worship…

Hi all,

At my morning small group today we talked about prayer and worship.  When we got to the worship part we started things off by focusing on the statement “the most important thing God wants from us is worship”.  It seemed to catch some people by surprise.  Aren’t there more important things like feeding the hungry, caring for our families, praying, our jobs, our relationships with others?  I would contend that all of those things flow from worship.  A subtle shift in thinking but one with major impact in our lives.  Paul writes:

    “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable, or well pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2

As we begin to understand worship as the sole focus of our efforts and passions we see an amazing transformation in ourselves.  Worship begins to take shape as we present ourselves (form ourselves through obedience, time in the word, and prayer) as living sacrifices to God.  Through the transforming and renewing of our minds as a result of following Christ we will be able to “prove what the will of God is” (or in otherwords, begin to understand what it is that God would have us do, we begin to hear from God) and begin to live in a state of worship.  Out of that will pour care for others, a passion to do well in all our endeavors in a way pleasing to our God!  As you continue to seek God in your lives, and actions, remember to do so as an act of worship.  May every effort you make impact the kingdom and give God glory. 

*this is a great song that has always been a worship favorite for me.  Hope it draws you in to God’s love today! This is someones YouTube slide show of the song (take it as you will )

Only You

(David Crowder Band)

Take my heart, I Lay it down
At the feet of you whose crowned
Take my life, I’m letting go
I lift it upto You who’s throned

And I will worship You, Lord
Only You, Lord
And I will bow down before You
Only You Lord

Take my fret, take my fear
All I have, I’m leaving here
Be all my hopes, be all my dreams
You’re my delights, be my everything

And It’s just you and me here now
Only you and me here now

 

New Song

Here you go guys….thought this was a great song given the previous few posts.  Hope this helps in some way to get you through the day – i love the line about “whatever you’re doing inside of me, it feels like chaos but somehow there’s peace”, great stuff!!!!

*Whats some of the hard stuff that is so tough to work through?  Instead of personal answers at this point, how about giving me or posting a movie that has successfully shown one of these types of problems and its resolve (good will hunting for example)?

Overload

Hi All!

A brief post this morning as I start my workweek.  Are any of you feeling overwhelmed?  Does it seem like one more event in your life will be the “breaking point” (or has it been the “breaking point” for awhile now)?  I am quite an emotional person to say the least.  When things go well, i am super happy.  When things go bad I get pretty negative and bummed.  I had breakfast with a good friend the other day and he let me vent for a good hour.  He was very patient.  I love him for that.  But after a certain point i realized that i had been going for too long.  And recognizing that, i did what came natural, I tried to throw one more complaint on for good measure   My friend looked at me and smiled.  He then asked me a question to the effect of “hey dan, how’s the ministry going? Is God working good things in your life?”.  I answered yes and he responded with basically “shut up then about the negative.  God’s doing good things.  Focus on those.” 

I shut up.

Sometimes it takes a slap from a friend to re-orient ourselves (“faithful are the wounds of a friend….” Proverbs 27:6).  Sometimes it pays to look at the big picture and not freak out.  Sometimes it means trusting God is in control.  Actually it always means trust God has everything under control.  We may have some crisis going on, and things may look bleak, but if we stay in the bleakness too long we lose sight of God’s goodness.  There was an event this weekend that seemed very bleak when it first happened and the only action left was to trust in God to take care of things.  What looked like it would have a horrible ending turned out much less severe than first thought.  Trusting and waiting on God proved to be the only response available.  Many times we try to fix everything ourselves and only muddy the problem.  Or too oten we spend a long time looking at ourselves and the injustices in our lives and take our eyes of the one who is just.  Sometimes life takes some sharp turns and all we are left with is just the ability to hang on, like we are being dragged along by a car, or we are in a runaway train or something.  Holding onto ourselves and our own pain is counterproductive.  The car will still crash and we’ll only be holding ourselves with no hope of being saved.  If we cling to God, there is hope, and there is rescue.

“Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”
~1 Peter 5:7~    

The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
      He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17

 

Blessings.

wow.

I’m sorry to not have blogged in a bit, so for those of you who have been keeping up, i will have many new posts over the next few days!!!  I have a short one today and I want to touch on a few things I guess.  Maybe this is a house cleaning blog today   For those of you that went sunday night to I/O, it was a great night.  It was good to see many of you worshipping and trying to listen to God!  Some of you left your paragraphs behind and I got rid of them quick so that no one would read them.  I want to encourage all of you to keep listening, to keep spending time trying to hear what God has to tell you.  Many of you felt like you heard some stuff on sunday, and I want to encourage you to really try to figure out exactly what it is God is asking/telling/showing you.  It takes alot of different shapes apparently as many of you had a different reaction on Sunday (tears, anger, happiness, a sense of direction, and many other emotions).  Weigh your reaction against scripture and I have a feeling that you will find some great direction. 

