The thoughts and works of Christopher McMullen.

So THAT’s Forgiveness

Today, when I was doing my life journal devos, I came across this claim from King David;

“I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight” (2 Samuel 22:24-25).

Now wait just a minute. We know of all the wrongdoings of David. They were recorded in the chapters and books just before this. How is it that he can make such a bold, confident claim of blamelessness and righteousness?

Here’s what I think: David understood, better than most, the true forgiveness of the Lord. He knew that he was in a right place with God because he had sought that out after all of his mistakes. I’m sure that most of us seek out forgiveness when we make our mistakes, but I don’t think we always accept it, and what a drastic difference that is.

There have been lots of times in my life where I seek out forgiveness, but I still dwell on the mistake and feel like I have to do something to make up for it. David understood that when he is forgiven, it’s gone. I think this is what he meant when he said, “I kept myself from guilt.” We can see with the whole Bathsheba ordeal that he definitely felt guilty for his wrongdoing, but he sought out repentance and turned. Now his record is clean.

Here is an easy way for me to look at it: I have a clean driving record. I have been pulled over on several occasions and have received speeding tickets, but my record is clean. Whenever I get pulled over (which, don’t get me wrong, is not very often), I feel guilty. I know I did something wrong and alas, I am being punished for it. However, I receive forgiveness in the form of traffic school! Once that is completed, I don’t have to worry about it again. If I get pulled over and an officer looks up my record, he won’t see any violations on it because my record has been made clean. I don’t have to feel guilty about speeding years ago because that has absolutely no affect on my privilege to drive. In fact, having a clean record has actually caused a judge to lesson a penalty for me. You can say that I was “blameless in his sight.”

Yes, we learn from our mistakes, but we can’t afford to dwell on them. If we deny ourselves the ability to look past our wrongdoings, then we neglect the very forgiveness of God. One of the biggest hindrances the devil throws at us is guilt. He knows that if we dwell on those mistakes, then we won’t live in the true freedom we have in Christ. You are forgiven. You are FREE! You are blameless before the Lord. Now, keep yourself from guilt and let the Lord reward you according to your righteousness and cleanness in His sight.

Don’t just seek forgiveness. Embrace it.

(Clean that record and let it spin!)

Fulfilled By Love

I often title my posts before I actually write them, and after I titled this one, I feel like I should be writing some mushy personal experience that I’ve had with love. Seeing as I usually post on spiritual matters (or regular life, depending how you want to look at it), one could easily assume that I’m talking about finding my fulfillment in God’s love.

I am not.

In Matthew 22, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day keep trying to beat Him with their little mind and word games. In their attempts, they ask Him what the greatest commandment is in the Law. He decided to take a different approach to their trickery. His response;

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt. 22:37-40)

In my own little MAC paraphrase, Jesus basically says, “Hey, let me shift your mindset a little. You know the entire Law and all of the Prophets? They are all based on this: Love the Lord with all you’ve got and love others as yourself.”

This is the part of “Christianity” that intrigues me the most. The religious leaders of the day were all about the religious rules and regulations of the Law. However, they missed the very heart of God through it all. He didn’t purpose us to be driven by rules. He designed us to be driven by love. Rules are good, don’t get me wrong, but they only influence the outward actions of a man. They don’t affect the heart. You can’t truly change someone’s life by asserting restrictions, but if you truly love them, you would be amazed at the changes that take place.

You want to fulfill the Law? Then learn to love. Put all your focus on God and others and the rest will take care of itself. The heart is what we’re trying to win, not outward appearance. This is an exaggerated example, but if you want to stop someone from killing, don’t just say it’s illegal, get them to love instead. It might sound ridiculous, but look what Peter has to say about it: “Above all, leave each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

One of the reasons the Law was given was to separate the people of God from the rest of the world. Taking what Jesus has said about love and the Law, couldn’t you conclude that love for God and others are what is meant to separate us from the rest of the world? After all, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Fulfill the Law - Love God. Love others.

Prioritizing Your Call

It’s been almost a month since I have written anything on here. I can attribute that to my ridiculously busy schedule or I can regretfully admit that I haven’t made it a priority in the midst of that ridiculously busy schedule. It depresses me how eager we are to blame circumstances for our decisions when in reality, we control our own priorities. If it really means a lot for me to be able to write, then I would make the time to do it. This, however, does not have anything to do with what I want to write about today.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it does…

In Matthew 21:28-46, Jesus is challenged by the religious leaders and basically tells them that they have rejected Him and the prophets so now the Kingdom of Heaven will come to those who will accept it.

