Category Archives: Worship

Posted on

Reject Any Other Definition Of Love But This

Love For God Is Spelled O.B.E.D.I.E.N.C.E

SYNOPSIS: The Bible makes it plain that the chief expression of love is obedience to God’s commands. Let me say it again: love is obedience, and the pre-eminent characteristic of authentic discipleship is love! So just what does love look like? It looks like obeying God. Jesus, who wrote the book on authentic love—both in written form and on the pages of his life, said “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.” (John 14:15) O-B-E-Y! That’s how you spell love. Our love for God does for God. It does what he says. Not to earn more of his love, but to express love in response to what you can never earn. That’s the condition of true love: it loves through unrelenting and unconditional obedience.

The Journey // Focus: Deuteronomy 11:22

Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him.

Are you, like me, sick and tired of the world’s definition of love and hate? When I say “the world,” I am referring to anything and anyone that stands in opposition to God as he has revealed himself and his ways in his Word. That would include our godless culture in general along with specific people both great and small within our culture who, intentional or not, promote a godless philosophy of life. And, I hate to admit, “the world,” at times even includes you and me because of the worldly passions within our own sinful flesh.

The world has corrupted the true and authentic definition of love, as well as hate, beyond recognition. Hate has become anything that rubs against the fur of what the world embraces. For instance, if you now call sin what it is, sin, you are marginalized and mocked as an intolerant, dangerous, bigoted hater. You are hate personified! But let’s set aside hate and simply talk about love. The world has really messed that one up, too!

The world’s definition of love is a sloppy, squishy, anything goes kind of feeling of affection. It is ever-changing, here today and gone tomorrow, this one minute, that the next, a sensation that rises and falls with one’s current emotional state. Love is whatever satisfies me and gives me pleasure. It is a patently selfish worldview that “loves” to the degree that love is requited. It is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately state of mind. And it is flat out wrong, counterproductive and even dangerous.

Ask a thousand different people for their concept of love and you will most likely get a thousand different depictions, but unless God’s Word informs those depictions of love, they will be wrong 100% of the time. The Bible makes it plain that the chief expression of love is obedience to God’s commands. Let me say it again: love is obedience. What does love look like? It looks like obeying God. Jesus, who wrote the book on authentic love—both in written form and on the pages of his life, said “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.” (John 14:15, MSG)

In an age where love is a very squishy concept, God still clearly demands that those who claim to follow him demonstrate their love not just in language, but in action. It is love that is not just a noun, it is a verb. A noun needs a verb as well as an object to tell the full story, and so does love. What love is cannot be told without showing what love does. And what love does is incomplete without the person to whom it is done.  The Apostle Paul taught that in 1 Corinthians 13, the great love chapter, when he wrote, “love is…” Then he defines what “love is” by demonstrating what love does: It acts. It works. It affects. It produces an outcome.

Jesus clearly states that the outcome of love for God is obedience: The one who loves him will obey his commandments. If they accept his demands, they will prove it by obedience to those requirements, thus authenticating their love for him. They will do what he says. Jesus can’t be any clearer than that: love for God has conditions—it obeys.

Now to be sure, authentic, Biblically defined love doesn’t obey to be love; it obeys because it is love. That is very clear when you look to the source of love, the Being who defines what love is by demonstrating what love does. God is love. His love is an unconditional, sacrificial, proactive love that seeks out unworthy objects to love. It is a holy and righteous love; it is a tough love; it is an unchanging love. It is this love that is the essence of God’s being; it is energy of what God does. It is the outcome of where God has been and is. God is love—not just love the noun, but love the verb. Love does!

Your love for God, and mine, if it is to be true, is not just love the noun, but love the verb; and verb is spelled o-b-e-y! Your love for God does for God. It obeys. It does what he says. Not to earn more of his love, but to express love in response to what you can never earn. That is the condition of true love: it loves through unrelenting and unconditional obedience.

