World Communion Sunday

Yesterday was World Communion Sunday.  Though we should always be thinking of our brothers and sisters around the world, this Sunday in particular we recognize that when we gather, we are not alone, but celebrate and worship God with the whole Church!

At my Church this Sunday we encouraged our congregation to walk to church as a reminder of our brothers and sisters around the world that walk to church each and every week.  We also were blessed to hear about the experiences that some of our congregation have had, worshiping with other cultures.  Both were wonderful experiences.

Did you do anything special for this Sunday?  How did your church body remember the Church Worldwide this week?

One other thing that we did was sing a beautiful song by Keith & Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend called Behold the Lamb.  The words are printed below.  I pray that it blesses you this week.  May we always remember in thankfulness the sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins!

Behold the Lamb who bears our sins away

Slain for us and we remember

The promise made that all who come in faith

Find forgiveness at the cross

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of peace

Around the table of the King

The body of our Saviour Jesus Christ

Torn for you eat and remember

The wounds that heal the death that brings us life

Paid the price to make us one

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of love

Around the table of the King

The blood that cleanses every stain of sin

Shed for you drink and remember

He drained death's cup that all may enter in

To receive the life of God

So we share in this Bread of Life

And we drink of His sacrifice

As a sign of our bonds of grace

Around the table of the King

And so with thankfulness and faith we rise

To respond and to remember

Our call to follow in the steps of Christ

As His body here on earth

As we share in His suffering

We proclaim Christ will come again

And we'll join in the feast of heaven

Around the table of the King

What its all about?

The other day I saw a sign that simply read "What if the Hokey-Pokey is really what its all about?"  Instantly I was transported in my mind back to the days of skating parties and school/church social gatherings at the local skating rink.  Round and round we would go, sometimes racing, sometimes avoiding, sometimes even flirting?  Most memorable of these times were the ridiculous dances they made us do to music, the Hokey-Pokey being one of the most infamous.

I'm pretty sure that I have never done the Hokey-Pokey outside of the skating rink.  Whether this is by design, or simply due to the fact that the dance would be too easy without wheels attached to one's feet, I'll never know. What I do know is this: no matter what skill level you are at skating (or Hokey-Pokeying), almost everyone enjoyed it because we all looked ridiculous together.  How many times did you look around  and see the judgmental eyes of someone else looking down on you because you didn't but your right foot in good enough?

Sometimes I wonder if this is the case in our churches today.  I mean not to imply that worship is just a bunch of people getting together an looking ridiculous, but I am more drawn to the idea that we're all having fun because we're all in it together.  Too often I find worship on Sunday to be an awkward time for many people who are worried about how they look when they worship, perhaps worried that they look like they are dancing with skates on.  The problem here is that they are often right in their worries.  Sunday Morning worship can be one of the most judgmental times we will encounter week in and week out.

But why is this?  We are taught in Scripture that it is not our place to judge.  Christians will even jokingly remind other Christians of this fact.  However, when we get to worship on Sunday we find ourselves worried about what others will think while looking at what others are doing wondering how they could be so foolish.

I wonder what worship would be like if we could get past this.  What if we could come before the Lord truly unconcerned about the thoughts of the brothers and sisters that we worship with?  What if, instead of judging our brothers and sisters in worship, we prayed for them, and instead of wondering what people thought of us, we thought more about God and what He means to us?

Good Enough?

                A young boy was working on a school science project.  With the help of his parents he was constructing a giant volcano that, when certain chemicals were mixed, would simulate fake lava running down the sides covering the makeshift Lego town he had built at its base.  As he was finishing up the final touches of this project stopped and looked at it, eyes full of pride in all he had accomplished and said, “I hope this is good enough!”  The boy’s father stopped for a minute and asked, “why do you say that?”  Rifling through his book bag, the boy pulled out the assignment sheet which read very simply: SCIENCE PROJECT; with a simple explanation: It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it is science related.  The father continued to read, taken aback by what he saw next:  Grading Scale: to receive a passing grade the project must be good enough.