“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing fruits.” -Matthew 21:43

If you’re anything like me, you have a sense or an idea of the calling God has placed specifically on YOUR life based on your gifts, abilities, location, time, etc. In Bible College, we clung to these calls like they were our own children. Our call is our identity. It is what people would know us for and what we would pursue for the rest of our lives. It consumes your studies, your free time, and your vision. Maybe you can identify with this. In fact, this doesn’t only relate to those of us in ministry, but any profession you choose to pursue.

Here’s the thing this passage of Scripture tells me: I still need to do something about it.

If I feel that God has a specific call for my life, I can daydream about it all day without actually accomplishing anything. Our call doesn’t happen without our pursuit of it (and Him). God has called us all to achieve specific things and if we don’t get off our butts and do it, I’m convinced that He’ll find someone else to do it. He is not limited by us that way.

Long story short: Our call is up to us. If we’re letting life pass us by for whatever reason, whether we’re ridiculously busy or just distracted by all the different things life throws at us, then we’re not going to live out everything God has for us. I heard it said once that, “If the devil can’t make you fall, he’ll make you busy.” I feel like my life has been flying by at 300 mph lately, but this doesn’t excuse anything. If God Himself were to ask me why I didn’t accomplish what I was supposed to, I would feel greatly ashamed to say that I got too busy.

We need to prioritize our lives accordingly before God finds someone else to do our job.

The Challenge

Last week, a couple of us were sitting and talking over a nice cup of coffee and Bible reading when we started collectively wondering what our lives might look like if we prioritized God like we know we could. If we really truly believe who He is and that we do love Him, how would that reflect in our time? So we created a challenge.

Starting tomorrow and lasting a week, we are spending all of our own personal “free” time to reading God’s Word, praying, and worshiping Him. This week is basically a fast. This means that any time we are by ourselves (or only with others who are participating in this), we will devote ourselves to one of these three things. This means avoiding social media and/or entertainment. For example, sometimes I have a couple minutes to kill so I’ll hop on my phone and peruse the facebook, twitter, or ESPN world. However, this week, I will whip out my phone and hit the Bible app instead. It’s not that any of those things are inherently wrong. It’s just a priority adjuster. We imagined what our lives might be like if we did this and so we decided to actually do it. Each of us have picked specific things we want to pray more about during this time, but that doesn’t mean that our prayers are limited to that subject by any means.

The reason I am calling it a challenge is because I want to present it to you that way. Let’s see if we could actually do this together. Let’s challenge our values, priorities, and worship. So consider this my personal challenge to you. You don’t have to hold to this while you’re with others who aren’t participating because we don’t want to project it onto others, but if you’re by yourselves or with others who are participating, then do it. Let’s see what God does when we give Him more of our focus and time.

Raised Without A Voice

If you are currently doing the Life Journal as part of your devotions, you would’ve read 1 Samuel 3 today (along with other chapters). Being involved in church for almost twenty-eight years, I’ve heard the story of Samuel a time or two (exaggerating downward). However, today I read it with the combination of a childlike curiosity and an adult mindset. The result was a pretty intriguing take on this section. 2 Samuel 3 is the passage where the voice of the Lord calls out to Samuel and he thinks that it’s Eli, the priest, calling him until Eli tells him that it’s most likely the Lord calling out to him.

The part of the story that I’ve never really thought about is the fact that Samuel is growing up in the very presence of God. Ever since he was “weaned,” he has spent all of his time in the temple. In fact, he was lying down near the very ark of God when the Lord called out to Him. Verse 7 says, “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”

Are you kidding me?

Am I the only one here who seems to have a bit of a problem with this? You would think that a child being raised in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, would know the Lord and His voice. While I just learned that this was not the case then, I am making the realization that it is sadly not the case now, either. I can’t remember times growing up where my peers and I were taught how to listen to the voice of the Lord. I feel like if this happened, then at least some of those peers would still be a part of the church. We teach and learn so many things about God that our dynamic with Him becomes more of a school subject and not so much a personal relationship. I know I’m guilty of this.

