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have you ever listened to a song and it felt like the song somehow transfered something over to you? you know, when all of a sudden for no apparent reason you get tingley all over from the song? unless i have some sort of psychosomatic problem, i think that music can sometimes remind me of the One who wants to bring me back to Him. Sometimes I exprience God’s still small voice through the melodies and lyrics of songs…it’s as if God is speaking into the depths of my soul.
The reason I bring this up, is that I was just listening to the song, “Heaven” by a band called The Fire Theft. I first heard it last month on a mission trip to Costa Rica…as we were winding through a mountain road, surrounded by foliage that had leaves bigger than a jr. higher, sounds of monkeys and birds mixed with the sound of an occasional waterfall…one of the high school students passed me his headphones…i was still immersed in the moment of my surroundings as i put on the headphones and a soundtrack began for what i was seeing…over the melodic interplay of piano, guitar, and drums…these words pierced into my heart…
Heaven
Are you really waiting outside the door?
Never thought I’d hear the words before the road
It’s the simple things that are so hard to grasp
Can’t find myself in all these days that pass
But I can feel it when it shines
Nevermind the way they shy
Turning round along the trail
My whole world is falling in love with you
And in that moment…i understood the words, “Be still and know that I am God.” I felt God’s love pour over me like a warm shower and the rest of my trip became referenced in relation to that moment…simply amazing.
What are some ways that remind you of the One who has loved you since the beginning of time?
Without a doubt, it has been the hardest 3 weeks of my life as a pastor. Granted, I only started in youth ministry 5 years ago at Forest Home Christian Camp and am now the High School Pastor at Calvary Community Church…but the things that have happened in the last 3 weeks make me feel like I have really aged.
Though youth ministry is often potrayed as a 24/7 party of games, camps, “fun” mission trips to Costa Rica, and late nights playing “Mafia,” there is a side that few people talk about or even experience…the utter depravity of the american teenager.
I know you are thinking…”whoa buddy, why the downer?” But when you get past all the fun and the games and get to a point where a student can open up to you and share their fears, pain, and feelings of abandonment with you…you will begin to understand there there is a world beneath the surface that we often miss…a world that few would listen to and as a result caused two girls from our group to run away two weeks ago…
I am engaged in ministry in an area that most of the world would say is pretty amazing…Westlake Village…just inland from Malibu…everything you want at your fingertips…students in my youth group go to a high school that costs more than most 4 year universities…actors like Jim Caviezel and Heather Locklear come to speak at assemblies…and from the outside everything looks perfect.
But in the last 3 weeks a door was opened in our ministry that revealed to me a lot of hurt and pain and desperation. Don’t let the 4.0 GPAs, the National Honor Society Awards, and extensive involvement in church activities fool you…
REM was write when they wrote the song “Everybody Hurts.”
I knew it would only be time until that door was finally opened and now that it did, I know there is no going back.
I am tired of youth ministry that is all about fun and games and forgets about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ who left the comforts of heaven and entered into the suffering reality of our world to bring healing and redemption. I am tired of youth ministry that rates its success on how many students show up to youth group or small groups or mission trips or service projects and forget about the life-transforming power of Jesus that promises that he will bring life to the full. I am tired of youth ministry that is afraid to ask the tough questions to parents for fear that they might stop supporting the ministry and forgets that the primary call is to please God not people.
I am tired…and I think a lot of high school students are tired as well of youth groups that don’t take them seriously and don’t take the time to really listen to their hearts.
My prayer is that we can this week stop and listen to Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 11:28…
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
I just heard one of the best sermons over the past few years…
At yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Bono, lead singer of U2 implored our entire nation to raise the bar in reaching out to the poor…specifically the poor in Africa. Among other things…Bono pointed out that currently, the US gives less than one percent of its budget to relief in Africa. His adamant request and plea was for the US to tithe just one percent more to the situation in Africa. Bono said that when history looks back on us, we will be known for what we do, or don’t do, with the problems in Africa.
As a huge U2 fan because of thier music and an even bigger Bono fan because of his relentless desire to follow Jesus’ lead in reaching the poor, I loved especially this selected quote:
Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”
It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.
