention to one last point: Jesus tells Bartimaeus that his faith has healed him and also says “Go your way.” Later in the same verse we see what way that was. Chapter 10 of Mark ends with the words, “Then he followed Jesus down the road.” It feels good to know that I am not the first blind beggar making a fool of myself trying to follow Jesus. Call out to him. Don’t give up. And let your way be His way: follow Jesus.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee G

"Bartimaeus" first appeared in April 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Player-Coach Worship Leading

2009-11-17T00:58:00.000-08:00

I'd like to share a small revelation that occurred to me a while back. I was contemplating my role as the worship leader at Kenmore Community Church. I do, in truth, consider myself a spectacularly mediocre performer - by which I mean guitar and vocally. I am in the position I'm in and pursued it because, quite frankly, I felt like it was where God was pushing me. Not just leading, but pushing. I stay in it, with all my misgivings, doubts and lapses of confidence - because it keeps me alive. It's like I've been given a poison and the weekly antidote must be taken: get out there and lead worship.

I was looking back at all the churches I've attended and belonged to, and all the worship teams, choirs and music ministries I have belonged to, trying to answer some questions… Why do I lead the way I do? Is there a better way for me to lead? How would I feel about being on a team with someone like me as the leadership?

The answers are both complex and simple to the point of silliness. Complex in that I see small pieces of habits and things I've learned from a lot of previous leaders. I can see in my minds eye no less than six worship leaders I've served under, and various things I've learned from each - adopting things I thought worked and making sure I don't reproduce other things. Also, I've immersed myself in the "worship leader subculture" by frequenting several online communities dedicated to that, attending conferences, subscribing to a few mailing lists and nurturing relationships with others who do the same job. But in the end all of that makes up the less influential factor of why I do what I do, and how. And this is where the silly part comes in.

I manage this team like I manage the teams I've run before: soccer teams. If I were just "administrating" the team, and not part of it, I might resort to something more like a coach's role. But as a fellow player, I must manage, and one of the people I manage is me. In the professional soccer world such a person would be called a 'player manager'. As you can see, this is not rocket science. A player manager has a few facts to bear in mind as they carry out their role: (1) every player is important, (2) my role demands more, but I'm still just a player, (3) if there is a weak spot on the team, you shift things around to improve the team as a whole - not everyone will always be 100% happy with their place on a given day, (4) if you have people playing roles that are not where they prefer to be, you better be doing SOMETHING to make it up to them, (5) as manager, give the players everything you can to give them the BEST CHANCE of success in their role, (6) injured players are very much still part of the team and must be supported and nurtured as they regain fitness, and (7) correct errors and right what’s wrong, but remember that every mistake somebody makes, I have made a few times, and usually worse.

Is there a better way? Probably, but we do the best we can, don’t we? Would I enjoy being on a team with someone like me as leadership? I think so. I’m sure I would experience some frustrations – just as I know every member on my team has at one time or another. I thank God for them all by name every day. Read it here: I am blessed.

Worshipping Him always,
LeeG

"Player-Coach Worship Leading" first appeared in May 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

The Praiseworthy Hero

2009-11-16T15:27:00.000-08:00

As a good reformed theologian (or reformed wanna’-be theologian?) I truly believe in the irresistibility of the call of God to those he makes his own. Even more so, I believe in a God who is utterly and indescribably awesome: in wonder, power, beauty, glory, holiness, truth, wisdom… this list could go on ad nauseum (which I think means “keep adding to it till you’re made nauseous”). It occurs to me, albeit too seldom, that even at our very best we live our lives in dull-minded oblivion to the world around us: God’s beauty, God’s graces, God’s miracles and even God Himself.

Imagine yourself at the superbowl - or the final game of a seven game world series. Or maybe the state finals of a high school sport and your best friend/son/daughter is a featured star in the game. If you don’t care much for sports, then change the event to something that excites and interests you: a concert, a play, a debate, a craft competition. The game is drawing near the end, it’s very close and the team you support is behind. Through great power, brilliance and skill your hero – your friend, your loved one – makes the awesome critical play that saves the day and wins the game. They are the praiseworthy hero. The crowd is wild with appreciation and celebration. You are beside yourself with joy, and shout yourself hoarse in celebration.