If anyone defines love other than in that way, reject it. It might be well intentioned, but it is totally misguided. Rather, embrace obedience to God—that is love!

Going Deeper: God desires your wholehearted love today. And the best way you can express that is by obeying him. So where is he calling you to obey?

Posted on

Thankfully, God’s Love Never Runs Out!

Trying Writing Your Own Psalm of Gratitude

If you’re sharing a Thanksgiving meal with family or friends today, there’s a chance that something will run out: the gravy, the stuffing, or the pumpkin pie. Thankfully, there is something that will never run out at your celebration: God’s love for you! Psalm 107:1-2 says, “Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world!” So why don’t you do just that: tell the world, or at least those you are with today. Write an “O give thanks to the Lord for he is good” psalm, and then, like the psalmist suggested, tell everyone how grateful you are. It will do you, and them, a world of good.

Going Deep // Focus: Psalm 107:1-2

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this!

If you are sharing a Thanksgiving meal with loved ones today, there is a chance that something will run out: the gravy, the stuffing, or the pumpkin pie. Thankfully, there is something that will never run out that will be present at your celebration: God’s love for you!

I like the way The Message version renders the psalmist’s call to gratitude: “Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world!”

It is true—and it is more than just christianese: God is good—all the time! That is the testimony of my life—and I have a feeling it is true of your life as well. Certainly, I ought to be proclaiming God’s goodness to anyone who will listen, and even to those who won’t, much more than I do. Add to that the fact that I am, on my best day, not so good, and on my worst day, frankly, pretty bad, only adds to the brilliance of God’s overwhelming goodness.

The New King James translation of the psalmist’s words are even more meaningful to me: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Mercy—I can really relate to that. Now don’t misunderstand what I’m saying: I’ll take either enduring love or enduring mercy—I can’t live without either one. Love and mercy are simply different facets of the same diamond we understand as the goodness of God.

But God’s mercy really speaks to me, and I’ll bet if you thought about, it, you would say the same. Someone said that mercy is not getting what you deserve. The truth is, you and I depend upon God’s mercy every single moment just to draw in the next breath, since the holy and righteous God has had every reason and right to annihilate us from the planet because of our sinfulness. Jeremiah said it well in Lamentations 3:22-23,

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The entirety of Psalm 107 is simply giving one example after another of how God in his faithful love and enduring mercy has freed his people from what they deserve. And at the end of each example, the psalmist expresses the call to gratitude:

Oh, thank God, he is so good! His love never runs out!

I’ll bet you could write your own Psalm 107. In fact, that might be a good assignment for you on this Thanksgiving Day. And then, like the psalmist suggested, we should go tell the world. Now that’s a pretty tall order, so how about starting with the people with whom you will enjoy the holiday meal today? Write your psalm and share it with your spouse, your family, and your friends.

I am not sure how they will feel about it, but you will certainly feel pretty good. That’s what heartfelt gratitude to God for his faithful love and enduring mercy does.

Going Deeper With God: Write your own Psalm 107—a psalm of gratitude—on this Thanksgiving Day. And then, like the psalmist suggested, go tell the world of how thankful you are. Or, you could start with the people at the holiday meal today. Write your psalm and share it with your spouse, your family, and your friends. It will do you a world of good.

Posted on

Altar of Remembrance

Identify Your Defining Moments with God

We don’t build altars anymore, rightly so. Under the new covenant, established through Christ’s sacrificial blood, the altar of God is now our heart. Yet there are significant events in our spiritual journey — breakthroughs into the blessings of God so life-altering we label them “defining moments” — that require a memorial of remembrance, or what we might call an “altar.” At times, establishing such a memorial at which we can stop to give praise to God and to remember his covenant is an appropriate thing, perhaps even a needful act of faith. Such an “altar” will serve to remind us of God’s greatness and faithfulness as we journey forward to the next challenge.

