Archives For worship

Gun violence and the Image of God.

samluce —  March 14, 2013 — 4 Comments

Mental-illness-gun-control

There have been many instances of people using guns to inflict pain on others all over the country. Each one is horribly tragic. To read about the senseless slaughter of innocent people is overwhelming and mind numbing. This reality of senseless gun violence came to my town literally down the street from me. People who attend our church were directly affected. It is unspeakably tragic.

You will hear the Republicans and the Democrats over then next few days point the blame at many things. Some will say it’s a mental health problem others will say it’s a gun control problem. We go back and forth in reality we are arguing over the symptoms but no one wants to address the true sickness. Although both sides see that there is a problem they both are so blinded by the symptoms they can’t see the actual problem. It’s a trap we all fall into because if we point to a symtom we don’t have to deal with the deeper issue. We think we are ok and everyone else is the problem. We don’t have a gun control problem we have a worship problem.

What we believe about God matters, because it informs the way we live. I did a blog post a while back about how so many Christians are Theological idiots. I got a lot of feedback from people saying that every person should not have to know or understand deep biblical truths. What I was trying to say and may have been unclear in that post was the decisions we make are based on what we believe to be true or untrue about God wether we like it or not. We believe something about God even if that something is that He does not exist.

The chief end of man is glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Our worship problem starts and ends here. When we don’t believe in God and we eradicate Him from the our schools, our courts and our hearts what happens is we fail to see him is our creator God and when we no longer see God as our creator and maker we no longer see that which he has made as precious  We no longer see man as the image of God because we have contempt for the image of God. When we have contempt for the image of God people become things we use for our own pleasure and discard when we are done. The problem with both sides of the isle is they are trying to fix our worship problem by addressing the consequences of our worship problem. What or who do we live our lives for because that’s what we truly worship. Very often we substitue true worship for something that isn’t God. Romans 1 addresses this very issue.

Romans 1: 21-25

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,who is blessed forever! Amen.

More than gun control, more than mental health reform each of us need to recalibrate the loves of our lives. Piper says “Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth” When there is awful situations of profound sadness and loss due to gun violence it is easy for me to point the finger at the broken person who perpetrated this act and society that enabled this act but I must also point the finger at myself and ask God to help me  to properly love and worship him so that I can proper love and serve the people He died for. That the loves of my life are recalibrate to reflect the culture of heaven.

 

 

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J. I. Packer’s Advice to young authors – From Desiring God.

samluce —  February 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

Came across this on the Desiring God blog thought it was helpful:

J. I. Packer will turn 86 on Sunday. He is a skillful writer, a fruitful author, and many of his works have become classics, none more than Knowing God. Recently in our interviews with him in Vancouver we asked him for writing advice, or more specifically, what he would say to a budding writer of Christian nonfiction.

He offered three pieces of advice:

  1. Go deep in personal worship.
  2. Write to hit hearts.
  3. Write from a sense of calling.

To watch the video of J.I. Packer talking about these three points and to read the rest on the blog click on the picture below. J. I. Packer

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The difference between leading kids and leading adults in worship.

samluce —  August 7, 2012 — 3 Comments

worship-nights

Most people would say leading worship for kids is totally different than leading for adults. I disagree. I have heard and seen people who lead for adults that are unable to lead for kids? Is adult worship leading really that different from kid worship leading? No.

The biggest difference you will find as you move from kids, to youth, lastly to adults is that you can get away with a lot more the older the crowd. The stuff you get away with when leading for adults won’t cut it for youth ministry, and what you can do for youth ministry doesn’t work in kids ministry.

Here are a few things every worship leader can do to be successful no matter what the age of the kids you are leading.

1. Open your eyes – You are leading you can’t lead what you can’t see. Closing your eyes to much breaks the connection you need with those you are leading.
2. If you have the mic LEAD - Nothing worse than tentative leadership. Lead strong.
3. IF you talk at all make sure its about the greatness of Jesus not trying to get those you are leading to do what you want.
4. Have LOTS of energy. – If you feel stupid you are probably doing something right.
5. Smile – no one wants an emo worship leader
6. Know the words -
7. Practice during the week not before church.
8. Remember worship is about Jesus not you. – You want people to leave thinking about the greatness of Jesus not the quality of your voice or the skill of the band.
9. You can’t lead people to where you have never been. – Be a worshiper yourself.

 

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This Ends in 22 Hours

samluce —  May 2, 2012 — Leave a comment

This Ends in 22 Hours

If you’re looking for some great worship videos for your Children’s or Preteen Ministry, I really hope you can snag this super deal from Yancy. It ends Thursday at noon (like in a few hours). It’s $97 for $1,682 worth of her Children’s Ministry Worship resources. If you don’t know Yancy, she’s awesome. Her videos typically sell for $10-12 a piece, so this is a pretty sweet deal.


Visit www.only144.com to check it out. Hope this helps stretch your budget a lot further.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Key thoughts from The Gospel Project

samluce —  March 16, 2012 — Leave a comment

Matt Chandler
Theology of the Gospel

The idea that you can grow up in the church and now hear the gospel weighed heavy on my heart.

The Gospel is not a new solution to a problem -

Don’t assume people have heard the Gospel and have been transformed by it. -

You have to teach morality within the context of the Gospel or people become self-righteous or beaten down -

“To stray from the gospel & teach the Bible as ‘good moral teachings’ is to rob the Bible of its power.”

“the hero of the story is Christ and His life, death and resurrection.”

The gospel isn’t a moral code to follow, but a call to discipleship that transforms us into holiness.

The connection of Holy living and the gospel – You want something you can’t control. It’s regeneration of hearts. – You have fallen from grace but God made a way in Jesus.

Regeneration frees you up and gives you a heart to delight in the law.

JD Greear -
Gospel and application -

Having to obey the law without a corresponding love for God produces hypocrisy.

When our heart changes our behavior changes.

‘The Gospel isn’t just a diving board to get you into the Christian life. It is the pool itself.’ -

Jesus accepted the woman caught in adultery before he commanded her to sin no more.

God’s acceptance is what frees us from sin

The gospel makes us generous because of Jesus’ generosity to us. He’s the greatest possession.

Sin begins as a worship problem we have to ends with a worship problem.

We need to always be opening people with the Glory of God.

The goal of every sermon is not information but worship. -

Everything we teach has to flow from the Gospel.

The theme of every page of scripture is what Christ has done for us.

“The Bible is not a story about heroes we should emulate, but about a Savior we are to adore.”

Problem w/ most #kidmin Curriculum is that kids come home with a todo list not a understanding worship and grace.

Worship is the fuel of missions.

if we teach only the moralistic passages of scripture, we end up teaching kids that scripture is about them and not God!

The theme on every page of Scripture is “Salvation belongs to God”-

Ed Stetzer
How Gospel Centrality connects to mission

Theology matters but it has to lead us to action.

I never want to preach a message that wouldn’t be true if Jesus didn’t die on the cross.

We must be explicit about the gospel. We need to ground people in the word.  Theology Gospel Mission.

Satan is not threatened by people who want to go deep [into the Gospel], but remain inactive.

The church does not need “knowledge consumers,” but “missional co-laborers.”

We need to be Theologically rich, Gospel Centered and Missional Driven.

Think Grow Know.

Really Gospel community leads to mission.

Is your life lived in response to the gospel? by the power of the gospel? and in the context of community?

How does the passage equip God’s people to live on mission.

 

Teach kids that these are not isolated fables. A chronological approach helps kids see the whole story.

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