Worldly Organs

If You are a worship leader or attend a church and hear the comments that worship leaders get, you will enjoy this.

http://www.dankimball.com/vintage_faith/2008/07/the-controverci.html

Lectio De-what??

Tuesday night at the highschool group, at Calvary Bible Church where I work, we mixed an ancient form of Scripture meditation called Lectio Devina into the worship time and it was rich. People were soaked in the preasence of God and He was made real to students through Scripture.

If you are interested in practicing Lectio Devina in your daily devotions, there is a great book that one of my good friends, J.R. Briggs, has written:

Go check it out!!!!

Detective Dave

The other morning Kellie and I were going to get her tags at the DMV and walked outside and saw that someone hit her car, totally side swiped it and didn’t leave a note. They did however leave a side runner from thier car stuck in the car wheel area of the car. We called the police and they wouldn’t send a police officer out without a suspect. It took us all day of driving around though all the red tape of the criminal justice system just to get paper work that we had to fill out ourselves and send in ourselves. I normally wouldn’t say anything, but I will say this...

The police should care more about taking care of crime and making the city safe than being slaves to the Department of Revenue by always writing tickets. Thier job is to serve and protect first and not second.

Tuesday nights I am up in Boulder and I came home around midnight and decided to go on a hunt for the car. I FOUND IT!!! It was parked at the top of the hill. I matched the piece that they left at the scene to the side of thier car and then called the cops. I will say this now about these officers, they were very nice and very helpful. When we explained why we didn’t have a report filed yet, they seemed just as bothed by the system as we were. They took pictures and then got a confession out of the person who hit us. Yay!!! We get to get her car fixed and justice was served!!!

The last point of the story... This pisses me off more than anything!!!! The girl who hit us had a Jesus fish on the back of her car!!!

Moments

This last Sunday night at Bloom Michael talked about Sacrament, a moment that is set apart to be holy, a moment when heaven meets where we are. Living with a heart of this is living with a heart of worship. I have been chewing on this. Moments in time can not be taken away. There is none exactly like them. As a musician I know that you can never capture a moment musically exactly the same. The instrument you play, the room you are in, everything makes that musical moment what it is and makes it unique. I can set that one moment apart as an act of worship. God is a God of moments that are life changing that can never be redone or changed. My wife and I are going to have a baby boy this summer. God says that He is there knitting my baby in the womb. The moments that God is developing my baby are moments that heaven is here on earth moments that will never again be relived. At the death of Jesus, the temple veil torn in two, the moment Jesus breathed again and was alive and sin was conquered are all moments that mattered, can never be relived. In the fast moving lives and culture that we live in, may we find times to reflect on moments that were sacraments, may we make new moments sacraments and worship God through them.

Good Article

I felt that this article was pretty good so I am posting it. It does a great job of clearing up some misconceptions of the emerging church.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html?start=1

Truth and Beauty

I see so much beauty in this world. Last night I felt my baby in my wife's belly kick for the first time!! Life that God put together at has my blood, is created in the image of God and is a beautiful thing. I see God!! As I see beauty, I see God. Many people do not see God but they see beauty. How do we point God out in the beauty that they see? How do we bring the truth of God to a people who don't believe in God but see beauty? Just some things to chew on after the blog that I posted before this one.

Big Gaping Hole!!!

I lead worship for a church that meets in a high school. We came in this morning to set the stage and there was a big gaping hole in the center of the stage. We couldn't get it covered in time for the service. Many times I couldn't focus because I thought that I was going to fall in.

Thought's on St. Augustine

I was going through a bunch of books that Kellie brought home from work last night and came across one with complete works of St. Augustine. Some thoughts that I have been chewing on from my readings of his books "On Christian Doctrine"

_He say's that we need to view God as more than a being. He is life itself. To be disconnected with God, is to be disconnected from life.

_Augustine puts a huge push on love. He says that God uses us as we enjoy him. We are used to love one another and enjoy one another in Him.

_Right interpretations of Scripture should uplift love.


_The three things above are things that are strived for in our American evangelical churches today, but the thing that I have been wrestling with that goes against what we are taught in churches today is that Augustine believes that when a person is matter in Faith, Hope, and Love, they no longer need the Scriptures. Scripture teaches us how to love and loving God one another is the greatest commandment. Because my brain is so trained by beliefs from the church today, I have a hard time wrapping myself around this.

I grew up in a very legalistic church world were people would flaunt Bible knowledge and how much they read the Bible, almost like they wanted Jesus points or metals for it. The problem was that many of these people didn't even have an ounce of love in them.

These beliefs from Augustine were all the way from the third century when the common man didn't have a Bible. If the common man didn't have a Bible, according to standards today, they couldn't be a strong Christian. See Jesus came for common man. Those who didn't have a Bible to wake up to every morning, those who didn't have a Daily Bread with a cool little story and a verse in the margin to start the day off with, could be devoted to Jesus and the gospel of Jesus.

Maybe this is why Jesus says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Jesus came to bring purpose to a world of sinful chaos. The purpose is to join into the salvation through faith in Jesus. To join into the restoration of the world unto God, is the ultimate example of love. Jesus left heaven to live as and with common people, teach them about the Kingdom and die. All this was done by love so that all who turn to Jesus, receive salvation.

