Being a Kingdom-minded person, I believe the answer is that through my relationship with him, God is making me perfect, but I am not perfect yet.  But what does it mean to be perfect?  I consider this passage to be helpful in understanding perfection:

This is true perfection:  not to avoid a wicked life because like slaves we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some business-like arrangement.  On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful and we consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire.  This, as I have said, is the perfection of life. [2]

Sounds nice, huh?  Being God’s friend that is.  I find myself this morning trying to understand what that means.  I think about other friendships that I have, and find myself comparing my friends to people I know things about – perhaps distant acquaintances.  What are the differences between my friends and my acquaintances?  Where does my relationship with God line up in light of this?  Is God my friend, or is he simply someone that I know things about?

I resolve that friendship with God is my goal – it is that which I press on toward, forgetting what lies behind.  I want not to simply learn more about God – but to know God more.

[1] Matthew 5:48 
[2] Gregory of Nyssa (edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith),Devotional Classics (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 126-127

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After spending a day cleaning carpets in our newly leased church building, and rushing to soccer practice, I found my mind willing to cooperate this morning, but not my body.  Yet I pushed through, forcing my body to wake with the delight of a warm shower.

Ready to encounter God, I made my way to my office, only to hear the cries of a discontent baby, whose mother was enjoying a shower of her very own.  So I sat and happily held my son, lovingly, tenderly, and patiently like only a good dad could do…  well… not exactly.

I did hold my son, and enjoy every opportunity to do so.  But I did it with grumbling and complaining in my heart.  ”Why does this have to happen right as I’m about to start my devotional time?”.  ”Couldn’t this have happened just a little while later?”.

Let me be clear on this: my son is not an inconvenience.  But I’m convinced if I had woken an hour earlier to spend this time pursuing God and being pursued, that some other distraction equally as powerful would have manifest itself.  Isn’t that how it works?

This morning I contemplate the goodness of God:

All of the strength that may come through prayer comes from the goodness of God, for he is the goodness of everything.

For the highest form of prayer is to the goodness of God.  It comes down to us to meet our humblest needs.  It gives life to our souls and makes them live and grow in grace and virtue.  It is near in nature and swift in grace, for it is the same grace which our souls seek and always will. [1]

Every good and perfect gift comes from God.  Deeper still, only God can give things which are truly good.  I think of all the good things that I try to do and realize that they ultimately lack and are of little worth, unless they are full of God’s goodness.  Remembering that we are incapable of giving what we do not have, I press in and ask God to fill me with his goodness.

This world – this wonderful creation which we have been given dominion over, is desperately in need of God’s goodness.  If that is what nurtures life, then may I spend every breath in pursuit.

In the midst of his goodness, I am assured and reassured that all will be well.  Or as Julian penned, “All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

[1] Julian of Norwich (edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith),Devotional Classics (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 77

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It almost seems to contradict the need to simplify.  Spending more time intentionally pursuing God does not necessarily seem to be a simple thing.  And yet I’m convinced that’s exactly what it is supposed to be.

… it seems to me now that the very Bible cannot be read as a substitute for meeting with God soul to soul and face to face [1].  I have often found that in my times of quiet and contemplation I attempt to read or do – something, anything that will help me feel that I am hearing God’s voice.  When I am not doing, the chaos of my thoughts creeps in and then this one – that one – yet another, all bombard me and I go chasing, try to make sense of it all.

But it turns out that this time I’ve set aside is not meant to reconcile all of my wandering thoughts.  Rather than ignore them, though, I find it more effective to intentionally give each thought to God.  It brings the focus back to him.

I grasp to this thought by Frank Laubach the strongest: “Any hour of any day may be made perfect by merely choosing.  It is perfect if one looks to God that entire hour, waiting for his leadership all through the hour and trying hard to do every tiny thing exactly as God wishes it done.” [2]

That is what I want to do – to seek God without ceasing.  That these times alone, in the quiet, with God, would not be “my time with God for today”, but would be springboards into a day full of God.

[1] Frank Laubach (edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith),Devotional Classics (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 104
[2] Ibid, 104

Henri J. M. Nouwen writes that solitude can cause an inner chaos to open up in us, which is disturbing and confusing, causing us to desire the return of busyness [1].  I find this rather true, as thoughts and feelings I didn’t even know existed rise to the surface.

