The Journey

I was reading in Genesis last week. I took the time to read as many chapters as possible in one sitting in order to find a feel for the narration of the entire book.

I began to notice again that God fulfills His purpose through family. God’s promise to Abraham was not merely to create a physical family, although that was the promise. The family was a way of beginning evangelism. The family line in the Old Testament was to help the world see the great works of God that they too may know Him.

God has worked through Biblical history to show Himself to the world through family. God values family and used it to fulfill His purposes in His world. The genealogies of the Old Testament are reaffirmed in Matthew 1. God’s intention is to use His family to share His great love to a rebellious world.

The reminder continues when John writes that we are “children of God.” Wow. I, though not a Jew or part of the ancestral line of Abraham, am part of God’s family through Jesus.

Prayer: God teach me that you want to use my family to share the great love of God. Help me to invest my time in them, to preserve their walk and guide them in faith so that others may know you. They will be my greatest achievement in this world, if I can bring them to faith in You. Not only will I evangelize my generation but the generations to come. Amen.

God reminded me in a new way this morning about my calling. My reading was in Acts 2, a little off the trail of my normal yearly reading cycle. I couldn’t get away from this for the past two days. I am called to preach.

Acts 2 uses the words sound, hear and listen 9 times in the same chapter about the same event. The event we all know as the pouring out of the Spirit accompanied by a great sermon and service to the community. Here are the things that stand out to me.

1. The Gospel must be audible. Speaking solidifies belief and faith. The presence of the terms sound, hear and listen cannot be overstated. Preaching is more than cognitive endeavor. It is action. If I hear the word of God in my personal time, what am I going to do with it? Just hold onto it? Keep it as a nugget of truth for just my own spiritual needs? No. It is shared aloud. When God speaks to you, you cannot be silent. If you find yourself silent, you may want to see if God’s actually speaking to you. If not, find out why.

2. The preacher is a Mythbuster. The audible message is heard by listeners who are saturated in culture. Folk theology and belief systems develop over a period of time making it difficult for the listener to process what you’re saying. Part of Peter’s message in Acts 2 involves breaking down and rebuilding the connection with the audience. He uses the culture’s conclusions on history which are truncated. He starts where the people are and builds on the history. Helping the audience see the intentional hand of God through their own historical perspective. He has rehearsed their history and now adds Jesus’ message to it, making their understanding of life about the Messiah. ?? (Is the understanding about their life or the Messiah’s?)

3. It takes a miracle. In no way do I want to leave out the outpouring of the Spirit. Peter is speaking out of the fullness of the God’s Spirit. He could have reasoned with this crowd all day by saying the same words. They may not have responded. But God had other plans. A miracle took place. Where human wisdom and preaching talent left off, God was there. This was the moment of awe. Preaching no longer was about Peter’s technique, it was about God’s power to communicate His word to all. There were no barriers that day. Not even the wall of race, language or culture. God broke down every barrier with a miracle.

4. Preaching in the Spirit leads to results. We are a result based culture. How do we know if the Word of God was heard after our speaking it? The proof is how the people responded. They were changed for ever, although not all of them were changed. This should bring every preacher to a tough evaluation process. Ask the tough question. Are people responding to your preaching? If not, perhaps you need to call on God for help. Read Acts 2 again from the preaching perspective. What’s the difference between your preaching and Peter’s?

Those who accepted his message are baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Acts 2:41

Smell is the gateway to the senses. It is also the doorway to the appetite. I love to walk into a home in which the cook has been preparing the meal for an hour or so. The smell of the food draws you into hunger. You’re suddenly hungry when you didn’t think you had an appetite at all. My wife makes a Chocolate ganache cake for my birthday and when she does, the aroma of chocolate is everywhere. It’s an amazing smell, so thick is the smell that you can taste it without taking a bite. I could have eaten 10 minutes before and that smell would still cause my stomach to growl.