I think this is something that we need to actively change. I don’t want my kids, your kids, or even our friends to grow up around God and not be familiar with Him. They all know all about Him, but knowing Him personally is drastically different. I want to be more attentive and I want everyone else to be more attentive to. Let’s all learn and relearn together what the voice of the Lord sounds like.

More Bible, Please!

The other day, I was talking to one of my good friends about being consistent in our Bible reading and he was telling me of a time when he asked someone about their devotional consistency and they said, “It could be better.” His reply was, “We could all do better.” After telling me this, his tone and mindset changed and we began to wonder why it is we try to make people feel better about not reading God’s Word. My friend was looking back on his reply of, “we could all do better,” and continued to tell me that he actually reads his Bible every day, and I can attest to that. He’s extremely stubborn about his Bible reading and he should be.

I’m sure when when most of us are presented with that inquiry, we have similar responses. We could all do better, right? I think I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to do better anymore.

I read my Bible five days last week. While that might be great for most and a decent ration for some, I find myself discontented with the number. Is there really a legitimate reason why I cannot dive into the Word of the Living God each and every day? No. I don’t believe there is. Then how could I ever be content when a single day goes by when I don’t. If I do my devotions six times in a week, I will be happy that I did it those six days, but I will never let that be good enough. I don’t think we can ever afford to have a “good enough” mindset when it comes to God.

I’m not saying that if you miss a day, you should dwell on it and beat the crap out of yourself for not being good enough. I’m saying that we should all be disciplined and determined enough to accomplish this every day. It’s not like it’s a Christianity textbook that we can simply glance in once in a while to stay fresh. It’s the living and breathing Word of the Lord. Are we really viewing it as that? Because if I truly love Him as much as I claim to, then I don’t see how I can prioritize other things before spending time with Him. It doesn’t actually take a long time to read sections of the Bible.

That is why I am now, after nearly twenty-eight years, doing the Life Journal. It’s simple. It divides the reading into each day so that, if you do it every day, you read the entire Bible in a year. Not only this, but if your friends are doing the same thing, then it becomes a great way to actually talk to each other about the things of God. I can text my best friend about something I read because I know that he read the same thing. This is great because I believe that we all need to start talking about God more on a daily basis or we’re going to inevitably relate over lesser things.

Let’s start breaking open the Good Book more often, ok? There’s no reason why we all can’t do it every single day. And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t try.

Nothing New

Struggles are interesting. They are something we’ve all had and will forever continue to have. While most, if not all, struggles may be valid, I think we tend to glorify them a little too much.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul is writing about some of the struggles that Israel had in the past and how we need to learn from that. Verse 6 says, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” Then it goes on to give different accounts of their struggles - idolatry, sexual immorality, putting Christ to the test, and grumbling. Then in verse 11, he again states that, “these things happened to them as an example, but were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.”

Verse 12 says, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” We can’t afford to think that we’ve got things figured out. The nation of Israel thought they were doing alright as well, yet continuously fell away from God, even though they were His chosen people. I feel like Paul is just saying, “Hey! Pay attention, huh?”

The next part is actually what I want to focus on, though. Right after this, he tells them that, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” When I read this this time around, it struck me differently because I think I paid more attention to the tone of it. Whatever it is that you and I may be struggling with, isn’t anything new. There is nothing that we may be going through that people before us haven’t already gone through. There is no real unique circumstance for us that could give us an excuse to dwell in it. We can’t always use the whole, “You just don’t understand,” excuse because there are people out there who do. Often times, we just say that because we want our struggles to be so unique that we don’t have to overcome them. We get to sit in the mess and use it as an excuse for complacency.

I was talking the other day with someone about how frail and pathetic our excuses are when we take them before an awesome, holy God. We can’t hide behind excuses when it comes to God because we realize how stupid they really are. Whatever we’re both going through isn’t anything new. We just need to follow Paul’s advice and learn from those before us while clinging to the truth that, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (v. 13).

