Micah 7:18

Lord, who is a God like you?
You forgive sin.
You forgive your people when they do what is wrong.
You don't stay angry forever.
Instead, you take delight in showing your faithful love to them.
(New International Reader's Version)

This verse reminds me of Chris Tomlin's song; Unfailing Love

"Praise you God of earth and sky how beautiful is Your unfailing love, unfailing love.
And You never change God You remain the Holy One and my unfailing love, unfailing love."

God does not want to stay at odds with me when I sin.
He delights in forgiveness and mercy.

It is I who keep us apart.

RP

God, My Exceeding Joy

Psalm 43:3-4

Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me;
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God my exceeding joy;
And on the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God.

Wow!

Just meditate on that for awhile and let it fill your soul.

RP

Psalm 40:6-8

"You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.
Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand—
you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.

Then I said, “Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures:
I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”
(New Living Translation)

"Doing something for you, bringing something to you— that's not what you're after.
Being religious, acting pious— that's not what you're asking for.

You've opened my ears so I can listen.

So I answered, "I'm coming. I read in your letter what you wrote about me,
And I'm coming to the party you're throwing for me."

That's when God's Word entered my life, became part of my very being. " (The Message)

It's so hard to put away "works". The kind that says -maybe God will love me now.

If ever I could stop the games and just embrace His love.

RP

Psalm 17-22

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them— any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

In our small groups we've been reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This week's chapter was about the cross and thinking on it daily. Francis was talking about the Garden and the cross. It was so vivid. So powerful. But if I may, I would like to add a little something more to those thoughts.

Christ was in the garden praying. His prayer was intense.
No one ever living has prayed as earnestly as Jesus was in those hours.

But the plan was set. There was no other plan.

Here's the thing. I don't think it was the beating, the mocking, the whips, the crown of thorns or even the cross is what Jesus was most afraid of. Yes, these were horrible on a scale we can never imagine.

But there was something more. More horrible, more unbearable. Whatever it was was causing Him such anguish, such heartbreak, He was sweating blood.

Maybe for Jesus it was knowing He was going to be separated from His Father. He was going to have to face all this alone. The cross was bad enough, but the separation was too much. That was the tipping point. Maybe His Father forsaking Him was more than even He could stand.

We get a hint of this when Jesus scolds to His disciples after praying. "Could you not watch with Me one hour?" The tension was palpable.

Once the trial and crucifixion were fully underway, Jesus never uttered a word.

But with His dying words He cried out "My God, my God! Why have You abandoned me?" Even though His body was racked with pain. His throat parched and death so close. He summoned all His remaining strength to cry out in a LOUD voice.

Can't you just here the anguish in His voice?

Can I walk so closely with God that to be separated from Him would more traumatic than anything I could ever encounter? More painful than any event we would ever face? More difficult than even death itself?

RP

Music Styles

I was reading these verses this morning from Ephesians 5

"15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I noticed Paul tells us to sing but he doesn't say how. That led me to thinking about music styles.

At Dyer, we have 2 services. One traditional and the other contemporary. I am privileged to lead them both, but they are very different. The folks who like hymns go to the first and those who like contemporary, go the 2nd.

God is so wise in not setting a style all mankind is to use. He's left that to us.

Here's why I believe that is so.

Cultures all over the world have their own music and their own styles. And they incorporate those styles into their praise music. It moves their hearts and stirs their souls like ours moves us. We may not be into theirs. They may not be into ours. But God is neutral.

And I'm really glad He is neutral. I'm really thankful He didn't tell us to sing only chants or use only flutes or harps or whatever. He didn't. He hasn't. And His silence speaks volumes.

I know that's hard to believe, but He really is neutral.
If He weren't He'd say so.

When God told the people in the old testament how to build the tabernacle, He was very specific in how it was to be built. Right down to the tassels on the priest's garments. All the rituals were laid out to the smallest detail. But He said nothing about the style of music and praises sung.