I’ve often made excuses for not spending more time in silence and solitude.  Here are a few:

• I have a deep well.  I just don’t need to spend as much time in silence and solitude as those with “shallow” wells.
• I’m a night person.  That’s really the only time the house is quiet enough, but if I try it then, I usually just end up falling asleep.
• I can do it on the fly – like when I’m driving somewhere, or in the middle of doing something else.
• I hear from God just fine, without having to dedicate a specific time to trying to hear from him.

Maybe you could relate to some of these excuses, or even have some to add.  The reality is that the spiritual life is not just a gift, but also really hard work [2].  We are deceiving ourselves if we think that it should just come easy (see Mark 10:23).

I welcome you to join me in the journey, of which I am re-committed to as of today.  Spotty times of being alone with God may have perhaps gotten me through in a pinch, but there is so much more.  God awaits.

[1] Henri J.M. Nouwen (edited by Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith), Devotional Classics (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 82
[2] Ibid, 80

The Name Above all Names

During this course, I became so much more aware of the richness, beauty, and wisdom that is found in our history, and hymns became a prevalent way that I could connect with it.

I hope to continue to go deeper on this adventure and arrange more hymns for use in our church,and perhaps yours.

Chord Chart (pdf)

Audio (mp3)

1. It is Well With my Soul, Words: Horatio G. Spafford, 1873; Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1876

2. Scripture reading from Psalm 116:5-9, Holy Bible – NIV, (c) 1973, 1978, 1984

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

Without further ado, here’s the mp3 and chord chart:

Chord Chart (pdf)

Audio (mp3)

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

But what I am going to blog about tonight is a space, or rather a particular set of spaces. Sanctuaries.

I’ll start with the first one I remember. It’s one of the only times I remember my mom taking me to church as a youngster. I sat in a pew, bored out of my mind, and couldn’t understand why they served such tiny refreshments (Communion). I was glad we didn’t have to go back. I can’t tell you much about that sanctuary, only that I was glad to leave it behind.

Now to the one I lead worship in every Sunday, and most I’ve been in since then. What a magical place. It’s a place filled with memories of powerful encounters, Spirit-filled times of prayer and worship, and also times of bitter disappointment and grieving.

Fill it with 200 people and it becomes a completely different place than when it’s just me. And try leading worship under the stage lights in the middle of summer when the a/c goes out.

Sanctuaries are spaces in which I can recall so many powerful events taking place. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, taking communion for the first time, getting baptized, receiving the call to church planting, playing on worship teams, leading worship, seeing people get saved, seeing healings take place, weeping with friends over good things.

They have also been spaces where I have wept with friends over hard things. In early spring 2006 friends of mine lost their seven month old son and we had a memorial service at our church. Late that autumn we were having another service for friends that essentially lost their baby after a few short days.

I have found as I think about spaces, what stands out to me isn’t so much how those spaces looked. Perhaps if I had been to some majestic works of architecture, I might reflect otherwise. But up until this point, what has stood out to me is what has taken place in those spaces. And how I hope and long for even more.

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt

I decided to write a song for my creative project. For those of you not familiar with the Essentials Blue course, it is a five-week online course in worship theology and biblical worldview. The final assignment is a creative project that is based on the theological ideas presented and digested during the five-week course.

I got the chorus somewhere between weeks 1 and 2. At that time I was grappling with the idea that we, as temples of the Holy Spirit, are points of intersection between heaven and earth. When heaven breaks in to earth, creation is made new. God actually allows us to be ones through whom it begins to happen here and now [1].

I set out to specifically attempt to tell the story – of our creation, relationship with God, separation from God by sin, forgiveness through the cross, and resurrection. While I was tempted to end the song there for the sake of finishing it, I didn’t feel it was quite finished.

Another idea that I have been filled with as a result of this course is that there is an echo in this world of God’s longing for justice. Often the ways that I think of justice being served, I am not capable of seeing through. But when I begin to realize that God’s longing for justice on this earth is satisfied with creation being made new, I feel empowered to be an instrument of his justice.

I have gone through a few drafts of this song, here’s the latest (and below a link to the first draft with a different feel):

New mp3:
All Things New V2 – mp3

New chord chart:
All Things New V2 Chord Chart

Here’s the mp3:
All Things New – mp3

And the pdf chord chart:
All Things New – Chord Chart

[1] N.T. Wright, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006), 126

For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt