Simple Songs...

On Sunday, I went to see my mother-in-law at the assisted living facility. She had fallen the day before and was more of bruised feelings than of body (thankfully). When we saw her Christmas day, she wondered if I was going to play my guitar. At the last minute before leaving the house, I decided against it, thinking she would be more interested in her gift opening than me sputtering through some old hymns. Well, I was dead-wrong about that one! The first thing she asked me was, "Where's the guitar?" I had to laugh! I promised the next time I came over, I would bring it and play.

Now I must confess to you that learning these old hymns has not been of my choosing. Personally, I lean towards a more contemporary style of music when I'm listening. Lately, however, The Lord has really been working on my heart about "message". Do the songs I listen to point to Jesus or are they more of an entertainment to the ears? More often than not, it is the latter. :( I discovered recently that another description for the word "message" is "the messenger's mission". And I thought, WOW, that is really cool. Music always has a mission, whether we realize it (or want to admit it) or not.

So I began examining the content of the songs I listen to and found out a lot of popular Christian tunes talk more about how Jesus makes us feel rather than simply point to Christ Himself. I would not say God doesn't work through these songs but that He does stand alone quite well without needing our feelings to somehow justify the goodness of who He is. Doesn't scripture tell us through Jesus' own words "And, I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." John 12:32? Kind of makes sense that when we point ourselves and others towards Jesus, He takes care of the rest. We don't have to do anything or help God out along the way.

OK, now enter the hymns...so here I am practicing these old songs, sounding quite bluegrassy I must say but geez, it just kinda comes out that way so I'm going along with the flow. I get on Rockin' with the Cross and start looking up chords that I can play and sing in. Amazingly, I find a bunch of these classics: Amazing Grace, Just as I am, Have Thine Own Way, Lord, I Surrender All and so on. I can transpose them with a mouse click (thank you, technology) into a key I can play decently and off to practice I go. Just reading the words to these songs, blesses my soul. In a flash, I am transported back in time to my days growing up the Baptist churches where they played these old hymns. God refreshes my spirit with the simplicity of Himself and I must wonder why folks have tried so hard to make Him complicated.

When I decided I needed to take these songs over to the nursing home, God was the one who reminded me about taking 'the church' to those in need. Let others see Jesus in you (another hymn but I can't play it yet) is the heart of what Christians are supposed to being, right? It wasn't going to be anything I would do myself but, if I allowed Him, God Himself would work through me in ministering to these folks. And skipping my usual church service to do this was honestly what I sensed that I needed to do.

When I arrived, my mother-in-law was in the hallway with two of her friends and they were solving all the worlds problems. I didn't mean to interrupt their important task but none of them seemed to mind once they realized I had my guitar to play for them. I played songs until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off! In fact, I played every song I had at least once and some of them twice. Two folks had 'requests' but I didn't know how to play "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "If I could only hear my mother pray again". I vowed I would learn these and would attempt to play them the next trip.

After we went through the songs once, I asked each person if they had a song they liked to sing. It brought tears to my eyes when Judy wanted me to play "Jesus Loves Me". I had not put that song in the first round. My thought had been it would be too childish for them to want to sing. Fortunately, this was one of the first songs my guitar instructor had me to learn and I did have the music with me. It was a grand chorus of the folks there and myself singing our hearts out to Jesus Loves Me! We sang all of the verses I had in my music and sang the first verse a couple more times. There was such a heart-felt simplicity in their song to the Lord! It was with some correction I received from the Lord how I was not to regard any song as childish, for He can work through anything and everything. I saw first-hand God working in this precious group of people. His word also came to me:

For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. Matthew 18:3 (The Message)

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and don't try to stop them! People who are like these children belong to God's kingdom." Matthew 19:14 (Contemporary English Version)

As I drove home, I thought about how much joy was revealed in their faces as they sang that song and how precious indeed those saints are to the Lord. Jesus' message of love, grace and mercy is so simple. My prayer today is that our hearts be made simple again, that we look to Him alone for answers and we learn to trust in Him rather than in ourselves. Oh Jesus, forgive us for being arrogant and proud, for thinking the modern ways or better than Your own; help us when we fail You, that we realize our desperate need for You - not just for salvation but for living the life You have given to us in following hard after You.

JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

LITTLE ONES TO HIM BELONG, THEY ARE WEAK BUT HE IS STRONG.

YES, JESUS LOVES ME. YES, JESUS LOVES ME.

YES, JESUS LOVES ME, THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

A Minor Chord...

In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a root, a minor third and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor triad. In learning to play the acoustic guitar, I have come to love the minor chords. Over the past 5-6 weeks, God has so blessed me with learning this instrument and I pray my humble attempt to learn can, in some way, bring Him honor and glory. The callouses on my first three fingers have been quietly developing, which allows me to play longer! I so enjoy the learning process as well as the discovery of new things I never knew existed within me.

This love of the minor chords has me transposing what few songs I can play into different keys, just to get some of those minor notes. Three personal favorites thus far are Am, Dm and Em (A, D and E minor) with Em being the easiest to play. In learning some Christmas songs, I have found the tune, "O Holy Night" has A and E minor (along with B minor) when it is played in the key of G. I struggle about with my finger placement for that dreaded B minor. Fortunately, I learned a 3 finger version and playing the 1st four strings works, its just not as strong in sound as the traditional 4 finger version. I'm still learning but getting my fingers to stretch that way has proved challenging to say the least.

I don't know exactly what it is about these minor triads that has me so enthralled, perhaps it is just a different sound which I find quite soothing. Or maybe the tone itself is rather underpowering than overpowering. Is underpowering a real word? The major chords are great and all - strong, vibrant and full of sound; sometimes loud too. But I personally identify with the minor chords, one's that are a little more laid back, less showy but clearly effective. I looked up the word "showy" in Webster's Dictionary, which was pretty awesome reading. Perhaps the word I was looking for describing the major chords was pretentious, which (according to Webster's) implies "an appearance of importance not justified by the thing's value or the person's standing". Oh, how I do NOT want to be pretentious (or showy, ostentatious, etc.). OK, so I'm weird in identifying with the minor chords more so than the major ones - go talk to God about that, He created me! :)

As I was pondering the majors and minors, I couldn't help but see how we each are like a note on The Master's Instrument. He is the one who gently reproduces Himself in us, His sound is the footprint in our lives. When we walk with Him, in His song, it is a joyous melody to His ears. But when we venture off on our own, in our own ability, desire and effort, we find ourselves quite out of tune with the Father. Sometimes everyone else around us 'hears' it before we do. When a guitar gets out of tune, you have to turn the keys on the neck to bring it back into harmony with the rest of the instrument. Any single string on a guitar lies across the body and neck of the instrument, parallel with the other strings. Some strings are thicker than others but they are all level with one another and they are all traveling in the same direction. Tuning a string requires it to be stretched - sounds like the pains of maturity in our walk with the Lord. Once in tune, the song begins again...

Every aspect of my love walk with Jesus teaches me something. From the adventures in shepherding to learning this guitar thing, it all points to Him. I am in awe of just how totally ALL things do work together for those that love the Lord. This scripture comes to my mind frequently these days:

Romans 8:27-29 (Contemporary English Version)
All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves Him. They are the ones God has chosen for His purpose, and He has always known who His chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like His own Son, so that His Son would be the first of many children.

Thank you, Lord, for your patience with me. In all of my ups and downs, with my being in tune with you and especially for those times when I am not. Thank you for choosing me as your own and for waiting for patiently for me when I run from Your purpose and plan. Keep me, Lord, close to Your heart and replace my own heart with Yours. You alone are worthy of Praise, of Honor and Glory!

JESUS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Samples...

Have you ever been in the grocery store when they have vendors passing out samples of a new product? Maybe you were at the mall, outside Chick-Fill-A obtaining a small piece of a tasty nugget or at the deli when they give away free tidbits of cheese? If you were to try hard enough, you could eat a small meal for nothing but once you get home, you are starving! I must ask just how fresh are those samples? Some of them must have been sitting there all day, occasionally re-stocked for appearance sake. Is there someone who monitors that?

A sample is gives you a small taste of something much larger and much better than anything you have had before. As I look into my own life, I'm ashamed of how satisfied I have been in the past with merely getting samples of the vast table that God has prepared before me. Yes everything does indeed relate to Him and I'm thankful He has brought to mind the small things I never really noticed or just didn't pay much attention before.

I have become increasingly aware of how traditional church methodology is much like the sample counter. There is the offer to taste the 'good life' but you can only have it small pieces (i.e. weekly services). Oh, you can have the whole thing but you have to do something for, you have buy it, earn it or do some other performance-oriented thing. This is what gets you to come back week after week but, as time passes, you begin to starve on those tiny tidbits and, all the while, your desire for more grows day by day. I don't think that is actually what God had in mind for personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. It is sad to me to see the number of ways our sample mentality has trickled down into every aspect of what we call Christianity and church. The entire outline of a Sunday morning is full of samples:15-30 minutes of worship, 5-10 minutes of announcements, prayer requests, etc., 5 minutes for tithes and offerings then 30-45+ minutes for a sermon. It seems like a 'take fest', a time where we go to get something from the Lord, rather than to give ourselves to Him.

My biggest aggravation, however, must be with Communion. First of all, I must point out I treasure the gift of being able to partake of Communion. It is not something I take lightly but I do have questions as to our methods with the elements. I wonder why we have these little tiny pieces of bread (or wafer), cut into small, even squares and why we drink grape juice from those little plastic cups. Everything is exactly the same, all of it measured out carefully and neatly. That seems so far from how each individual relates to Christ in his/her own life where nothing is the same. Our methods seem to be only for neatness and convenience, rather than for personal intimacy.

When I read the scriptures about the Last Supper, I see huge differences between that Communion and our own. Jesus broke the bread and, unless I am mistaken, the disciples shared the same cup of wine that Jesus drank from that night. I'm not being petty about the modern 'elements' and I'm not insisting someone bake bread every week for the 'special' services. Instead, my point would be to call attention to the way we tend to partake of Communion. Again, going back to the scriptures, Acts tells us the disciples gathered together daily and broke bread. It kind of shows us a new picture of the New Testament church was indeed nothing like the model of church we see today. Personally, I view this is a reminder to constantly examine our hearts before the Lord and is another example of learning to 'die' daily. Oh Lord, help us!

Jesus' body was torn violently and blood poured from His side - there was nothing neat or measured about His death. For some, perhaps the square wafers are enough and a little splash of grape juice is fine. But for me, I am tired of the samples being measured out for me and I am no longer content with scraps from the Master's table. Part of the freedom we now have in Christ is the freedom to be partakers with Him, of His will and His divine plan. I want ALL of Jesus, I NEED all of Jesus! So give me the whole loaf of bread and the whole bottle of wine, for I am desperate for the wholeness I can only find in Him!

Consumption - a dead-end road

For several months now, I have been troubled by the myth of "church" as we in the Western hemisphere have come to know it. Looking back into history, the New Testament Church was so unlike the misrepresentations our buildings often hold. The New Testament Church was truly alive - a moving, growing, living, breathing surrendered Body of believers who held on to one centralized focus: Jesus Christ. They walked in the knowing truth that Jesus was absolute Truth, therefore was also absolute in everything. His Lordship over them was a confession that would bring torture and even death, yet they held fast to their faith and trust in the One who sits at the right hand of the Father, the One who has been given all and it is placed under His feet.

My thoughts lately have focused on a couple of things, the first being total, all out surrender and the second being the Will of the Father. Even when those words form on my lips, my heart leaps, my spirit soars and all of my being screams, "Yes, Lord Jesus!" And more so I have become more painfully aware of the many parts of my life that are not yet surrendered (fully) to the will of the Father. Oh, Jesus, forgive me! It is only by His marvelous Grace that I can come before Him, humbly aware of my flesh that seemingly resurrects itself overnight. I am beginning to understand more fully Paul's confession of "...I die daily..." It has become more apparent to me of my desperate need for all of Jesus, in everything, all the time and how utterly helpless I am to accomplish anything outside of His Grace. I shared a bit of this with some friends as we gathered over the weekend, feeling a bit overwhelmed and even angry at my own ineptness while, at the same time, so aware of the desperation I have to know Christ intimately. It was like God was showing me once again how much of my life I still call my own without even realizing it. He is so patient with me - thank you, Jesus!

