worship

Over the course of my life I have been in a lot of worship bands in many different churches. I have played for Christian Fellowship Church, Cross Current, Leesburg Baptist Church, Evangelical Covenant Church, Faith Community Church, Woodman Valley Chapel, and most recent The Gathering. I have found that when we talk about worship the first thing that people think of is music on Sunday mornings. Worship is so much more than that. Worship is a lifestyle that we choose to live. We have worship music because it helps us wrap our minds around what worship is. Worship is giving your whole being to something. The Church began singing and playing music because people wanted to use the musical talents God had given them to worship Him. Plus we know that God likes music because we see in the bible were the angles sing and play music in God's presence for Him. But we can worship God with so much more than just music. We can worship with our time, our money, friendships...whatever talents God has given you. Many years ago the church didn't have music in their services, they worshiped in different ways. I wonder what that would look like today if we stopped using music and began worship by serving each other, showing love and compassion on people. I think what we would see would be unreal.

P.S. The coldest recorded temperature is -128.6F. That was at Vostok Station in Antarctica during the SUMMER of 1983.

We are alive and have a purpose.

As I was reading the book of Ephesians yesterday I found some things in chapter 2 verses 1-10 that I thought were kind of cool. We get to see a little about who God is. I like these verses because we get to see some of God's character traits. When you begin to learn peoples character, you get to know them more intimately. That's why I like these verses so much I guess.

One thing I have learned from this passage is that God really does love us and wants to spend forever with us. Did you know that you were once dead? Not like physically dead but spiritually dead. Maybe someone reading this right now is still dead...Crazy thought huh? Being dead though has one perk...this is amazing...God wants to bring us to life! Stop and think about that for a second. God literally wants to make you alive...forever...starting right now. If you have been around a church or other Christians you have heard the term "everlasting life." We throw those words around a lot but do we really let them sink into our mind and hearts? You can start right now enjoying eternal life. You will never has to experience death. Yes, your physical body will one day run out of juice and no longer work and your body will pass away. But we can start right now knowing and taking comfort in the fact hat we will never have to experience total separation from God. You will never have to set foot in hell because God wants to bring you to life!

God wants us so badly that He is willing to die for us. Girls you want to ultimate chick-flick?... the perfect love story?...here is your man! We see in verses 4-9 were God explains a little of his character to us. He is loving, merciful, accepting. The bible says that we were saved by His grace. We were saved because He wants us not because he had to or was obligated too! He knows that we were dead, born into a life of sin yet He still loves us enough that he has chosen to show grace and mercy on us.

This is crazy to think about but their are roughly 6 billion people on earth and "you" are the only "you". If God is the creator of everything (including people) then how can we say that we were an accident? Or that God doesn't love me? Or that God doesn't know me. God made you and no one else like you. If God wanted to have several of you He could have done that but He didn't. He made just one. It says in verse 10 that we are "God's workmanship". This is a cool to me...and it goes on in this passage to say that God has a job for us. God has prepared work for us to do in advance. Did you know that you were created to do a very specific job that only you can do? Their is no one else in the world that can do the work God has planned for you...after all their is only one of you right? When we accept Christ we are no longer dead but made alive! We are given a life, given a purpose, given reason. What is that purpose? What is that reason? What is that life for? Verse 10 says that it is to do "good works". If we are doing what God has called us to do with our lives...I would say that is a good thing. If you are not sure what that work is in your life, pray and ask Him. No one else in the world has your job, has your mission, has your work to do. Only you were perfectly made to do what God wants you to do. Maybe that's being a football player, being a teacher, being a truck driver, being a photographer...whatever. But God has a life planned for you to show a hurting world His love. I had someone tell me one time that "we are all called to ministry but not all are called to ministry as a vocation." Very true. You don't have to be a pastor or a worship leader or a small group leader to do ministry. Just pray and ask God what that means for you because like it or not, believe it or not...YOU HAVE A PURPOSE! yes you...the person reading this!!! YOU HAVE A PURPOSE! You have a life, a job, relationships, friendships, a mission, a purpose waiting for you. If you turn your back to that life that God has planned for you...that's a great way to have a very plain, hurt filled, unsatisfying life. You have been made ALIVE and have a PURPOSE! If we would be open to what the Lord has for us, our lives would be happy, fulfilling...we would have a life that we could have never dreamed of on our own.

Wake up, you're alive! Go do something amazing that can only be explained by God!

Why don't we pray more?

I often ask myself the question "why don't I pray more?" It seems that I am like a lot of other people in the world that only pray when I need something, when I am hurt, when things just are not going my way...or I pray for God to get me out of a situation, help meet my needs, give me strength...you see what I am saying. But why don't I pray just to give God thanks and praise for things like my job, my friends, my car, a nice home to live in...it seems that we tend to forget those kinda things on a daily basis. As I was thinking about all of this I began to think of why people don't pray more. I think that a lot of people are disappointed in their prayers and feel that God has not answered them. Have you ever asked God for something and not gotten it or asked God to allow something to happen and it never happened? Part of the reason could be that it is not in Gods timing or maybe we ask God for something we are not ready to receive yet.