The Gospel of the Athlete

Let’s be real. Sometimes, it’s really hard to understand the Bible. I have a Biblical Studies degree and I can very easily admit this. Keeping this in mind, Paul uses an analogy in 1 Corinthians 9 that’s as simple as A-B-C (easy as 1-2-3?) for me to understand. In verses 25-27, Paul writes,

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, let after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

Just about every time I’ve read this in the past, I’ve always automatically paraphrased it with, “Live With Purpose.” While that is true and we should, I don’t think I properly understood this passage until more recently. It’s amazing how you tend to see different verses in different lights based on your differing perspectives. Years ago, I may have needed to live more intentionally in my ministry and that verse told me that. This time around, I had a different life perspective and it gave me a different verse perception.

In the verses before this, Paul is writing how he has done all that he can so that everyone might be saved. He even talks about surrendering certain rights so that no one can hold anything against him. Basically, he has done all that he can to be blameless in his ministry. In verse 25, he says that every athlete exercises self-control in ALL things. He isn’t just talking about having the discipline to constantly improve their craft. He’s talking about having self-control in all of life. A true athlete knows that every part of his life is going to affect his ability to perform. There are certain choice that he must make that don’t actually have anything to do with his craft or skills, but they affect it.

We see this quite often with our modern day athletes. There are athletes everywhere who do not perform as well based on bad eating habits, bad work ethics, adulterous lifestyles, extreme sport injuries (for those who aren’t supposed to be engaging in them), divorce, drug and/or alcohol addiction, etc. The list goes on. None of those things are directly related to skills, but each of them can greatly affect one’s ability to perform to their highest potential.

Paul is relating that to ministry because he knows there are so many things that can hinder our ability to minister. So many of us make the mistake of limiting our view of ministry to what happens “on stage,” but our ability to minister is directly related to what happens off of it. Sadly, this has even been the case in my own life. I’ve made mistakes that have greatly hindered my ability to speak into people’s lives. Not only that, but I also ran the great risk of losing everything that I had taught people the years before that. Paul is telling us that can’t afford to let our personal struggles get in the way of presenting the gospel.

There is no separation of ministry and life and if we are toying with sin on the side, it could potential derail our entire life-ministry, not just our professional ministry. We NEED to be blameless in every area of our life because we are offering something to the world that we can’t risk losing. This means getting rid of all that may be hindering us; lust, theft, addiction, pride, attitude, anger, whatever it may be. Trust me, I’m the absolute worst at this and I’ve had to deal with consequences, but we can’t afford to let the past defeat us. Whatever has been the case in your past doesn’t have to be the case in the future. Take the opportunity right now to live blamelessly before the Lord and cling to Him to see it through because we can’t achieve that on our own. Let’s start being a lot more intentional about our life-ministry.

“But I discipline my body and keep it under self control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” - 1 Corinthians 9:27

Sabbath Moments

Rest is pretty important. You never fully understand that until you find yourself not getting very much of it. A lack of rest really screws you up and the saddest thing about it is that we don’t always realize what’s happening until it’s too late. That’s when burnout occurs and it’s all too frequent in our day and age, especially to those in ministry. I think we’re all a little too worried about not having enough time to rest. When you think about it… that’s a load of crap.

I woke up this morning completely worn. I work forty hours a week and I’m at the church all the time outside of that. This past weekend was filled up with a wedding rehearsal, wedding ceremony and reception, and moving into a new house. It wasn’t quite as restful as I would’ve liked and went straight from that into the next work week. Throw in the mix of engaging in some spiritual warfare that kept me up last night, not knowing where I’m gonna live in eight weeks after we thought a great opportunity was going to work out, receiving some disheartening and confusing news about my role at work, and I woke up exhausted. I felt like completely shutting down all day. I couldn’t do that, though, because I had work and I am leading worship for youth group tonight.

I’m not telling you all of this to complain or so that you would sympathize with me. I’m saying this to set up the truth of God’s Word and being. I knew that I wasn’t going to get the chance to eat until after youth group, so I decided I would walk to Burger King. It’s only a couple blocks away and I was tired of driving (I do it a lot for work). Geez… What a difference a walk can make. 

I didn’t get a chance to take a full Sabbath this past week and I was reminded today of when my best friend told me how we should at least find a way to create sabbath moments. There wasn’t anything profound about my little stroll towards my artery-clogging friends. I had some minor dialogue with the Living God (which, when I put it that way, makes it always profound, huh?), but it’s not like I fell to my knees and cried aloud in the middle of the street. I simply took the time to find rest in Him.

