Not Hopeless Enough

What does a bad day look like for you?  Maybe you just got in a fight with a friend or family member.  Or maybe you got in a car accident.  Or a close friend just found out they had cancer.  Or maybe you just feel rejected or unloved or that your life is going nowhere.  Perhaps you struggle with depression and feel like your life is worthless.  Any combination of these things can leave us feeling hopeless, that God is far away and doesn’t care.

I have felt this way more times than I care to admit.  We all have a dark side and as much as I know God has saved and redeemed me on the good days, the bad days can creep up and make me feel disconnected from Him.

However hopeless we feel, it’s not hopeless enough.  Nothing you do matters.  You are worthless.  Life is completely pointless.  Not until we accept these truths as realities can we begin understand and accept what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.

Without Christ life is pointless, but that makes it so much easier to love Him!  We’re much more thankful when we realize the darkness we’ve been saved from.

So today I pray that you realize it’s hopeless.  That on your own you can achieve nothing.  I pray that this causes you to lift your eyes to Heaven and cry out to your Savior who is always there and always ready to pick us up and breathe life back into our lifeless bodies.  May He fill you the assurance of His love and the power of His word.

-Rich O

Continue in Worship

What's in YOUR worship!
If this brings to mind big burly Norseman running around a vacation spot, you have caught my intent. Are there big burly sins in your life that are stealing you times of worship? Are they stealing your tithe, your prayer time, your moments where there is just you and God.
Do you come to know Jesus by making a deal with him that if he does X than you will believe? Do you prove God in the tithe by putting it aside in your budget and if he COMES THROUGH than you will actually give it to him? Though we have all done this, or variations of them, the answer is NO!!! Come to Him ALL you who are burdened and heavy laden and He WILL give you rest. Bring the tithe into the storehouse (give your tithe) and than see that He will open the windows of heaven. Let the little children come unto me.
In our salvation He draws us, but in all other matters of our faith we, or for those who can't for themselves need others to step out for us in faith, need to step out to receive the gifts and healing from God.
Does our worship to God have teeth or are we just gumming along?
WHAT'S IN YOUR WORSHIP!!

To God be the glory
for all he has done,
to lift up our spirits to Him.
His kindness and mercy
He gives to us now,
To show us how we can begin.

The glory of God
is with us today,
to show us that He is near.
To care for the needs
of His children below,
and for all of us, that He would hold dear.

This glory he shows
is for all of us,
all of the days of our lives.
To God be the glory
form this day on,
as we, submit our lives unto Him.

Billy G

The Permeation Of Relativism

When I was in high school and college we learned about the post-modern philosophy of relativism.  This includes statements like “to each His own” and “it works for me.”  The  American Heritage Dictionary defines relativism as "The doctrine that no ideas or beliefs are universally true but that all are, instead, “relative” — that is, their validity depends on the circumstances in which they are applied."


When applied to religion this leads to what’s to universalism, the “all roads lead to Heaven” doctrine.   Meaning as long as you have faith in some type of god you’ll make it in (assuming you’re generally a “good” person – as if we could even measure that, haha).


Ten years ago this way of thinking still seemed to be pretty liberal to me and only a minority of people I knew actually believed in these concepts.  But now, ten years later, I’ve been realizing how much more this type of thinking has permeated our culture and even the church.


You hear people saying things like, “My God…” and we see t-shirts that say “Jesus is my homeboy” (I think that is so funny).  We make God out to be smaller and foolishly inflate ourselves until we’re somehow on the same level as Him.


Even on doctrinal issues I hear things like, “For me, I believe you can lose your salvation” or the opposite, “I believe in eternal security so I know I’ll always be saved.”


What we don’t get is that either true or it isn’t.  It doesn’t matter what YOU believe, feel, desire, or choose!  We’ve lost the concept of truth.  Truth exists outside of our opinions or even knowledge of it’s existence.  The same is true about God.  He doesn’t need our faith or belief in Him to be who He is.  In fact, what we know of Him is still very limited compared to his infinite existance.  So, ultimately we also have a limited view of the full scope truth --- so what we DO know is what God has revealed to us.


The farther we get from this accurate concept of truth, the farther we get from knowing God for who He is, the pursuit of that knowledge, and the deserving fear and respect of His majesty.


In wanting to accept others, we tolerate their faulty beliefs as alternative possibilities, diluting and changing God’s words and the message He was left for us in the Bible.  God is “unchanging, unaffected by anything or anyone.  He doesn’t change with the crowd, go with the flow, or alter to please somebody else” (Giglio, page 68).