I am thankful for my Bible! I am thankful that since the time of Augustine, we have Bibles in the hands of anyone who wants one.

I just pray that as I thirst for Biblical knowledge that I am not thirsting for my own arrogance, because arrogance lacks love. I pray that I am thirsting to know more about the story of Jesus. I want to be thirsty to be a Kingdom bringer and a history maker, to help Jesus restore a fallen world back to the Father. I pray that I may be a person who leads people to Jesus for eternal life and that I don't waste my time on anything else. May I study the scriptures to empower me to lead through love!!!

Salt Of The Earth

We know that we are to be salt of the earth. So many times I hear that we are made to make people thirsty for God. That is true, but the whole purpose of what Jesus came to do is restore the earth from the deadly result of sin. Sin brings pain and hurt. Salt can be used to disinfect. We can be used to disinfect! Salt is used to inhance flavor. As followers of Christ, we help restore the world unto God by making the world tast good. You see, salvation is not meant to be a selfish personal thing. Salvation is the means in which Jesus brings restoration to a world that,because of sin, has turned away from a righteous God. A world that you know just by turning on the news tasts bad, now has the ability to tast good and become the things of heaven through us. When we realize that this is the good news, this is salvation, we live for something greater than ourselves.

Check out this video

Division

I'll just go ahead and warn you that this topic is a little weighty for me right now, and if you are feeling like something light and happy, I created another blog this morning called "puppies and ice cream" that may be more enjoyable for you.

I must ask a question. Has anyone noticed that Christians like to fight with each other? I've been wondering how much we have really changed since Paul wrote the Corinthians about how divided they were?

"I follow this guy!" "No, that guy is an idiot, this guy knows how to read the original Hebrew!" "Are you kidding? That guy is a heretic! You should come to my church and get the truth!" (1 Corinthians 1:12 my paraphrase)

I remember when this girl came to a youth conference that my youth group was putting on, and she was pretty messed up emotionally. During worship, she started shaking and hissing and freaking out, so a bunch of us started trying to cast demons out of her. It was quite an ordeal. I don't know if she really had demons in her or if she was trying to get attention or something, but we turned it into an opportunity for a full-fledged charismatic circus in there.

I remember talking to her later about it. This girl had a lot of bad stuff happen to her in her life, and just had a lot of baggage. But the one thing that I really honed in on was that she was Catholic. I'm extremely ashamed of this now, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you what I told her because I was in junior high, and I was a bit of an elitist jerk.

The thought I had in my head was something like "well, of course you have demons, you're Catholic."

So I tried to talk her out of being Catholic. Didn't they worship Mary in those "churches"? They sit there and chant and worship idols all day, don't they?

I told you.

And that was just the Catholics! What about those Baptists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians? They might not be as bad, but they certainly aren't preaching the whole Gospel that my friends and I happen to have cornered the market on!

Today, I don't think most evangelicals are quite as mad at Catholic people as they used to be. Maybe it's because many of us have noticed that many of "them" happen to be some of the most sincere and wonderful Christ followers in the world... But don't worry, there are plenty of others that we can find to aim our swords of truth and destiny at. (I thought "swords of truth and destiny" was funnier sounding than "ignorant bigotry" or even just plain "swords")

If it's not crusading against Muslims to convert, or burning scientists and witches at the stake, or massacring "savages" if they don't accept the gospel, can we at least get some vitriolic sermons about how the "emerging church" is going to be the downfall of America?

It is so easy and comfortable to find all of those ways separating "us" from "them". The Pharisees of Jesus day knew that comfort quite well.

"I heard that they believe..."

If I hadn't already used my cuss word... What is the deal with this? Some of you who are reading this have had conversations like this within the last week probably. I have heard so much "I follow Paul", "I follow Apollos" lately, that I was either going to have to tear my clothes and rub dirt all over my body or write a blog about it.

That was random, and though I'm playing around in this blog a bit, I really am concerned about this.

Here's my point: we are supposed to be on the same team.

Can we forget for just a moment about our privileged knowledge of the "full gospel" and remember that the point of our faith isn't acing a doctrinal multiple-choice test when we stand before the Christ in the end...

For the Christian, faith should be about Jesus, and the new creation of hope, faith, and love that He brings. He wants His Church to be united in bringing His Kingdom into the world, not bickering about whether creation happened in seven literal days or whether you should speak in tongues or not or what the physics of hell will or will not be. Are these things really the point?

I thought Jesus was supposed to be the point! So those of you playing the sides games out there, protestant or catholic, left or right, white or black, modern or postmodern, male or female, jew or greek... Oh wait...

Galations 3:28--There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Please stop.

_Michael Gungor

Michael Gungor

Since middle of the summer, I have been helping "Bloom". It is a worship gathering in Denver that is Led by Michael and Lisa Gungor. Here is an article about the vision for their ministry and music.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/interviews/2007/michaelgungorband-mini-1107.html

Hope For China

Many of you know that my old mentor and friend, Mark Tedder, is in China with his family being a light of hope. Here is a video for the 2008 Olympic song that he wrote.