And then Bono strikes a chord in me that has been resonating over the past week.
…A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it. I have a family, please look after them. I have this crazy idea…
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.
Get involved in what God is doing – because it’s already blessed.
Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.
And that is what he’s calling us to do.
Enough said.
In an earlier post I talked about a professor’s adamant request that we stop asking God to join what we are doing…to stop inviting him into a situation…because the reality is, he is already present and at work and it is our job to respond to His love and to join Him in what He is already doing.
Two comments that stuck out…
Rhett Smith Says:
January 30th, 2006 at 12:18 pmI like how Dr. Ray Anderson would tell us in class that the whole concept of WWJD is pretty ridiculous when you think about it. The question is not what would Jesus do, but what is Jesus doing. He is alread here in our midsts.
Rhett,
Love it…Ray was the first to really challenge this concept in my life…Christ is already present and at work and we have the choice over whether or not we follow him or not.
Steve Says:
January 31st, 2006 at 8:35 amYes, Jesus is already present in this place, but we have been given this incredible gift of free will, and so He says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”, seeking a welcome from us.
Think of Moses, who followed clouds and pillars of fire of God’s presence and yet still was trying to strike the rock o get Jesus to perform for Him. God does not need to be compelled to show up, he’s already there, but he does want us to ask for his grace.
Steve,
so right you are…he is present yet he does not force his will upon us…we must receive him.
The fantastic thing is that we have confidence when we respond to his free gift of love because he is present and we don’t have to wonder if he will show up or not.
I love the passage you quoted from Revelation 3:20.
I don’t want to make any assumptions about how you interpret that passage but I recently have been processing whether or not, even I myself, have misinterpreted this passage.
I have generally understood it as an evangelistic device. Jesus stands and knocks at the door of our hearts and it is our choice whether or not to invite him in. I have been taught this for years and have heard it in countless sermons…but recent conversations with pastors and seminary professors has made me rethink why I believe what I believe about this passage.
When you look at the context of this passage, it is written to the church in Laodicea NOT a non-believer. As we look at the entire passage we see John’s vision of the Son of Man rebuking a lukewarm church that does not have it’s eyes focused on Christ. This passage comes in the midst of Jesus’ message to 6 other churches…not one referance to the nonconverted…
So the questions that I ask are:
”why do we think we can take this verse out of context and use it in an individualistic and evangelistic sense?”
“are we taking it out of context?”
“is this passage directed more at us the church rather than those outside the church?”
Would love to hear your thoughts…as you formulate your thoughts, check out an interesting review of Revelation 3:20 that I stumbled upon…
Wow…another amazing class with Dr. Francis Bridger at Fuller Theological Seminary.
So, the question came up in class, “How often do we in our prayers and in our conversations invite Jesus into a situation or a place?”
I mean, when you think about it, we do it all the time.
“Jesus, during this difficult time, we invite you into this place and give us peace.”
“Lord, we ask that you be with us here today as we plan the upcoming year.”
It has become so common in our language that if you type in “inviting Jesus” into Google, 1,680,000 search results come up at the time this was written.
So when our teacher brought up this common request today in class…we all thought nothing of it.
Until he said it was…
unbiblical.
what? unbiblical? are you saying that thousands of pastors and, come to think of it, millions of believers pray an unbiblical prayer?
after our initial shock gave way to an awkward silence…one student broke through and asked what we were all thinking, “what?”
He replied,
How dare we invite Jesus into this place? How dare we have the audacity to think we are the gatekeepers who can beckon and hold back God at our whim? How dare we miss the biblical truth that God is already present in this place…that He was here long before we arrived…that He is already at work in ways beyond our comprehension. Rather, our pray should be, ‘God, we recognize you are here in this place and are in control. How can we join you in what you are already doing? How can we respond to the love you have initiated to us through your Son, Jesus Christ? We want to follow you, show us the way.
Silence.
What if he was right? What if Christ was bigger than our feeble attempts to “bring him” into a situation? What if God is already at work in a situation and desires us to pray for the next step…he is already there…we don’t need to waste our time and believe we have to invite him in….he is already ahead of us and we are to follow.
