Our local high school has undertaken some great musicals and some not so great musicals. Last year we walked out of Anything Goes which was pretty disgusting after only 15 minutes.
This year we rented the Barbara Striesand movie, "Hello, Dolly!" The movie was good, I would recommend it. The kids did a fantastic job with the play. Good as Broadway according to our friend who has seen a lot of shows on Broadway.
Towards the end of the movie/musical there is a great scene, where 14th Street is a buzz with Dolly is supposed to be coming to the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant at 8 pm. The staff of the restaurant is all excited. Dolly enters and comes down the stairs all decked out and they sing "Hello, Dolly. It's good to have you back where you belong."
Dolly lost her husband, and she has been avoiding life including all the places she went with her husband when he was alive. She had lived life and then given it up. She was a wounded individual.
Here's the lesson: Does the church wait in anticipation for that long lost soul to come back and then party because they have? Generally, we don't, we ostracize and criticize and hold them at arm's length ready to condemn if they slip. We should be like the father from the prodigal son story who ran to meet his wayward son, better yet, he was watching!
The whole restaurant was full of excitement Here was someone they knew and loved had come "home." Who have you welcomed home, lately?
Random thoughts from a focused mind on reaching the world one community, one family, one person at a time with the Good News of Jesus.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
What is worship?
This is not a doctrinal paper but a building of a conceptual thought into a firm reality.
Worship is singing, praise, prayer, breathing, listening, humbling, declaration, posture of spirit.
Worship happens when we sing, praise, pray, breathe, listen, bow, declare, and prostrate our spirit.
Where can we worship?
Worship is at church, listening to music in the car, in the living room, in the garage, at work, any where we can go and God is there.
Worship is a posture of our spirit: prostrating ourselves before the God of the universe anywhere we are prompted into the presence of God.
What does it feel like?
How can you describe sitting at the feet of God who spoke the universe into existance? I just finished reading a great book, called Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Life and Death.
Don Piper is involved in a horrific car accident and dies. He is dead for ninety minutes. He vividly recalls what heaven is like and meeting with friends and family and singing, all the while moving up to the gates of the throne room. Every sense is more intense and every sight is more beautiful than on earth.
What does worship feel like? Is it gladness, humilty, holiness, cleanness, joy, sadness, terror, hope, silence, calmness, everything fading away. Yes, all of the above and more. God interacts with each of us a little different, because we are all a little different from each other.
I want to end with an story from Joshua Revolution conference last year. We walked into the convention center it was clear outside. The whole conference was on the book of Revelation. We closed the session out with singing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty" and the band walked off the stage, nobody left, we sang acappella for 40 minutes each of us just entering the presence of God, stating how holy He is. When we came out of the convention center fog had covered the city and you couldn't see more than a block!
God reveals Himself in many different ways. Ask God to reveal Himself to you today, He will.
Worship is singing, praise, prayer, breathing, listening, humbling, declaration, posture of spirit.
Worship happens when we sing, praise, pray, breathe, listen, bow, declare, and prostrate our spirit.
Where can we worship?
Worship is at church, listening to music in the car, in the living room, in the garage, at work, any where we can go and God is there.
Worship is a posture of our spirit: prostrating ourselves before the God of the universe anywhere we are prompted into the presence of God.
What does it feel like?
How can you describe sitting at the feet of God who spoke the universe into existance? I just finished reading a great book, called Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Life and Death.
Don Piper is involved in a horrific car accident and dies. He is dead for ninety minutes. He vividly recalls what heaven is like and meeting with friends and family and singing, all the while moving up to the gates of the throne room. Every sense is more intense and every sight is more beautiful than on earth.
What does worship feel like? Is it gladness, humilty, holiness, cleanness, joy, sadness, terror, hope, silence, calmness, everything fading away. Yes, all of the above and more. God interacts with each of us a little different, because we are all a little different from each other.
I want to end with an story from Joshua Revolution conference last year. We walked into the convention center it was clear outside. The whole conference was on the book of Revelation. We closed the session out with singing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty" and the band walked off the stage, nobody left, we sang acappella for 40 minutes each of us just entering the presence of God, stating how holy He is. When we came out of the convention center fog had covered the city and you couldn't see more than a block!
God reveals Himself in many different ways. Ask God to reveal Himself to you today, He will.
Counter-Culture and Relevant
It is counter-culture to go against the grain when there is a trend the world takes.
