Changing Perceptions at WorshipArts

This past week I have had the privilege of hanging around some awesome people at WorshipArts camp. It has been thoroughly enjoyable. One of my favorite things to do is worship God with my musical gifts. But even better I REALLY enjoy teaching it.

There is something about using your gifts. It not only lets you pour out. But it comes back to pour in. There is so much I have learned from teaching music/worship. It forces you to think through things better. It gives you new ideas (even those thought up by the students). When you are in the place where God wants you, He will bless you with more wisdom. This has happened to me while helping out at WorshipArts.

Something happens when you go from being on stage to being off it and teaching. Its like changing from being a child and getting scolded for touching beautiful crystal that just catches your eye at the store, to a parent who is scolding the child because they know that the child will break the crystal if he/she picks it up. The child didn’t realize the importance of obeying their parents until they became one. That is the kind of experience I have had. Seeing from different angles and perceptions.

Things I have learned so far:

Practice makes perfect. Well, maybe not perfect…. But it strives for perfection. When I was taking piano lessons I only could understand that I needed to practice to get better. I didn’t know beyond that. I didn’t know that if I practiced I would be able to go to college and get a music minor. I didn’t know that if I practiced I could TEACH it to others. I didn’t know that if I practiced I could earn money to pay for college. The same goes for the aspect of worship. I must be in the practice of worshiping. As a leader I must continue to play my instruments and to sing wholeheartedly before the Lord. I must practice focusing on Him only and not my instrument. I must practice praying. I must practice. If I practice worshipping at home it makes it easier for the Spirit to move within me and through the congregation. Practicing worship gets the focus off of my nerves and unto the Lord. Practicing worship gives me ideas and new creative thought to add to my next set list.

Joy. Little did I know when I worshiped the Lord that I had a somber face. When I stepped into the teacher role I noticed the students didn’t smile, didn’t CONSISTENTLY show joy in what they were doing. How then will that reflect on the congregation? The congregation will follow what the leaders are doing. I have also noticed that “For the joy of the Lord is our Strength”. So much truth goes into that! When I push the students to play and sing with joy or energy they seriously SOUND SO MUCH BETTER! Its like someone just turned a light on. That much difference. Even slow songs become interesting at that point. I learned from watching the students that I need to show more joy in the Lord. And honestly I still struggle with that.

Words. There is SOOOOO much power in the words of the song. SOO much. I have found it necessary to sit down and read through a song and write notes on what the words mean just so when I sing it later that I fully grasp the meaning of the words.

Worship vs. Ministry Time. I have discovered the true meaning of worship. To praise or give thanks to God with whatever you have to offer at the time. I have found that we use this word “worship” foolishly. I like calling it worship when we are singing songs with words only giving God the glory. I don’t want to sing a song about myself and how much I want his presence when I should be focusing and thanking him for all that HE has done. I don’t like singing songs that have I or Me during Worship Time. I also like calling it Ministry Time when we want to sing songs to lead the congregation in time of prayer. Ministry time gives the church to minister over each other. It also changes people lives by giving them new things to think about. “How He Loves” is a great example of a ministry time song. It’s a beautiful song that talks about how God loves us.

Teaching. One of the teaching methods I like to use (A VERY COMMON ONE ;-) ) is the moving in steps idea. If you get you student to learn and do one thing… then you can teach them to learn something in that criteria with a more in depth study. I have realized that after finally getting the idea of being joyful across to the student at WA, that I need to take it a step further. I go around the room rating them on how many smiles they show me. Now I feel like this was just the first step to where God wants them. They would casually glance at me and smile at me every couple of seconds and in between that they would go back to being concentrated on their music. Now I want to teach them to be consistently joyful/genuine. Don’t push being happy but show how much you seriously are enjoying it. God knows how much you are… but if you show it outside of yourself then others will feel more open to show their joy to God as well. (a mirrored image)

These are my reflections from WorshipArts.

All in all, I have learned alot. There are more things that I could write down but that would make it a VERY long blog and I don't want to bore you. Thanks for reading!