Love has a way of rejuvenating our spirits. The effects of spending time with someone we love can have quite the impact on our day. Now imagine the dramatic turnaround that can come when we spend time with Love Himself. I’m still physically tired, but there has been a refreshing inside of me that will overcome this fatigue, and something tells me that I’m not the only one out there who’s in need of that. Find your rest in Him.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” -Matthew 11:28

Think About It

I have grown up my entire life in the church. I was raised by a Christian family and even went to Bible College. However, it’s easy to slip into stagnancy when your whole life has been about the same thing. I read my Bible. Sure, I can be a lot more consistent with it (and I’m trying to be), but I still often visit the pages of Scriptures. There has, more often than not, been some sort of a disconnect every time I read it. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who reads the Bible, considers it good, then goes on with the rest of the day without thinking much about what it is I read. Isn’t this what James talks about in chapter 1?

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hear of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (v. 22-25)

Well… I don’t want to be that guy. I would much rather be blessed in all my doing. It’s interesting to me that whenever we hear the word “blessing,” we automatically think of gifts from God. While that is true, I think it, to a small degree, skews our perception of blessing. It’s not as if we do our spiritual checklist and God rewards us like a paycheck of blessings. Rather, if we dwell on the Word and apply it to our lives, then the outcome will automatically sow blessings. I don’t think we get blessings for reading the Word. I think we get blessings through applying it. 

Proverbs 16:20 says, “Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.” There is a measure of trust that comes with applying the Word of God to our lives. To many people, it’s pretty unusual. I’ve had instances where my Christian ministering friends have read part of the Bible and decided not to follow it because it required a changed from their norm. While I don’t think this was an outright, conscience act of rebellion, it still showed the disconnect between reading and applying.

I’ve had enough of that disconnect and I’m sick of it. I don’t know how I could ever see something plainly in Scripture and choose not to apply it to my life. What is that saying about my beliefs? What type of a testimony is that for others? Am I telling people to believe in and follow a holy, mighty, awesome God, but only to the point where we don’t have to change our lives. Many of us in ministry live pretty righteous lives (I’m not trying to say that in arrogance, but that is an aim for us). However, there is always room to grow because we are following a God we can never fully know. We’re also reading and studying a book that we will never fully understand. The search for wisdom and righteousness never ceases.

So think about it. Really think about it. The things we read in the Bible are meant to change our lives. Let’s apply that and live accordingly. Don’t read and forget. Dwell on it. Pray about it. Think about it.

Called Out

“Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” -Proverbs 13:3

This morning, I was on Facebook when I saw a post of a friend. I decided to reply to this post in what I thought to be ironic-sarcastic-cleverness. This has become a favorite of mine that I enjoy using quite often. However, this does not always go over well with others and for the first time, I was able to see why. This particular person called me out on my negative tease while also informing me that I tend to do this a lot and they don’t like it very much. There are two issues about this that really don’t have much to do with the particularities of my comments. People can say whatever they want, but they can’t so it to whoever they want, whenever they want. There, in a vague sense, lies my dilemma. 

I’m not very good with relationships. I’m not talking about dating relationships, but relationships in general. Long story (stories?) short, I’ve burned people and then somehow think that I can still talk to them the same way later that I did before. I’ve never really known this to be a problem for me because I’ve never gotten the full extent of this foolishness. In my head, it’s always been, “Ok, we made up. That was in the past. Now, let’s go back to normal.” The thing I never realized was that you can’t go back to “normal.” In fact, “normal” doesn’t even exist in the context of relationships because people and circumstances are both uniquely individual. 

So how come I was able to move on from those situations more easily than the others? Well, there are two reasons: 1) Chances are, if there was hurt, I was the one inflicting it, and 2) I didn’t move on, I dug and buried.

I swear, some people must think that I’m completely emotionless and now, looking back, I can probably see why they would think that. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that I use humor to get through potentially painful circumstances. I don’t think I even hide that, actually. I’m pretty sure everyone who knows me can figure that one out. However, if I were to flip the script around, I’m sure I would see me as being supremely insensitive towards not only the situation, but also the other person.

Proverbs 14:13 says, “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.” While laughter can temporarily medicate how one may feel, it doesn’t cure a circumstance. Today’s conclusion towards why I make the jokes I do with people in the past is that it’s an attempt to ignore what happened. The quicker we “get over it,” means the quicker the pain is gone. I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily love remembering the times that I’ve burned people. Also, when you let things heal over in a healthy manner, that usually requires distance and the comments are my way of desperately clinging to maintain whatever relationship I previously had. 

