You are not your past.

Believe it or not I used to give sermons at Open Door Community Church in Denver on occasion and as I was wandering around my PC I found one that I thought deserved a closer look. Please take into consideration that it was originally written in outline form and I did my best to expound on the ideas that were running through my head at the time. So here it goes......

You Are Not Your Past


When was the last time you looked in the mirror and said, “Well, PRAISE THE Lord! I am one heck of an awe inspiring creation! If you’re anything like me that would be never. We are always picking away at ourselves. We are never quite good enough for us. We compare ourselves to Super Models, Athletes and Movie Stars. How fair is that? We are forever making comparisons to those who have more money, better looks and bigger houses. We even compare ourselves to people in our own family. Wouldn’t it be nice to be more like my sister, brother or cousin?
Then you take a look at nature and then you really are in awe and wonder.

Psalm 8 says “When I look at the amazing work of your hand, I wonder who am I that you should consider me? And the son of man that you care about him? Yet You have made us just slightly lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and majesty. You did make us to rule over Your creation. You put under our rule including the animals of the earth and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and even the fish that swim in the seas. “

Now I don’t know how many of you have seen the magnificence of God first hand, but I have. (No I have never been to the moon or landed on some distant star, butI have looked through a very powerful teltscope) You can’t miss it really. Go outside on a clear night and look up. That is the majesty of God revealed. “O Lord our Lord! How majestic is Your name in all the earth. You have displayed Thy splendor above the heavens.” We look out at the stars and see only a tiny fraction of what is out there.
What is it like to think about that? Do you feel small and insignificant? Can we, in our small minds, understand how immense this universe is? We can’t. No more than we can comprehend eternity. But this earth is merely a cell in a very large body. The earth is big enough for us to contemplate. 6.5 billion people. You are just one being in all of that chaos. So WHO ARE WE in all of this immensity?
Genesis 1:27
27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;….

You are created in the very image of the God that created all of this. You are created slightly lower than the angles, but far above the very stars in the sky. You are a precious jewel set in the crown of the Most High.

So if we are created in the image of God to be like God, why do we spend so much time and effort listening to false information? You know it’s true. Let us count the ways.
1: People we don’t even know.
2: Ourselves
3: Sometimes our spouse/SO
4: “friends”
5: Parents
6: TV/media

AS I look over this list I see the majority are people we are very close to. I know that a great deal of false information come from our parents. I think back on my years of schooling and I recall tons of false information that came from the ‘bullies’ and my teachers. I know it’s hard to believe that teachers would ever make a comment that might be critical, but it happens. These situations and people can attach labels to us that can haunt us and play tapes in out minds for years. They may not be in these exact words but they can be:

Stupid
Fat
You’re a waste
You’re ugly
You can’t do anything right
Klutz
Idiot
Loser
Dork
Geek
Lazy

I have heard many of these and I call myself some of them. Perhaps you have done things in the past or have had things happen to you that have ‘labeled’ you or Maybe you have labeled yourself:

Maybe you were abused so you are a victim
Perhaps you have had alcohol abuse in you past
Maybe, like me, you abused drugs.
Could it be that you have issues with anger?’
Are you a thief?
Liar?
Godless?
Cheater

How many of these things do we allow to define who we are? We are told in scripture to speak things that are not as though they are and yet we find it difficult to believe that my telling myself that I am not a drug addict doesn’t make it so. Jesus makes it so. Jesus delivered us from all of the labels that man puts on us. That’s just it these labels are:

Man made.
They are not truth as in they are lies.
They were nailed to the cross.

Jesus died to deliver us from the wages of sin and death. These labels are just that. If life and death are in the tongue and death has been defeated then we can overcome the death that has been dealt to us over the years. Every single part of your life where you feel you fall short has been sacrificed with Christ on the cross. Every time that we heard or said these words to ourselves it was as if Satan himself was speaking defeat and death to you. You see we are not in a battle with flesh and blood but with dark powers that are trying to steal from us what Christ died to give us. The one thing we can be sure of is that these labels are not from the God that created us greater than the stars.

1 John 4:4-6
4. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (the spirits of antichrist), because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
5. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

Paul said “I want to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified.”
I don’t want to know that old me. I don’t want to know anything about the life I left behind. These labels are not who we in Christ are anymore. Romans 8:1 reminds us that There is Now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. So, we are of God and so we should ask….

“What would God say?”

We are God’s greatest creation
I am saved
I am Chosen
I am Loved
I am forgiven
I am the very righteousness of God through Christ Jesus
I am above and not beneath. The head and not the tail.
I am a Child of the King of the Universe.
And so are You!