Now back to reality. We live because the God of the Ages saw fit to include mankind in his universe. He made the world beautiful and breathtaking, full of wonders and mysteries for us to discover and enjoy every day. He called us to be his own; while we were yet his enemy, he sent His Son to earth to suffer and die and be judged in our place so we could escape the wrath of God that we so richly deserve. We are but clay before God. He makes some to be vessels of dishonor to be destroyed (those who die without knowing Christ) and he made others to be vessels of honor (the elect, the called, Christians).

I have probably said nothing you don’t already know. So, think about it – how do we react to this? How does this truth make us feel? The one we say we love more than anyone has not just won the big game, he has won eternity. He has defeated the one who would hold us captive. His power, brilliance and skill have made him our ultimate hero. So now what?

We try to stay awake in church. We read the Bible on Sunday, and are seldom sure where our Bible is the rest of the week. And when we come together for a time of corporate worship, to celebrate and proclaim God’s greatness and praiseworthiness – we grumble because the worship leader (who can barely sing anyway) has chosen songs we just don’t like – again – as usual. Time to cross the arms, check the watch, and think about where to go for lunch.

Shouldn’t worship matter? Shouldn’t the time we worship TOGETHER matter. Our hero, our best friend, our most passionately loved one is the praiseworthy hero today, tomorrow, and eternally. Not for the worship leader. Not for the pastor. For Christ, who is, among many glorious things, a most very praiseworthy hero.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee G

"The Praiseworthy Hero" first appeared in September 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

He Must Become Greater (John 3:30)

2009-11-15T23:13:00.000-08:00

Worship is found throughout the Bible. So much so that rather than having too little information to create a clear idea of what worship really means, we instead have what seems to be too much. Rather than being well defined and clearly understood the concept of ‘worship’ is very muddy to many. To many who think they do understand, they for the most part get it wrong or only a very small part.

One of the best scriptures that captures the essence of what worship really is makes no actual mention of the word worship at all. In John 3 some of John (the Baptist)’s disciples are asking him about how he felt about Jesus’ ministry increasingly overshadowing his own. “Everyone is going over there instead of coming over here” (v. 26 NLT). John then identifies Jesus as a bridegroom and himself as a friend who finds joy in his success. In verse 30 are his words I want to focus on – “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” (NLT).

This is the imperative of worship: become less and make Him more. What this means exactly is going to differ from person to person, but where and how it most needs to apply is in the part of our life where we least want it to. The place in our life where we make God least welcome is where he is most needed. It could be how we drive, how we treat our coworkers, an unhealthy indulgence or any number of things. Perhaps there is a ‘pet sin’ you keep hidden from your Christian friends that if it got out would embarrass you, or even humiliate you, beyond belief. Perhaps it’s something good, as in john’s situation, but it needs to be given more to God? As I said, everyone has a different answer to the question “Where do I need less of me and more of Christ?”

I highly recommend John 3:30 as a memory verse. Find the translation you like best and commit it to your mind where it can work on your heart and shape your life. And then YOU get to be the bridegroom’s friend who is filled with joy at His success. And that is a pretty sweet deal.

"He Must Become Greater" first appeared in July 2007 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Worship and Affection

2009-11-13T20:41:00.000-08:00

Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with
all your strength.
~ Mark 12:30

There are words in the English language that sometimes cause confusion. The use of words like “your” and “you’re” or “its” and “it’s” have contributed to many typos and clerical errors over the years. Two words that have always confounded me are “effect” and “affect”. I was just never quite sure what each one meant – and more specifically what each one did not mean so as to make it distinct from the other.

A book Pastor Mark and I just finished helped me with this confusion. Where an “effect” is related to something causing an action, “affect” is about the heart – one feels “affection” emotionally.

So today I was listening to a sermon that touched on the issue of “a holy kiss” (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20, etc). He was making application that the body of Christ should be more demonstrative in its love for one another, though not necessarily needing a lot of puckering up in the process. It occurred to me how much this admonition could be applied to Christians in their worship as well.

Not all Believers worship the same way. Some are very expressive and physical, others are more subdued and less physically conspicuous. And while the Bible frequently calls us to sing, shout, raise our hands and do several other “actions” in our worship, I don’t see it necessarily as an indictment on those who are not inclined to be outwardly expressive. We are also called to listen, meditate and be quiet before God. We don’t all worship the same way. But I do want to plant just one question in your mind.