So, if I’ve done this to you, I’m sorry. I truly am. I didn’t write this to justify anything I’ve ever said or done, but to at least shed some light on what I didn’t realize myself while acknowledging my wrongdoing. If you’re reading this and I’ve never burned you, then let this serve as a warning to watch how you interact with people. Just because you might deal with situations in one way, doesn’t mean that others do as well. Perhaps this is just telling you to actually face your past instead of medicating it. Whatever affect this may have on you (or not have on you), let’s all work to maintain mental and emotional health in our relationships. 

Slacker

Wisdom. That is what Proverbs is all about and happens to be what I’ve been reading through lately. It’s a real perspective changer at times and I think we need to be careful to read it from our own perspective rather than projecting it onto other people. What I mean by that is this: It can be so easy to read different Bible verses and automatically think of others (“____ really needs to pay attention to this one” or “If only ____ paid more attention to this verse”). I’ve done it. You’ve done it. We’re all guilty of these pseudo-rightous projections. 

This time through the book of Proverbs, I’ve really been trying to focus on myself and how I can learn and apply these words of wisdom. The result has been… well… rather painful (or convicting, if you will). There are plenty of verses that tell of things fools do and I find myself realizing that I just might be a little foolish at times. It’s not a very comfortable (comfortable? comforting? ah, I’ve heard it both ways) feeling. Today, I read this verse;

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” - Proverbs 10:4

In two very short months, I will be turning twenty-eight years old. Wow… where did the time go? Twenty-eight sounds so old to me. That’s just the problem. Not the whole sounding old thing, but the fact that I don’t really know where the time went. It seems like my teenage years were pretty recent, but my high school ten year reunion is happening this summer. 

(Warning: I’m about to get pretty vulnerable and it’s going to sound like I’m discontent with my life, but I’m really not. I’m just sharing my reality.)

As I had previously said, I will be turning twenty-eight soon. Unless something drastic changes in the next two weeks, I will be renting a spare bedroom in someone else’s house with the hopes that I just might be able to afford to share an apartment with someone in the coming months. Why am I doing this? Because once the end of May rolls around, I will be the only single male out of all my closest friends here in Billings. Listen, I’m not saying this to throw a pity-party by any means. I’m sharing this to try to spread truth and wisdom to any of you who are growing up after me.

Start sowing now. It’s vitally necessary. Don’t just start saving money, but actually learn how to budget for your future, because when you get my age (and hopefully before), you’ll start to care a lot more about things like housing and expenses then you will about having the cutest clothes or latest electronic. There’s a sad reality out there that very few people learn about before they enter it. I’m not even talking about financial situations either. Get your life in order now because “growing up” comes and goes before you even realize it. Make sure, at this very moment, that you are becoming all that God’s called you to be. Find your flaws and fix them. Pray and never stop. Grow in the Lord with all diligence. Know the urgency of life. I don’t want any of you to be twenty-eight, single, and living off of other people. There’s a degree of shame that comes along with that because I know that if I were more diligent when I was younger, I wouldn’t be so dependent now. I should’ve been more studious in school. I should’ve saved more money than I did. I should’ve prioritized my time with God more than people. YOU should NOW!

“A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” - Proverbs 10:4

Don’t make the same mistakes, guys. Learn from those ahead of you. Learn from the success of some and the failures of others. Don’t be a slacker. Be diligent. 

The Search for Wisdom

Receive. Treasure up. Make your ear attentive. Incline your heart. Call out. Raise your voice. Seek. Search.

Maybe it’s just me, but these all seems like some pretty active pursuits. That’s exactly what God is suggesting (or perhaps, commanding?) us to do. Why? Because then we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 21-5).

I’ve been (slowly) reading through Proverbs lately and the first couple chapters have really jumped out at me with this pattern: Seek wisdom - Gain understanding - Be protected - Inhabit the land. I don’t know about you, but the pattern seems pretty simple to me. Granted, what seems simple usually ends up pretty complicated (or am I the only one that happens to?).