So that none of you should think I don’t know what I’m talking about or perhaps that I live some charmed life, I have worn all those labels that I listed above. Either from others or myself. I was a liar, thief, cheater, slob, and a loser. Carrying these labels around can become the heaviest possession we own. The can bend our will and crush our true self. Our Jesus self. It is time set down the labels and enter into the rest that Jesus said was His rest, through accepting the sacrifice that was made for us. We must remember that the past is in the past and now we are free. We must forgive all of those who have spoken against us including ourselves. Every single hurt and bruise, every horrid thought and memory is now nailed to the cross where Christ took it all upon His shoulders. It can’t hurt you anymore.
Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. What words to rest by! YOU are God’s greatest creation. Don’t ever forget!

Bible Shorts.....

If you have been keeping up....and I know that you haven't because this is new to you, I wrote that I used to post devotionals of sorts called Bible Shorts on Grace on Line...so I decided why not here? I have several saved from the past and I figured they're just taking up hard drive.
So here is your first BS one thing I am truly full of:)

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called Sons of God.
Matthew 5:9

Peace. Can you think of a time when there was not a war happening somewhere in the world? I can’t. South Africa. Zimbabwe. Bosnia. Kuwait. Honduras. Vietnam. Korea. How about Denver? Littleton. Boise. Right now in the world the US is at war with Iraq. It’s a bit nerve wracking and world peace would be nice. One thing I will never forget Jesus saying, “There will be wars and rumors of war.” The conflicts will continue on until the time when Jesus splits the eastern sky. Even The Lord Himself stated He is Lord of Hosts: the very army of God. Then WHY OH WHY did the Son of God say that He brought us peace, that he gave us His peace? Not as the world gives peace, but a peace that passes all understanding. I mean even believers are in a battle. It’s a spiritual battle with Satan and his minions. It’s a war not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers of the darkness. This battle is as violent as one fought with spiritual tanks and holy bombers. Just because we can’t see doesn’t mean it’s not heated and brutal. Some days I feel as if I can feel the war going on around me. There is a huge battle for yours and my protection. Not knowing you as well as I know myself, I must say I need all the protection I can handle. Not only do I need it for my body but I also need it for my very soul. I need angels shielding my eyes from the temptations that are offered up to me every day. Like I need any help getting into trouble. Christ is the Prince of Peace sent to ‘give us His peace.’ Peace in Jesus is not a lack of conflict. (The world’s view of peace.) Our peace is in knowing we have nothing to fear for He has overcome the world.

Fever induced thoughts....or I have the flu....

Tuesday 9/19/06 we attented a 'lecture' given by our recently returned pastor about his adventures in the emerging worship world. It was a very fascinating lecture/lesson about the emerging culture. His conclusion was that the two, worship and culture, are inextricablly connected. Now, why didn't I think of that? In a very small way maybe I did in that I stated in a previous blog that the new generation doesn't want our same old tired worship. It's not that the worship is tired and it's not that people don't reach God through it, although at times it is difficult (more later), it's that it's is not for a new generation. We don't worship or 'do church' as our parents did, well some of us do...but that's not the point either. What we consider modern is really not all that modern after all. I must say that the rise of the more "comtemporary" services is really fairly new in its rise, but it is already old. In this age of the internet and technology things age faster and the new becomes old rather quickly. Ideas are shared spontaneoulsy, used immediately and discarded in a matter of weeks. Knowledge, as we understand it, is doubled every few months. We as a group of Old Baby Boomers and GenXers can't remain in our newly old worship and hope to gain or maintain our young people. Cheryl and I figured that out about four years ago when we helped found an on line church called Grace On Line. To begin it was the brain child of the pastor at our old church. It was a simple Yahoo Group that grew to huge proportions. It was comprised of people young, and not so young, seeking another way to connect with God through a virtual world of believers. David posted his sermons on line. Cheryl was ever persent in the chat rooms and the Tuesday Night Gatherings to teach and encourage and I posted what were called Bible Shorts that were small thoughts/devotionals for the day. People found security in the midst of this group and found the freedom to grow in Christ and courage. It was a virtual realtionship we had with these people from US Canada, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand (One person actually lived in a place close to where I lived in NZ) and any other English speaking country you can think of. These people weren't really seeking Christ. They were seeking grace and that brought many of them to Christ. This is the new Church. It's not the only way to have a 'new church', but it's a beginning.

I sometimes think...and now we jump to a new subject having to do with Grace On Line.... that if we avoid saying we're Christians it is more likely to draw people. If we say we are offering grace, love, peace and understanding they might come and then we can then present Christ to those seeking a way to reach God.
The Christian Right has so infiltrated the true message of Christ with pollution of hate and legalism that the normal person doesn't want even hear about Jesus. It's sad. I have a friend that is a Buddhist who says she tried to go to church one time, but the message was so filled with hate for anyone not like 'them' (The 'Christians') she said she would never go back. And she didn't. Isn't that sad? Not that she is a Buddhist, but that there was no Jesus in the Christian church she visited. No Jesus for someone searching. That's a very sad, heart breaking thought. A body without a head. Essentially that's what we have here. A body trying to function without a head will soon cease to function. What is wrong with us?

“Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One.
Blessed be God’s Name and glorious kingdom forever and ever.”
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I [God] teach you this day, shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for a reminder before your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.”

I have a question. Scary huh? I think way too much.

The disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Now I don’t know how much you know about the Jewish tradition and religion, but these people pray. They have a prayer for everything you can imagine. Prayer over the bread and the wine and the meat and the cooking of the meat and the cutting of the cooked meat. They pray over the sunrise and the sunset. They pray over the song with a song. They have a prayer for walking in the morning and walking in the evening. They pray while lighting candles and putting the candles out. They pray for Shabbat to begin and end. They pray when hanging the Mezuzah. There is even a prayer for when it rains. I guess what I am saying is that these men knew prayer. What was so different that Jesus had to teach them this different form of prayer? Jesus taught them in Hebrew or Aramaic a prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer. It is a Jewish style prayer that the parts were spoken often. Jesus taught us to pray in and entirely Jewish way. To sanctify the name of G-d, summarize the essential petitions of the ancient Jewish Amidah prayer and concludes with a prayer similar to that of Solomon at the dedication of the first temple. So these words and concepts were not foreign to the disciples.

go here to understand more about this concept

I personally don’t think it was so much in the words that Jesus prayed, but in how he prayed
them. Jesus talked directly to God as a Parent. He called God ‘Abba’, daddy, papa. He used an endearing word to denote the relationship. Jesus spoke to his Daddy and it well could have been His Mommy. To me that says Jesus sat on God’s ‘lap’ and was loved and encouraged by an awesome Creator. Their oneness was such that Jesus felt treasured. I believe that the disciples didn’t want to learn to pray, they wanted to learn how to commune with God. When I pray that prayer at church I always try to remember that we are learning to touch God in the way Jesus explained that we could, by making Him our Parent.

ITL- What bring you to God?

What is it that brings you to communion with God? That was the question tonight at our ‘in the light service’. Steve is back from sabbatical and we are discussing all of the things he learned about emerging worship or ancient worship. We realized that all people have a different trigger. I think this is partly because we all come with our own set of baises and fears. Cheryl doesn’t like choir music because she was forced to listen to it when she was young. She doesn’t care for chant type or organ music because it reminds her of all the religious churches that are based on legalism and that have rejected and damaged gays and lesbians throughout the ages. Jackie loves that kind of music because it reminds her of the time in her life when she came to know God in church. Becky is afraid of water and so the pictures of lakes and oceans are disturbing to her and Amy loves the beach, not just pictures of beaches, but actually touching the sand and the water. Jack doesn’t care too much for children that are not his so the picture of children did nothing for him and yet it touched Cheryl profoundly. I can’t handle the quite very well because my mind wanders. I can worship God better and connect better if I am listening to music or hearing preaching or writing. My thoughts and prayers to God are all written or sung. I carry a prayer in my heart and I speak in silence, but I am not silent. For instance, right this moment I am writing and I am listening to the TV at the same time. I know what is going on in both arenas. A man asked me today if I was listening to both him and talking to amother woman at the same time. I was. And I know what both wanted. My mind runs, but I am constantly seeking God’s word or voice in my life. I think sometimes my “God” hearing is failing. But this worship idea is a round table of ideas and stimuli that move this body towards God. Nature, song, people, children. The one thing that I didn’t see that moves me greatly is animals. I am so in love with the God of creation that I marvel at His works. I picked up a dragon fly yesterday and held it on my finger. It stayed there for a while and then just flew off. It was odd because I had heard something weird on the ground and looked to find this dragon fly flinging itself into the ground repeatedly. It was so bizzare. I actually asked it what it was doing and then picked it up. It seemed to shake off whatever was going on with it and then it flew off. It was really amazing to hold this creature on my finger and just watch it. I was hearing from God just then. You see, I’m strange. I am a woman who loves bugs…for the most part. Spiders are fascinating and snakes are really cool. God made them and it’s amazing! I love the rabbits that run through the fields behind my house. I love the mice, although I don’t want them in my house. Let’s not get craxy I don’t like roaches, although they are amazing, flies or moquitoes. It’s still all amazing to me! ANYWAY, no matter the stimuli, no matter the setting, everyone is different in their quest to know and be known by God. Whatever it is that brings you there, do that thing over and over and over again and do it with all the God passion in your life.

Religion is Weird!

Religion is such a weird thing. IF you follow one of the religions that believes in a God then it’s really weird. That means trusting your life into the hands of that which you cannot see. I want a relationship with a God that is not tangible. I feel in my being that God is, but there is no hand to hold or face to see. As the little boy in the story said, I want someone with skin on. Christians believe that Christ was a real man and that he existed in time, but that was 2000 years ago. He was a man that touched people with his hands and forgave their sins. He was real and tangible. I covet that touch. He came to earth in a time when people were as segregated as we are now. Jews not talking to Samaritans. Romans not talking to Jews. Actually, the Romans didn’t really talk to anyone. Religion seperated people. Slavery, sacrifice, race and power and any number of excuses created separation much in the way those same things do today. The religious leaders of the time had so much power that they were keeping people from relationship with God much the same way as is happening today. Jesus came and said, “You can touch the face of God the same was I do. You can be one with the creator the same as I am and the best part is the only rule is love. Not only that, but I am going to show you how that love looks. I am going to teach you, heal you, forgive you, love you and then I am going to die for you.” I want to know this Man. I want to figure out how to touch Him and how to let Him touch me. How do I do that? I pray and I know in my spirit that something is listening. Something is paying attention to what I have to say and what I feel. So many questions and I have no answers, but I have faith. I have faith. That thing that causes me to trusts in something it cannot see. To act on, for lack of a better word, intuition believing it was God guiding me. This is all I have. It is not all I want, but it is what I believe when I cannot see, that will be counted to me as righteousness in the end. Still, in all of this faith I desire to touch God.In all of this questioning this is my only conclusion. Paul said we are the body. If I touch the believers around me, am I then touching Christ? If I hold the hand of a small child in need am I connecting with God? Jesus prayed to the Creator that we be one as They are one. I think that He meant so many things by that. But if I can’t actually touch Jesus, God or the Holy Spirit, maybe if I connect with my family, the Family of God, then I am connecting with God. BUT, no matter how much I want to actually have physical contact with a God I can’t see, I will never. It is impossible. At least it is within the confines of this limited body. My short term life in this body confines me to the physically tangible experience. Even my spiritual connection with God has a physical ramification. I feel my body react to the love I perceive from God. Adrenaline will rush. Endorphins will be released and I will have a feeling of euphoria and peace. I want to know if that is just me or if it’s real. Is it really God? Even as I ask the question my insides jump in the knowledge that it IS God. God speaks to my spirit and I feel it. It is impossible to explain. Science says its an invention of the mind, but I don’t believe that. I didn’t really have a deep belief in God until I was in my late 30’s. I never felt that assurance until I said “yes” when someone asked me if I wanted to have a different life, a life in Christ. I said aloud on the outside that Christ was the One and my insides changed. Afterward I would be driving in my car not even thinking about God and I would suddenly feel a rush in my bones and know that somehow I was now different. In my whole life of growing up in a religion as a devout Mormon, I never once felt that feeling. I felt love like a liquid filling me up. I could hear the ‘voice of God’ speaking things into my life that I would never have thought on my own. I believe in God. I believe that God loves me. I pray that God reaches down to touch me so that I might know Him/Her. So that I may become one with the One Who made me. God sent Jesus to show me how to connect with God, but I am still seeking the way in this world of confusion. I’ll keep seeking as God promised to seek me.

Ooh ooh pick me! or What it is we really believe about our realtionship with Christ.

So, coming to Christ is not like accepting a present. It’s not like someone doing something nice for you. It’s not like someone taking your place in the electric chair, although that is a part of it. No, I think it’s a little bit like baking a cake. Sort of. Not in the ‘you have to have a recipe kind of way’, but in the ‘once the parts are all mixed up and baked there is no way to take it apart again’ kind of way. To marry something is to make it become one thing. To marry ketchup, mayo and relish you will have one thing called Thousand Island…or Secret Sauce. Once it’s married you don’t get to have just ketchup, mayo or relish by themselves anymore. You will always have TI Dressing. Paul said that the marriage is the great mystery of the Christ and the Church. We are the bride who becomes one with the Bridegroom. We become one in purpose and Spirit and body. We are the body and He is the head. Without the Head the Body cannot function. Without the Body the Head finds it hard to use hands or feet. I am not saying that without us, God or Christ can’t function in the world, but that’s not the point. The point is we are one with Christ so that we can function in this world, bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth. WOW! Think about that. I am not taking a present from Christ when I come to believe in Who/What/Where He is. I am accepting a Marriage proposal. It’s so much bigger than a present. I think about the difference between My S.O. giving me a gift and marrying me. Gifts are a nice thing to have and yes they can be sentimental, but if I had to choose between the wedding ring and the marriage, I would take the marriage.

So, what do we do?

