Stir it Up

I wanted to take a little time to share a recap of what we talked about on Tuesday night's devotion regarding stirring up love and good works toward one another. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us as members of God's family that we ought to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. In a day when so many people take their friends and family for granted, we as God's ambassadors should be doing the opposite. When the world often looks to relationships for what they can get, we should look for what we can give. When the world loves if it's convenient, we should love unconditionally. When the world says, "someone should serve me", we should say, "who can I serve." These are just a few examples of the way in which we as children of God, saved by grace, redeemed unto greatness and called according to His purpose should conduct ourselves. Not as the world, but as Christ. Let's look at our times together as times of serving and loving one another and not as another thing to check off of the busy list. Let's realize that God has set us in family and appreciate and cherish it.

So I encourage you today to stir up the gifts of love and service one to another and never take for granted when we come together. It is truly a great time where God orders His blessing (Psalm 133) as we walk in the unity of the faith.

Faith and Patience

This is a short message of encouragement to all of you in your walk with God to never lose heart and trust Him with every area of life. As we've just completed another powerful season of seed sowing in our house, I believe it's an appropriate time to encourage one another in the areas of faith and patience. Sometimes we can be so overwhelmed by the curve balls that life continually hurls at us and the unexpected turns that await us on our journey, but rest assured that no curve ball or turn ever catches God off guard. He is faithful and just to fulfill every promise in His timing. Our responsibility in every situation is to 'respond well' (to quote Pastor Francis Anfuso). As we await the fulfillment of every promise of our infallible, ever-faithful Father in Heaven, we must catch the revelation of walking in faith and patience. Faith because we believe that He who promised is faithful, and patience because the promise often takes longer than we would like for it to be manifested (Hebrews 6:11-15). What we need to realize is that God is not bound by our circumstances or our perceived limitations, He is well-able to do what He said He would. We simply need to walk in patience as we put our faith in Him, knowing that His word does not return void, but it will accomplish what He sent it to do (Isaiah 55:10-11).

As you look for harvest on your seed, trust God for the salvation of a lost loved one, believe for provision, stand for healing, or whatever it is, always know that He does not waver concerning His promises, and will always come through; He is trustworthy. With that settled in our minds, we can stand firm on His word as we continually walk in faith and patience.

Free to Worship

As we complete the week following Easter, it's always an interesting time. Most churches across the nation have experienced one of the most well-attended services of the year, arts ministries are taking a little break from putting on some of their most extensive performances of the year and people who wouldn't otherwise attend a church service are now wondering, 'Should I go back this week?' With all of these things to consider, I would like to propose to us that we don't get caught in the event mentality that so many others do. We have been set free by the Truth (John 8:31-32) and are not bound to seek Him at only a certain date and time, but as Hebrews 10 says, '... having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, ... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith...' (v.19 & 22 - read the whole chapter if you get a chance).

So in keeping with this, let's draw near everyday, every moment, at every gathering, at every opportunity with the full assurance that by the blood of the covenant, we are welcomed in as we submit ourselves to Him. He is worthy of everything we have, all praise and all honor. Never forget how great He is and how privileged we are to worship Him at all times and not just on a particular day of the year. We most certainly are, free to worship.

Groundskeeping

Everyone generally knows about the Parable of the Sower that Jesus told in Matthew 13 and Luke 8. In this story, Jesus tells us of someone sowing seed and this seed falling on four types of ground: ground that didn't receive seed at all, stony/hard ground, ground overgrown with weeds and thorns, and lastly, good ground. Each of these is representative of the ways in which people receive the "seed" of God's word, but there is a key element to this entire progression that needs to be considered: each type of ground is in the condition it is in due to the preparation, or a lack thereof. This leads us to take a deeper look at our duty in this process.

As we ponder this topic, it's quite easy to look at this parable from the perspective that says that the ground is just the way it is by default. This viewpoint springs up so naturally given the absence of personal responsibility which has become so characteristic of our society. The reality though is that the ground gets into the condition it is in due to a host of factors: attention, care, neglect, the elements, etc. What we must realize is that these factors translate into human terms as well because the ground which Jesus was really concerned with was that of the hearts of mankind. We too can become ground upon which seed will only fall by the wayside if we don't have a heart to receive it. If we have a heart which is hardened, rigid and stuck in our way of doing things or we simply choose not receive all of what God's word has to say, we will be just like the stony ground upon which seed springs up quickly, but abruptly dies out due to a lack of depth. When we allow the cares of life to come in, whether they seem good or bad to us, they will choke out the growth of God's "good seed" in our hearts. Finally though, the desire of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for us is that we are good ground which has been prepared to receive, so that when the seed is planted it bears a good harvest which remains.

The question today is, are you keeping the ground of your heart or are you allowing it to fall into disrepair? The parable of the sower undoubtedly gives us an illustration that shows the significance of the posture of our hearts as we receive the word of God. His word is always good seed, therefore the burden lies upon the one who is charged with keeping the ground to have it prepared and ready to receive the seed. With this in mind, make the choice to position yourself and deal with the issues of life in such a way that your heart is always ready to take in the good seed of God's word with a "noble and good heart" (Luke 8:15) and in turn bear fruit that remains. Keep the ground well so that the good fruit you bear will be evident and those around you will be pointed to Father God, the ultimate seed sower.