I don’t really know what this all looks like. The Pursuit. I suppose I just need to start seeking God for that (WHAM!). Hey look! I found out what it looks like! The search for wisdom is the search for God. When we are taking the time and making the effort to actively pursue the ways of God, we begin to see things the way God does, and that, my friends, is the beginning of wisdom. 

I’m going to keep this short this morning, mainly because there are distractions all around me right now… or perhaps because I don’t really know what else to say. It seems pretty simple to me. So, dear readers (or reader. I don’t know if more than one person reads this), join me in this endless, joyful pursuit of wisdom and we’ll dance and sing on the paths of righteousness and inherit the land God has prepared for us!

Worship Covers

Since I got the album two nights ago, I have not stopped listening to Zion (the new Hillsong United album). Well, I have stopped, but every time I’ve listened to anything, it has been that album. The reason I’ve been listening to it so much is because a couple different people have asked me what I’ve thought of it. As I started to ponder this question, several different thoughts started to flood my mind about our generation and music. Specifically, worship music. 

About a week before Zion was released, I was listening to Live in Miami (Hillsong United’s 2012 release) and something caught me differently. As they began to play so many beloved worship songs, there would be a loud cheer from the crowd. The more I listened to it, the more it started to sound like a group of fans at any given rock show. As I get more into this, I want to clarify real quick that I have nothing but the utmost respect for any part of the Hillsong team. I think what they do is absolutely fantastic and has helped give the church of God many words of praise to sing back to Him. The “problem,” to me, is us.

Hillsong has always been a bit of a hot topic for our generation of church-goers. On one side, it seems like you’re not that cool of a NextGen worship leader unless you’re playing the latest Hillsong songs (Hill-songs?). On the other side, I’ve heard people refuse to play them because, well, everyone else loved them too much (maybe those were the “worship hipsters” of the time. Can’t do any mainstream worship. Gotta stick with United Pursuit or Daniel Bashta songs.) Even I have been guilty of this. At the very beginning of my senior year at Life Pacific, someone asked me if I was going to do any Hillsong songs that week in chapel. After I thought about it, I made the decision not to play any Hillsong songs in chapels for the entire school year (I ended up doing Where The Love Lasts Forever once, though. I also still did their songs in Night of Worships). My reason for doing this was for me to show that there’s so much great worship music out there besides the songs coming from the land down under. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t care. I would stick to whatever the Spirit was leading me to play/sing.

That’s the key right there. Worship doesn’t come from Australia. Worship doesn’t come from a style of music. Worship comes from the Spirit. We all have our own songs to sing. In fact, Joel Houston said that in the Live in Miami recording. I couldn’t agree more. when it comes down to it, nobody can write a better worship song than the one the Spirit has birthed in YOU. 

Just from listening to interviews and videos of Joel Houston, I’m sure he is extremely grateful that God is using his songs in churches all over the world, but I also feel like he would want you to find your own voice in the midst of it. “Worship artists” aren’t supposed to be the voice of our generation, they are meant to encourage us to use our own.

I think there are several people out there who are a bit disappointed with Zion (the album… not the City of the Lord). It’s pretty synth heavy and I’m not the biggest fan of that, but that’s just my style preference. Does that mean that I don’t think the album is as good? Not by any means. It’s still an amazing album with amazing songs. The way they write is still extremely elegant. If you don’t like it, tough luck. Don’t listen to it. It’s foolish to project such strong expectations on the artwork of others. They aren’t and shouldn’t ever write songs for us. They have to stick to their convictions about where the Spirit is leading them with their work. Do we sometimes forget that we’re all playing for an audience of One?

I commend Hillsong United and their work with Zion. Honestly, I probably won’t do a lot of the songs from this album because it would be quite difficult musically. That’s no different than not being able to do most Israel and New Breed songs. I’m not going to hold that against them. They are creative and are expressing themselves accordingly.

Going back to the beginning, I’ll wrap it up with this thought: Don’t forget what worship is. Don’t forget that, at the very heart of it, it’s all about Jesus. I think it’s too easy for us musicians in church to want to play the latest “worship cover,” but we’re not called to play worship covers. We’re meant to worship our Creator. It’s definitely acceptable to play the latest worship songs. I’m not saying we shouldn’t. We just need to keep a sharp eye on why we’re doing those specific songs. In the eyes of the Lord, there is no such thing as a “cool” worship song. There’s only the sound of your heart.