We had out In the Light Service on Monday night and had the “We are the Clay” discussion. It really brought up some questions in my mind about “Just how moldable are we really?”. I think we already are born with a certain bent and a handful of talents. The person who doesn’t like kids really shouldn’t try to be the Children’s Minister. Not that God would call them there, but my point is that person is already molded into something. I love kids so I might be able to do it. On the other hand I do not suffer fools easily so I would make a very poor pastor. BUT just how do we know which of our talents should we be using??? Some people have many, others have a few and most of us have more than we know. Does it get to a point where we ahve learned so mucha nd have so many skills that we spend most of our time using those? Take the associate pastor at my church. Right now she is the acting head pastor while ours is on sabatical. SHe is also the music minister in charge of the Choirs, the praise band and everything in between. She has been teaching and preaching and singing and practicing and going to church retreats. When is enough enough? Sometimes I think we get so caught up in what we THINK God wants us to be doing that we lose sight of what we really should be doing! I want to use every skill and talent I have for God and yet if I try to do that I will be doing too much. SO the ultimate question I ahve is HOW DO YOU KNOW? is it what we have passion for? Is with what ever need needs to be filled? Is it…..what is it?

Twenty minutes

I have twenty minutes left in my work day and I want to leave us all with something meaningful. How am I doing so far? I’ve been thinking about God. I know that sounds like the normal thing to do when one is committed to Christ, but I have been contemplating the nature of God and that can be an overwhelming task. You see I have had the great epiphany that I will never be able to understand what God is, or who God is or where, when, how or why. None of the journalistic questions I can ask about God have any chance of ever getting answered. That is except through the person of Jesus. I can read the New Testament and I still don’t quite understand. God is so much more than we could ever begin comprehend. And Jesus is so much more perfect how could He ever understand us? I am going to switch gears here for a quick second. This is a thought I had last night while writing in my prayer journal. Does God know how I feel when I let Him down? I mean, Hebrews says that Jesus is a high priest who can understand my feelings, but if Christ never let anyone down, how can he understand my self-loathing at the idea of letting people and God down? Do you supppose Jesus ever had a moment of self deprecation? I realize of course that these are rhetorical questions that can never be answered in this life. I am just hoping that someone out there has an answer. I believe that Jesus felt agonizing pain and suffered unforgivable betrayal, but does he understand what it’s like to BE the betrayer and the all of guilt that accompanies that? How does the perfect understand the imperfect? Jesus was perfect and understands sin, but He never commited the sin itself, so how does he know my guilt? I am sure that somewhere in there Jesus felt a moment of guilt, just so He could understand.

Here is another question, why doesn’t neatness bother a messy person?

I've been here before......

I was working (as it at the office) and trying to write on my blog yesterday and I never saved the message I was working on. Let’s just say my ramblings for the day were lost. That’s okay. I have plenty of ramblings for a life time. I think I was writing about how upset I had been the day before at the silly man on the radio. You know, we are Christ followers and we are suppposed to be above certain ideaologies. I don’t know…like hate. Hate is a very strong word I know. But I am sure some groups of people feel a great deal of hate coming from the people who profess the ultimate lover who is Jesus. “Woman, where are your accusers? Neither do I accuse you. NEITHER DO I ACCUSE YOU. Wow! Awesome words don’t you think? Jesus only accused those who made rules to keep people from God. He called them snakes and vipers whose father is the Devil. Law givers. Now I know some are going to say, “Well, yeah but he told that woman to go and sin no more.” Well, yes He did, but a question I ask of you. “When in your life have YOU ever been able to go and sin no more?” I don’t know about you, But I sin every day. Every minute of that day I would guess. I miss the mark of God because God is perfect and everlasting. I am imperfect and finite. The very fact that the cells in my body die is missing the mark of God. I could stand still and not think of anything or do anything wrong and I would still be sinning just because my body is dying. The wages of sin is death. So to go and sin no more is an impossible task…............unless you know the one Who is Perfect. The woman was fogiven of her sin and cleansed of her unrighteousness. She would sin, yes, but her sin would no longer be counted against her. The is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

I've been thinking.....