If we truly feel affection for Christ – if we love Him - shouldn’t there be some evidence of it in how we worship? If a man loves his wife, he would do poorly to sit quietly in her presence and simply assume she knows it. Better to tell her so. And more so, better to show her. Is your level of affection you feel for God conspicuous in your worship, in your prayer life - in your lifestyle? Or do we assume that showing up in His house once a week is sufficient to show how we feel? Give it some thought between now and next Sunday.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Worship and Affection" first appeared in March 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Preparation as Worship

2009-11-12T15:15:00.000-08:00

The more important we consider a person, thing or event, the more time and effort we give to preparing for it. The less important something is, the less preparation it’s given. And as we consider something of greater importance, we prepare more for it. Think abou t it. As a student, a quiz worth only a few points will get far less study time than a big test that makes up a major part of your grade. As adults, preparation for a trip to Starbucks means finding your wallet and keys. Preparation for a wedding takes months, many people and thousands of dollars.

Frequently, the same thing will prompt different amounts of preparation from different people. The same test will cause anywhere from no study time to hours worth of study. One factor is how well the student already knows the material (advance preparation) and the other is how important the test is determined to be. A rich socialites wedding will require more preparation than two kids eloping. Why? It is considered more “important”.

A memorable example of imbued importance leading to increased preparation in my own life is how I used to prepare for soccer games. When I think back on it I particularly remember a period of time I was playing in an extremely competitive league back in Florida. On game days I would have the game in my thoughts all day. As a defender, I would coach myself to be impassable, unbeatable, undefeatable. The game was important to me, so I prepared extensively.

In the case of the student, the wedding planner or a soccer player, success tends to follow preparation. This is no secret or revelation for anyone.

So based on your preparation, how important is church for you? Or prayer? Or Bible study? How important is the worship you offer God? Is it succesful? Is the succesfulness of your worship a reflection of your preparation?

What, then, is involved in proper preparation for a Sunday morning worship service? Is Sunday morning in your mind something worthy of at least some level of preparation? Physically: Have you eaten anything? Have you got enough sleep? Are you arriving on time? Mentally: are you giving your brain a sabbath from all the weekday worries and at least trying to focus on godly things? Spiritually: When you know the Bible passage ahead of time, have you read it? Has prayer been a part of your day yet?

Lastly, answer this question silently to yourself, “Do you pray for God to meet you in the service?” If not, there are larger problems to deal with. If you do honestly expect to meet God, how important are you presenting Him to be based on your level of preparation?

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Preparation as Worship" first appeared in April 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Psalm 139

2009-11-10T02:25:00.000-08:00

Last night I turned to the book of the Bible I most enjoy reading: the Psalms. As a Christian musician and songwriter, I’ve probably read Psalm 139 a hundred times - in dozens of translations and versions and even a few different languages. I only mention that to make this point: it would be easy to assume I have long since exhausted all that I’m going to discover in the passage. But last night God showed me something new in an old, frequently read verse.

Psalm 139 starts in an “easy to worship to” tone. “Lord, You have searched me and know me …(v.1) You have encircled me…(v.4) You knit me together in my mother’s womb…(v.13) I will praise You… Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well…(v.14)”. 18 verses spell out the omniscient (all knowing) nature of God and His sovereignty over me. Or King David. Or you. The final verses of the Psalm (23 & 24) echo that theme. But in verses 19-22 we read what seems to be an interruption in that theme. It changed to what is known as an imprecatory psalm: a psalm where God’s wrath is prayed down on the Psalmist’s enemy. Until last night this had always seemed like a big theme jump to me.

But what if its not? What if David is still talking about the same thing: God’s sovereign plan for himself? In Paul’s epistles he talks about putting ourselves to death. Baptism is called a burying of the old self so we can be made new in Christ. In Romans Paul asks why he does the things he does not want to do and does not do the things he wishes he would. The idea of an “inner man” that contests against the Spirit of God inside us is clearly present in the New Testament.

But it is also supported in the book of Psalms as well. Listen to the list of names: wicked, bloodthirsty men (v.19), deceitful, Your enemies (v.20), those who hate you, those who rebel against you (v.21), my enemies (v.22). If we assume this list of villains to be internal rather than external, suddenly the Psalm is cohesive: one idea runs through the whole chapter. Now verses crying out to God for hatred and destruction fit perfectly with the theme of God knowing us, guiding us and reigning over us (see verses 1, 3 & 12).