                The very next day, in front of his whole class, the boy presented his project.  Explaining well how he created the miniature volcano and what he was going to do to make the pretend lava flow, he wowed his classmates.  With gasps of amazement and aw they excitedly watched as the boy mixed the chemicals to the best of his ability and volcano bubbled over and washed over the tiny Lego town.  Suddenly the teacher stood and the class was instantly silent, waiting anxiously for the grading verdict.   Without even hesitating the teacher said, “I’m sorry, its good, but this is not good enough.”

                The boy, somewhat taken aback by the teacher’s sweeping indictment, asked the teacher, “Excuse me sir, but I tried my best.  What more can I do?  What would make this good enough?”

                “This is not a real volcano son,” the teacher replied.  “You’ll need to build a real volcano for it to be good enough.  Dismissed.”

                While this is not a true story, some of the themes held within it tend to ring true for us in our lives, and especially in our worship.  We tend to think that, on any given Sunday morning, we've decide to get up, we've dragged ourselves out of bed, we've gotten the family ready, and we've driven ourselves to church so that we can try really hard to worship and give God our best hoping that it is good enough for God.  All of it was our decision and it is therefore up to us to make it all happen.  We tend to do this in our lives as well.  Whether at work, school, home, or away, we think that we just need to try a little harder to do our best and perhaps that will be good enough for God.  Maybe then, we reason, God will bless me and my family.

                Sadly, this reality often gets mixed with a level of confusion about what goes on in a worship service on Sunday.  We look at the bulletin as see phrases like “Call to Worship” and “sending” and think, what does this mean, a call to worship?  I decided to come here to worship.

                When we think like this, we often end up like the young boy in this story, doing everything we can do ourselves, or even with the help of others, trying to just be “good enough” for God.  It isn’t long before we are confronted with the reality that we simply aren’t good enough.  Whether by the realization of our sinfulness or the greatness of God’s holiness, we find out quick that we can never be “good enough.”

                These questions of Liturgy, the call to worship and the sending as well as many of the other parts of Christian worship are not simply old traditions that we just use because they have always been there.  Rather, they point us to a greater reality about worship that is so much broader than what we often think.  The Biblical view of worship is not one in which we try our best and hope that it is good enough for God, but rather that in worship, the God of Grace is the primary mover.

                Friends, we have a call to worship because we believe that it is indeed God who has called us to worship Him.  We believe that God the Father, the God of all Grace and Mercy, has, through His Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit reached down into our lives and called us and has even drawn us into worship and communion with Him.  God has initiated this calling and it is in God that we respond as well!  Through the prompting, leading, and guiding of the Holy Spirit, through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, we are able to bring our worship before God the Father, in full communion with Him because we have been washed clean and our worship has been perfected! God knows that our best could never be good enough for Him, but through His mercy and grace we are able to come before Him, offering our best, knowing God has shown us a way to Him in Christ.

In The Beginning

The concept of nothing, absolutely nothing, is not something that we can comprehend.  No land, no water.  No light, no air.  No time?  Complete nothing, except God.  Only God.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." - Genesis 1:1-2

Here is where the conversation of liturgy begins, in the beginning.  Before all things were, God was.  But things didn't stay that way:

"And God said..."

...and so progressed the wholeness of the world; every living thing brought into existence by the very words of God.  Genesis describes the creation account in full, and from that time all of creation has been declaring the glory of God.

When we come to worship, we acknowledge this as well.  Before anything happens in worship, or even in life, we acknowledge that it is first and foremost God that speaks; it is God that initiates worship.  None of it would even be possible without Him.

As we come into worship this week, what would it look like if we recognized God as the beginning of it.  How would our hearts and minds change if we acknowledged that church isn't just something that we are doing on Sunday morning because its what we've always done, but rather something that we do because God Himself has called us to it?

Ezekiel Saw the Wheel

For church on Sunday, the choir is singing the song Ezekiel Saw the Wheel. I was asked to give a brief introduction to the song and the vision of Ezekiel... this is what the Lord has laid on my heart tonight:

From the Visions of Ezekiel in chapters 1-3 and 10-11.

 Prophetic visions come to us as completely disconnected from anything that we have ever known and experienced in our lives. Descriptions of beasts with multiple faces and multiple wings, crazy looking wheels with eyes and even an attempt at describing the Glory of the Lord may and often does frighten or even confuse us. Too often we who are so far removed from anything that even resembles this type of picture of vision dismiss these baffling images as something completely irrelevant to us. I do not, however, believe that this is the case. I think that there can be some truth for us here!

 Clearly the people of Israel were not taken back or surprised by something like this for if they were the Hebrew elders would have dismissed Ezekiel with a Hebraic “what have you been smoking” statement (that I’m sure I’ll learn in next year’s Hebrew class). No, this vision meant something to them, and it is recorded in the Bible, God’s revelation to us, which means that it means something for us today as well.

 This vision comes to Ezekiel on the banks of the Khabur River which is located in Babylon. Ezekiel also says here that he was among the exiles, meaning the people of Israel that were forcibly taken from their homeland. He is a prophet, likely a priest, dwelling amongst a dislocated people. To say that in today’s context means very little as we are able to move great distances without batting an eye, but to be an Israelite not living in Israel means that you have lost everything. Their homes were destroyed. Their cities plundered and demolished. Their fields burned and animals either killed or taken. But none of this compares to the ultimate dislocation they were experiencing, their disconnect from God. You see the Hebrew people saw the presence of God as being based on a location. For hundreds of years they met God at a place, whether the tabernacle or the temple, and that place was the place of their worship; and that place was now gone. They could not go to it, and they would see that as being removed from God.

 Sound familiar? Do you ever find yourself dislocated from God? Do you think you that you are in a place where you cannot worship God, or a place that God cannot be present with you?

 This song, Ezekiel Saw the Wheel, is an African American Spiritual. Why? Because there have been many people throughout history that have identified with the exiled Hebrews, taken from all they know. African slaves were one of these people. Lost, alone, separated, and enslaved, full of hopelessness.

 But God is a God of hope, faithful and true to His people across all ages. In the midst of hopelessness God speaks powerfully and brings this vision to Ezekiel, a vision with powerful images that the Hebrews would have picked up on. So let see what they see…

 -->The Throne of God resting on fierce storming clouds, flanked by the cherubim on each side, and all placed on four wheels. These are your everyday Goodyear tires either, these wheels are unique: they are a wheel within a wheel. You see, most cars and just go forward, and to turn takes time. You cannot go just anywhere at any time, you need space to make the appropriate moves. But God’s visionary vehicle can go anywhere and everywhere and is anywhere and everywhere. With wheels that can drive both north/south and east/west at the same time, God can be anywhere and is everywhere! More than that, these wheels are covered in eyes… so not only can Yahweh be anywhere and everywhere, but He also sees all. Nothing happens by blind chance or fortune, there is no change that God did not see or foresee.

 This is what the slaves began to discover as they were introduced to Christianity. They identified with these dislocated Hebrews, taken from all they have known. But they found a God of hope that was with them in their suffering and they believed that just as God promised the people of Israel that He would save them and return them to their land, so God would act on behalf of them as slaves and free them from their suffering. They encountered a God is the all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing God that He has always been and he is there with the Israelites in their exile in Babylon and was with the slaves in the fields of America and He is with you now no matter where you are in your life. Because we know in this Easter season that God has not abandoned us to our sin and suffering but He sent his son who died and rose again, breaking the bonds of sin and death and hell and through Him we have life forever more AMEN!

 Perhaps you are suffering in your life right now… perhaps you feel distant from God… you may not encounter a vision experience like Ezekiel, but my friends, we have a vision like that… our vision is Jesus!! Our Savior and our Lord. He is our all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing Lord and He is there with you in your exile as well. Turn to him… He is there… no matter where you are!

The Advance...

Well, week 2 is in the books and week 3 is about to begin! Once again, this past week was very exciting... very busy... and very rewarding! I cannot begin to explain how God has been blessing me this week! New friends, new learning, deeper relationships... God is great!!

