Divine Economics

The Scriptures are full of reminders that we are not like God, and our ways are not his ways. Here are some examples:

1 Cor 1:25 – For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Cor 3:19a – For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,/neither are your ways my ways,”/declares the LORD./“As the heavens are higher than the earth/so are my ways higher than your ways/and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Matthew 16:25 – For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

We, the creatures, are incapable of fully comprehending the Creator. And I thank Him for that! Frankly if the God of the Universe could be fully grasped by a brain like mine, then we would all be in trouble! :) And woe to us if we assume that God is bound by our logic, or somehow subject to the laws of a physical universe that He created and outside of which He dwells.

And yet we limit God in this way every day. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we doubt that God has any power over natural circumstances; we do not have faith that God can do the miraculous, that His power, abilities, and even His Will supersede the laws of our physical universe or our own natural compulsions. This is why the sick go unhealed, the hard-hearted remain unconvinced, and believers in bondage to sins they have fought against for years, continue in their chains: because in our heart of hearts, God is not big enough or strong enough to overcome the obstacle before us. And certainly not if it requires some sort of supernatural intervention outside of our understanding of what is possible.

We do this with our finances – specifically our tithes and offerings – and we and the Church at large suffer as a consequence. In Malachi 3:8-11, we find the Lord delivering a message to Israel through the prophet, Malachi:

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

Most of us know that a “tithe” literally means a tenth. Tithing was established as part of God's Law in Leviticus 27. The people were told that 10% of everything – every crop, every herd, all that they owned – belonged to Him. God wasn't asking for a gift, He was informing His people that the first 10% was His property, and it was to be returned to Him. This is why God tells the people in Malachi that they are robbing Him: because they are not giving the full tithe, not returning His property. And consequently the nation is cursed.

Flash forward to today, in the U.S. We are no longer an agrarian society, but we certainly labor, and that labor produces fruit, primarily in the form of income. I have yet to read anywhere in Scripture where God rescinded His claim upon His property, that first 10% of of the fruits of our labors. But a recent study conducted by the non-profit organization, Empty Tomb, revealed that the average American churchgoer gives 2.56% to the church.

I'll let you draw your own parallels between the America of today and the Israel of circa 400 BC. We are blessed as a nation in many, many ways. But a case could certainly be made for America being under a curse as well. But what cannot be debated, in my mind, is whether or not we are robbing God. If 10% of our income is God's property, yet we only give Him 2.56%, then we are certainly robbing God!

My family and I were once guilty of robbing God. But I want to share with you how the Holy Spirit convicted us in this area, and we took a step of faith – a very difficult one – and chose to believe God's Word, and he responded and continues to respond to our obedience in amazing ways! We have never looked back, and God has never faltered in His faithfulness. I want so much for all of God's people to experience the blessings He has for us, our families, and our churches if we would only “test Him” in this area.

Times are tough. We're in a recession, perhaps the worst since the Great Depression. Money is tight for many of us. And sometimes the math does not work. “If I give 10% to God, then the remaining 90% will not cover my bills,” one might say. “Surely God does not want me to default on my obligations?”

Entire sermon series, entire Bible studies, and thousands of books have been written dealing with managing money in a Biblical, God-honoring way, so I'm not going to get in to how good financial decision making can keep you from being so overextended that you cannot afford to give God what is His. Because frankly I do not believe that is the root of the problem. I believe we simply do not believe God can do what He says He can do. We do not believe that God is able to miraculously do things that confound the conventional wisdom or fly in the face of logic. And for many of us, we do not even KNOW what He says He will do if we are faithful in our tithes, because we are not in His Word. (That's another topic for another day). Basically we don't believe in the God who empowered His Son to feed thousands with a few loaves and fishes. It's a nice story, but not real for us today.

Of course God does not want you to default on your bills! But He wants you to trust in HIM to provide what you need, not your account balance, your employer, the economy, or anything else. He wants you to take a step of faith and obey His commands regarding tithing. Remember, Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is “trusting in what you cannot see.” You may not be able to see the money you need in the bank. You may not be able to see how God is going to be able to provide for you if you give 10% of income away. But if you could see, it would not be faith. As we pointed out at the beginning, God's ways are not our ways. Our wisdom is foolishness to Him! His math is not our math! If God wants 10 minus 1 to equal 11, He can make that happen. And he's done it for me and my family countless times.

“'Test me in this,' says the Lord...” These words are so intriguing to me because in Deuteronomy 6:16, God tells His people that they are not to test Him. Jesus even uses that very command to rebuke Satan in the wilderness. And yet here in Malachi we are invited to test God! He REALLY wants to show us something! In my mind, I liken this to a loving parent who really wants to bestow an exciting gift on his child, but he also knows he can't reward or reinforce bad behavior. So the gift goes ungiven if the child is disobedient.

About 14 years ago my wife and I were newly married, working several jobs, and didn't have two dimes to rub together. We were living on love, baby! Rent was coming due: $485 (boy, those were the days!). We prayed, and we talked about tithing. The money just was not there. By our math, if we gave 10%, rent would not be paid. But we felt the Holy Spirit really convicting us to test God in this, as His word said, so we tithed. A few days later, just days before rent was due, we received an unexpected dividend check in the mail from our insurance company. The amount? $487! We tested God, and He responded!

In 1999, we felt God calling my wife to pursue her graduate degree at a Christian school. Much prayer and research pointed to Dallas Baptist University. This would mean a move to a big city where we knew no one, and had no family support system. And frankly we could not afford a move. But God's call was undeniable, so we took a scary step of faith. We blew our savings on a trip to Dallas to find jobs and line up an apartment. We sold our little house, and pulled away from our home with everything we owned in a U-Haul, and $33 in the bank. But God was faithful! Within months, our household income was almost double what it was before the move. We continued to tithe, and hoped to save up to buy a house in a couple of years. But God honored our faithfulness by having my truck get stolen. How was that a good thing? Because the settlement allowed us to buy a house much sooner than we had hoped! We were working long hours, and Em was working hard at school, but we continued to be faithful in our giving, even when we did not have a home church. We found other Christian organizations to give to. We were dog-tired, and needed a break, but there was no money for a vacation. And then just a few months after that, we won a trip to Hawaii on the radio! God was faithful!

The examples above are just a few of the many, many examples over the years. Most recently, just a few months ago we felt God calling my wife to go back to school, and also felt strongly that we needed to keep our daughter in private Christian school. These things cost money, and we didn't see where it would come from. But once again, the call was unmistakable. So we began to move forward in faith, trusting God to provide as He always has. My wife registered for school. Just last week I learned that I would be receiving a raise at work! Enough to cover school for my wife, and to allow us to keep our daughter in private school!

For over a decade we've seen God bless us in amazing and miraculous ways, and I fully believe that it is in large part because we made a choice many years ago to stop robbing God, and we have never faltered in that since. Sure, God has had to deal with some of the ways we've managed the other 90%, and this can still be a struggle. But we tested God, and thereby gave Him the freedom to “throw open the floodgates of heaven with blessing.”

I do not believe in the so-called “Prosperity Gospel,” which is the idea that faithful Christians somehow have a right to wealth, and that God always blesses the faithful with material prosperity. I find no Scriptural basis for this doctrine, and God will not be treated like a big vending machine in the sky. The blessings He bestows can come in many forms, some material and/or financial, some not. The ways He chooses to bless one family will be very different from the ways He chooses to bless another family. Sometimes it's just giving us a new perspective or showing us where we can be more faithful, or helping us realign our priorities. Or just simply removing anxiety and replacing it with peace and security. And there are those who feel called to lives of meager asceticism, and count themselves blessed for it.