It is relevant to reach people in the culture they live in, but it is counter culture that they need to escape to Christ.
A drowning man exists in a drowning culture, when we throw a lifeline to him, he is being reached by being counter-culture, because everything in his world is drowning.
When we reach into a teen's life to minister to them, we reach into a teen's culture of friends, ipods, txt msg, school and life. We are not in that culture, because we're adults. We know about the culture, and we use it as needed to reach the teen. We may even share a txt msg or a song from an ipod. We still don't live in their culture. We need to be an anchor in the adult culture and throw them a lifeline to bring them up into the adult culture (good or bad) so that they can mature as a person, and mature spiritually.
We are called by God to be sheep among wolves, Matthew 10:16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." We should know and understand the culture we are reaching out to, but we don't have to live it, accept it, or join it.
Counter-culture is not irrelevance. It is taking a stand against the tide that threatens to sweep us away from the foot of throne of God. We need to rely on God for the strength, dig deep into the Word for knowledge and wisdom, and pray for the power to stand.
For example: The divorce rate has been increasing over the last several years to the point where it really is affecting nearly everyone. Divorce Stats The divorce rates in the church have increased as well. This is not counter-culture, it is moving with the culture. We need to be counter-culture and support families, that are in danger of breaking up, rush in and support them, show them Jesus loves them and has a better plan. For families that have already broken up, we rush in with Jesus who is a soothing balm for the wounded and a chain breaker that breaks the cycle to the fourth and fifth generation.
Let's be Counter-culture and relevant.
It is relevant to reach people in the culture they live in, but it is counter culture that they need to escape to Christ.
A drowning man exists in a drowning culture, when we throw a lifeline to him, he is being reached by being counter-culture, because everything in his world is drowning.
When we reach into a teen's life to minister to them, we reach into a teen's culture of friends, ipods, txt msg, school and life. We are not in that culture, because we're adults. We know about the culture, and we use it as needed to reach the teen. We may even share a txt msg or a song from an ipod. We still don't live in their culture. We need to be an anchor in the adult culture and throw them a lifeline to bring them up into the adult culture (good or bad) so that they can mature as a person, and mature spiritually.
We are called by God to be sheep among wolves, Matthew 10:16 "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." We should know and understand the culture we are reaching out to, but we don't have to live it, accept it, or join it.
Counter-culture is not irrelevance. It is taking a stand against the tide that threatens to sweep us away from the foot of throne of God. We need to rely on God for the strength, dig deep into the Word for knowledge and wisdom, and pray for the power to stand.
For example: The divorce rate has been increasing over the last several years to the point where it really is affecting nearly everyone. Divorce Stats The divorce rates in the church have increased as well. This is not counter-culture, it is moving with the culture. We need to be counter-culture and support families, that are in danger of breaking up, rush in and support them, show them Jesus loves them and has a better plan. For families that have already broken up, we rush in with Jesus who is a soothing balm for the wounded and a chain breaker that breaks the cycle to the fourth and fifth generation.
Let's be Counter-culture and relevant.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The New Testament Church
The New Testament Church had many things that were different than today. One sticks out above all the rest:
There was one church per community!
I'm not advocation that we reconcile all our denominational differences and merge into a mega church in each community, although that would be interesting. I think there should be much more communication between churches and support between ministries. We can't all go to all of each others special events. There isn't time, but if one church has a great ministry to "flat earth society" then we all should know, so that we can refer other "flat earth society" people to it.
Something that has been on my mind for a long time, since coming to the Syracuse area is a database of sorts of people with skills, knowledge, contacts that may be of use to others. We all have something that we can share with fellow believers across church lines and across ministry lines. I myself work in energy conservation, but this goes out to lay leaders in all sorts of work, and to pastors who each communicate in their circles of life. If each of us were able to commit one hour on a specific skill or knowledge of a specific item, or commit to "I have this resource available to me and I would like to make it available to others." What an impact we could have in working together.
More on this thought later.
There was one church per community!
I'm not advocation that we reconcile all our denominational differences and merge into a mega church in each community, although that would be interesting. I think there should be much more communication between churches and support between ministries. We can't all go to all of each others special events. There isn't time, but if one church has a great ministry to "flat earth society" then we all should know, so that we can refer other "flat earth society" people to it.
Something that has been on my mind for a long time, since coming to the Syracuse area is a database of sorts of people with skills, knowledge, contacts that may be of use to others. We all have something that we can share with fellow believers across church lines and across ministry lines. I myself work in energy conservation, but this goes out to lay leaders in all sorts of work, and to pastors who each communicate in their circles of life. If each of us were able to commit one hour on a specific skill or knowledge of a specific item, or commit to "I have this resource available to me and I would like to make it available to others." What an impact we could have in working together.
More on this thought later.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Lessons from behind the wheel
I spend more time behind the wheel every day, than most do in a week. It's part of what I do, and who I am. I've been driving for a living almost since I married my wife 10 1/2 years ago. Driving gives me the time to think, and think some more. Sometimes I block out the radio, sometimes I'll jot notes down for later. With the common cell phone in everyone's hand, I can talk outloud to God and work through issues without people thinking I'm crazy.
What do you see from behind the wheel?
Some people fly down the highway, and some take it slow. Some are focused on the finish and some just roll along, getting there sometime, somehow and somewhere. Some may be just out with no destination in mind. How many of us are like that in life? We drive like mad to get to the finish line and find out that the finish line moved?
We will find our spiritual lives the same way. We might be rushing along working hard, or lazily headed in the wrong direction without knowing it.
Like on the highway, you should check the road map, in your spiritual life, you should check your Bible for directions. We don't need to speed, because God is always on time, just not our time.
Follow His directions and you'll never be dissapointed with the destination.
What do you see from behind the wheel?
Some people fly down the highway, and some take it slow. Some are focused on the finish and some just roll along, getting there sometime, somehow and somewhere. Some may be just out with no destination in mind. How many of us are like that in life? We drive like mad to get to the finish line and find out that the finish line moved?
We will find our spiritual lives the same way. We might be rushing along working hard, or lazily headed in the wrong direction without knowing it.
Like on the highway, you should check the road map, in your spiritual life, you should check your Bible for directions. We don't need to speed, because God is always on time, just not our time.
Follow His directions and you'll never be dissapointed with the destination.
Talking the Tech
One of things we need to do as Christians is to stop talking tech outside the four walls of the church. My apologies if your church has more walls than 4. As I drive across the state, I see church advertising signs, "First Baptist", "Second Ascension", "Fundamental", "Pentacostal" and "Evangelical". If I've never been to church I might wonder why are the baptists first? Who's the lucky ones to ascend first and where are they ascending to? Fundamental? Are they hardline party members? Pentacostal....Five?!?!?! Evangelical means they spank their kids and thump you with a Bible.
Our tech terms mean nothing to the world. Try this out. We all know somebody who is really good at their business. They know the industry inside and out. Set up a time when you can be a fly on the wall at their business and listen to the jargon, the tech talk and see if you can follow it. I have to do this every day. I take very technical data and break it down into common language that people can undertsand. We'd have better luck with "Free coffee and donuts to anyone who'd like to hear our sales pitch." I think we should eliminate the rhetoric and put it in plain English for those who live outside the walls of the church and would never think of venturing in. Let's rename our local church: "A place where you can find a friendly ear and a helping hand to get through this life." Okay, I know it doesn't fit on a sign, but maybe a bigger sign, with a smaller steeple is good.
Better yet, don't expect people to come inside the church, go out and find them in the highways and byways of life, meet their need and invite them into the sanctuary for the feast at the King's table.
Our tech terms mean nothing to the world. Try this out. We all know somebody who is really good at their business. They know the industry inside and out. Set up a time when you can be a fly on the wall at their business and listen to the jargon, the tech talk and see if you can follow it. I have to do this every day. I take very technical data and break it down into common language that people can undertsand. We'd have better luck with "Free coffee and donuts to anyone who'd like to hear our sales pitch." I think we should eliminate the rhetoric and put it in plain English for those who live outside the walls of the church and would never think of venturing in. Let's rename our local church: "A place where you can find a friendly ear and a helping hand to get through this life." Okay, I know it doesn't fit on a sign, but maybe a bigger sign, with a smaller steeple is good.
Better yet, don't expect people to come inside the church, go out and find them in the highways and byways of life, meet their need and invite them into the sanctuary for the feast at the King's table.
Random jogs from an insane mind.What
What does "Random Jogs from an insane mind" mean?
Paul wrote in Corinthians:
Someday we'll all be in our right minds.
Paul wrote in Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 5:12-14 (New International Version)
12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
and in Romans 7:
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Someday we'll all be in our right minds.
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