How would this change counseling sessions? Instead of inviting Jesus into a situation we would point to the reality that he is here in our midst walking alongside us in our pain.
How would this change church meetings? Instead of inviting Jesus in to bless our plans and our process we would acknowledge his leading and ask in ernest prayer that our scales would fall from our eyes so that we could collectively see the direction he is leading.
How would this change my life? Instead of inviting Jesus into my life, I would live a life of responding to the love that he initiated…that he set into motion long before I sent him the invitation. That I would go beyond seeing Jesus as another part of my diverse portfolio that will give me a better life…but humbly acknowledging that the only way this thing works is if I allow Jesus to take the wheel of my life instead of trying to wrench it from him…
How can we move from living as false gatekeepers of God to authentic Christ-followers?
Oh Jesus, show us the way…
…is off to a rough start. I’m tired, frustrated, and see no end in sight.
I wonder if it is from:
(a) the power outage at church from the high winds that prevented me from getting some time-senstive work done and kept me busy until 11:30pm tonight…
(b) the hour commute is starting to wear on me.
(c) I haven’t taken the time to be connected to and filled up by the only One who can offer me the peace and strength I long for.
hmmmm…if i want to get at the root of the matter, I think I know what to do now instead of blog…
Wow…what an amazing weekend!
Who would have thought 15 hours of sleep in 4 days would be so much fun!
As I am recuperating at home today, I’ve been thinking about easy it was for me to pray and connect with God this weekend and how hard it is for me at home with all the noise and distractions that pull my attention away. Camps are so great at creating an environment where we can respond to God’s command in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” You can walk out into nature alone and only hear the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. You can look out your window and see the snow cascading down from the ominous sky. You can stare up at the expansive Milky Way and remember that there are actually more than the dozen stars you normally see in the sky in LA. It’s so easy to understand what the Psalmist says in the eighth psalm, “all the heavens are declaring the glory of God.”
The problem is…daily life doesn’t naturally create an environment that allows me to “be still.” So many things demand my attention…people, work, studies, laundry, dishes, errands, bills, myself…I have to fight with every ounce of who I am to listen to and obey God’s command to be still and know that God is God. I desperately want to do this.
How much more would I be able to please God if I were able to do this?
How much more peace would I have in my life if I recognized that God was the one calling the shots…not me?
How much would my life be transformed if I stopped long enough for the transformation to take place?
How much would God be able to use me for His glory if I slowed down enough to listen to His voice?
I want to create that environment in my life and I want to help others create that environment as well in order that we can all “be still, and know who God is.” God is as much a reality in the traffic of Los Angeles as He is in the Sequoia forests surrounding Hume Lake…granted a little harder to hear…but always present and patiently waiting for us to be still and know deep down to our core who He is.
Music downloading creates listerner apathy
Fascinating article on how the increasing ease over music accessibility has caused many listener’s to appreciate music less.
The article says,
The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation,” said music psychologist Adrian North on Tuesday. North led a team from the University of Leicester, central England, that monitored 346 people over two weeks to evaluate how they related to music. They concluded that because of greater accessibility through mass media, music was nowadays seen more as a commodity that is produced, distributed and consumed like any other.
Western culture has gotten this down to a science…music has become a commodity, art has become a commodity, a person’s thoughts have become a commodity (ie, advertisers flocking to blogs)…even Church has become a commodity.
I see churches all around that offer so much programs that it fuels the consumer-driven mindset of a congregant and soon they are rating the programs like they would rate a movie or a play. And soon so much is offered that a congregant will block out what the church is “pitching” just like they have learned to block out what the commercials are “pitching” in between their favorite TV shows…
I see a generation of students that don’t understand the value of God’s Word because it can be put up on a projector screens during a service, it can be Googled, and is printed and dispersed for free by many religious groups…I’m all for accessibility of God’s Word but how do we maintain it’s value and dynamic, life-changing qualities in the midst of the excess we have created?
I see students not willing to even pick up a bible under their chairs in church because it has lost its value in their minds…
How does the church stop acting like a vending machine that spits out another commodity?
Would love to hear thoughts…