I say this because I would hate for anyone to approach faithful tithing as if it were some get rich quick scheme. We're not rich, at least not by American standards. Upper middle-class, I guess. I will admit that some months can still feel pretty tight. (Actually I take that back, because to say “I'm not rich by American standards” is a bit like Warren Buffett saying “I'm not rich by Bill Gates standards.” We can always find someone richer than us to compare ourselves to, but the fact is that even those below the poverty level in the U.S. are richer than 80% of the world. Of the 6 billion people on earth, 4.7 billion of them live on the equivalent of $7500 or less per year. If you own more than one set of clothing, have a consistent place to sleep at night, clean water to drink, and will eat a meal today, then you are better off than 75% of the world's population. So we're all rich, make no mistake.) The real blessings that have been poured out from heaven are freedom from fear and anxiety, peace and security in troubled times, and the incredible comfort that comes from knowing that a God who loves us is in complete control, and wants to bless us. God has always met our needs, and even blessed us with a few of our “wants.” Not once in 14 years has a bill ever been paid late, even though I have written tithe checks many times knowing there was not enough in the account to cover the tithe AND the bills. He has ALWAYS responded in faith when we have stepped out in obedience. Consequently, we do not worry about money any more. If we are faithful in our work, and faithful in our tithes, we know that God will bless beyond what we could hope for or deserve.

I so want this freedom and blessing for you all! But it will require a major step of faith on your part, a step that can be pretty scary. But I cannot encourage you enough to take that step! God is good, and He does what He says He will do! Give Him the freedom to bless you, your family, your church, and this nation as He longs to do.

A few additional words of guidance as you (Perhaps? Hopefully!) embark on this journey:
1.The Bible speaks over and over about “tithes AND offerings.” The two terms are not synonyms. The “tithe” is God's property that we are commanded to return to Him. “Offerings” are gifts given over and above out of respect, honor, and love for God. But sometimes we treat our insufficient attempts to tithe as offerings. That's sort of like if you owed your brother $20, but you put $10 in his birthday card and expect him to be grateful for the gift! :) I want to encourage you and challenge you to give God His property, and THEN pray about what sort of offering would express your love, respect, and appreciation for God and all He is and all He does in your life.
2.Many churches preach that the law of tithing is no longer applicable because we are under the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. Of course we are under a New Covenant, but I do not believe this relieves us of an obligation to obey God's commands. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Our righteousness comes from the blood of Jesus, and not from our performance against the Law, but God's commands are still His commands, and we show that we love Him by obeying those commands (John 14:15). But now because of God's grace and the sacrifice of Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it is possible for us to keep the law, whereas before Christ, it was not. 2 Corinthians 9:7 is often cited in these discussions: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” This statement refers to gifts, not tithes, at least as I read it and can discern from the original Greek.
3.I've been asked many times whether or not a tithe should be calculated based on pre-tax or post-tax earnings. In my opinion, an obedient tithe should be calculated before taxes. Taxes are just another debt that we owe. Most of us just happen to have them withheld via payroll deduction, which can give the illusion of our “real” pay being after taxes, but of course that's not the case. And we wouldn't ask, “Should our tithe be calculated before or after our electric bill?” At least I hope we wouldn't. If we calculate 10% of our post-tax income, then that's not 10% of our actual income, and therefore not a tithe. What's more, throughout Scripture, tithing is tied to the giving of “firstfruits,” which means that we give first to God, and we give out of our best. If we are paying taxes first, and then giving to God out of what is left, that is hardly giving to God first. Lastly, Jesus said in Matthew 22:21, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” I believe Jesus was making it pretty clear that we should pay our taxes AND meet our obligations to God.

Keep the faith,

Lee

We Have It Backwards

It's been a long time since the last post. Two months, in fact. Alas, the busyness of life! But this one is a long one, so feel free to read it in multiple sessions and pretend it's multiple posts, if you like. :)

I've had a sense of unrest in my spirit for some time regarding the state of praise and worship in the modern church. Something has just seemed “wrong.” To be sure, there are pockets of “right,” but at large I've just sensed something “wrong,” I've been trying to put my finger on what exactly the problem is, all the while praying for guidance and revelation. On the local level at my own church we've had issues with things like sound quality, musicianship, preparedness, and just a general air of mediocrity. But it was more than that (I should point out here that much of this has been addressed by a recent change in leadership). There was just a feeling that something was “wrong,” and I couldn't describe it, except to say that it seemed as if the Holy Spirit was simply absent in so much of the praise and worship I was witnessing, just as the Holy Spirit's presence is palpable when things are “right.”

God is faithful, and lately He's been answering the desperate question I've been lifting up to Him for months: What's wrong? The answer? In short, I think we have it backwards.

We've made our times of corporate worship about us, and not about God. We are coming to worship – to church – to get something for ourselves rather than to bring an offering to God.

We do not approach our worship services with a sense of awe and reverence. We casually walk into a building (running late, more often than not) moments away from participating in what should be a sacred event: the Church – the very Bride of Christ – coming together to bring offerings, sacrifices of praise before Him and His Heavenly Father and lay them at the foot of his Throne of Grace – a Throne that, by the way, we can only approach because of and through the death and resurrection of Jesus. And we do it by rote, perhaps even flippantly in some cases.

But A.W. Tozer says in That Incredible Christian that “No one who knows Him intimately can ever be flippant in His presence” (pg. 129). Our times of corporate worship should be times of response to God, but how can we respond to God if we are not experiencing Him intimately? If we don't know Him? Are we encountering God in significant ways during the week so that we come to worship together filled up to the point that our praise offerings overflow in songs of adoration? I think for many of us the answer is “no.” For many of us, encounters with God are all but absent Monday through Saturday, and are lives are indistinguishable from that of anyone else, Christian or no. We've consigned God to 90 minutes on Sunday. And cynical as it may sound, I would not be surprised if He didn't even bother to show up, if that's all we have for Him.

God has been trying to get this through my head for a very long time, I now realize. This conviction that worship is a time of offering that is meant to be a response to God and who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing in our lives. It is a time that is all about God. It is for Him, to Him, and through Him.

At first God was subtle, using lyrics to the praise songs I was drawn to over and over:

• “How can I stand here with You and not be moved by You?” – Lifehouse, Everything
• “How can I keep from singing Your Praise?....I know I am loved by the King/And it makes my heart want to sing” – Chris Tomlin, How Can I keep from Singing
• “I'm coming back to the heart of worship/And it's all about You/All about You, Jesus/I'm sorry, Lord for the thing I've made it/When it's all about You/It's all about You, Jesus.” – Matt Redman, Heart of Worship
• “From the top of the world I will sing/Of the joy that flows from my glorious King” – MercyMe, Beautiful
• “So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss/And my heart turns violently inside of my chest/I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way… He loves us!” – John Mark McMillan/David Crowder, How He Loves
• “You make everything glorious/And I am Yours/What does that make me?” – David Crowder, Everything Glorious
• “You reached down and lifted us up/You came running, looking for us/And now there's nothing/And no one beyond Your love/You're the overflow/You're the fountain of my heart” – Chris Tomlin, Let Your Mercy Rain
• “Let me tell you what He/Has done for me/He has done for you/He has done for us/Come and listen to what He's done...” – David Crowder, Come and Listen
• “Oh, You bring life and breath/In You we live and move/That's why I sing!” – Shane&Shane, Yearn
• “If we could see how much You're worth/Your power, Your might, Your endless love/Then surely we would never cease to praise!” – Matt Redman, Let Everything that Has Breath Praise The Lord

Plus dozens of others!

And when the songs were not quite getting the job done, He led me to read some specific books:

• Praise Habit, by David Crowder
• Facedown, by Matt Redman
• The Air I Breathe, by Louie Giglio
• Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis
• Exalt Him!, by Terry Howard Wardle

And to cap it all off, I attended Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference in Waco, TX earlier this month, and the speakers (Crowder, Giglio, and Redman among them) and workshop moderators would come back to this idea again and again: that we have it wrong. We have it backwards. We've made what should be about Him about us.

Louie Giglio in his book, The Air I Breathe, addresses this concern:

We aren't designed to operate on a weekly worship cycle, but on a moment-by-moment connection of personal worship that's as much a part of our lives as the air we breathe... Most of my life, I thought that you went to church to worship. But now I see that the approach is to go worshiping to church.
Church is a lot better when our gatherings are filled with people who have been pursuing God for six days before they get there. Church as a “refill” or a “tank-up” is a disaster. Corporate worship works best when we arrive with something to offer God. As opposed to only coming to get something for ourselves from God...
Church is supposed to be a celebration of our personal journeys with God since we were last together...
What would happen if we came worshiping to church, filled with an awareness of His presence before we even reached the door...?
Usually no one has given the service a moment's thought until they arrive. We come through the door like we're shopping at the mall. We sit and chat. We wait for someone to guide us before we ever stop and connect with the privilege of it all. (pages 114-117)

The privilege of it all! What a blessing – an undeserved honor – to be able to worship our Heavenly Father! A privilege paid for with the blood of His Son. But we – I – rarely contemplate this before worship. I'm thinking about the chaos in my house trying to get out the door so we could be on time. I'm thinking about the yard work that is waiting for me later that afternoon. We're thinking about the arguments we had with our spouses that morning, or how much of the football game we're going to miss because of this inconvenience called worship.

I have come to realize that to some degree, the frustrations that led me to question what was wrong with our worship were actually symptoms of the very thing that was wrong. I was dissatisfied with my experience during our praise and worship times. It did not measure up to my standards or expectations, nor those of many of my fellow congregants. We were not getting what we wanted out of the services. We weren't “experiencing the presence of God” as we had in the past. I was frustrated.

Notice all of the pronouns in the previous paragraph. “I” appears three times. “Me/my” appears four times. “We/our” appears seven times. My concerns were almost all about myself or “us” collectively, the congregation. And it's not even supposed to be about us! It's all about God! But honestly, did I ever really ask myself if the worship was pleasing to God? Acceptable in His sight? I don't know, perhaps I did. But certainly not much. That was not my primary focus.

Isaac Wardell of Bifrost Arts put it this way speaking recently at Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference: “We come to worship full of expectation, looking for a moment of transcendence, and we get disappointed when we don't experience it.” We have become almost hedonistic in our approach to worship, judging its success or failure by how it made us feel, or whether or not we were satisfied or “filled-up.”

Terry Howard Wardle, in his book, Exalt Him!, states similarly:

Those in the pews sit and watch as the person up front performs. They evaluate the service based on what they receive rather than on what they put into the experience...We are a generation of spectators who watch television, sports events – most everything. And this has affected our understanding of the worship service. It has become another place where we watch and where we expect to be entertained (page 15).

Francis Chan, also speaking at Crowder's Conference, said this: “The goal is not that we leave and say 'that was good,' but rather that God would look down from heaven and say, 'that is good!'” Francis went on to share the following words from Amos Chapter 5 wherein Amos, the prophet of God, is delivering God's words of judgment to Israel. Israel had been neglecting and oppressing the poor, taking bribes, tolerating corrupt courts, and generally loving evil more than good. And God had this to say to them through Amos:

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.” (Amos 5:21-23, NIV)

As I look back now on the past several months, I see my motives more clearly. But my observations were no less valid, and I think that even had my motives been more rightly aligned, and I had been asking myself if our worship was pleasing to God, I'm not sure what the answer would have been. Because so much of what makes our worship pleasing and acceptable to God is based on what is going on outside of the time of corporate worship. How are we living our lives? If we are not right with God, if the church is not living as the Church should live, ministering to a fallen, hurting world, loving justice and mercy and walking with God in humble obedience (to paraphrase Micah 6:8), then no matter how good our worship is – how polished and prepared – we cannot expect God to accept it or even listen. Woe to us if God were to ever say to us “I cannot stand your assemblies...Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.”

What does all of this say about our perception of God? Because let's be honest, our worship is a direct representation of our view of God. C.S. Lewis said, “Praise is the culmination of our enjoyment of anything.” In other words, if we enjoy it, we'll praise it. Watch any NFL game or rock concert, and you see this truth at work. Do we enjoy God? Are we enjoying him throughout the week, and coming to worship on Sunday (or whenever/wherever you gather to worship) to deliver the culmination of our enjoyment of God up to Him?

In The Air I Breathe, Louie Giglio writes:

When you break it all down, true worship is simply catching sight of the greatness, majesty, glory, and grace of an infinite God.
When God is not greatly praised, it's only because we don't think He's that great of a God. When our worship is small, it's because our concept of God is small. When we offer God little-bitty sacrifices, it's because we've somehow reduced Him in our hearts to a little-bitty God (page 60).

David Crowder, in Praise Habit, writes:

Remember how effortlessly we sang the praises of things we enjoyed? It was so easy and fluid and natural. What if this kind of praise freely leaked from us in delightful response to God? What if life were like that all the time? What if we were so moved by who God is, what He's done, what He will do, that praise, adoration, worship, whatever, continuously careened in our heads and pounded in our souls? What if praise were on the tip of our tongues like we were a loaded weapon in the hands of a trigger-happy meth addict and every moment might just set us off? This is what we will do for eternity. What makes us think our time on earth should be any different? What keeps it from being so? (page 23)

I think what keeps it from being so is that we've turned our worship – our entire spiritual lives – into a spectator sport. We are not participating. We're not experiencing God in our lives and in the lives of others, and so we have nothing to which we can respond. As my Pastor, Kurt Horting of Still Water Community Church in Rowlett, TX, likes to say, “Don't stay on the sidelines! Get in the game!”

But what causes someone to get off the sidelines and into the game? It's one thing to just love the game. But you can love the game and be satisfied watching it on your big screen from the comfort of your couch. Getting on the field and facing down a 280 pound defensive lineman who wants nothing more than to roll over you like a Sherman tank requires that you love something more than just the game. Kids put themselves into the game, take the hits, put in the practice, the sweat, the tears, suffer the injuries, dance in the end zone, and celebrate the victories because they love a coach, or an alma mater, or their parents, or their teammates. Something or someone beyond the game. When you love, respect, and desperately want to please the One you are playing for, the sidelines no longer satisfy.

Those of you who know me know that sports analogies are not my forte. I apologize if that one was a little clumsy! Here's how a better writer than I describes this spectator/participant challenge as it pertains to our worship:

Worship isn't something you watch, contrary to the thinking of many of us who attend church. That may be hard to believe, given that in most churches the rows of seats (or pews) are arranged so that you have the best view of what's happening onstage. If that's not enough, the action is often magnified on the big screens. The lights also point to the platform. And to help you with your viewing pleasure, you're handed a program at the door – a lineup card for what's happening in today's “show,” if you will. After all, it's all put on for your enjoyment, right?
But here's a news flash for you. Worship isn't something you attend, like a movie or a concert. Worship is something you enter into with all your might. Worship is a participation sport in a spectator culture. (Louie Giglio, The Air I Breathe, page 54)

We need to get to know God and experience Him every day, every moment of our lives, so that our times of worship – whether alone or corporate, in our prayer closet, our cars, or gathered in our houses of worship – overflow as we pour out our response to an Almighty God who sacrificed His son so we could enter in to His presence. Matt Redman puts it this way: “God reveals and we respond. God shines, and we reflect.” (Facedown, page 14)

We have it so much better than the Israelites had it! We get to approach God, the Father. We get to come before the Mercy Seat and place our offerings at His feet. For the Hebrew Children, God, while present in their daily lives, was personally out of reach. He dwelt inside the Holy of Holies, which was at the center of the Tabernacle behind a veil, and inaccessible to all except the High Priest, and even he could only enter once a year and only after offering a blood sacrifice.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has provided for us a final atonement for sins, making those who accept Him as Lord and savior holy in God's sight and allowing us to enter into the Holy of Holies – to have a relationship with God the Father directly. The Gospels tell us that when Christ died, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies was torn (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23), and Hebrews Chapter 10 goes on to say that the very Body of Christ was the veil, and that when the body was broken, the veil was torn, and therefore “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:20)

But the Israelites had us beat hands-down when it came to understanding that times of corporate worship were to be about, for, and to God – a response offering to all He is, has done, and is doing in our lives. The Song of Ascents is a title given by the Jews to 15 Psalms, 120-134 in our modern Bible. These Psalms were sung by people as they went up to – ascended to - Jerusalem for the three Jewish pilgrim festivals, and by the priests as they would climb the steps to minister at the Temple. The Jews understood the importance of preparing to enter in to worship, of rightly aligning their hearts and thoughts so that they would not profane the sanctity of what was about to take place: a coming close to God. For Christians, who know Jesus Christ as Messiah, it is a time during which Jesus Christ presents his Bride, the Church to His Father, and we respond to all the Father is and has done.

I won't quote all 15 Psalms here, but I encourage you to read them, and read them often. They are songs to God, songs of humbling ourselves before our Maker, acknowledging our need for Him. They are songs about rightly aligning ourselves with our creator and acknowledging that we are the created, and that all that is good comes from God. And they are songs about what separates a people of God from the rest of the world.

This is one of the reasons I miss liturgies in our modern worship services sometimes. I understand the Church's desire for cultural relevance and I've heard church leaders say that for some, the trappings of traditional church can have negative connotations. So we've done away with those trappings in an effort to make people more comfortable in church. But that begs this question: should we be comfortable in church? If we can truly enter in to worship comfortably, haven't we lost a sense of who we are and who God is? God is in Heaven, and we are here on earth. We should be guarding our steps when we go to the house of God (Eccl 5).

And what's more, aren't we kidding ourselves if we think it's the Church's traditions or rituals or the buildings or the décor that have turned people off of church? No, rather I believe it is hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and a lack of love – whether perceived or real – that turn people off of church; or more accurately, turn people off of Christians. The truth is that the Spirit of God is attractive. God is pursuing his people, and everyone in their heart of hearts yearns to be restored to God. If we preach truth with grace in our churches, testify to the redeeming, life-changing power of Christ and the Holy Spirit in and through our lives, and we love others – love EVERYONE – as Christ first loved us, then I believe our sanctuaries will be filled to overflowing with people drawn by God to Himself, hungering for more of what they have only just begun to taste. And they won't care one little bit about the décor or whether or not there is a worship order or choir or whether they are sitting in a pew or chair, or whether the pastor is in a suit or jeans, or even if there's a pipe organ or an kick drum. *gasp*

Traditional liturgies serve a similar purpose as the Song of Ascent. They help prepare our hearts for worship, for responding to God. There are as many different liturgies as there are denominations, but almost all of them begin with a call to worship where we acknowledge God's holiness, followed by a time of confession where we have a chance to prepare ourselves to receive His Word. We hear of our forgiveness and then enter in to a time of response, after we've been reminded Who and what we have to respond to.

For the better part of 1200 years, the Roman Catholic Church was the Christian Church, and one of the most powerful forces in the Western world. This period in church history saw more than its fair share of shameful acts committed in the name of God and His Church. From the Crusades to the Spanish Inquisition, from the selling of indulgences to the burning of heretics, it was a dark time for the Church.

But there were bright spots as well. This period, especially the latter part, gave the world some of the most glorious and beautiful architectural achievements it has ever seen, namely in the Gothic Cathedrals built to glorify God. The basic design of these cathedrals, the traditional Basilica layout, formed the shape of a cross when viewed from above. This was during a period when the builders lacked the technology to fly above and see the symbol for themselves, but it was also during a time when God and Heaven were still thought of as “up.” This design was for God alone. Inside, the cathedral layout was designed to lead to the sacristy and the altar, and the architecture was grand and lofty, drawing the eyes upward toward heaven and reminding the people of the majesty of God and their own relative insignificance.


The designers and builders of the great Gothic Cathedrals understood worship. They must have had a definition similar to the famous definition from Dr. Bruce Leafblad, Professor of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Theological Seminary: “Worship is centering our mind's attention and our heart's affection on the Lord.” You could not – cannot, even today – enter a cathedral and not have your mind's attention and heart's affection instantly directed toward the things of God.

Again, Louie Giglio from The Air I Breathe:

The corporate gathering is a sacred thing. A special thing. A holy thing. Maybe we need bigger buildings after all. Cathedrals that remind us that we're really small and God is really big. Buildings that force us to look up.

Matt Redman in his book, Facedown, quotes David Crowder as saying “I want to build cathedrals. I want to use words and notes rather than stone and mortar.”

But somehow we've come from a place where we built buildings to show the grandeur of God to remodeling churches that look and feel like our living rooms. I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Any time we try to mold that which is of God into something that looks like ourselves, we're on dangerous ground.

Now I'm not saying we need to spend gazillions of dollars building lavish modern cathedrals while our country wallows in a recession, people are out of work, children are homeless, and there are entire people groups in the world that have yet to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. We are called to be good stewards of the resources God has given us and to help those less fortunate. But I am saying that perhaps we need to make houses of worship that look more like somewhere God would dwell and less like somewhere I would kick my feet up and watch TV. Something that hints at the majesty and mystery of God – the otherness of God. Something I can respond to vs. something I can relate to. Because if I can relate to God, then I have lost track of who God is. He is so far above me, beyond me, that I can never relate to Him. But I can certainly respond to Him, submit to Him, honor Him, worship Him, love Him, adore Him. And be loved by Him.

Louie Giglio, in his foreword to Matt Redman's book, Facedown, addresses this tendency to shrink our God down to a more comfortable size and offers tips on how we can avoid it:

Without true glimpses of God we will invariably try to shrink Him down to our own size rather than allow even the tiniest taste of His infinite glory to stretch our mind and soul upward as we try to Fathom His. That's why worship without revelation is so lackluster, dull and void of the awesome wonder that belongs to God alone – the kind of nearsighted worship we can comfortably offer standing up or sitting down. But when our eyes are opened to the drink in His matchless beauty, we are intrinsically drawn facedown to the ground – that place of worship where we are both secure and somewhat afraid, in love and in awe, bowed low yet somehow lifted high. (page 9)

Because as Christ followers, our entire lives should be lived as responses to God. Matt Redman expands on the responsive nature of our relationship with God:

Worship is our response to God. In other words, we don't initiate worship; God does. … Our whole relationship with God works the same way:
He loves. We love in return.
He calls. We answer.
He leads. We follow. (page 55)

Unless we see God, we cannot worship Him. Worship is what spontaneously flows out of us when we come face-to-face with Him. It's the natural response to all of who He is – our uncalculated response to all He has done... At it's core, worship is all about God. It's for Him. Our worship is to Him. (page 59)

When someone says, “Worship is not really my thing,” then clearly they have not come face-to-face with God. We need to glimpse His greatness. We need to be ministering to each other in such a way that we provide opportunity to come face-to-face with the loving Creator of the universe. We throw around words like “mighty,” “majesty,” and “awesome,” but the meanings have become watered down and lack the potency they once had.