On a different note, as seen in the title, I went to a wake on tuesday.  It was for a girl named Ashleigh.  I had known Ashleigh and her family from my old church.  Over 1000 people went to her wake that night!!!  I stood in line for over 3 hours as people made thier way through.  It was awe inspiring!  The outpouring of peoples time and love at this event was a testimony to how amazing a life lived for and with God can be.  I want to encourage you, that in all your actions, you affect others.  Apparently this young girl impacted a great many people.  Many people i am sure she might not remember, but they remembered her and her impact on their lives.  It puts a fresh perspective on how it is we should live in Christ.

Just some thoughts!

Blessings.

Listening

I have a hard time listening sometimes.  I think I just have to face it.  I have always fancied myself as a good listener.  I have compassion for others, I care.  I know that you should make eye contact and give verbal and physical gestures that let the person I’m listening to know that I am aware of what they are saying.  I also know that the less I say and the more I let another person talk, then the better things usually turn out.  But here is my admission.  In my brain during a conversation (and this is a sometimes thing, really serious talks rivet me but sometimes during “normal” conversation is what i am really addressing) I have a hard time focusing.  I swear that I can hear the grass growing, and am aware of an airplane flying overhead, as well as I am remembering that the red sox won because someone on the other team missed a bunt, and that I really like when Phil sings at youth group, and that i forgot my coffee cup in the microwave at the church office, and that I need to finsish my homework, knowing that my kids are probably trying to fly off of the playhouse in the backyard, and that certain people are always on facebook (do they do anything else like eat or sleep, potty?) , and….on and on…and all of this takes place in a manner of seconds when i get distracted during a conversation.  Worst of all my brain tends to go haywire the most when I am trying to listen to God.  I settle in, I pray, and then I try to listen and my brain explodes.  Seriously, i think part of it does. 

How do you focus when you settle in and try to listen to God?

  Is there peace inside or chaos? I find that the only way that i can avoid the distraction is through discipline.  Yuck, what an ugly word, it brings to mind the wooden spoon my friend’s grandma used to take to us when we got in trouble.  But as I grow in my walk with Christ, the word and concept of discipline has become a friendly term to me now.  The more I make it a priority to read Gods word, pray, and serve others; the easier it becomes to stay focused and listen.  I find that I become less and less haywire, and more and more at ease with waiting on God to speak.  Clarity.  That’s what I’m praying for your life today.  That you through a working relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit realize the peace that follows.  What do you think?  What works for you?  What really doesn’t?  Let’s discuss this one.  Leave a post and have at it!

Blessings.

Can you see me now?…..

One of the funniest comments I have heard this week was from a juinior high student who said that he used to walk to school and try to “play games” with God.  His example was that he would walk the same way to school for a week or two, then one day he would start on his normal routine and partway through he would veer off course for a bit then jump back to his normal path.  He would then ask God “did you see that, did you know that was what I was going to do?”.  The group we were in had a great laugh but it got me thinking.  Do we often break routine and wonder if God, or anyone else for that matter notices.  Have there been times where we’ve done something we think to be so extraordinarily good and then wonder or wait to see if anyone really noticed.  Or vice/versa, have we done something bad just to see if we’d get caught.  I think sometimes it is easy to wonder if anyone truly takes stock in what we do.  I have a sense that there are some people who have fallen into the trap of thinking that noone cares, especially God.  I want to assure you that God truly does care, whether he screams out in an audible voice, or is patiently silent with you, he cares. 

“the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”  Psalm 121:8

I think some of us are so focused in wanting God to take notice of us on our terms and to show his care of us on our terms, that we don’t recognize his presence in our lives.  We are too busy waitng for the “big loud voice”, or for God to show up in a caped costume with the underwear on the outide flying in to save the day.  We are so intent thinking that is the way God should interact with us that we completely ignore the way he has communicated his past and current actions to us.  We have his written word, the Bible.  We have prayer.  We have his Holy Spirit to guide us and speak to us if we are believers.  We have other believers in which we can see God working in their lives.  God has given us so many ways to discern how he is involved in our lives, and how he is speaking to us.  Can I ask you if you are struggling with this issue….have you listened for God’s answers and truly looked for God’s actions in your life?  Or have you given God the answer you want him to give and are just waiting for him to repeat it back to you.  Do you want God to puppet back the actions you want him to take in your life?  Can I ask you today to really look and see how God is active in your life.  Use the resources that He has given us on HIS terms, not the ones we have created on our terms.  May you find God active in loving you and active in watching over you today!

Blessings.