Wonder

This post is about just being amazed at God.

[There is] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for [one] star differeth from [another] star in glory. ICor. 15:41 KJV.


You can go to Hubble Space Telescope and see more of Gods amazing ability.

What if...

I broke another string last night during our prayer and worship meeting...

It is frustrating because it breaks the flow of worship for me and as a leader I want an unbroken flow to continue...

So I paused long enough to retune the guitar... (When one string breaks the tension or lack there-of affects ALL the strings)...and continued to play minus the "d" string...

Bob asked me if I was now breaking different strings on the Taylor than I did on the Martin and the answer is yes...

So we muddled through...continuing to take ground in spite of the resistance.

When you break a guitar string, and re-tune and then continue to play it is a very strange experience because your fingers are trained to expect a certain amount of resistance from the strings, when no string is there the lack of resistance makes you think you are playing a wrong chord or that you have misplaced your fingers, which is not true.

So if you can imagine what is going on in my head, I am trying to navigate in the spirit what I see the Father doing (it was evangelism prayer last night), and I am also trying to tune into the "Song of the Lord" (a very old phrase that lacks replacement) and spontaneous worship working with the musicians and hoping we are all on the same page, all the while feeling like my left hand is in the wrong place, which it was not.

When I get to this place where things are completely out of my grasp, it is here that the heart takes the lead.

My heart will ignore my head which says the hand is being rebellious.

The heart will ignore the sounds which might be dissonant and will drive for worship and praise in spite of what my ears might be interpreting.

It becomes worship driven from the heart because all other elements seem to be fracturing or at best out of sync.

So...


What if every string I break represents the soul of a family that God is capturing?

What if every broken string signifies a household returning to the Lord?

I may never know for sure this side of heaven...but I'm willing to break them all if it means others come to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

Still breaking strings.

Work in progress

Ok I haven't posted in a bit so here we go.

I am currently working on a new song...about being born at the cross.

Recently the Lord kinda startled my thinking by telling me I wasn't born again in 1962 when He appeared to me, I was born when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus at Calvary. My delivery was completed when He stepped out of the tomb three days later...sort of a "Divine Ceaserian".

We are all born under the shadow of the cross and we are not simply "remade Adams" we are a completely different thing on the earth.

Think about this: The disciples could barely pray for more than an hour prior to the resurrection...ever been there?

You know you want to pray, you NEED to pray, others NEED you to pray...and you fall asleep after about an hour...consider yourself normal.

But look what happens after Jesus breathes on the disciples in John 20:22 (think about the original creation of man where God breathes on him the breath of life in Genesis 2:7)...these guys can't seem to stop praying...the book of Acts records many of their prayers and they are different somehow.

We are something completely new.

Our music and worship should reflect this.

I don't understand how in a little town up in the mountains we can participate in something eternal, but that has to be our goal.

The Tuesday nite city prayer and worship is a great place for us to experiment.

Healings and deliverances are going to become even more commonplace because it is our heritage as worshippers.

How will it sound?

New.

I dunno.

I don't mean "new" like the popular groups like the kiddos are listening to (I know the names but most of you reading would not so its sorta moot to mention them)...I'm not even sure if it would be "new" in a Peter Gabriel world music kinda new where he records with chimps playing percussion...

It will be new in that it comes from a source that is new.

One of the things I am tapping into is the incredible sound of victory and hope I hear in the spirit...the song "prophecy" has begun a new day for us to think about worship differently.

It must communicate hope and courage and victory that are the earmarks of the Kingdom of God...some of the hymns do this better than the "new" songs we sing, so the "new thing" isn't all that and a bag of chips...not if it fails to deliver the AWE and HONOR of so great a King.

"Shock and Awe" worship...theres a metaphor to wrap your mind around...the "shock" of such great love and mercy and the "awe" of such a glorious Lord...

Anyway its a work in progress...as are we all...