Louie Giglio spoke on the second day of Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference, and he called on God's people to restore the Church's awe of God:

To restore the awe – to keep the awe –you must stay orbiting around the cross of Jesus Christ. Christ has awakened us from the dead. Awakened people – alive people – sing. That's what they do. (Giglio, Fantastical, 10/1/2010)

I know that I am an Awakened Person. Christ has awakened me from the dead! And so I will sing! Every time I experience God, I pray I will respond with authentic worship that is for Him, through Him and to Him. I challenge you – and myself – to purposely seek God out this week. This day. This moment and every moment. Be on your knees in prayer, be in God's Word, and take risks daily to take the message of God's grace, healing, and love to every person He puts in front of you. Seek out opportunities to experience God so that when we meet together again to worship, it will be a “gifted response,” not about us, but all about Him, and His Son who's blood makes our worship possible.

I'll leave you with a little bit more from Matt Redman in Facedown:

The more we delve into the otherness of God, the more we grasp the truth that worship is quite simply “all about Him...” The whole of our existence – our creation, our salvation, and our sanctification – is first and foremost all about God...We are the created, and He is the uncreated. Isaiah 43. (page 30-31)

It's time for the singing Church to once again encounter the beautiful otherness of God. But we cannot sing of that which we have not seen. ( page 36)

Amen.

Metallica in Church?!!

Ultimate-Guitar.com is one of my favorite websites. It's a user-driven forum for posting tabs and chord charts for guitar and bass, and their database is enormous. When I'm looking for a chart or tab for a song, I'll find it on Ultimate-Guitar.com probably 8 out of 10 times, including praise and worship songs.

The site was initially started by metal guitarists for metal guitarists, but it's power was quickly recognized by players of all genres, and it's refreshing to find a Joe Satriani tab on the same site as a Chris Tomlin chord chart. Not that I could ever play the former, but it's good to know they are there. ;)

Another great feature of the site is that they comb the web for articles relevant to their primary audience (metal guitarists) and re-post them on their site, along with links to the original articles. These are often articles I would never see otherwise (the one I'm blogging about was in the Calgary Sun), and might be about upcoming albums, artist interviews, or obits for guitar legends that have passed away, etc.

One of the feature articles from 8/13 really caught my eye: "Pastor talks about 'The Day Metallica Came to Church.'" What a provocative title! I had to read it, and you should, too.

I also encourage you to view the video excerpt (below) from the pastor's (John Van Sloten, pastor of New Hope Church in Calgary) sermon, as well as read the PDF sample from his book.



At the core of what Rev. Sloten is saying in this sermon and in his book is that God can and does speak to us through our culture at large, or at least we can, by the Holy Spirit, find Spiritual truths in secular culture and its art forms, heavy metal music included. Sloten, a pastor of a Reformed Christian congregation, fully supports John Calvin's idea that "all truth is inspired by the Holy Spirit," whether or not those espousing the truth acknowledge it's source.

What's more, Van Sloten challenges believers to not ignore our secular culture or we risk missing its cries for help. Our world cries out for God, and we miss those cries as we fearfully turn a blind eye (after one last, contemptuous, self-righteous glare, of course) to anyone and anything outside of the church. God tells us through the Apostle John in his first Epistle that we are to be "in the world, but not of the world," but many of us have decided to not be in it either, if we can help it (1 John 2:15-17). I made this very point myself in one of my blog posts from back in July Sloten reminds us that Christ himself had no time for the self-righteous, hypocritical church establishment, but rather spent His time with those who most needed Him. Jesus states boldly in Mark 2, ""It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (verse 17).

The challenge here, of course, is to safely walk that fine line between being aware of our culture so we can hear and respond to its cries for help with the love and grace of Christ, and allowing ourselves to be led away from God and into temptation. It can be very easy to rationalize our participation in activities that we know are contrary to what God would want for us by saying, "I'm just getting understanding of our culture so I can minister more effectively."

Wayne Watson (I'm dating myself here, I know!) clearly understood this balancing act when he penned the lyrics for his 1988 song, "The Fine Line:"

There's a fine line
Between taking bread with a lost man
And being consumed by his way
While reaching out in love
Temptation's right at your door
Guard what you're thinking of
It's a fine line
When I hide my eyes
From the darkest of our life's insanity
From the worst of the world's profanity
I've gotta be careful
I don't miss anyone in need of me
It's a fine line--Oh yes, it's a fine line

We cannot follow Christ's example and be willing to reach out to a lost and hurting world and simultaneously ignore God's warnings elsewhere in Scripture. God tells us to "flee from sexual immorality," (1 Cor 6:18), and to fill our minds with "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable...,excellent or praiseworthy" (Phil 4:8). This could be difficult to do while watching an R-rated movie to see if God has anything to say through it. You don't have to watch porn to understand that our world has twisted God's design for sexuality, or to understand that many people turn to sex for a feeling of affection and self-worth that only God and God-centered relationships (parent, spouse, etc.) can provide.

I have not read enough of Sloten's book to know whether or not he addresses this. I hope he does. But I absolutely intend to read the whole book, which will probably result in a few more posts.

But overall, I applaud Rev. Sloten's efforts here, and I agree with at least some of His points about finding God's truth in our culture at large, and often in very unlikely places. I also strongly believe that all of us individually and the Church as a whole need to do a better job of understanding secular culture and reaching out to people where they are, instead of cloistering ourselves inside our sanctuaries and waiting on the world to come walking through our doors. We'd be waiting a long time, I think, and what's more, I think deep down inside, many traditional church-goers would be quite content if the unwashed -- and unsaved -- masses never darkened the doors of the church at all. Heaven forbid anything upset the sterile, self-righteous status quo! :)

And who knows? Perhaps Sloten's sermon and book will help overcome the stigma surrounding heavy metal music. Certainly there's heavy metal music out there that any believer would want to avoid, but that can be said of just about every genre of popular music. Metal has a lot to offer. Many instrumental virtuosos ply their trade in the metal arena, and as Pastor Sloten and droves of metalheads around the world know very well, there is an emotional power and lyrical authenticity found in heavy metal that is hard to find elsewhere.

Rock on!

Vampires, Christians, and homosexuals. Oh my!

I've enjoyed Anne Rice's fiction (most of it) since I was a teenager. As a fan of speculative fiction in general, I am fascinated by the archetypes born out of genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, and what they have to say about the human experience. Vampires are one of the earliest -- if not the original -- horror archetypes, and Anne Rice's romps through New Orleans and around the world with Louis, Lestat, Claudia, Armand, and others presented the literary vampire in a new, fresh light, updated for a modern audience all its modern anxieties and hang-ups.

I've often stated when debating the relative literary merits of these fringe genres that the human condition and experience is more easily exposed and examined in speculative fiction than it could ever be in more "realistic" works. Contrast is the key. A red object placed on a white background is immediately noticeable. It stands out because it contrasts with the background. Place it against a red background, and it is more difficult to discern. There is less contrast. The object is surrounded by things very much like itself.

I believe there is a similar effect in literature. When you take something familiar like another human being and place it against a backdrop that is entirely alien -- a fantasy world, an alien planet, or an alternate reality where the undead stalk the earth, to name a few examples -- the unique characteristics of that human being and its struggles and passions jump out at us from the page. We instantly recognize ourselves in the character because that which we understand is so starkly contrasted against that which we don't understand. By contrast (hee-hee), if we take that familiar human element and place it in a world much like our own, the contrast is lessened, and the humanity begins to blend it with the backdrop. The author has to work much harder to bring it back to the forefront.

I digress...but at least now you know I like Anne Rice's work and vampire fiction in general, and you have some idea as to why I like them.

