Why I Worship

What Is Worship, Why Do We Worship, How to Worship

The One Thing We Need… But Nobody Really Wants.

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As a christian, a husband, a father, a worship leader, and a friend, I am consistently faced with different times in my life where I find myself being broken in certain areas. I feel as if I have gotten victory in a certain area and then God points out another area that He wants to mold into something He can use for His glory.

It’s never fun. In fact, most of the time, it really hurts because the only way for Him to make something He can use out of what I have is to break what I have. You see, I want my life to be good as it is. I want what I have to be enough. I want to be able to say “I did this.” God’s desire, however, is for me to be completely broken to the point that I am not even recognizable anymore; so that when someone looks at me, they see only the ruins of “what I could do” and they can only give credit to him for what has happened in my life.

So, each day, I have a choice to make. I can put on my very best effort. I can paint myself as a beautiful piece of pottery and stand myself on the shelf for everyone to see…

And that will be exactly where I’ll stay… on the shelf.

Or I can say in my heart of hearts “Father, break me and make me into whatever you desire for me to be and then use me as you will.”

He will then take the busted ruins of our lives and make them into something useful to His purpose and for His Kingdom.

God, I want to be useful!!!!!

What say you???

You Ain’t All That!

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Proverbs 4:20-27

20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.26 Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.27 Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.

Third row… blonde hair… blue eyes… well dressed… lights dim… you’re working the melody on that beautiful worship tune you wrote this week… she’s looking right at you… the look on her face tells you that you’ve connected with her… next thing you know, you find yourself in a place you never should have been and you’ve lost everything.

We don’t like to admit it, but this very trap is one of the easiest to fall into. We love attention. We love it when people tell us we sounded good on a song. We crave approval from others. We want to know that the gift inside us is being accepted.

The unfortunate thing about this is that, because we do not understand who we are in Christ, we look for approval and affirmation from places we were never designed to receive them from. In Christ, we are accepted. In Christ we are good enough. In Christ, we are better than we could ever be outside of Him.

The other thing we miss is that the anointing of God draws people closer to Him. If we are not careful, we mistake people drawing close to Him for them responding to us. When this happens, our minds and hearts become tainted with thoughts of our own greatness. This is the beginning of the end in most cases.

There are some simple things we can do to keep from falling into this snare the devil loves to set for us.

1- First and foremost; realize that we are created for God and any gift we have been given cannot be mistaken for anything we deserved and must be used to give glory back to Him.

2- Set up accountability. Find someone you trust and can share everything with. If you’re married, this might be your spouse. Make a commitment to each other that you will be honest about your deepest feelings; even if they are not the best or purest feelings. Talk with that person specifically about these types of things. Remember, roaches always scatter when the lights come on. If you talk about it and get it out, you’ve fought more than half the battle.

3- Realize that the gifts and callings of God make us better than we really are. People are drawn to the anointing, but we must understand the importance of protecting the fact that God has chosen us. Just ask King Saul how it feels to find out that you’ve lost the favor of God and not even know it has left your life.

4- One simple phrase has helped me so many times. I say it to myself in the mirror almost every day and if I forget it, God always sends someone to help me remember it… you ready? Here it is… don’t miss it…

YOU AIN’T ALL THAT!

Father, help us all to realize that you’ve chosen us for a purpose. Help us to know that it is your grace and your grace alone that has reached down and pulled us out of our hard places. Help us to know that any gift you’ve given us is simply to point people to you and your glory. Help us to be clean vessels, fit to be used by a Holy God, powerful in our position as ministers of your Kingdom, and humble in our pursuit of Godly perfection and purpose.

Your thoughts are welcome…

 

 

A Lifestyle of Worship?

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1Samuel 13:14 states that “the Lord has sought out a man after His own heart…”

We know, of course that Samuel is speaking about the young King David. So, here’s the question… What does it mean to be “a man after God’s own heart?”

Some say it was the fact that David was always quick to repent when confronted with his sin. Some believe that it was his humility in his dealings with King Saul. Some say it was his willingness to abandon himself and “worship the Lord with all his might.”

The theological offerings could go on and on but I’d like to know what you think.

I hear people constantly making statements like “We’ve gotten church all wrong!”, or “Most church leaders are crooks!”, or; I think the popular one right now is “We shouldn’t be worried about GOING to church, we should just concentrate on BEING the church.”

I only have one rule for this discussion: POSITIVE STATEMENTS ONLY!

I want us to look at this as a body (if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and rose again on the third day, then we are in the same boat) and see if we can define what it is that the church is supposed to be. I want to find out what it means to “be the church.” I am asking God this year to make me one of those people to whom He would refer as “a man after His own heart.”

Ok… Here we go… What do you think?