Prophecy

There will be silence before You and praise here in Zion
There will be silence before You and praise here in Zion
Out of the mouths of the infants and babes
Unto the Father You've perfected praise
And what was broken and cast by the side
You have redeemed and adorned as a bride
There will be silence before You and praise here in Zion

Egypt will dance with Assyria Israel will join them
Egypt will dance with Assyria Israel will join them
Where once was violence hatred and war
A highway of peace will be built to the Lord
For You are twice more than able to bring
All the children of Abraham home to one King
Egypt will dance with Assyria Israel will join them

I will be changed to Your image I will be like You
I will be changed to Your image I will be like You
Where once was sin and the darkness of doubt
You'll make it pure with the freedom to shout
And as a son I will stand by Your side
With nothing but beauty and nothing to hide
I will be changed to Your image I will be like You

Still breaking things...

I do get a little tired of cliché’s.

Break-thru...

Cutting edge...

Extreme...

You know what I mean.

The phrases we borrow from scripture like "break-thru" (break-thru actually comes from "Baal-Perazim" where David proclaims that God has broke thru upon my enemies-2Sam.5:20) can get a little tired and redundant, and possibly lose motivation for us.

If you get to familiar with something you can be in danger of ignoring its potential, or worse yet you can become so familiar with something you dishonor it by neglect.

Our worship.

The prophetic.

Praying in tongues.

Lets take a quick little aside and look at a couple of very powerful things and see perhaps if we aren't motivated to stir up the gift within us again.

I just watched a DVD of one of my mentors.

CW Mitchell who is now the president/dean/chief servant of a Samoan Bible school.

His message was both incredibly simple and amazingly profound.

"Pray in tongues and read the word"

Pretty simple message, followed by some pretty radical testimonies about how God has used these simple things to impact both people and cities for the kingdom.

He suggested a rather practical approach to this instruction.

Start with praying in tongues on day 1 for 15 minutes.

Increase it to 30 minutes on day 2.

Day three pray in tongues 45 minutes.

By day 5 he promises you will be praying more than an hour on your own, and the time management issues we all face will not even be an issue.

Day six will come and go and you will be in the plural hours of prayer.

In one week if you do this your life will be RADICALLY changed.

There's one of our clichés again.

Ouch!

...


...


...


...









What’s the worse that could happen?

I mean in theory our clichés are already worn out, so a little more isn't going to do any permanent damage...and what if....


...for once the clichés were all we had to express the types of change we began to experience?

Radical Prophetic Break-thru....

...


Many of us are facing life weary challenges that have the potential of wearing out our faith.

Some simple biblical exercises might be just the ticket:

Jude 1:20 "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost."

2Tim.1:6 "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."

I'm still breaking guitar strings.

Last Sunday was one of the hardest walls I've ever encountered in worship.

I don't really care anymore.

I bought three packs of strings today...in preparation.

I have determined that the harder worship gets, the more abased I will become.

The more resistance I encounter, the more determined and unrelenting I will be.

Clichés or no clichés we will have break thru.

Bring it.

How about if instead of strings we start breaking the routine?

The mundane.

The predictable?

What would happen if you broke out of the daily grind for a minute and met with the Creator on His terms?

Think your cliche's would matter?

One of two things will happen, either God will invade your life, or you can cross something off your list of things you've tried.

If I were a betting man I'd bet on God.

Place your bets...its gonna get extreme.

Prophecy

If you look over at the links there is an Mp3 of Prophecy there that will load in a new window for you to listen to if you like.

Lets continue to keep Israel and the region in our prayers the lyrics "For you are twice more than able to bring all of Abrahams children home to one King" are especially pertinant in this time of violance.

Self Help-less...

Pastor Tim said during family camp that the western church has primarily made everything about "me"...just go to a christian bookstore and look on the shelves its mostly a "self-help" library.

This is unfortunate but true.

"5-Steps to Financial Freedom"

"40 days to fulfill your purpose"

"How to be free from_______"

"Etc...etc...et al"

Most of, if not all, self help materials are meant to guide the person to some form of personal freedom...nothing wrong with that...but...

What if it isn't about us?

What if freedom never was about me?

What if freedom is about Him?

Worship must be about Him.

If it isn't, well...it probably isn't worship...and it definately won't represent freedom.

I am currently studying the life of Paul, the Apostle John and the Ephesian history.

As I connect with the historical perspectives on what these men did and how they approached dethroning the powers of the Asiatic region one thing I notice is that both of these apostles were men of worship.

The book of Revelation is primarily a book on worship, those who will, and those who won't worship the Lamb and the the consequences of those decisions.

Of course we are all familiar with Paul and Silas sitting in a jail cell praising God and worshipping at midnite...