If you read and enjoy enough of an author's work, you can't help to begin to feel connected, as if you have come to know the author -- if only a little -- through their work. As I read about the moral, physical, and spiritual struggles of Rice's vampire protagonists, I could not help but speculate how many of these elements were autobiographical. And since every work of fiction has autobiographical elements to one degree or another, it became clear to me that Mrs. Rice was struggling with her spiritual identity. Reading interviews and background pieces about her only served to confirm this.

So when back in 2005, Anne Rice published her novel, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and proclaimed her return to the Christian faith, I was overjoyed, much as I would be if a family member who had lost her faith found her way back to the fold. I was amazed and touched by the testimony included in the Author's Note (You can read it in its entirety via Amazon's reader by clicking here. Scroll to pages 305-322.), and any doubt I may have harbored regarding God's ability to reach the unreachable instantly evaporated. Later, when I read the second Christ the Lord novel, The Road to Cana, and Rice's memoir, Called out of Darkness, I was even more convinced that Rice's return to Christ was no mere whim or passing phase. This was a true and permanent reconciliation. Her heart had been wooed and won by Christ, and she was devoted to Him. What's more, she voiced her desire to devote her writing to Christ going forward, regardless of the career ramifications of such a decision. A brave statement, considering that those sympathetic to Christianity likely comprise only a small percentage of her loyal readership.

So when, on July 29th, 2010, Anne Rice made this statement on her public Facebook page, I was very interested and intrigued. And judging from the firestorm of responses across the Internet, so were a lot of other people:

For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten ...years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

Wow. As a Christian, let me first say that I completely understand Mrs. Rice's decision, or at least the motivation behind it. Far be it from me to presume to fully understand the heart of Christ, but I think it is safe to say that few things grieve His heart more than the atrocities and sin committed in His name all over the world every day, and throughout history. I believe it is a poignant milestone in the Christian walk when one is able to separate Jesus Christ and the faith one places in Him from the actions and failings of those proclaiming to be his followers. I applaud and respect Mrs. Rice for being able to do just that, reaffirming her faith in Christ while simultaneously denouncing Christianity. It is a testament to how far God has brought her in her walk of faith.

We live in a fallen world populated by fallen people. A true Christ-follower (a much better term than "Christian", in my opinion) is redeemed by the shed blood of Christ, has hope of life eternal through the resurrection, and is empowered by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit here on earth. But despite all of this, there is a sinful nature that, though weaker than the Spirit placed in us, is constantly battling for attention, seeking out weak spots, and waiting to capitalize on our complacency. Even the most mature, stalwart believers struggle with this. The Apostle Paul felt this internal struggle acutely, as we read in this passage from Romans 7:

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Organized Christianity, by definition, means putting a lot of people -- along with those sinful natures, suppressed to varying degrees -- together. There are bound to be clashes, and there are bound to be decisions made out of sinful motivations. There is bound to be hurt.

And yet God's Word commands us to meet together (Hebrews 10:25). You can read the Bible from cover to cover to and see that the Church as an organized body is established by God, and later affirmed by Christ, who is, according to Scripture, the head of the Church (1 Cor 11, Eph 4 and 5, Col 2, and others). And yet Christ reserved his most fearsome ire for the hypocrisies of so-called church "leaders", and for practices permitted by the church that defiled God's house (see accounts in Matt 12, 16, Mark 11, John 2). Anne Rice's frustration and disgust with the Church was shared by Jesus Himself to a degree, and yet He still is the head of the Church, the divine bridegroom who loves his wayward bride, the Church, and seeks to woo her back to Himself.

I believe that this is why we see Christ at His most tender and forgiving when he encounters "wayward" women. We read accounts of Christ with the prostitute about to be stoned, the woman who "wastes" the precious oil to anoint Christ's feet, and the adulterous Samaritan woman at the well, and we see incredible tenderness, understanding, and grace. Perhaps in these moments when the human Christ was encountering these human women, the Divine Christ was seeing shadows of his Divine, wayward bride, the Church, and responded with the love and grace He has extended to her since the dawn of time.

We are told to keep meeting together. To stay in community. To serve and worship corporately, as well as in our families and alone. God has, does, and always will work mightily through the Church as a body.

Perhaps the most poignant and convicting words that Christ has for us regarding our attitudes about our fellow Christians are these from John 13:35: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." If we cannot love our fellow Christians, how will a hurting world know who we are? And how can we love our fellow Christians, if we are apart from them?

The Apostle Paul, and the Disciple Peter, the patriarchs of the Church, expound further upon this admonition of Christ. In Romans, Paul says "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves" (12:10), and in Ephesians he says, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

Peter writes in 1 Peter, "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart" (verse 22). And later in chapter 3, "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble" (verse 8).

These guys knew what the church was like! They were establishing groups of believers all over the known world. We would not need Scripture to tell us over and over again to be humble, gentle, patient, loving, and to "bear with one another" if Christ, Paul, and Peter didn't all understand that it would be tough!

This is why Jesus, when asked by Peter how many times you should forgive someone who wrongs you, said "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times!" (Matthew 18:22) He knew our capacity to forgive others would be put to the test, because humans beings fail. Human beings hurt one another. And we hurt the heart of God. But God forgives, and so should we. Make no mistake, He holds us accountable and desires, deserves, and ultimately will have our obedience one way or another. And sin has consequences the He will allow run their course in our lives. But He forgives, and He commands us to forgive and continue to be devoted to one another.
It is my hope and prayer that Mrs. Rice will be able to temper the understandable anger and disgust she has voiced regarding organized Christianity enough to forgive where it is needed, and to not remove herself from a community of believers. It doesn't have to be in a church building or belong to a denomination. But I believe that fellowship, community, and corporate worship are vital components of following Christ. For the Bride of Christ has a body made of many parts (1 Cor 12), and I believe that the fullness of the love of the Bridegroom can only be experienced to the fullest as a part of the Bride, the Church.

It's hard. In my walk with Christ over the years, I have been both the offender who made others want to leave the Church, and the offended who wanted to leave. But by His Grace, God is teaching me the importance of the Church and what it means to be a part of it, warts and all. And more importantly, He has given me glimpses of what He desires to do in and through His Church to reach a hurting world.

He has reached out to me in the midst of my pain. And he reached out to Anne Rice in the midst of her pain, and called her out of darkness. I think Mrs. Rice would agree that if He can reach people like us, He can reach anyone.

So that's the vampires and Christians, but what about the homosexuals? Well...

This is already a very long post, so that part will have to wait until the next post. Check back in a couple of days!

What We Wish Were True

One of my favorite movies of all time is L.A. Story, Steve Martin's satirical masterpiece from 1991. That's also the year I graduated from high school, which makes it particularly iconic for me. It's hilarious, quirky, romantic, contains an awesome thread of Hamlet references, and is unerringly optimistic. And it pokes fun at the stereotypical SoCal lifestyle and attitudes, which in a way is Martin poking fun at himself and the world he lives in.

And like all of Martin's films from the 80s and 90s, L.A. Story is chock full of quotable one-liners. One of my favorites is very near the end when Martin's character, Harris K. Telemacher, has won the girl's heart (The female lead, Sarah McDowel, is played by Victoria Tennant, who was married to Martin at the time.) and is kissing her in the rain. Telemacher also narrates the story, so as he kisses McDowel on screen, we hear him say: "A kiss may not be the truth. But it is what we wish were true."

Wow. For a hormonal 17-year-old who fancied himself to be quite the charmer, lines like that were like 24-karat gold bullets, baby, let me tell you.
But this is not a movie-review blog, it's a worship blog. So to the point. For me, the meaning of this line is this: in that moment of sharing a particularly good kiss with someone you love, there exists this little island of relational perfection. It's pure, it's passionate, it's somehow tender and urgent all at once, and all of the other imperfect "stuff" that comes with relationships -- the harsh words, the failures, the short-comings, the unmet expectations, the jealousy, the resentment, the fear and anxiety -- is forgotten. And there is only the kiss and all it encapsulates. The sort of pure, perfect relationship that exists in the moments of that kiss may not be the truth of your relationship as a whole. But it is what we all wish were true. And it can be truth for as long as that kiss lasts.
Worship is like this, I think, especially praise worship, whether as part of a group or alone with God. These are the moments when we kiss God.