Did David mean to write about an inner battle? Probably not. But he also had no idea he was writing Messianic prophesy when he composed Psalm 22 either.

"Psalm 139" first appeared in February 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Practical Bible Mysteries

2009-11-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the Bible perplexes me. No, scratch that. Most of the time the Bible perplexes me - sometimes moreso. It seems for every answer I discover three brand new questions equally as important.

Back in high school when I first discovered the Gospel, I spent a lot of time trying to wrap my tongue around Old Testament names and places. My friends and I would laugh and poke fun with one another over how we mispronounced Hor-haggidgag, and the ability to actually get it right was greatly admired.

A few years later in Bible College I would spend late nights discussing the mysteries of God and the universe. I really enjoyed end times stuff. Pre-trib, post-trib or mid-tribulation rapture? Premillenialism, postmillenialism or amillenialism? We argued till the wee hours of the morning. We were determined to sort out the eschatological mysteries of the universe once and for all. Maybe we did, because I don’t really think about that sort of stuff too much these days.

These days, my focus is a bit different than it was then. I like to think that if God can make the apostles in Acts speak in tongues, he can make mine pronounce Mephaath at least well enough to be understood. As for end times, I’m pretty sure God has a plan that requires no counsel from me. If there is a part for me to play, He will let me know at the right time.

My questions these days are more on the present. Every day, practical mysteries can take up all the strength I have trying to sort them out. What does a live a life of worship look like? If you read your Bible, you’ll see the struggles. We are called to be holy and are told we are perverse. We are called to be sinless and reassured we will in fact sin. Critics of Christianity love these apparent contradictions. They shout each one from their proverbial rooftop, proudly exalting in how they are so much more clever than God. We were all blind and dead once, too.

So if you are looking for deep mysteries to unravel, I have a few suggestions. What does the Bible say about how you should react to being cut off in traffic? What’s the Biblical model for how you should treat your boss who is as clueless as he is unkind? The neighbor’s dog barks all night, and leaves “gifts” in your front yard for you to find with your shoe as you leave for work in the morning. What would Jesus do, eh?

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,

for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matthew 6:34)

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Practical Bible Mysteries" first appeared in May 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Enosh

2009-11-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

“When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh.
It was during his lifetime that people first began
to worship the Lord.” ~Genesis 4:26 (NLT)

I like this verse, because it makes me think. What was going on during the life of Enosh that caused people to worship the Lord? What did that worship look like? What did it include and what did they do? Do you think they sang 5 songs, heard some announcements, listened to Enosh preach a sermon, and close with a benediction?

Neither do I.

Sometimes we get a little ‘settled’ into our ways: doing things we’ve always done simply because we’ve always done them. Don’t let this be how you live your life – how you worship – how you come to church on Sunday morning. Remember when it was you ‘first began to worship the Lord,’ and why. As you wake up tomorrow morning, have a fresh supply of oil in your lamp (Matt. 25:1-13). Return to your first love (Rev. 2:4-5). Maybe then some of the mysteries of what that verse means will become obvious as we live them out in our own lifetime.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Enosh" first appeared in November 2006 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

All of Life is Worship (part 4 of 4)

2009-11-04T14:52:00.000-08:00

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
(Luke 14:26 ESV)

Alongside statements such as “you must eat my flesh” (John 6:48-58) and “you must be born again” (John 3:3) this teaching of Christ’s stands as one of the most prominent ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus. It also captures well where we left off in last months newsletter. Many different words capture a part of what is being said: preeminence, motivation, ultimate, central – all words trying to capture Christ’s meaning.

Are we told to forsake our family obligations? Never. On the contrary, we are directed to care for those without family: the widows and orphans. (James 1:27, 1 Timothy 5:16) Paul frequently tells the recipient of his letters to receive their brethren in such a way that their needs are all met. (Romans 16:1-2, Colossians 4:10) If everyone quit their job to serve only Christ this is not going to work too well. And consider this frequently overlooked fact: even while the fishermen who became Christ’s disciples drop their nets to follow Him (Matthew 4:20, 22) we later see them back on the lake after Jesus’ death (John 21:1-7f).