Hannah

5000 and room for more

My church has been going through the Bible steadily since it started. We are reading through Luke right now and we came to the part about Jesus feeding the 5000 men. After Devo's today I had a quick thought. The food that was left over; what was the plan for it? They didn't just throw it away? Did they?

Luke 9:10-17

¹⁰ When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, ¹¹ but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

¹² Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

¹³ He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” ¹⁴ (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” ¹⁵ The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. ¹⁶ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. ¹⁷ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

First off, Jesus creates something out of nothing. I don't know about your family. But going on what my family would eat in a day (if all 5 of us were under the same roof)... Approx 2.5 of my family could eat what was available before Jesus' miracle. Jesus made something out of NOTHING.

What did he do with what was left? Or what would I think he would have done? Maybe given it to more people wanting to make sure they ate that day?

The parallel that I can think of in this story are the followers Jesus has NOW. He probably has billions of believers dutifully chasing after him and following wherever he wants to go. He keeps them fed with his fruit and has leftovers. What are these leftovers meant for?

This only tells me once again that he wants more. "One who has the power to fill the entire UNIVERSE wants to fill YOU"~ Aaron Mueller. He has so many people to feed already, but he makes enough so that he has tons of leftovers. And his leftovers are still as good as when they were first made.

Many people come to learn that and they decided to eat His good fruit. His 5000 followers have been made into billions and he STILL has leftovers. Won't you take some?

ENDURING Love

After yesterday’s post and many comments about it on my facebook page my heart has been changed overnight. Well, not exactly.

This book that I mentioned before “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers is about God’s love for us. It’s description of the love between a Bridegroom and His Bride. I feel like I took the book the wrong way. The emphasis of the book wasn’t to raise arguments on who to marry and when. I think the author’s intent was for us to realize what we do to God as unbelievers and as believers.

It gives the story of Hosea in a whole different light. The prostitute wife is accepted into the arms of a husband who is full of truth and goodness. In that sense, an unbeliever is accepted into the wonderful arms of the Father. Though the cherished and love bride runs away again and again, the Father is always waiting or even searching for his loved one to return to him. Even though he was betrayed.

When I was reading the book it described HOW MUCH it hurt the husband when the bride ran away for foolish lies that were running through her head. Lies like:

“I’m not good enough. And never will be. Possibly never want to be”

“I can’t be used. I’m broken”

“God doesn’t love me”

Never have I realized how much those lies hurt God when we believe them. His only true desire for us is to accept him and trust the fullness of his love. We need to trust that “YES” he does love us. “YES” he can fix a broken person (He definitely has the power). With Jesus “YES” HIS love is UNCONDITIONAL. Unconditional meaning he’ll take everything. He’ll take lies, betrayal, pain, theft, death. The unconditional meant that God care for you as much as letting his own SON die just for our benefit. UNCONDITIONAL. Those lies we believe are LIES. LIES. LIES. We start believing them but God is the truest husband EVER. He only wants us to see that.

It is only when WE reject HIM. When we pursue other god’s like men, our passions, our wants, sin…. it looks like rejection to him. BUT, God in His own loving way takes us back, again… and again….. and again when we start pursuing him again. He even will pursue us when we have rejected him! “MY BELOVED, Put your name here, welcome home again. I’ve missed you.”

God chose the symbol of a Bride and Bridegroom because it is the most intimate love we know of. He didn’t say “BEST FRIEND” he chose LOVERS that have made vows toward a covenant.

A few years ago I was in a chapel during a worship night. I had so many things swarming through my head at that moment. I felt like I had the ugliest heart and that God wouldn’t accept me again. I was picturing his image of me and it didn’t look good. After I sat down for a while and prayed for God to forgive me did I hear it. “I LOVE YOU”. What? God, you aren’t judging me? You aren’t punishing me? You aren’t smiting me? “I LOVE YOU” Rang back in my head. I looked around and it was my friend telling me who was sitting next to me and giving me a hug. She was saying “God says, I love you. You are beautiful to me.” I started to cry. I was picturing God all wrong. God LOVES….. ME. Since then, never has God’s language been of hurt, or pain. It has always been of love. It doesn’t make sense. But that is the truth. I had believed the lies. I started to read every conceivable verse that talked about love. I definitely hadn’t understood it.