I know that’s the scariest thing some people have ever heard. I think too much most of the time. I was thinking about Christians. I think we have become one of the most arrogant group of people in the nation. I’m not going to say the world because I find it hard to believe that the underground church in China is getting up on its high horse. No. We ‘western’ Christians are mighty high and mighty all on our own right. I was listening to a “Christian” talk show on the radio and they said it was our moral duty to be 100% involved with politics so that our nation doesn’t fall in to rack and ruin. They said we are to “occupy until Chirst comes” and that means politics. It’s time to pass anti-gay legislation before God rains down judgement. Now, I am no Bible scholar, heck, I’m not even a scholar of any kind, but that’s a gross mis-representation of what was meant, don’t you think? Let’s ask a rhetorical question, “Were the Christians in Rome able to “occupy” in that manner?” I am pretty sure that they had absolutely NO political influence except to make Caeser more popular with the masses. Do you think that they were planning to get involved with the political process at the time or do you think they were busy praying that God would deliver them from the lions? Or maybe that they would be strong for God during their trial. What about the Christians in Muslim countries where it is a punishable offense to even be a Christian? Do you think the meaning of the word occupy means to get involved in politics to them? Or maybe it means that they remain strong in their faith even as they try to avoid imprisonment or even death. I believe in voting and taking advantage of the freedoms we share as a great country, but I don’t think we are called by Christ to pass exclusionary legislation, or victorian laws. Why on God’s great green earth do you think that the gays are somehow to blame for the break down of the American family? Aren’t the people getting married and having children and getting divorced more to blame than some guy you don’t even know loving some other guy? Get serious! The break down of the American nuclear ‘family’ is an issue that has little to do with sexual orientation. It has to do with a serious lack of commitment. The divorce rate in the ‘Church’ is as high or higher than secular society. Whose fault is that???? Men and women ripping apart families is the tragedy here. Children being shifted from parent to parent on weekends, wondering what they did to make mommy and daddy not love them, or each other, anymore, is the crisis. Stop talking about how the gays are making society evil and work on your own house. Basically, Get the telephone pole out of your own eye before you go looking for the splinter you think might be in someone else’s. Let’s stop hating and start loving as Christ invited us to do. God did not say to fear your fellow man, but to love him. Let us begin to examine our own lives and walk our own walk. Let us stop trying to walk other people’s walk for them. I’m not telling you not to vote. As a matter of fact I think you should. I am just wondering if we should occupy in faith and love or in fear and hate.

I'm tired of concerts.....

Remember I said I sang with the 'worship team' at church? Well, I am having a push-me-pull-you type of feeling about the whole thing. I love to sing and I love to sing in front of people, but I am getting the distinct impression that it's a concert every week. We all go up there on stage, above the crowd, and sing our little hearts out with our little parts that we sing and the little parts that "they" sing and they clap and we say thank you. We all have our solos that are oh so important and don't you dare sing while I sing my solo attitudes........... You get the picture. I have seen this in many churches. Now my church is great, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but get the feeling that we are missing something...........like worship. If I am singing by myself for you, how do you sing yourself for God? Did that make sense? Music needs to be one of two things. Sung by a person to God. Nope, I was wrong........it's just one thing. I must sing to God for God. You must sing, in your way, for God to God. How can you do that if all you're doing is listening to and watching me? I know I know, music is a gift and we share it with others and blah blah blah....., but enough with the concerts! Let everyone in the congregation get involved if they want. Let's all sing together at one time with one voice singing one song! I've never been in a church where everyone didn't sing every song or at least were welcome to do so. I'm confused.
I know we need leaders, but leaders are not supposed to entertainers. Are we? I'm asking you because I don't know. I think that is what people expect..entertainment. But is God interested in perfomances every week? I don't know. I am asking you what you think.
I think we are supposed to be the best we can be in our worship and in leading people to worship, but I think we have lost focus. We have placed more focus on how good WE are and how WE can get people to worship, when it has nothing to do with us. Only God is good and only God can lead people in to worship. I don't know. I want to bring the music down to the people and I want people to understand the music and sing along. NOW I realize that not all people want to sing along, but what if they want to?
I remember when I first came tot he church I am in now, I was singing my little heart out (while down among the people) and someone told me I wasn't supposed to be singing that part. I was like....are you kidding me? I was singing the solo part that was only reserved for the soloist. Excuse me, isn't this worship time for all of us? I did my best to not sing when I wasn't welcome to sing, but that seems like the wrong approach to leading people into worship. I still feel that way.
And another question: What happens to Jesus in all of this concerting? I know the words are about Jesus, but is the singing and playing about Jesus? Is this concerting we are doing in our entertaining leading people to think of Jesus? I don't know. I can only hope so. Are we creating an environment where people are lead to be grateful and filled with praise to God and not the 'band'. Praise the Gift Giver and not the gift...or gifted.
I am just asking..........

Did any of that make sense?

