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