I love blues based rock 'n roll worship... and that's OK with God. (And I will continue to love you even if you don't.) Whatever you like, go with it and sing your heart out to the Lord. Who knows, God might even accept Opera praise (that may be a stretch).

RP

Prayer Walk

Have a look at Micah 6:6-8

How can I stand up before God and show proper respect to the high God?
Should I bring an armload of offerings topped off with yearling calves?

Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil?

Would he be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple:

Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.

Mmmm.

Last night for Nehemiah Night we met at Joe Czajka's house.

After some great food we walked the neighborhood praying for each family as we passed in front of their house.

Joe had asked his neighbors ahead of time if there were needs that we could pray for. There were needs.

We walked and prayed.

I had never done anything like that before. It was amazing.

It was kind of a reversal of church. Instead of being on the inside praying out, we were on the outside praying in.

Praying for strangers to meet God seems like worship to me. The kind of worship God really digs.

RP

"NO, MINE!"

My kids were fighting in the van the other day. I guess that's what kids do. At least all the kids I've ever known, including me.

After scolding them for fighting my little Jacie says"I love you, dad."
It was sweet, but it would have been much sweeter had it not been tainted by her screaming "NO, MINE!" just a few seconds earlier.

It got me thinking. That is the starting place of all worship... how we treat each other.

Jesus said and I paraphrase " Don't come tell God how great He is and how much you love Him when you've been quarreling with others. Knock it off. Show some grace, then come worship."

See, here's my definition of worship; I want what God wants. (I want what I want is idolatry.)

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He gave the first; Love God and the second He put on the same level of importance; Love others;

God is very interested in how I treat and speak to and of others. He places HUGE value on it.

In fact, I can't think of anything He's more interested in.

This means everyone around me. No exceptions.

So here it is in the simplest terms;

Sweet and bitter water cannot flow out of the same spring.
Worship and rancor cannot flow from the same lips.

I've Been to Church...

I've been to church.

In fact, I've been going to church all of my life.

I mean I'm a pro. I've got the verbage down. You know like brother and sister...
I know when I'm supposed to stand or sit.
I give a great handshake.

I know lots and lots of songs.
I've been to Bible college. I know lots of verses.

But...

Have I been to Calvary.
You know, the cross. Where self dies and Christ rules.

I've seen it... from a distance. But not too close.

I like my religion packaged so I can box it and keep it where I want it. If I go to Calvary that means I must put Me at its foot.

And that's where my rub is.

I don't really like me. But it's what I know. And I know I'm not sending me to Africa or China or Afghanistan.

I really want to give Me up but...

OK. Well, here it is.

I've had Me for 46 years and I don't have much to show for it.

So...


Galations 19-21 (The Message)

"What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily."

My Son had a Party.

My son Preston just celebrated his 6th birthday and Sunday was party day.

Lots of friends, family, food, a jump zone, cake, pinata and presents.

Oh, yeah. Lots of presents.

To be honest I was a little jealous. I mean, if you can be jealous of your own 6 year old. I never got a party like that.

Come to think of it, I was never even invited to a party like that.

There was so much laughter.

Not just the kids, the adults too.
We had so much fun.

It was indeed a celebration.
An affirmation to my son that he was loved. Not just because he's my son. He's genuinely a good kid and we like being around him.

God had a Son and His Son liked a good party.
His enemies accused of being a party animal.
A good time Charlie. A glutton. A drunkard.

Do I get that?

When God came to earth He had a good time.

Laughing with His friends, sharing good times, and food.
Jesus ate a lot of food. Check out all those banquets and feasts.

So what does all this have to do with worship?
Just this.

Worship is a celebration.
A time to enjoy God. His family. A celebration of His Son.

If everyone would have acted at Preston's party the way we act at Jesus' party I would've freaked.

Quiet whispers.
Somber faces.
Too many glances at the watch.

Worship shouldn't be hard or a formality. We need to push the "Easy Button" on worship and relax.

Enjoy.
Celebrate.

Why not? Jesus did.