In.Motion

This is something I’d like to do a little more often. Once I finish a book that I’m reading, I’d like to post what I’m pulling out of it and what God is showing me. I hope you guys will take the time to slow down and check out what God might have to say to you.

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1:3-7 – I wrote about this a little while ago. What if we treated each other as if we were truly thankful for them? If we had nothing but gratitude towards God when it came each other? Paul said that he thanked God every time he remembered the Philippians. He wasn’t jealous of how he wished he could do a program as well as they did. He didn’t worry about how they had more money than he did. He was simply thankful. The reason he feels this way is because we all share in the grace that God gives to us. He knew that. He knew we were all on the same team. Everyone.

2:14 – Let this sink in for a minute . . . “Do everything without complaining or arguing” . . . That could be my life verse right there, if you’re into that kind of thing. Seriously though, my default is to complain about stuff. If you ask me how I’m doing or how is my day, I’ll more than likely reply with something like “It’s alright”, or “I’m tired” or “I’m sore”, etc. There are somethings in the bible that are a little vague and don’t exactly show us exactly how to act. There isn’t a “this is how many beers you can drink before you sin” verse. But this is very clear cut. Everything. That doesn’t leave a whole lot out. This verse says, “Be grateful for all God has given you and thankful for all the opportunities He’s granted”. This is something that has been workin me hard lately.

3:7-11 – That job that you finally got. That six figure income you so deserve. That family you’ve been blessed with. It’s all loss for the sake of Christ. Knowing Him is better than anything we could ever dream up. Here’s a few questions for you; “Does it feel like that? Do you do your quiet time and think ‘Knowing Him is better than anything’?” What does it look like to live this way? I certainly don’t know. I think about it all the time. In this situation I’m in, what does it look like to count anything that could profit me as loss compared to knowing Christ? What I’ve begun to see is it starts with giving all you have and value to God, in whatever way that means. We have to begin to live in a way that reflects that all He has blessed us with is His anyways.

4:4-5 – Rejoicing in the Lord that I’ve had a hard time with. What does that look like? When we think about rejoicing, we think about people jumping or yelling and just weeping for joy. What does it look like to rejoice in the Lord everyday? The verse after this one says simply, “The Lord is Near”. Rejoice, because the Lord is near. Do you remember what you felt like the first time a really famous person was close to you? That time you were in Starbucks and Tom Cruise walked in? He’s close. He’s getting closer. You were excited. You wanted to explode and just geek out and ask for his autograph, just to be around him. God is always near to us and He is far more amazing than any celebrity or anyone on earth. Thats reason enough to rejoice.

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These are just snapshots what what I’ve been processing through this book. I pray that as you reflect on what God is showing you in your own walks, you can ask yourself some of the questions I’m coming across.

So, what are you reading?

cd

I was reading Mere Christianity the other day. If you haven’t read it, you need to read it. If you believe in Jesus or even if you don’t care about the whole church thing, C.S. Lewis does a great job of outlining the Christian faith in a very logical way. He got to the topic of Pride. The way he talked about it really hit home on this idea of unity within our worship culture.

He refers to it as “The Great Sin” because all other sins come from Pride. The Devil became the Devil because of Pride. The opposite of Pride is Humility, but I’ll get to that in a minute.I feel that there are two reasons that Pride is especially dangerous in the setting of our worship culture. The first is the fact that Pride is essentially competitive, it is it’s very nature. Mr. Lewis notes that people often say that we are proud of being rich or being powerful or any of these things. He says that this isn’t correct. We are actually proud about being richer or more powerful than another. Can we see where this is going?So, in the context that we are talking about, Pride drives worship leaders to compete with one another. To back bite. To cut each other down. To give “constructive criticism”. Don’t hear that I think criticism is bad. I think it is essential for us to get better at our crafts, but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. When you criticize someone behind their back to someone else, you aren’t helping anyone. Pride takes the legs out of any momentum that your community has built. All it takes is one person’s pride to take the wind out of an entire ministry.

The opposite of this is Humility. The Humility of one person, unlike with Pride, can breathe new life into a culture. Lets just take the worship leaders for a moment. What would it look like if all the worship leaders were to really take on humility and wanted to serve one another? What if they were each other’s biggest fans? What if they supported each other fully, rather than tear each other down?

I’ll end with this. We all need to take a good long look at our motives. Why do we feel the way we do when someone else has a great night? Why do we always look for the faults in someone else’s leading? We need to look at our hearts and pray about where we need change. The first step towards unity in our community is changing our own hearts.

cd

I think we all know what I mean when I say Quiet Time. If you don’t know, a Quiet Time is time that you set apart in your day to study the Bible and to have communion with God. I always kinda thought it was a silly name. Maybe thats just me. For what it’s worth, I’ve always had a really hard time being consistent with having a QT. I still do. I have spells where I do well, but then something will throw it all off.

Yes, thats right. I’m a worship leader and I struggle with spending time with God. You’re not weird for struggling with it. For me, I think it all starts with what I do during that time. Nothing seems to stick with me. I know that I want to do a few things during that time, such as:

1. Read my Bible

2. Apply what I read to my life

3. Pray

4. Journal

I just can’t figure out the best way for me to do it. I also have a problem with discipline, which is also a root of all of this. So thats where my questions are coming from . . .

What do you do in your quiet time?

What has worked for you?

cd