I am sorry, that last message/blog was angry and heated. Of course at the time I was hot and mad, so it stands to reason. I have been listening to a tape series about the power of praise and worship. Dwight A Pryor. He comes from a Jewish background and is deciphering for us what the Jewish/Hebrew meaning of P&W in the Old and New Testaments means. The words praise, worship, honor, etc… are all interchangeable. There are no catagories like we westerners tend to put on them. Praise is not a fast beat song, worship is not slow and thought provoking music. Praise is worship. Worship is Praise. My partner and I are running a Monday night service while the Associate Pastor is in VBS and we were thinking of teaching on emerging worship. I thought, cool. We can use the new music we have been working on. We can really get people involved in ‘worship’ and raise their hands during the songs and we can read out of the Message Bible and use new fangled ways to worship to get people to see what this emerging worship is and just how cool they can be at it.
Then I read a portion of a book by Donald Miller. “Blue Like Jazz” (get it! It’s awesome.) I can’t quote, but I can sum up. What good is saying you’re a Christian if you’re not doing what Christ would have done? What good does it do us to worship and praise if we aren’t ‘WWJD’ing in our lives? When we stand and sing and talk about how great God has been to us and how blessed we are and how we just got a job and a big raise at work or Whatever. Giving lip service to God. That’s what I call it. I do it. I know you do it. He asks the question Paraphrased ‘what good are cool websites and neat music if your life isn’t reflecting the life of Jesus? Are you feeding the hungry and clothing the naked? Are people dying of thirst all around you while you swim in your pool of self righteousness? Wow. That makes no sense. Well it does, but you have to be in my mind to understand it.
My bottom line in this is that we who are wanting a new and better way are the Emerging Church. That emerging is the re-discovery of grace and love. It’s not about the music or the dim lights or the web site or the PowerPoint media plays or any of these things. (Although these are good tools to help us get to where God is.) Grace was removed from the message in Rome and in the Dark Ages. Maybe we should call these the Light Ages. The time when a small group of Jesus followers decide to re-instate grace back into the purpose of God. Grace and Love THE EMERGING WORSHIP…...............

If you read nothing else....

I have to remember to save messages in the middle or I will lose them. I have just spent an hour ranting about the ‘Church’ and poof my message was deleted in the middle. I hate when that happens. I was on a great tirade about how Big God is and that there are black holes 7 BILLION X 6 TRILLION light years away from us (It would take you 32 years to could to even one billion) and that’s how big God is. TO reach the Nearest star traveling 25,000 mph it would take 10,000 years. How long to get to that 7 to the 13th power black hole? That’s math I can’t do. And here we are so concerned about whether or not the guy next to us in church has a tatoo or the people across the asile might be getting a divorce. How can we make such a big God so small and petty?
God’s desire is to be in realtionship with us. It is what keeps us from God that is sin. If a tatoo is what you think keeps people from God, Then don’t get one! On the other hand if another person is awestruck by God and in love with God and in communion with God, but has a hundred tatoos, then tatoos are not a problem to God.
Emerging Worship is for the Emerging Generation. This new emerging generation sees the Church as an enemy of sorts. They watch us do the same old dusty, worn out worship every week after week. They see the hipocracy and exclusionary practices and they want nothing to do with it. And I can’t blame them. They don’t see God in church. The songs we sing are a few hundred years old. The services are always exactly the same in the same order at the same time with the same inflection. I’m getting tired just talking about it. It’s boring. Is God really in this? Yes, God is with me and in me and goes to Church with me, but how can I commune with that God in a fresh new way if the service is old and worn out?
Now let me say this, the church I am in now is awesome and the services are good. The music is upbeat and the messages are touching. BUT we are the Christian church that is associated with all those other churches. I look at our worship team and the only person under 35 is a young woman who will soon be leaving for college. Unfortunately We Are Old! We have old church. It's the same way we've been doing church for ten years. Maybe not here, but I've been a part of several churches and one in NZ. There is nothing wrong with doing what we do. It meets the needs of us middle agers. But is it meeting the needs of the youth? Try and go to TNL one Tuesday night and you will see that it is not.
Let me make one more point: We are Jerry Falwell and John Hagee. We are all the self righteous, bigoted hatefilled "Christains" the our children see on TV. This is what they see. Would you want to be a part of that?
On top of it this is the Church that began the Crusades, the Spanish Inqusition, and endorsed salvery. This is the Church that rejects the outcast, the single mother and the gays. The emerging generation sees this and balks. Let those who are perfect cast stones. Pull the pole out of your own eye before you attempt to remove the small spec from your brother’s eye. LOVE is THE LAW. Love is the law that abides. My question is “How can you walk my walk for me? ” If you are so busy walking my walk for me how can we walk together?

Pride or Prejudice?