Now contrast the lifes and responses of three great men who were in some capacity in "prison"...

John the baptist...

John the Apostle...

And Paul...

John the Baptist is sitting in prison at the end of his life waiting execution...and he sends a delegation to Jesus asking "Are you the One or do I look somewhere else?"

Whats behind this question?

I think John had reached a point where he was disappointed, the revival he had been promised had came and went and things did't look much different.

Ever been there?

You know, you go to the meeting expecting some earth changing word from God only to walk out wondering if you need to look somehere else...

"Are you the one?"...

Every self help book I've opened I have opened with that attitude...is this the one thing that will change me?

But...


(here it comes)...

John the Apostle and Paul both approached the frustration of captivity a little differently...and both had radically different results than John the Baptist.

These guys made thier captivity about Him.

They worshipped.

In Pauls case an earthquake happened and many people came to know the Lord thru the event.

In Johns case, the heavens opened and he was given a perspective that radically changed the western world.

Historically Johns imprisonment on Patmos was about 18 months. When he was released he went to Ephesus and tradition has it he went into the Temple of Dianna and confronted the demonic power of that region with immediate results.

Shortly after his confrontation there was of an end to the temple worship of "Dianna of the Ephesians" (*Acts 19:28) , and a breaking of not only the demonic powers but also a release of the power of the gospel so that in 100 years the very government that was persecuting the church would be kingdomised.

I'll get to the point:

No matter what the condition of your life be it slavery or freedom, it is about Him.

If you make all about HIM and prioritise worship even while experiencing various forms of "frustrated freedom" (read jail here)...then since God is no respecter of persons...you can probably expect that things will begin to shake loose and real freedom will come to not only you but those around you.

The fastest way out of "self-help-jail" is the same as any other jail...begin to worship.


(* Artemis and Dianna are basically the same demonic power)

The End of the Spear

I just took Courtney to see "The end of the Spear"

If you are unfamiliar with the story it is based upon the actual real events written about in "Thru Gates of Splendor"

You should see it.

What struck me most about the story is that currently there is a huge amount of culture on our planet that is in the same cycle of violence.

The Muslim radicals striking out in desperation to please Allah.

The street gangs here in America striking out to "Jump the Great Boa" (a metaphor for overcoming death from the film) and prove their strength.

So what does a movie about missionaries and worship have in common?

Well I believe that we are created to worship.

Watch the crowds at a sporting event (the upcoming Superbowl comes to mind) or a rock concert and what you see is is an innate desire to be part of something much larger than yourself.

Have you ever thought about that from a purely biological perspective?

Ever see a fish try to be part of something bigger than itself?

How about a bird?

Creation is kinda settled on its own place, but mankind seems to be driven to expand, to conquer, to step outside of its current position and participate in a larger world.

This I believe is one of the main ingredients in mankinds worship mechanism.

We gotta get bigger...And we wanna worship something bigger than ourselves.

So worship starts with a vacuum...a vacuum for God.

Which is exactly where missions start.

You cannot evangelise the complacent.

You shouldn't even try. (I know this may get me scolded from the higher ups but its the truth)

When I was in New Covenant Commission the primary missions strategy was to find the most war-torn or disaster ridden country and go there...the miracles and results would follow because the hearts of that country had been "plowed up".

The Bible says that "God will not share His Glory with another"...meaning that He will not be room-mates with whatever else is living in our hearts.

And as Matt Redmond has said "Worship is the heart of missions flame"...

Our worship must put on a "missions-garment" to be complete.

Oh yeah I know we need to worship in the quiet of our own chamber, but the innate desire to be part of something larger is as much a part of our worship motor as what we do in private, hence the tandem emphasis on worship AND missions.

Every tribe should join as we humans worship...and what we worship should be powerful, larger than us, and glorious in all its expression...and only One can fit that description.

On a final note...you cannot force someone to worship God and you shouldn't even think about doing so (parents this especially applies to you), it violates the human/divine relational structure, it is something I believe God hates...and one of the primary tools of the adversary...we should instead be drawing people by our worship and our lives.

Lets think of ways that our worship experience can go beyond what we are part of now...Lets figure out a good "Go ye into all the world" expression that will truly touch the most desperate among us in our own little Jerusalem here in the mountains.