As the receiver of our worship, Jesus must be preeminent (central, first) (Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 1:30) Many things are worthy of affirmation, notoriety and even praise. But God commands us to worship only Himself. (Exodus 34:14) So as we love our family, we must love them recognizing two truths: (1) God’s love for and from us is and should be greater, and (2) loved ones are a gift from God. And these valuations are only more true when you compare God’s value to material things such as cars or houses or temporal things such as a job or position of status. God must be worshipped above all these things. And God must be recognized as the source of anything good or valuable (James 1:17)

The other significance of the preeminence of God as our object of worship and adoration is its all inclusive nature. Almost everyone has heard the expression “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. It’s a big, big lie. So is trying to segment off other more common parts of our life, such as trying to make allowances for what happens at work or in the privacy of one’s home. No matter where or when, no matter that your sin is a “victimless crime” – it’s still sin. And it’s still offering your worship – for that moment and in that action – to someone or something that is not the sovereign God.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"All of Life is Worship, part 4" first appeared in February 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

All of Life is Worship (part 3 of 4)

2009-11-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

We ended the last blog with the question hanging: “How do we worship at all times?” To recognize this, we need to examine the root of what worship is: what it comes from, what it’s about and what it leads to.

Worship comes from submission. This submission may come from love, fear, duty or necessity. A Christian’s worship of the holy God can be any or all of those things. Everyone and everything worships from necessity. Even the most hardened atheist gives honor to God, to a small degree, when he admires a rose or basks in a pleasant sunbeam. It is true in the same way one honors Michelangelo if they admire the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. We honor God when we submit to his laws, do we not? Consider, then, that gravity is one of God’s laws. Many Christians submit to God from duty; they know they must, so they do. Why this is a problem is beyond the scope of this column. For now, I will only say that serving – honoring and worshiping – are better done for the higher reasons of fear and love. God’s holy wrath is terrifying beyond our imagination. If not for Christ… oh, what cause for both solemn fear and unrestrained love. And as we submit to influences other than God, those things become what we worship.

Worship is about subservience. To use a smaller word, it’s about serving someone or something. Whatever level (or mixture) of motivation we are controlled by, our submission must result in service. This may seem like common sense, but consider how many people call themselves Christians but never really make him Lord. Lord is a term reserved for church in modern America. We’ve lost the sense of command that is implicit with lordship. We must do His will if He is our Lord. To do the will of another is to make something or someone else lord in His place.

What worship leads to is some sort of sacrifice or tribute being paid. There is a doing or giving of something. In today’s business oriented world, we see not only things and money, but people and time regarded as ‘resources’ to be spent, invested, allocated, squandered… used one way or another. We have time. We have money. We have stuff. God help us, as 21st century Americans do we have STUFF. We pour our time and money into houses and cars and clothes and technology, and by doing so say “I love this stuff more than I love or fear God.”

So do we throw it all away? Are cars and houses and iPhones things we need to get rid of? Should we all quit or jobs so we can quit serving our boss, quit eating so we quit serving or belly, quit loving our family because that makes them, and not God, our objects of worship?

No. But that explanation will, again, have to wait till next time.

Worshiping him always,
LeeG

"All of Life is Worship, part 3" first appeared in January 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

All of Life is Worship (part 2 of 4)

2009-11-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

The hardest part of explaining such an emphatic statement is deciding what NOT to say and how to say what I DO say. So let’s just look at two simple ways of expanding on the truth that all of life is worship.

All things of life are worship. Paul teaches us “that the creation itself will be set free from the bondage of corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) Jesus tells us that if the multitudes stopped praising him, then the rocks would cry out (Luke 19:40). The prophet Isaiah writes of singing by the heavens mountains, forests and every single tree (Isaiah 44:23; 49:13) and even trees clapping in joy, testifying to God’s faithfulness. King David writes of the north and south joyously praising His name (Psalms 89:12) and the floods lifting their voice that “the Lord on high is mighty (93:3-4). Heavens are glad, the earth rejoices, the sea roars, fields exult and trees sing for joy (Psalm 96:11-12) as we ascribe to God the glory due to His name (vv.7-9). The sea and the world and everything in them, rivers and hills join us as we make a joyful noise unto God (Psalm 98:4-8). Throughout the Bible we see explicit testimony that gives God dominion over all He has created, and that creation exults in its maker. Stating it a few different ways to make the point as clear as possible: everything worships. All nouns worship. And all of life is worship spatially.