We don’t really know what infinite is all about.  We can’t put God in a box and we will never be able to completely define Him since our minds are finite.  Infinite has no boundaries or limits.  For example:  is God powerful enough to create a boulder that’s too heavy for Him to lift?  Or, “if God is all-knowing for all time then how come He created Satan?  Can He or did He create sin?


We must accept that there is mystery to the universe that we won’t fully understand on this side of eternity.  We must learn our place and trust our awesome Creator.


-Rich

Oh the Wonderful Cross..

How dark was it? How utterly deserving of his wrath were we? Was there any good thing in us to save us from Gods Wrath? I would say Dark, Utterly, and Nada, but that's just me.

Oh the wonderful cross, what does it mean to me. It transformed a dead me into a living me. It changed a very dark me into a me that is in His light. It stopped a headlong race towards a dark and "life"less eternity. He came into my life and cleaned out the old sinful nature and took up residence. Wow what a bum deal He got!! The glories of heaven to the trash heap of my heart, bummer.

Like any new homeowner He brought new "light"bulbs. New window treatments and a lot of cleaning supplies. He brought new tunes also. Out with the I Want to hold your hand and in with Amazing Love. Out with, Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer, and in with Indescribable, Amazing Grace, and The Old Rugged Cross.

Worship is now a way of life. There are now no more mountains to worship upon, only the mountains of our heart. There has come the day that we need to worship God in His Spirit and in His Truth. Worship is a good way to show Him that you have changed on the inside, the total giving up of ourselves to His Glory and His presence.

There is nothing we have,
To give to Him now,
But the worship he so deserves.
The glory he shows
To all of us here,
His glory we now Behold.

Oh The Wonderful Cross...

Billy G

I think that a lot of teachings on worship muddy the waters and make it more confusing. Years ago, as I led worship at another church, they claimed to have a “revelation” of worship. They followed a philosophy called the “Tabernacle of David” to supposedly gain access to the “Holy of Holies”. The way this teaching went, you “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.” That was the outer court. Then you eventually make your way through the inner court through a series of songs to the “Holy Place” and finally into the “Holy of holies” where the real worship and communion in the Lord’s presence was to take place.

The real meaning went like this: “Sing the fast songs first, dance around and clap, do medium tempo songs to bridge the gap into the slow songs toward the end. Then I have an ethereal experience that feels great.”

Everyone would scream “No! That’s not what I meant!” But really it was. One Sunday I sang the slow songs first about giving thanks to the Lord then moved to faster songs that were strong and heart-felt. Some came up to me and told me they didn’t understand where I was leading them. When I asked them to consider the words and that the words fit the teaching they didn’t know what to say. It didn’t fit the profile.

Worship is not about song order or (as some do) waving flags. I think about the example of Abraham. Abraham laid his bound son on an altar on Mount Moriah in obedience to God’s call and prepared to end the young man’s life. But what he said to the servants was that He and Isaac were going forward to “worship”, then come back. Abraham was going to lay down the most precious son that he loved and was planning to offer him to God. Now that is worship. Not raised hands or song selection. Laid-down lives and surrender. In that situation God graciously provided a substitute ram to take Isaac’s place, which was a type of Christ.

As I read through chapter 4 of Giglio’s book I was again reminded that what Jesus took upon himself at the cross was the penalty for my judgment.

I can muse all day long about how great He is and reflect on His immensity in Creation. I can see how small I am in relation to the great distances between stars and the mind-bending size of multiple galaxies and star-forming clusters. That’s exciting and He is worthy to be praised for all that to be sure. But when the Holy Spirit makes real to my heart about the judgment that I truly deserve and how Jesus loved me enough to take that judgment freely upon His shoulders at the cross when He didn’t have to, I’m struck with a greater awe than the size of the universe. The one shows great power, to be sure. But the other shows a great love beyond reason.

I worship at the Cross. Hebrews tells us that we have boldness to enter into the Holiest of All by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19). Not jumping through hoops. Nothing generated through song order. But open entry, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through His flesh, we draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. He provided His blood and took our judgment. That causes me to respond with gratitude and the living sacrifice of myself at His altar.

Worship demands my entire devotion, my all. No reserve, nothing held back. I’m leaning to lay it all down before Him and give him what He so rightfully deserves: everything! --Chris

So Far Behind

Today I have just one question.  And I don’t have the answer, at least not yet.  We know that we were made to worship, created by God to ultimately praise Him forever without ceasing.  And so is creation.  The starry hosts (as Louie writes) --  “day after day they echo back to God and shout at the top of their lungs to anyone else who’s paying attention that He is huge.  All-powerful.  Glorious.  Limitless.”  And as I read that I realized that I need to do that too.

So here’s the question…why am I not worshipping with all my life and with all my heart?  Of course I know I will eventually in Heaven, but why am I so far behind now?  Anyone know the answer?

I like what Giglio writes later in chapter 3.  It addresses the problem behind my burning question:

“Don’t waste your worship on some little god, squandering your birthright on idols made only the human imagination.  Guard your worship…and carefully evaluate all potential takers…Enjoying the things that God has made is not a sin, but when we elevate any of these to the highest place in our hearts, we’ve gone too far and cheated both God and ourselves.”

One last quote to ponder:

“Simply put: We become what we worship.  If you don’t like who you’re becoming, take a quick inventory of the things on the throne of your heart.  If you want to become more and more like Jesus, keep your worship focused squarely on Him.”

-Rich

He's seeking you

"He's seeking you so you can know just how amazing He is.
He's seeking you so you can know what you're created to do.
He's seeking you so you can find Him and value Him with all your heart.
He's seeking you because He's God...
     and He knows you can't live without Him.


That, my friend, explains a ton of stuff for us. 


For one, it explains why you worship and why you're good at it...and it explains why Jesus willingly came.  He came to connect us to God and awaken us to the possibility of centering our worship on who and what matters most...forever."


- Louie Giglio


posted by Rich

Hello mister knowledge, how do you do?

What is the purpose of life?  Don’t we all have to ask that question at some point.  And the reason we’re asking is because everything that has led us to that point simply isn’t good enough; it cannot explain the reason for our existence.

I’m going to sound like a know-it-all, but here’s the answer in one word:  WORSHIP.  And I think that’s why Louie wrote the book “The Air I Breathe,” so we could get it.  And that one word packs a big punch -- it can be endlessly explained.   And the fulfillment of this one-word answer won’t happen on this earth, it happens only when we’re in heaven face to face with the living God!

The one alternative way to understand the complete answer is in hell for those who do not know God.  They may be atheists or misguided deists in this life, but they won’t be after they die.  They’ll get it too and they’ll realize that they missed it.

I want to get it.  I want to feel it.  It’s like I used to feel it years ago when I was hungry, searching for something more.  We can’t usually identify the longing as worship, but we know our passions were made to give worth to something greater.  But without knowledge, that’s all we have is feelings.

Which is why knowledge is so important!  When we first learn more about God and begin to put a face to our worship, it’s the most amazing thing.  It’s like our emotionally longing heart says to our enlightened mind, “hello mister knowledge, how do you do,” and we begin to focus our feelings on the truth of a God who loves us so much that he sent his son Jesus to restore our broken relationship with Him.

And now, years later I get it.  I get the knowledge anyway, but now the feelings grow dim at times.  Sometimes it’s just like coals burning and God needs to stoke my fire so I can get more excited about Him.  A life of worship is constantly balancing mind and heart.

Yet one certain feeling remains:  I long for that day when I will see God fully and my worship will be complete.

- Rich

Living a God Life

Sometimes life doesn't seem fair. You get sick, you break your arm, the kids puke on the floor, or the dog thinks you look a lot like a fire hydrant. It just doesn't seem that there is any way that you can worhsip God through the mess of life.

Sometimes we feel close to God and sometimes we feel far from God, but our faith in God doesn't depend on how we feel, it is based on the truths found in His love letters to us, The Bible. He helps us in our down times and is a constant encouragement to us even when things are going well.

In our reading this week we learned about the statue to "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD", in Athans. Sometimes we treat our relationship with Jesus as if He was the statue "UNKNOWN". Worshiping our jobs, our family, our cars, houses, pets, our stuffed animals..etc. Take time, every day to talk to Jesus and desire His Word. Life is busy, it is also short, take time to live a God Life.

Billy G

Walk This Way..

Some may think that I am a man of few words and some of you are now picking yourselves off the floor from laughing....the rest are just deers in the headlights, but one thing is for sure I am a blog novice, so here goes:

What stood out to me in this weeks reading is that we are ALL created, by God, to worship. With the trip to MJ's concert and seeing the lauding, adoration, and yes worship that is seen of the faces of those who were in attendance. They are not aware that they are worshiping but they were, none the less, Worshiping him. In the absence of God to worship we will, by our nature, find something, or someone, to worship, money, sports teams, movie stars, music stars, or Sponge Bob Square Pants.

As we go about our day let us always be mindful about who, or what, we are to be worshiping. When we have decisions to make, let us call on the one who made us. When we decide paper or plastic, let it be done to the glory of God, not the glory of Al Gore. Let us not worship the created things, but the Creator.

I am not a good, do with out kind of guy, but may be the chief of sinners when it comes to wanting "things". I believe that God has brought me into this season of my life to show me how much can be done without having things.

Lord may I learn this or any other lesson that You have for me, so I do not have to journey this way again.... Amen!!

Billy G