In January of 2007 God arrested my heart for Northern Uganda. I was a very self absorbed american (i find that i still am for the most part….sadly) that didn’t pay much attention to anything other than what I was doing. Want to know how I justified it? I work for a church and helping people and worshipping God is my job. I am paid to have heart for people. It wasn’t until God showed me what true depravity looked like that I got it. There are people who worship God that literally need Him to provide or they won’t eat, be healed or live. That wasn’t me. I don’t want for much. I have been able to selfishly attain whatever I want materially. That wasn’t enough for God. He wanted me to understand what it meant to be completely reliant on Jesus and following Him completely. While I will admit that I don’t understand it as I should…. my eyes are being opened.
I still have my heart for Uganda, but my heart is now stirring in a direction for those being taken advantage of in the sex trade. Hundreds of thousands of young men, women and children are being prostituted for another’s gain. Innocence is being stolen all over the world and there is little that we have done to stop it. God is stirring in me the unstoppable movement that He did when He gave me Uganda. If I do NOTHING am I a contributor?
So there is a great song called God of this city. It was released a little bit ago by Chris Tomlin. I’ve been doing it for about a year now. If you listen to Christian radio like Air 1 you may have heard another version. I’ve liked it so I finally got around to looking it up and it turns out that the song was written by an Irish band named Bluetree. Pretty cool!
I leave for Uganda in 6 days. I find myself remembering all of the incredible things we experienced last time. This trip there are only 4 travelers as opposed to 10 from last time. I think the traveling will be easier given the people that are traveling with me and that I know what kind of grueling travel to expect.
During this trip it looks like I will have the opportunity to lead worship for a 2 day worship conference in Gulu, Uganda. I can’t wait to see what happens with that. God is so alive, so present and His people are so uninhibited there. I’m sure it will be an experience like no other. How do you prepare for something like that? I mean first and foremost the language will be a barrier. I’m not sure how this will work. I know only that it WILL work because God is behind it. That is a very cool prospect.
I can envision the children’s faces as we hold their hands and hug them in the camps. I remember as they check their own hands to see if our ‘white’ had wiped on to them. I can hear the children laughing as we play with them at the orphanage. I remember the tears we cried when we first saw true worship in a mud hut with nothing but hands clapping and voices raised. I can feel the hope and joy we saw in the prisons and the tenderness of those we prayed for in the hospitals. I can see the change as we saw people accept Jesus for the first time in camps, prisons and hospitals. Soon those memories will become reality again. I am grateful.
Every so often as a worship leader that writes their own songs you find that you are actually inspired by God. What I mean is as a song writer I get inspirations from God all of the time. Sometimes they flesh out in to song ideas and then sometimes that inspiration is received exactly as it was intended. I usually don’t tell my church about the songs I write. Mostly because I want to guard myself from thinking that the songs are mine or that I’m worthy of praise. I’m not. God is through the songs HE gives me!
This past week God inspired me once again and the song fleshed out. With the economy today and the uncertainty of politics I felt like God was urging me toward the completeness of the Father. He is our source, our rock our provider. We do not place our hopes in anything else but in Him and in Him completely. Sometimes it just feels good to repeat truth openly. That’s what this song is. In a time that is uncertain and scary we believe that He is God, faithful in every way. That He is in control and that He is who we’ll lean on.
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of truth by speaking it …… or in this case ….. singing it.
Here are the lyrics. I hope you will be reminded of truth.