Now don't get all weirded out on me. The metaphor may make you uncomfortable, but it shouldn't. It's completely appropriate. The Church at large, after all, is the Bride of Christ (See Hosea 2:14-16, Ephesians 5 and Revelation 21). And what could be more appropriate than a bride sharing a kiss with her bridegroom? In fact, I believe that most Christians fail to experience the deepest, most intimate aspects of a relationship with Jesus Christ because they never explore -- or perhaps refuse to explore -- the romantic element of that relationship. For a woman who has been hurt my a husband or boyfriend, experiencing Christ as the perfect bridegroom may be an easier step. But for others, especially men, this can be a challenge. It requires that we separate the idea of romantic love from physical sexuality, and that is tough.

The Shane and Shane song, "Acres of Hope" (written by Shane Barnard and Robbie Seay), is based on the Hosea passage that relates God's intense longing for His Church -- His bride -- and the lengths to which He will go to woo her to Himself:

He will allure her
He will pursue her
And call her out
To wilderness with flowers in His hand
She is responding
Beat up and hurting
Deserving death
But offerings of life are found instead

She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope

Here in the valley
Walk close beside me
Don’t look back
For love is growing vineyards up ahead
You have called me master
And though you’re in the dark here
Call me friend
And call me lover and marry me for good

She will sing
She will sing
Oh, to You
She will sing as in the days of youth
As You lead her away
To valleys low
To acres of hope
Acres of hope

How the story ends is
Love and tenderness in Him
Not safe, but worth it
So the valley’s up ahead
Or the ones we live
We’ll sing together
We’ll sing together

And in one of today's most popular worship songs, David Crowder's version of "How He Loves," we see the Church (really all of creation) sharing a kiss with God in the lyric, "...and heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss..." What's kinda funny is that Crowder actually rewrote this lyric for his version. The original lyric by John Mark McMillan expressed the whole romantic love metaphor perhaps a little too literally for Crowder's taste: "So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss..." ;) Appropriate change, David! But with either lyric, the point is the same: God loves us. And not just with the love of a father, brother, friend, or creator. He loves us as a husband loves his bride. Christianity is supposed to be a divine romance.
And those moments of intimate worship are the kisses we share with God, our Bridegroom.

Because when we come before the Throne of God in worship, we enter in to a communion with Him that for those moments can be pure and perfect. It is uncluttered by our shortcomings, our fears, our anxieties, our imperfections. We leave the world and its vulgarities outside the doors to the Holy of Holies, along with the mundane trappings of the day-to-day, and we enter into a time and place where all we do is offer to God the purest, simplest expressions of our love for Him, and receive the same in return.

The Christian walk is not an easy one. There are struggles, trials, fears, anxieties. There are moments when we feel defeated or unworthy. There are moments of spiritual oppression, or when the day-to-day events in a fallen world weigh down upon us. There are seasons of silence or even discipline from God when He can seem distant, and doubt can take root. But in the sanctuary of praise and worship, these things can be set aside. They may still be out there waiting for us, but they are completely obscured by the radiance of God's face. Not unlike when we share a kiss with someone.

If you are like me, then there are probably times when you struggle with singing some of the lines in worship songs. Times when those statements are not true in your life, and you wonder if singing them before God and your fellow believers is somehow a lie, or hypocritical. Lyrics like "Every blessing you pour out I'll/turn back to praise," or "Your grace is enough for me" may be tough to sing when your are not pouring out every blessing in your life as praise, or you don't feel like God's grace truly is enough for your circumstance. But I want to encourage you to keep on singing during these times! In fact, sing all the more, but instead of laying these phrases at the feet of God as offerings, lift them up to Him as cries for help or prayers for Him to move in your life and make them a reality! Or prayers for forgiveness. He will respond in faith, and there will come a time when these words will be like incense poured on the fires of the work He has done in you, and the they will rise up to heaven as a sweet perfume!

God is not after perfect worship from perfect people. God wants us to come before him honestly, without pretense, and just fall at his feet. Be transparent and vulnerable with God in worship. It's okay if the words you sing are not a reality in your daily walk yet. Sing them as prayers to God. Sing them as the ideal into which you are inviting Him to shape and mold you. Even sing them as confessions: "Lord, I am not like this. This has not been true in my life. Please forgive me, and renew a right spirit in me. Make these words true for me!"

Don't avoid worship. Be intimate with your God, with your Bridegroom, who pursues you, His bride, and longs to draw you to Himself. Enter in to His embrace, and lift your face to kiss the face of God, knowing that worship -- like Martins L.A. Story kiss -- may not always represent the truth of our walk. But it is what we wish were true. And God can and will make it truth, if we ask Him and then get out of His way so He can do the work in us.

Through open, honest, intimate worship of Jesus Christ our Lord, you can discover (to paraphrase another L.A. Story line) that romance does exist deep in the heart of your relationship with God, even if sometimes it feels like you need a compass, pick-axe, and night goggles to find it!

Keep the faith,

Lee

Am I a Rich Young Ruler?

I love Pandora.com. For those that are unfamiliar with Pandora, it's a music discovery service based on the Music Genome Project. I won't get into the details of how Pandora works -- for that, you can visit www.pandora.com -- but suffice to say that it's awesome, and I've discovered some great new music via Pandora.

One of my Pandora "stations" is "David Crowder Band Radio." A song popped up on that station the other day from a guy named Derek Webb. The song was Rich Young Ruler. I had never heard this song before, but I was familiar with the Scripture reference from Matthew 19 and Mark 10. Here is the passage as related in Mark 10:17-27:

17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

18"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'[d]"

20"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy."

21Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

22At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

24The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is[e] to enter the kingdom of God! 25It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

26The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"

27Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

And here are the lyrics for the song:

(vs. 1)
poverty is so hard to see
when it’s only on your tv and twenty miles across town
where we’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
he says, more than just your cash and coin
i want your time, i want your voice
i want the things you just can’t give me

(vs. 2)
so what must we do
here in the west we want to follow you
we speak the language and we keep all the rules
even a few we made up
come on and follow me
but sell your house, sell your suv
sell your stocks, sell your security
and give it to the poor
what is this, hey what’s the deal
i don’t sleep around and i don’t steal
i want the things you just can’t give me

(bridge)
because what you do to the least of these
my brother’s, you have done it to me
because i want the things you just can’t give me

Wow. Humbling and convicting, to say the least. And frankly difficult to listen to, because this subject flies in the face of so many dearly held philosophies of conservative American evangelical Christians, of which I am one.

I consider myself pretty conservative, socially, politically, and religiously. As a sales person and sometime small business owner, I also consider myself a capitalist. I believe that Christians should tithe and give generously to those in need. But I'd be lying if I said that I and my family did not want the bigger house in the nicer neighborhood with the taller fence. Nicer cars. Nicer vacations. More toys and gadgets. More stuff.

And I've even found myself judging the poor and assuming that their poverty is somehow their fault and their problem. Certainly not my problem. After all, I have a mortgage to pay, right? And not the government's problem, because then I might have to pay higher taxes. And besides, I'm a conservative. Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to want a government that is "smaller" and has fewer welfare programs and social services? If I have a heart for the poor and want to help in any way I can, and I want a government that feels the same way, does that make me a *gasp* "Liberal!"