When our congregation walks into the church, what do they smell? I’ve moved beyond chocolate to another sacred topic. Really, what is it about your church that draws them in before the first word is spoken?

It would be horrible to spend Thanksgiving dinner with family and not smell the food. Imagine. You walk into a home to celebrate with a 4 course meal and there is no roasted turkey, pumpkin pie or green bean aroma in the air. Where’s the holiday party in that? You know it’s true. The moment your nostrils fill with the aroma of Thanksgiving, is the moment the celebration begins!

The same is true for your worshippers. The atmosphere (smell) should speak for you. What are you doing to set the stage for their senses? We could simply have church, but we shouldn’t just “have church.” Our congregation should be aware of the worship moment in their senses. The atmosphere should be unique when they walk in long before we have said anything.

How to we set the table for our worshippers?

1. Pray. Spend time in prayer. There is no substitute for the atmosphere that is bathed by people who are on their knees before God. It is an energy of expectation that cannot be replicated by human hands.
2. Use music to set the atmosphere that you desire. A theme soundtrack if the pastor is in a sermon series that describes the message you want to make.
3. Clean up and organize. Let the congregation know that you were expecting them. The church should be neat and clean. It shouldn’t say, “oops, we forgot you were coming.”
4. Use images or media to send the messages that you want people to hear. Throw some scripture in with your scrolling announcements.
5. Lose the cell phones. Make it clear that you want to hear God’s voice and not your neighbor’s conversation.
6. Make sure your facilities direct the flow of traffic effortlessly. There should be nothing that would confuse or frustrate the worshippers before they are seating

There are many other suggestions to give out. The context is different for everyone of us. Yet the worship leader that realizes their role of leading into worship begins long before the congregation sings the first song, is the church that has the best worship experience of all.

I had rehearsed 3 hours for a performance until I knew the music for the worship service. I had the music down so well that it was first nature to me. The concert was a great night and I left feeling good about my performance and God’s faithfulness.

However, for the next two days the lyrics to one song echoed in my brain. Seriously, it was like a scene from Groundhog Day. It would not stop. Over and over again the tune would rule my thoughts. My wife was even humming the same tune. I tried playing a playlist in my office at annoying levels. Nothing worked.

This type of loop in the brain is called an earworm. Tone sequences, words, and smells trigger a thought pattern in our mind. A memory signals our brain and auto control begins as a song emerges from gray matter. The song could be completely out of context. A businessman once explained that the subway chime caused him to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. That’s not a subway that I will be on anytime soon. I can see the whole train breaking out into song like a bad Broadway musical.

As frustrating as these earworms can be, it’s great news to a worship pastor like myself. The memories that could be attached to our hymns or praise songs can be caught in the web of our minds and its personal experiences. In a moment we could start singing all day a word of hope, faith and love. The more we saturate our minds with tunes of worship with lyrics of faith, the more we can find the “Faithworm” arising at random times. While the impulses in the brain release a playlist at random, songs of God will always be there ready to be selected when the right trigger hits the play button in our brain.

Speak to each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19 NIRV)

The best reasons to begin or continue small group ministry.
1. It’s the way Jesus operated during his earthly ministry.
2. Our emphasis and theology on holy living requires accountable relationships to make that a reality.
3. You will, although not its original driving purpose, come to a better understanding of how your church community thinks in your unique culture and how better to pray and apply God’s truth.
4. Your church will be healthier and have a better chance of growing than merely relying on the Sunday morning hour to give your church everything they need.

The silence in the car was interrupted by two thumbs. My mind was still full of the reverberation of conversations from the day, so I didn’t care to listen to the additional noise of the radio. I wanted just to escape into the bubble of solitude in the car as I drove to my destination. It was a five minute drive but sometimes a few moments absent of noise can be refreshing.

My passengers were creating the “dtih dtih dtih” that happens when two thumbs are tapping on a phone keypad. It was surprisingly loud considering that was the only sound in the car. Instead of solitude I was surrounded by the rhythmic white noise of texting. They must have been texting a dissertation.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we share our thoughts, prayers or concerns to hundreds of people at a time through a phone or computer?