All events of life are worship. Again, stating the point differently to drive it home: worship is always. All verbs worship, and of life is worship actively. David tells us over and over again in Psalms that God is to be praised and honored in every circumstance of life: good and bad. The book of Job is written as a testimony to this truth. Jesus’ prayer at Gethsemane testifies also of God’s demand to be worshipped at all times – without exception. And we do, by our nature, worship at all times. But we don’t always worship God. It’s this simple: anything we place before God, anything we give preference to instead of God and His will, we worship. God says to worship Him alone. Today we don’t see too many Baal worshipers, but worshipers of money, sex, family, self, jobs, fame… are everywhere we look. Sometimes they are us. At any given time, with any given action, we are making something the most honored value in our life. That thing is what we worship. God says it should be Him, and Him alone.

Which brings us to HOW do we worship at all times – which will have to wait again till NEXT month.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"All of Life is Worship, part 2" first appeared in December 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

All of Life is Worship (part 1 of 4)

2009-11-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

As I write this month’s newsletter contribution, it reoccurs to me that as the worship leader at Kenmore Community I should probably write something that relates to worship. While sometimes the correlation to worship has been more obvious than others, there is one truth that makes this ‘topical constraint’ very easy to live with:

All of life is worship.

When you, as the reader, see this, you have in mind some idea of what I mean when I say, “All of life is worship.” I can almost promise you – whatever you think I mean, I actually mean more.

The author of Hebrews says, “… let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (12:28b). Jesus told us that the greatest commandment in the law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of god” (10:31). In Romans he says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1). Have you ever noticed the dichotomy in that verse? Offering your body is considered spiritual worship. Why? Because God wants worship that is all encompassing. Worship is meant to control and consume us bodily – to define and direct us spiritually.

And that is, I freely admit, a great deal to ask. How can we be expected to ‘worship’ all the time? The answer is this: we already do. And if you want the explanation for that, be sure and read next month’s newsletter.

Worshiping Him always,
Lee G

"All of Life is Worship, part 1" first appeared in November 2008 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

The Snooze Button and the Life of Worship

2009-10-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

When living a life of worship, prayer and worship go together like hand and glove. Though it’s hard to say which would be the hand, and which would be the glove. Both are things we are instructed to do without ceasing. Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer as a model of how prayer looks, and that prayer begins and ends with worship. While our constant state of worshiping something is actually God focused when we choose to pray – to worship the one true God who made us and loves us. We not only worship God when we say things like “hallowed (holy) be thy name” and “yours is the kingdom the power and the glory”. When we ask God to “give us our daily bread” we acknowledge that he is our provider. When we say “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” we are agreeing that God both tells us where to go and where not to go, and that this is a good thing as far as we are concerned. The same parts of prayer are easily seen in the psalms (sometimes referred to as the Old Testament’s prayer book): exalting God, pleading with God as our helper and shield, always placing god in the place of utmost and ultimate.

But there is a third companion that is with us always as well: sin. It keeps us from praying. It causes us to worship things other than God. Our selfish nature causes us to sin, the influences of a fallen world cause us to sin, and the enemy causes us to sin. And the hand and glove relationship is of course out the door. Now we have to think in terms of opposites: where one is, the other can’t be. Prayer and worship impede sin. Sin makes prayer stop and corrupts worship.

We read in Old Testament and New Testament alike the command not to sleep, but instead to awaken. This is, of course, metaphorical; we are allowed to sleep. The sleep this refers to is the sinful state of ceasing our prayers and putting something or someone ahead of God in our priorities so that it becomes our object of worship. Every Christian is aware that we need to pray, we need to worship God only and we need to hate sin – but as we hear the call to awaken we keep hitting the snooze button. Justifications like “one more time”, “this is the exception to the rule” and “it’s just a small sin, and it helps me avoid bigger sins” are all ways of hitting the snooze instead of waking up and dealing with the real issue of sin. If it were not so, wouldn’t the alarm not need to go off again a few minutes later?