How much longer will you think of God that way? How many lies do you think you are still believing about him? This is what I want to start asking myself again after reading this book and rethinking it through. Maybe you do too?

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 John 3:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

John 3:16-17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Marry an Unbeliever?

After reading “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers and having a deep discussion with friends tonight I want to know what you think.

Is there ever going to be a possibility that God would ask a Christian to marry an unbeliever?

Is marrying an unbeliever a sin?

Bible’s Take:

1. (NEW Testament) We cannot be yoked with an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NLT). "Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can goodness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? (15) What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?" These verses even quote scripture from the OT, "I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Pretty clear isn't it?

2. (OLD Testament) Hosea a prophet. God told him to marry a prostitute and accept her children who were born out of wedlock. (Book of Hosea)

a. God uses this relationship with the prophet and the wife as a symbol for how Israel is acting and how God is going to act toward them. Israel being the prostitute and God being the prophet. The Bride and the Bridegroom.

b. This story shows the LOVE OF GOD and how deep it goes to even accept the marriage of a prostituted country. It also shows the PEOPLES rejection of God and that in turn earns them rejection FROM God.

c. No where in the Bible does it say that Gomer (the prostitute) was not a Jew. It doesn't say that she is one either.

3. (THE WHOLE BIBLE) Many true and hopeful relationships of believers married together with a much better outcome that Hosea had. Ruth and Boaz (OT), Abraham and Sarah (OT), Issac and Rebekah (OT), Elizabeth and Zechariah (NT), Joseph and Mary (NT) etc.

4. (OLD Testament) What about Esther? God used that marriage didn't he? Was Xerxes a Jew? I think not since Hamen would have been killing the king too. One thing to note is that Esther had no choice in the matter.

5. Stories of unequal yokage turning sour. Solomon (Proverbs 5:1-23)

The Bible shows many different ways God has acted. His ways are always higher than our ways. We will never be able to understand the fathom of his deep love and the reason why he does certain things like Hosea. With that in mind someone might find it reasonable to say that there is a small if TINY possibility that God COULD call a believer to marry and unbeliever. A .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance (I think there needs to be more zeros). This is only even more slightly possible if the believer is an active listener with God and knows the sound of His voice. His ways are unknown and normally turn to good.... right?

On the other hand (as my friends were reminding me) the devil likes to use this tactic as a trick to void off our relationship with God. Even the best Christian can fall in their relationship with God by marrying the unbeliever and that is why Paul reminds us that is better to not be yoked with them. Otherwise the Christian will be doing all the pulling and the other will lag behind. This doesn’t work very well for a team. It it MUCH better for a believer to marry a believer! With no doubt.

What about the Bride and the Bridegroom stuff the church is always talking about?

The Bride is us the church and the Bridegroom is Jesus/God. Even though we are sinful and adulterous as a church or Christian he takes us back when we want him. When we reject him he might reject us. He married the Bride knowing that we were a bad sort of bunch and we didn’t ever deserve him. But through Jesus we do.

Someone could say "Can’t you see what kind of similarities this shows with God’s character and how he could show a possibility of bringing this sort of relationship on?" I can say though that that it would do a great number on the believer. It would take SOOOO much trust, take SOOOOO much LOVE, cause SOOOOO much pain, cause SOOOO much betrayal, and take SOOOO much of your energy. Honestly, is that really worth it? God might be the only kind of husband that could withstand so much brutality from a wife (of which he has).

Im NOT saying go out and marry unbelievers to get them saved. I’m NOT saying to date anyone with the thought of saving them either. I AM saying date or marry with the intention of marrying a believer. God might tell you otherwise (a Centillion of a chance). Although, WHO AM I to say how God might act? I won't ever know him well enough. I say stick with marrying a believer.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

Is there a difference between the OT prophets/kings and the other marriages?

Am I missing something more?

If you know more scripture on this topic please let me know them!

Keep in mind that I might update this blog if I think it needs to. Your opinion might change my mind a little and I might want to state your opinion anyway just to be fair.