I BELIEVE - Vs. You are God, even when I don’t know the turns this life will make You are Good, even if my heart breaks Pre-Chorus: You are the truth that I will hold to You are the hope that I will reach to Chorus: I believe that You are God, faithful in everyway
That You are in control, You give and take away
Take my heart in Yours, I give it all away
You are what I’ll lean on, You are what I’ll lean on Bridge:
You are the rock, You are the source
You are all I’ll cling to
So I’m in church right now listening to Isreal preach on 1st John. We hit a part in the text about if you deny Christ you deny the Father. So I got on my iPhone and am blogging. The point is interesting and I believe true but how does that effect our every day spirituality? I mean it’s easy to understand that if you deny Christ then you are not a Christian right? What is interesting to me is if you deny one then you deny all. All meaning Jesus, the Father AND the Spirit. Here’s where I think it becomes tangable. If you deny Christ then you deny the Spirit and more over if you deny the Spirit you deny Christ. So as ministers and as leaders and as church we must be so careful about denying practically the Spirit AND over emphasizing the Spirit. If you deny the importantance of the Spirit; doesn’t it make sense that you are denying the importance of the Christ? He is three in one.
I grew up in a Catholic home which means overall the Spirit was a pillar of the church not a practice by any means. The thought of the Spirit being alive and active was reserved for TBN and weirdos. When I came to know Christ as my savior I was in a Methodist church. In that church I was discipled well but the idea of the Spirit was something we studied and not really applicable and if it every actually happened then it was scrutenized harshly. After that I had been exposed to the polar opposite. Churches that were completely Spirit focused and basically operating under the idea that if the Spirit didn’t ‘manifest’ itself then the service was a bust.
How have we gone to the full extremes? If it’s true that if we deny one we deny all then we must confirm all; meaning that Father, Spirit and Son are ALL alive and ALL living and ALL active today. We must guard against putting one in a confining box because if we do then we put ALL of God in a box. God will not be confined.
What a measuring tool! Are we operating in our ministries as if He is FULLY present and are we creating atmospheres that will allow God to move in all three and NOT what be believe the magic combination should be?
I’ve been doing ministry now for over 10 years. I’ve been in many situations ministry wise from traditional Methodist to heavy Evangelistic to community driven to even Catholic. Yep Catholic….. ‘and also with you!’. Anyway, what I’ve learned over a short time in ministry is that people long for authenticity. Authenticity in truth, leadership and experience. The church has created tons of ways to ‘deliver’ the word of God from thumping people on the heads with their bibles to ‘edgy’ sermon series like ‘At The Movies’. I mean what could be more authentic than Nacho Libre right? Once all of that is stripped away what’s left….simple truth. Is it possible that we are robbing our people of authenticity by clouding it with catchy worldly junk or clouding it in religious muck? Is it the truth of a living God moving today and in our lives that moves people authentic change or creative props? The idea of the truth stays the same but the delivery has to change has been abused. The truth HAS to stay the same and the delivery has to be careful to not muddy up the message. We must take care to not take focus off of Him and on to the ministries that are supposed to connect us with Him in the first place. When people see the church they should see Jesus……not glitz and glamour. Let’s give people authenticity.
Israel and I stayed in a Days Inn in Texas in May of this year. This is where said incident happened. Now, let me say that I have stayed in many different hotels, and I have had many odd experiences…..but….never one like this.
So, here’s what went down. Israel and I checked in to the hotel, got our keys and went to our room. When we entered our room we noticed that the bathroom door was locked from the inside. We called the front desk and they said they would send someone down. A few moments later we heard a knock on the door. When we opened the door we found a man standing there with a crowbar. Yep a crowbar. I asked if I could help him he said he was here to ‘unlock’ the door. I opened the door and held it open while he moved to the bathroom door to work on it. He literally began to pry the door open. This guy works for the place mind you! So, I think to myself….no one will believe me unless I take a picture…. so I use my great hand to eye coordination and I flip my crackberry to silent to snap a silent picture. Unfortunately for me I didn’t know that it didn’t actually silent the camera I also didn’t realize the flash was on. Yep, so I clicked the picture button and a very bright flash followed by a loud ‘chick chick’ happened in the guy’s face. He turned to look at me with a look like I just called his mother something and my only response was…..’um…I’m sorry…I guess my phone isn’t working correctly….’. He asked me to back up. He crowbared the door and from then on the facilities were available.
I’ve included two pictures to document the incident. 1. the actual picture of the man and his crowbar and 2. Israel’s facial reinactment of the incident.