Presence before Production

Last weekend I had the opportunity to hear a very powerful message from a fellow worship leader and musician. Of the many profound statements he made, the one that stood out to me the most was that we must be presence-driven and not production-driven. The presence that he was referring to of course was the presence of God. Being a director of a worship and arts ministry, this particular statement resounded loudly in my heart and mind and caused me to take a deeper look at how we approach the place of corporate worship.

So many times in our results-driven, instant-gratification society, we want to see things happen. Not only that, but we want to see things happen right now. That mindset has caused us to often times judge the place of corporate worship from a wrong perspective. If the music is played perfectly, if the singers are right on, if the songs are good, if everyone is really energetic, THEN worship was good. Our thought many times is, 'Did everything go well?' and not, 'Were we in His presence?' This is not the attitude which should accompany worship offered to the Ruler of all Creation.

As we look into the word of God, a great example of the type of attitude we should have toward worship is found in Exodus 33. God called Moses to lead the children of Israel into the land He was giving them, but their prior disobedience in creating the golden calf upon which to focus their worship caused God to respond with the following in verse 3 "... for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." They had desired to SEE something - a product/result - so they created an idol upon which to focus their worship. We too can make this mistake if we focus our worship on the 'products' of the day: good songs, flawless music, great crowd response, good lighting, etc. Instead, let us choose the heart Moses expressed in verse 15: , "If Your Presence does not go [with us], do not bring us up from here." In the midst of an intense discussion with the Lord, Moses' cry was not, "Will you do it Lord? Will You help us get there?" He was in total opposition to being production-oriented. His simple plea was that if the children of Israel would not be privileged to have the accompaniment of Father God's holy presence, then there was no purpose in even taking the journey. No sense in having what would seem to others to be wonderful benefits, without the giver of those benefits. No point in having a 'flawless' worship service, if the presence of the Lord is not there.

Upon repenting of our sin to follow the ways of Father God, our immediate response should be worship - which is truly summed up as a recognition of who He is, His authority and subsequently realizing that our obedience to Him is what's required. That is the place of truly abiding in His presence. The power of corporate worship is in a group of people recognizing the aforementioned points, declaring them, and most importantly living them. Our enjoyment or use of good music is only a part of this equation when we realize that in light of His holiness, we offer ALL that we are to honor Him (Romans 12:1). We must be focused on what it is to abide in His presence and not just have a good production - whatever that may entail.

Today and everyday, our desire must be to never get so overwhelmed with producing good results that we leave God's presence behind. Now certainly, we must prepare and be competent so that what we do is excellent and not a distraction to ourselves and others, but never to the point that our preparation and competence become our golden calf so to speak. We must be stripped of any desire to put anything above the Father so that He has the place He deserves in our lives: #1. In that place, our preparation and competence become acts of worship as we abide in His presence. Day by day, let us press on to embrace a life where His presence is far above anything else. Production is good in many areas, but let's never let it supersede the powerful principle of abiding in Him. Simply stated: let's always keep presence before production.

Sitting at His Feet

Although I'm on a brief blogging hiatus, I decided to share this devotion since we didn't get to it on Tuesday night:
After rehearsal this week I was immediately convicted about not sharing this devotion with you all. Interestingly enough, the very fact that I didn't make time to share this devotion was an example of exactly what this passage talks about. It's familiar to all of us, but I trust that you'll hear it with new ears today as you read:

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus'[fn11] feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell to help me." And Jesus[fn12] answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42 NKJV)

As you read through this passage I'm sure you are freshly convicted as I am to make the focus of our lives worship and not service. The encouragement I have for you today in addition to that is to not limit worship to sitting at His feet by way of what we consider contemporary worship - the singing of songs, playing of instruments, dancing, etc. Let us take our definition to that of an entire lifestyle surrendered to Christ and a firm adherence to His truth. Sitting at His feet is not only about adoring Him, but about hearing His words. Look at what the passage says of Mary: she "sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." Jesus knew that if Mary would come and hear his words and truly receive them, that she would live and give everything in life to honor Him. He knew that her focus would not be on the works themselves, but that the works would come out of His word which was deposited in her spirit to produce good fruit. That should be our primary goal in sitting at His feet: hearing His word. Sharing our heart for him and acknowledging His greatness is necessary, but let us not stop at that. We must choose to continue to the place of hearing and receiving the words of life, because that's what will truly change us and cause us to do His will.

Remember that we can prepare all that we want to for 'good works', but without sitting at His feet to hear His word we may totally miss the mark. Even as the scripture says of Martha, "she was DISTRACTED with much serving." We can become oblivious to what God is saying through our own endeavors. He might be telling you to lay something down in order to pick something else up. He may be moving us in a new direction that will cause us to walk in a greater measure of faith. Whatever truth He speaks to us, the unwavering assurance we can have is that He will not only tell us what the truth is, but will also teach us how to walk in that truth. He is faithful to guide and direct our steps as we are promised in Psalm 37:23 & Proverbs 16:9. So today and everyday, especially as we prepare all of the many facets of our ministry, let's not forget what Jesus said, '...one thing is needed...' - to sit at His feet and hear His word.

Hiatus Time

I will be taking a brief hiatus from posting for just a couple of weeks. It's always good to step back, reflect and rest in Father God in order to not become mundane and full of empty religion in anything we do. With that said, look for some new posts in a few weeks.

Have a great day!

PS. This would be a great time to look through some of the older posts if you missed any of them. As the author I'm a little biased, but they are pretty encouraging :-).