When I was a teenager, I went to a church camp. The worship leader at the camp was a Christian artist named Billy Crockett (Billy has a new album out, BTW...check it out here.). One of his songs that I dug the most was "41 Lawnmowers." At 14, I was smart enough to understand what the song was about, but it seemed like a topic for grown-ups...something to think about "later." I just liked the tune, and it was fun to sing. Here are the lyrics to "41 Lawnmowers:"

Find a good old neighborhood, a square block of the USA.
Stake your claim, claim your space. Sink your roots & live your days.

Build a fence, close it in. Raise a lawn & grow some kids. Make a name. Name your friends, that's the American way to live, in

41 houses, only 1 street. 41 yards, 82 trees. 41 mowers all sitting in sheds. 41 families in over their heads. And everybody's got their own everything.

From the Bronx to Hollywood. Montreal to Mexico. The fever grows, go for gold. Gain the world & lose your soul!

Push & shove, don't look back. Absolute success attack. Insulate. Cul-de-sac. Prove the universal fact of

41 houses, only 1 street. 41 yards, 82 trees. 41 mowers all sitting in sheds. 41 families in over their heads. And everybody's got their own everything.

Now I'm 36, married, have a daughter, and we're living in a nice suburban house in a Dallas suburb (interestingly the same area that Mr. Crockett is from). I have a lawn, a lawnmower in a shed. There's well over 41 houses on my street, but most have two trees in the front. Like mine. And there are certainly times when I've felt like I'm in over my head.

And I DO want to insulate. I DO want a taller fence. And if I never saw my neighbors and they never knocked at my door, you would not hear me complain about that. In fact one of the inside jokes about me in our little circle of friends is that "Lee has enough friends!" (A story perhaps for another post.)

This whole idea is very sad and frankly concerning to me. How can I call myself a Christian with this lifestyle and these attitudes? How can I reconcile statements from Christ like ""Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Mark 10:21)? Or "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 19:19)? Or how about this one, also from Matthew 19:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And then there's this passage from Acts 2:44-47, regarding the community of the new fledgling Church:

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Wow! Hardly the Western conservative, capitalist ideal, right?! And yet here in the Dallas area, mega-church parking lots are full of luxury cars that will be driven to lunch after service, and then home to some pretty fancy gated communities. Texas, after all, is the birthplace of the "health, wealth, and prosperity gospel," and sadly for many people outside of the Church, the stereotypical evangelical Christian is rich, fat, and conservative. But one of my favorite speakers and authors, John Piper, has something to say about this "gospel" in his book Don't Waste Your Life:

The health, wealth, and prosperity "gospel" swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and turns the gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ's sake and count it gain. (72-73)

Piper goes on in a later chapter to issue the following indictment of our western evangelical Christian culture:

Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud -- just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend -- woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more. (119-120)

So this stuff is weighing heavily on my heart and mind right now. And I'm not going to lie: I don't like it. It's not that I don't know if I can live up to these expectations. It's that I don't know if I want to. I completely understand why the rich young ruler's "...face fell, and he walked away sad..." (Mark 10:22). Jesus really does "want the things I just can't give Him," to paraphrase Webb's lyric. I want to follow Jesus. But I want my comfort, and my toys, and my largely recreational lifestyle, and my social seclusion. And my sense of security that comes more from a lack of risk than from a confidence in God's grace and provision.

I have a lot to think and pray about, and I would ask you to pray for me and my family as well...

The Formidable Power of Music and Song

Music is designed to elicit a response. Song is intended to inspire – to cause emotion to well up inside of us and then manifest in our actions. When we open ourselves to music, we have no choice but to respond. This is why generations are shaped by it, armies march to it, advertisers license it, nations have anthems, and colleges have fight songs instead of fight poems: because music – particularly song – has power. Power to inspire, invoke, and incite.

I believe that God created music for that purpose. The Bible gives us some tantalizing glimpses of angels singing around the throne of God, praising Him and worshiping Him, and the implication is that they have always done so and will always do so. Perhaps these were the first songs. Unless of course God sung to Himself in the void, which He may well have done. The original purpose of song was and is to worship the Creator – and to inspire action that also worships Him.

This is why we worship together as a body, first and foremost to worship God and bring Him praise in His house, but also to galvanize and unify, and to stir our souls individually and collectively to action: Kingdom-impacting, life-changing action. Worship music is the march for Christian soldiers, the anthem for a Holy nation, the fight song for our true alma mater.

Music's nature is to inspire action, and you can no more separate music from it's nature than you could make an apple tree produce carrots or get an alligator to become a vegetarian. We like to think that we can. In fact, we are notorious for trying to separate a number of activities from the nature that God designed them to have in order to accommodate our self-serving uses for these activities. Scripture tells us clearly that sex is designed to permanently unite a man and woman together in marriage for their entire lives, both physically and spiritually. But we try to deny the nature of sex to accommodate our desire for sex outside of marriage or with multiple partners, or perhaps with a partner of the same sex. And of course damage occurs, just as it would if you forced apart any other two things bonded by a permanent adhesive. We do the same with our money. God created the very idea of money so that we could honor Him with our tithes in obedience and use the other resources He gives us to help others. But the world says we can do what we want with our money. After all, we earned it, right? Even the Church likes to ignore passages about truly tithing 10% (see Malachi, chapter 3), and instead likes to focus on verses about giving cheerfully (2 Corinthians 9:7). I presume this is so we don't upset the average American, church-goer who gives around 2.5% to the church.

And we do the same with music. We try to tell ourselves we can separate music from the power that is it's nature: “Oh, it's just a song,” we'll say. “What's the big deal?” The big deal is that song is designed to and has the power to inspire and incite action according to it's subject. When we give ourselves over to music, there is an emotional reaction that can and does lead to physical action and guides conscious decision. It is for this reason that I as a parent am so sensitive to what music my daughter is listening to. Show me a teenager that isn't in to their music! Now pick a song randomly from the current U.S. Top 40 list (at the time of this writing, The #1 song is Katy Perry's “California Girls,” and #2 is Eminem's “Love the Way You Lie.” Lovely.), analyze the lyrics in light of the innate power of song we've been discussing, and then tell me if that doesn't concern you just a little!

Now before you all start comparing me to John Lithgow's character in Footloose, allow me to clarify: I am not against secular music. Far from it. I love all types of music from blues to metal, classical to rock, pop to soul. Many – probably most – of my favorite artists are secular artists. I love to dance, and I even think that the youthful, angst-ridden irreverence of rock and roll and the sensual side of popular music can be positive – or at least harmless – forces in the right context.

We'd miss out on a ton of God-given talent if we abstained from secular music, and we'd also miss out on what I believe is our best opportunity to hear about what is on the heart and mind of a fallen, hurting world that desperately needs a Savior. Our society's cries for help are heard most clearly in its songs, and listening can provide astonishing insights that can help us understand our youth and guide our prayer and ministry.

But as God has continued to teach me about his ultimate design for music and song, I've become much more discriminating about what I listen to, and I try to be honest with myself about the lyrical content and whether or not it is something I should be putting in to my head. Philippians 4:8 provides a checklist of the types of things we should be thinking about. Things that are noble, right, true, praiseworthy, pure, lovely, admirable. I can help ensure that my thoughts rise to these standards by listening to music that does likewise. And what could be more lovely, noble, or praiseworthy than our God?

So I would encourage us all to acknowledge the power of song, and use it wisely. Inspire yourself, and others. Fill your mind with noble things. And please teach your kids to do likewise. It's a little disconcerting when your 5 yo daughter, who usually walks around belting out Francesca Batistelli's “Beautiful, Beautiful”, all of a sudden (after spending a week with her cousins) starts singing “...shorty is a eenie meenie miney mo lovah...” ;)