Wake up. Get out of bed. There’s a lot to do today.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"the Snooze Button and the Life of Worship" first appeared in June 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

Do Whatever He Tells You

2009-10-31T22:07:00.000-07:00

When reading the Gospel of John, you find his first miracle in chapter 2. The chapter begins like this:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. (John 2:1-5, ESV)

I’m fascinated by this story. Not the miracle so much, just the part we read here – all the way up to “Do whatever he tells you.”

We find Jesus at a wedding, with his disciples – probably only about half of the twelve he would eventually separate out from the crowd. He was with his people, he was probably enjoying the evening, not as much ministry minded per se at that moment as he was people minded. Jesus loved people, and would have been inclined to honor the bride and groom at this event, not himself.

So what jumps out at me from this verse? Why do I like it so much? And what can we learn from what he does? And, as it turns out, what Mary does also. Why does Mary go to Jesus with this problem?

Was it because Jesus was in the habit of working miracle for people? No. Jesus says his hour has not yet come. Scholars agree this to mean he is not in the miracle performing phase of his life. Tonight would be his first. Jesus is even taken back a bit, so it seems. “Why are you coming to me with this?” he asks.

The answer is both simple and deep. Mary has raised Jesus. She watched him grow, and while she may not have known he was perfect, surely the difference between him and raising any other boy from the time of Cain and Abel till now was apparent. He always did the right thing. In every situation Jesus did what the Father would have Him do. He was perfect. Did Mary expect a miracle? I can’t see how. It hasn’t been his habit so far. Did she expect him to handle the situation wisely and right and to honor God? Without a doubt.

2,000 years later, here we are, living our lives and doing whatever we do. And then, unexpected, we hit some situation we are not able to handle. We have no answers. We have no resources. We run out of wine, figuratively speaking. What if we listened to Jesus. What if we take Mary’s advice and Do whatever He tells us? Even if it seems crazy, weird, or scary.
the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. (John 2:9b-10, ESV)

The wine Jesus made was better than the wine they ran out of. Maybe if we let Jesus supply, if we use His resources and trust him, we might find it better than what we had in mind before we had to look for help. Maybe. Just maybe.

But this much I can tell you for sure: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"Do Whatever He Tells You" first appeared in October 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org

I Lift Up My Eyes

2009-10-31T21:47:00.000-07:00

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.
~ Psalm 121 (ESV)

I’m sure there is somebody left out there who has this idea that when you work for a church you somehow have a sweet, trouble free life. You work for God, and God hooks you up with the special blessings that everyone else only dreams of. Oh how I would love to live I that world.

But I don’t. I live I this one.

Today I was driving down a highway in the Snohomish valley. I had already started writing this article, and I did something that only occurred to me this evening: I did literally lift my eyes to the hills. I looked up at the hills surrounding me, wondering, almost verbatim, where my help was going to come from. I had a lot on my mind, was on hold on my cell phone waiting to sort out how to deal with a very large bill I thought was due NOW. And then I looked up – at trees, at hills, at clouds and fields – and remembered. The maker of the trees, hills, clouds and fields loves me. He’s made me promises. More so, he made those promises based on His own infallible faithfulness and not based on my wavering ability to do anything right.

So I return home at the end of my day, to choose carefully what words I would share with my family and friends. Where are you looking for help? I don’t know why I ask, because it doesn’t matter. The maker of heaven and earth is where the help is coming from. He is the sleepless one who won’t let me slip, who gives me shade, who keeps me from evil and keeps my very life… my going out and my coming in. Where in this Psalm is the stuff I’m supposed to worry about? What single thing - money? job? marriage? sickness? – is somehow outside of His concern for me? Like Paul reminds us in Romans 8, and we frequently sing, “Who shall separate us from the Love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?” No one. Nothing. We will not be separated.

I cannot and will not make light of anyone’s trials. Life is, in fact, very hard. How much more so should we not make light of God’s providence. When life tries to break me, I should remember: I am already broken. Christ was broken for me. When I feel like surrendering, I have to remember I am already surrendered. My life is not even mine to offer in surrender now. It belongs to God. And He is where my help comes from.

Worshiping Him always,
LeeG

"I Will Lift My Eyes" first appeared in November 2009 as a contribution to the monthly newsletter of Kenmore Community Church in Kenmore, Washington, USA. www.kenmorechurch.org