Have you ever had "that one friend" or "that one family member"? who always asks for stuff? Example... Hey man I forgot my wallet can you pay for me this one time, dont worry I'll pay you back. Or how about this one...I just need a place to stay for a few weeks but it will be like you'll never know I'm here and dont worry I can help with bills and stuff. You know the kind of person I am talking about? That one person who always goes out but can never afford it...you know? They ask and ask and say that they will repay you but never do. They say they will help but never help. They borrow something but never return it...They say one thing when they need something but when its all over it seems like they forgot or just don't care. We do this a lot in our prayers. We ask God for something and say "God if you do this one thing for me, I will________. go to church more, or volunteer at a homeless shelter, I'll donate money to some charity...We fill in that blank with something. How often have you found yourself doing this but never holding up your end of the deal? I know I have. We go on with life and forget. Or we don't get what we asked God for and we get upset with Him. Sometimes we go on for months or maybe years and stop praying because we are upset...what a backwards way of thinking. God is not like an ATM with no limit. We shouldn't just pray and go to Him when we need something. We should pray all the time! Not just asking Him for stuff but giving him thanks and praise. All relationships start with conversation. Our relationship with The Father is the same. God wants to hear from us. And here is the best part GOD WANTS TO TALK TO YOU TOO! How awesome is that! The God of everything wants to speak to us. Amazing when you stop and think about it. In my own life I have started thinking of prayer as a normal, everyday conversation between two people. This helps me get my head around the idea of talking to the creator of all things.

Someone might ask though "well if God is all knowing, then He knows that I am going say in my prayers so why even pray? He knows my heart right? Here is the thing...God does know but we have free will. God will always love us no matter what... but we need to make the choice if we are going to love him back. We make the that choice in our lives. If you have ever loved someone you know that you want to talk to/be around that person all the time. Our relationship with God is the same. If you love Him ,why not talk to him? Why wouldn't you want him to speak to you? The more you talk the closer you become. But I know in my own life it is a challenge sometimes to know what to pray or how to pray. I have found that I just start by thanking Him for who He is and who I am in Him...then somehow the rest just flows right out of my mouth.

Another cool thing is that God answers prayers. I don't think He will answer all of them but He knows what is good for us and He will provide what we need at any certain time. But God does answer prayers! Recently my generation has seen a big worship movement. Their are countless worship conferences, worship concerts, worship bands...100 years ago most churches didn't even sing during their services. But now it is a big deal. The worship movement has really exploded onto the seen. Don't get me wrong I love worship but wouldn't it be cool if the next big movement was prayer. What if people all over the world committed to praying and fasting? We would see a big change because our relationship with the Lord would so much stronger! We would understand him more.

God wants to teach us something new everyday but we will never learn if we don't talk and listen. To me...that is what prayer is all about.

How faith would change the world

So lets talk about faith. Faith has been on my mind the past few days. I think is it funny to watch people sit around and believe in things that we can't see but when it come to faith in God they will change their story on the issue of faith. Take the ozone layer for example...we know that the ozone layer is going bye bye but no one has ever been able to look up and see it. We know that is is burning away because we see the effects of it all the time. Climate change, melting of the polar ice caps, global warming...I'm sure you have heard it all before. This issue of loosing the ozone layer has really been center stage for a while now. We see groups forming to help awareness, we see groups going out planting trees, they make tee shirts, now the big "go green" stuff. But all of the people in the world have never seen the ozone layer itself. But we do know that it exists. Why is it then people have such a hard time having faith in God? We see Him/His effects all around us everyday. Yet we still struggle with knowing if He is real or not. We can believe in the wind because we see the effects of the wind but we can't believe in God? Hmm...maybe it's because we are not looking for Him. I think that if we took the time to pray and ask God to show Himself to us, we would see things in the world that we have never seen before. It would change the world we live in if we had just a little faith in God. The more we grow in our relationship with Him, the stronger our faith becomes. Wouldn't it be cool to see the issue of faith in God be a deciding factor in a political election not the issue of global warming...because I think that if people had faith in God and became close to him, we would learn to be smart and good stewards of what God has given us and we would all work together to help the planet. We would work together in every issue that came up not just global warming. We would see change in wars, terrorism, the world economy...we would become more Christlike and it would effect everything we do but it all has to start with faith in our Lord and Savior.

Try something...it takes 21 days for a human being to develop a habit, so for 21 days read the bible and pray. Ask God to start to revel Himself to you. Remember though to listen carefully and be on the lookout for God...watch, He'll show up and your world will never be the same!