It seems to me that the modern church of today is fashioned a lot like the hierarchy of the priesthood back in Jesus' day. Our leadership roles and titles are not much different than they were back then really. In fact, we possibly make things worse by placing a "Jesus tag' on our methods, our programs and our agendas by labeling them with God. When you look at scripture, at the Cross and Jesus' completion of the Father's Will there, Matthew 27:51 tells us the veil (or curtain) was split in two, from top to bottom. This curtain was what separated the sanctuary, the place where commoners could enter, from the Holy of Holies, a place where only the priesthood would dare trod. In fact, no one even wanted to go there and the priests access was usually limited to once a year. Jesus' shattered the very need for the separation and gave to each of us free access to the Father!

So, I must ask you, why are we content with 'church' as usual where one person is placed up front, at a pulpit or other place of importance, where they spoon feed sermons to their congregations? Have we become so lazy that we do not wish to put forth the effort and sacrifice to enter into divine relationship with Jesus Christ ourselves, instead opting to have someone else do it for us? Every part of a traditional church service seems to be carefully orchestrated to cater to the our fleshly, consuming nature. Our words are filled with sayings such as "coming to church to get fed", yet I cannot find ANY scripture that supports this mentality. We have created this insatiable monster who must be fed, over and over again, forcing dependency of remaining a babe yet all the while we wonder why people never seem to 'grow up' in Christ.

The Great Commission in the New Testament (see Matthew 28:18-21) is our example of what the Body of Christ should be. Not only does Jesus tell us to "Go into all the world..." He specifically tells us to "make disciples of the nations". This is the key area where most mainline churches have failed - they have failed to mentor new believer's in discipleship training. Being a disciple is to become like Christ, fulfilling the claim of being a Christian is to be a "little Christ". We are so bent on spoon feeding the Bible to folks, who willingly eat and eat and eat. The trouble is no one is getting up from the Table! In his book, The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsh said, "We cannot consume our way into discipleship." When I read this, I dawned on me that we have opted to consume (or devour) the things of God rather than to simply be filled by them. When you consume something, you do it merely for the sake of yourself. It's honestly a rather selfish act because the concern is only for yourself and what you can get out it. Being filled, however, denotes a place of surrender, a place of willingly being emptied of yourself so that God can fill you with Himself. The difference is a heart condition, one of truly wanting Jesus simply for who He is and nothing else. Oh how I want to know Jesus, to love Him unconditionally simply because He loved me; He knows me yet loves me anyway!

Oh, how I love Jesus

Oh, how I love Jesus

Oh, how I love Jesus

Because He first loved me.

Repentance...

As I was reading the other morning, I came across this daily devotional excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. This little book has become a favorite reading of mine, especially during the weekly laundry mat trips over the summer. We began to conserve water during some drought conditions by taking laundry to town to wash. And its such an interesting place to go, I've kind of continued going for big things like blankets, comforters, etc.

Here goes the reading for Dec. 7th:

"REPENTANCE For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:10 Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words -"My sins, my sins, my Saviour,How sad on Thee they fall."Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man's conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God - "against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight." The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God's grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for "the gift of tears." If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry."

I was so taken aback from this writing that day. My heart was quickened and I felt that all too familiar 'check' in my spirit, knowing this was written for me to 'chew on'. That last line that urges us to "examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry' just hit a strong chord inside of me. How subtle is the err of our ways to become insensitive to the conviction the Holy Spirit may bring! It's almost unnoticeable some times, isn't it? Perhaps you haven't been in that place but I have and I don't want to remain there. I don't want my heart to become hardened at any time. For if it becomes protected in any area, then my Lord is effectually placed on the outside as well. I want to sense His presence and to walk in His light always. I cannot do that without repentance.

Next time God prompts that little 'check' in your spirit, immediately heed His call. Pray for that 'gift of tears' and accept repentance as His gift.

Dear Jesus...please forgive me for the times I have failed you and gone about in my own way. Bring me to place of repentance before You, where You not only forgive but also purge me from all unrighteousness as Your Word says You will do. I need your forgiveness but am even more desperate to have what is unrighteous within me removed all together. Help me, Lord! I am nothing on my own but everything can be accomplished within You!