Think about this. The top trends of the “texting/social network community” centers around two age old terms – community and words. People desire to be connected. Words are the way we engage in that connection.

This power of word and community can be seen in the top trends of Facebook. Justin Bieber fans could get the latest news out in seconds. The concerts, pics and enthusiasm were undeniable. The online community also united together to get donations and word out to those impacted by the disastrous Haitian earthquake. Also, the Chilean miners were rescued and cheered by a supportive community of online comrades. This power of community and words through social media is enormously powerful.

Tragically, on the other spectrum, community words can also destroy. The stories of online bullying lead some to desperation and death. Again, this reinforces the power of words.

Anyone can be hurt or encouraged by words. The social network has made it possible to use the power of community and language even when not physically present, with hundreds of people looking in on the conversation.

The trend for Christian people should be to utilize this connection through the dazzling speed of the internet to get Jesus‘ message of hope out as efficiently, quickly and effectively as we can.

Our challenge today as Christians is not to merely get involved in the small talk of the online communities, but speak of hope, love in Jesus name to those in need. Remember, thousands of people will read what you’re saying. Make sure they hear of Jesus.

In the image of God. That is what I desire for my ministry to be. If we are not careful, we begin to create a ministry based on our personal preferences – in our own image. What is visible is me. What should be seen is Jesus. What we do should always be “as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3). Ministry should not just be done in His name with our personal amendments attached but more importantly in the IMAGE of God.

Look at how Jesus did ministry on earth. He set his personal preferences aside and did ministry as God needed it to be done. It was an upside down way of doing ministry according to the “churchy” people of that day. But Jesus and the Father were one. Jesus truly did ministry in the Imago Dei.

Prayer: “Lord, help me to work so that people see you and not me. Your will be done. Amen”

Just because God can easily bring creation into existence, doesn’t mean that He takes the easy way.

Think about it.

It would have been easy not to deal with selfish disciples or discourse with religious people about exaggerations of the law. It would have been easy to simply crush a disobedient people once and for all. It would have easy to avoid giving your only Son a walk up a long climb to be humiliated and killed.

It would have been easy, but it was love.

Love does not take the path that is easy.

Love takes that path that will communicate a selfless giving heart.

Love takes the road that reveals the greatest passion in the most demonstrative way.

Love is not easy.

Love is hard work.

By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8

The day is covered. night and day God encompasses it all. This lovely verse is in the middle of a Lament. It was my devotional reading today. The only verse here pulled out was encouraging hope. It’s pretty positive when you look at just this one verse.We don’t know what to do with lament. We don’t know how to handle the “whys” of life. We often feel guilty as Christians to ask God who, what and why. David did not feel the same way. Several times David says, “why?”

But in the middle, he realizes God carries the day. Ask the why. But realize God is still the Rock and hope.

My daily reading took me to Isaiah 12:4, “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.

There are four aspects of worship here. Each of these should be incorporated into our worship of God.

1. Give praise. We are good at this one and usually this easily dominates our worship service experience. Worship is more than giving praise. Look at points 2-4.

2. Proclaim His name. What is His name? Do you know? There are many names for God. Just saying the name of God for the OT people meant speaking it with reverence. There are many names for “God” in the OT and likewise in the NT. But did you know that each of these names describe not just God but more importantly describes God’s relationship with His people. God’s names impact you. Whether He is a Strong Tower, Provider or Healer; God is being describe in His connection to His creation.

3. Make known what He has done. This is another way of proclaiming. God is not just for us. He is for all. It’s global. It’s evangelistic. It’s sharing.

4. Proclaim that His name is exalted. He is number one. He is above everything; our problems, our fears, our hopelessness and any other gods that we put in His way.

Yes, worship is much more than giving praise. That’s the easy thing. The challenge is to bring the world in on our celebration of God’s character and creation. To worship means everyone knows and is included in the celebration.