I got an e-mail from my friend Brian in phoenix the other day that really set me to thinking about pride and how he tries to avoid any notion of himself in his own life. What does this have to do with me?.... Well, I sing. When I say I sing I mean I have sung professionally all over the world. I was the praise leader at my church. I sing now on the ‘worship group’ ( don’t let the leader hear me say that! We are a band not a worship team…) at the church I attend now. I mean I sing and I can sing. This is nothing I did of my own effort. I did not take singing lessons. I don’t read music all that well, but the voice that God gave me is amazing. I know you think I am patting my own back and that anyone who has to say all of this is bragging, but I am not. God gave me a true gift…and I squandered it for most of my life. I didn’t understand what I had. I sang in bars and ‘honky tonks’ :) not really honky tonks, but you get the drift. I have sung from New York City to LA. I have opened for people whose names you would recognize. Then, for reasons I will explain another time, for a few years, I didn’t sing at all. I sat and listened to all the sopranos at my church sing these amazing arias and felt inadequate. I sing second alto. Almost as close to tenor as you can get. People want to feel goosebumps when they hear “Jesus Music” and my singing doesn’t effect people like that. So I didn’t let it out. I stood by my own little pew and sang with the rest of the people, not wanting to stand out. Then one day a woman in front of me at church turned around and confronted me. “WHY DON'T YOU SING?” I was taken back, ‘I do sing…right here’. ‘NO!’ she said, ‘You have a gift and it’s time for you to share it with the rest of us!” She was pointing and almost angry finger at me. I suddenly was taken to the story of the talents. I was being selfish in my attitude. I was burying what I had been given in the ground. GOD gave me something to share and I was keeping it locked up because I was afraid of what other people might think. That’s pride! I decided to sing one time and haven’t I stopped since. Now that I have allowed God to use my voice, I see that it’s not about goose bumps. It’s about leading people to a connection with God on a level that they can’t normally attain. My singing brings some of them there. Not because of the ‘voice’, but because of God’s presence in that voice. It is nothing I do of my own accord and nothing I can congratulate myself on earning. It just is. I sing. God shows up. Simple as that.

So You Think You Know Grace.........

Wow! What a serious beginning. So YOU think YOU know grace. Going out on a limb here to say ‘I don’t think you do.’. Since grace is God’s idea how can we as people say we understand anything God is doing. Even God said we wouldn’t understand anything. His ways are not our ways. I read a book recently called “Mister God, this is Anna.” If you ever have the chance to find or read this, I would highly recommend it. It is an English book (as in UK and not the language.) published in the early 60s so who’s to say it will be easy to find. My copy was bought for me by a friend while we were shopping in a second hand shop in New Zealand. Guess what, I just looked and it seems that you can pick it up on Amazon. GO figure. It has five stars so I’m not the only one that liked it!! I digress…....... This is one of the most amazing and grace filled books I have ever read. One quote I can’t get out of my head is “grace and mercy are just words we use to describe the indescribeable.” Just words. We can no more comprehend the true grace and mercy offered to us than we can comprehend the entirety of creation itself. In science I think the more we know the less we know. It seems to me that grace is much the same way. I study and try to learn and the more I THINK I understand the less I really do. I have had great teachers, Brian Patterson, Philip Yancey, Jesus, Paul….. But I still struggle with the idea that we are FREE IN CHRIST. Holy Moly! What does that really mean? What is this grace offered to us? Many religions will tell you what their definition of grace is. My Parents religion tells them that grace is only Christ’s death for the sin of Adam and the rest is up to us to earn. Some say that grace is only for certain sins or acts. One says that grace is only for you if you pay for it. Is grace free or is it not? Let me rephrase, grace was not free as we were bought with a great price. Is grace a gift, something given to us that we can either accept or reject? TBC…..

What is emerginworship anyway?

So, my pastor went on sabatical to study and find out for himself what is this emerging worship. I started reading online and reading actual books made of paper and found so many different ideas. I started brain storming and here are some ideas I came up with about what it is and how can it be manifest:

Emerging Worship
Healing servicesMusic only worship (Congregational Music, Prayer, Scripture Reading)
Music with PowerPoint Presentations
Media inspiredMessianic Worship
Lessons on a Deeper understanding of GodMovement in WorshipDrama as worship
Dance
Sign Language in/as Worship

UNDERSTAND: Every Gift is a Real Gift! Every Talent is a Real Talent! Reading Writing Painting Cooking Serving Typing Organizing Singing Signing Exercising Teaching Learning Sharing Inventing

To me emerging worship is= Abandoning the Law Giving, Law Keeping, Hate Filled, Rule Giving, Paranoid message and style of the Modern Christian Church and Grasping the Message of REAL Grace. Not Grace as defined by man, but grace as Defined by God. Dispensing with the notion that God is somehow finite and human-like and realizing the point is for humans to become more infinite and God-like. More infinite in our understanding, more open in our beliefs more accepting of concepts that oppose what we have been taught for years on end.
Emerging Worship= Doing those things in worship which bring us closer to God. This is not necessarily ‘church’ as we define it. How about…..

Walking in the Forest or Fields Watching a sunset Rocking a baby Sitting by a river to pray Enjoying a sunrise Sitting and just thinking about God Writing a book Singing a song to yourself Drawing a picture Putting your thoughts up on a blog:)

There are no rules about how we should worship just that we should worship in a way that opens us up to new depths of understanding. If your way to worship is to have high church, then by all means do so. My only wish in that is that there is a deeper understanding of God in all that ceremony. In the same manner I would wish that those who have high energy worship not get caught up in how good the music is and how good they are FEELING and pay attention to how good God is. The Jewish tradition says that the highest form of worship is study. To them this is emerging worship. To me music sends me to the highest of places with God as do trials and tribulations. What is this emerging?