This week, one of the big things that we learned about was that of the actions of the Trinity in our lives and in our worship! This wasn't necessarily new to me, but bringing this back into my head and applying it to worship on Sunday was just so overwhelming today... It is so amazing to know that even though we go to church to worship God, God is already there and, in fact, He is the one that has gathered us there! His Spirit has prompted us to come and we worship in it's power! Christ is the bridge in which we are able to come before God. Only through His blood are we counted righteous and worthy to come before God and bring our worship. More than that though, Christ is there worshiping with us AND is seated at the right hand of God interceding for us (Romans 8:34) and perfecting our worship... presenting it to God as a perfect offering of worship! Isn't this amazing to think about? We truly couldn't worship God without God... He makes it possible for us to do that which we are created to do!!!

Outside the realm of school, work at Overisel has been wonderful! I have been blessed with such a wonderful church body and devoted praise team members! After some conversations today, I am encouraged by the directions that God is us directing us in, and that we are being open and willing to move in this direction!! I say this because of the resistance that many of us are feeling from the enemy. I often take this as a sign that we are moving with God and that God Himself is moving in this place because it has Satan upset and working against us.

If you think of it in the analogy of an army... if your army advances and the enemy ignores it because it doesn't see it as a threat, then there might be a problem with the army... but if the enemy is scared and does everything it can to thwart you, then you are considered a danger... and the enemy feels the need to try and stop you.

What does this mean for us? Well... it means that things aren't going to be easy, that Satan is going to do his best to try and move against us, and that ABOVE ALL we need to be praying hard! God is our source, our strength, and our protection... and we need to solidify that relationship, that we can draw from that power (Romans 8:31)!

It also means that we need to be upholding each other in prayer as well! I would like to ask that you be in prayer for us at Overisel, and for our leadership, as we prepare for our educational season, work on the Revolution service, and seek to reach people for Christ through our work at the church building and in our individual lives of worship and service as well. I would also like to ask you to pray for myself and for Bethany as we move forward with wedding planning while in this busy time of seminary and work and stuff as well...

I have to say that I am really excited to see what God has in store for us this school year!

As we enter this next week, I pray the truth of this blessing holds true in your heart: Jude 1:24-25, "To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen."

Week 1...

The Lord be with you...

So, I can officially say now that week 1 is in the books. Count it, check it off, and call it history! The first week of seminary has proven itself to be both exhilarating and stressful all at the same time. I am really looking forward to all of the things that I am going to be learning about, all the ways that God is going to be growing me, and for some of the major accomplishments that will be made in this first semester!

First off, before I go any further, I have to again give a huge shout out to my now fiancee Bethany, whom I love so much! She has been a great support for me in these last few weeks leading up to the beginning of this school year! Well that may be partially due to the fact that I proposed to her and she has to be, I know it is also true that she is excited for me to get started as well! I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!! Thank You for being such a support to me! God has truly blessed me with you!

I want to try and make it a habit to share at least one thing that I have learned or has been impressed upon me throughout the week and share it on this blog. This week I have learned two really important things!

The first is that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! I have had my nose in books for approx. 3-5 hours a day in this last week... and I don't even like to read... and I'm not really quick at it either. But, by the grace of God, I have made it through, started reading faster, and have retained a vast majority of it as well! Whats more... I'm actually almost a week ahead in my reading right now!!

The second, and probably more impacting thing that I have learned this week is about how good we have it, and how much we complain about nothing! This first week in my church history class, I have been reading and learning about the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd century Christians and their struggles. First of all, these people couldn't even publicly be Christians without the fear of being dragged before a judge and forced to renounce Jesus or face torture/death, the latter being the more merciful of the two. Secondly, when they were caught and tortured, they rejoiced!! I mean things as gruesome as being forced to sit naked on a chair made of red hot iron until you denounce Christ... and we complain when church goes 5 minutes too long... I think that we as Christians often find ourselves complacent in our own little luxurious world. I don't know that I would be able to suffer whippings, beatings, or being burned like that without at least saying something bad...

That is all for now... I would like to ask continued prayers for finances for this year, and for God to continue to bless and strengthen me as I study!

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Grace and Peace...