The actual crowbar
The reinactment
I should also add that Israel saw the crowbar man at the door and instantly opened his macbook that was not even on and proceeded to check imaginary email. traitor!
it is becoming increasingly appearant to me that I am becoming more and more liberal in my view of Jesus and the church. Allow me to explain before all of the good Christian Republicans throw stones…or…at least wait until I plead my case…then throw away!
I grew up Catholic. Which for me meant that Jesus was not real in anyway but only a set of rules and rituals that were to be obeyed. When I was in high school I started attending a Methodist Church and eventually found Jesus to be alive and well and I asked Him in to my heart. My Christian walk began there. Through a series of events I now find myself over 10 years later the Lead Worship Pastor at a great non-denominational church in Edmond.
For a couple years now I have found myself in an inner conflict. Why are some of the things I’ve been taught in the past being checked in my spirit now? This idea of absolute right and wrong, justice or injustice, sinner or saint is hard to reconcile.
For example, I’ve been taught all of my Christian life that homosexuals are unredeemable sinners if they chose to continue their lifestyle. More and more predjuduces have been ingrained in me over the years as well. I feel like Jesus wants to purge these lies from my soul. Why is someone who is enslaved in homosexual sin worse than the multitude of Christian men trapped by pornography. Why is it different the the people who are in adulterous sin. Why are churches deeming these people worthy of investing in and tossing these others aside? How can it be that we are all about the poor, hungry, marginalized and destitute BUT if they actually make it to our churches we are uncomfortable and shield our children from ‘the wrong’ kind of people?
See, I think the church today as a whole is way to concerned about the SIN and not the SINNER. If we’re honest, we’re all sinners. But because of our society’s moral base, which is falling more and more, we qualify which sins are worse than others, hence, which sinners are worse than others. We have modern day lepers all over our citys. The problem is, in most cases the church has put them there.
Since when does the idea of LOVE become such a radical idea? I’m not talking the kind of love that pushes you to chuck a buck toward a program in the offering plate. I’m talking about the kind that moves you to action. That causes your heart to rage for mercy. The moves you to help build homes for habitat for humanity, to feed the homeless and different shelters and more. Rob Bell an awesome pastor is Michigan has people in his church that buy houses in the poorest communities of their cities and live there. For no other reason but to love that community. What an idea! Love! Most staunch religious churches would call that extreme. People find love when they join a church. A church if they were honest secretly wishes these people wouldn’t actually show up to. Love Wins is Rob’s montra. Because of that. Because of his willingness to stretch our spirits and our minds and our conversation with Jesus he and others like him are called heretics. I think it’s because it’s a very liberal idea. It’s too free for religious people to understand. ‘What do you mean it’s all about love!? What about tithing? What about membership? What about memory verses? What about small groups? ect…” Doesn’t everything we do at church start with love? I believe it should and too often it doesn’t.
From what I can see with all of these MEGA Churches around and all of this crazy technology that supposedly brings you closer to Jesus, Rob’s community in Michigan are some of the few that actually smoke what they’re selling. They are living it.
when will the church rise up and BE THE CHURCH, BE JESUS to our world? Imagine what could happen. Imagine what could happen.
Jesus loves you,
Jesus loves the marginalized,
Jesus loves sinners,
Jesus loves homosexuals,
Jesus loves people with little sins,
Jesus loves people with big sins,
Jesus loves.
Love wins. Love is eternal. Love is true. God is Love.
Alright, alright! So I know some of you will be upset that I’m just now putting this up but things have been crazy and wonderful lately! My new baby boy Finnley Daniel was born June 23rd at 12:37pm. He had a little resperatory problem but was resolved and sent home with a clear bill of health. He is awesome! I will say that it has been 5 years since the Layne was born and I had totally forgotten the trials of midnight baby care! It is, of course, a small price to pay for a beautiful and healthy baby boy. Check out the pics below and I will be posting more soon.