The Journey// Focus: Genesis 46:1-4

So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” Jacob answered, “Here I am,”  God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

Good news had flooded Jacob’s old, weary soul, worn thin by years of dashed hopes and dead dreams, like a flowing stream in the parched desert. Joseph, the son he favored, was alive after all these year of thinking he had been killed by a wild animal. And the news of Joseph’s incredible journey from the pit to the palace had revived the old patriarch’s heart:

When his sons told Jacob that Joseph was alive in Egypt, and everything he had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back to Egypt, the Jacob’s spirit revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” (Genesis 45:27-28)

As Jacob began the journey from Canaan to Egypt to see his son and to relocate his clan in the riches of Goshen during the time of famine, one of the first things he did was to build an altar and offer sacrifices to the Sovereign God who had revived his dreams by remembering the covenant the Almighty had sworn to his grandfather Abraham, his father Isaac, and to him. And as he sacrificed, the Lord spoke, calling him by name and recounting the promises of the covenant that he would fulfill as the clan of Israel lived in the land of Egypt.

We don’t build altars much anymore, and rightly so. Under the new covenant, established through the blood of Jesus, the altar of God is now our heart. Yet there are significant events in our spiritual journey, breakthroughs into the blessings of God so important that we would label them “defining moments”, that require an altar. At times, building a memorial at which we can stop to give praise to God and to remember his covenant, is an appropriate thing—perhaps even a needful act of faith. There are times along the way that establishing a memorial of remembrance will serve to remind us of the greatness and faithfulness of God as we journey forward to the next challenge.

These physical symbols that we choose to jog our memory are powerful. Every time we look at that sacred symbol, or touch it and consider what it represents, we call to mind the reality of God’s glorious presence and his unmerited intervention on our behalf.

God often used symbols in the Old Testament. So to, frequently in the Revelation, symbols are provided to help us grasp the glories of the eternal world where God dwells, physical representations of his invisible and uncontainable presence. These symbols provide a way for God’s people to worshipfully enter into God’s presence without being completely consumed or totally overwhelmed by God’s holiness. In other words, spiritual symbols allow finite people to momentarily grasp the infinite.

Have you ever noticed how small children at an ocean beach will run away from the crashing waves in absolute terror. Why? They are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude and brutal force of something incomprehensible. But later they will dig a hole in the sand and fill it with a bucket of that very same seawater that made up the monstrous wave. Then they will scoop a handful of that water and let it drip through their fingers back into the hole.

What are they doing? They are partaking in the magnificence of the ocean without being overwhelmed by it.

That’s the benefit of a symbol. It allows finite beings to comprehend the infinite—if but for a moment. An altar or remembrance allows you to call to mind the incomprehensible greatness of Almighty God and his covenant faithfulness in the past without being complete undone by it. I am not suggesting that you go crazy with this, that you turn your prayer closet into a holy shrine full of religious artifacts and icons—that can obviously get way out of hand. But sometimes we just need a little help with remembering that since God is covenantally faithful, that what he has done in the past for us, like he did for the saints of old, he will do for us today, and we can count on him to do again and again in the future.

God is faithful. He will fulfill his promises. Always. Do what you need to do to remind yourself of that. Perhaps an altar of remembrance would be the appropriate thing for you to erect.

Going Deeper: Think of a defining moment you have experienced with God. What can you do, literally and physically, to symbolize that moment in a way that will be a daily reminder of the greatness of a God who has promised to watch over and provide for you?

Posted on

I’m Still Standing

God Stands Forever And So Shall I

I doubt that you will ever have a “hit” taken out on your life, like David, but chances are there will be people in your life from time to time who will try to assassinate your character and ruin your reputation. When that happens, you can hearken back to David’s experience and, if nothing else, remember this one thing: Though people can kill your body, assassinate your character, and ruin your reputation, they can never silence your song. At the end of the day, evil people will be no more, but your integrity will keep you in favored standing with the only One who has the power of eternal life and death. God stands forever. And you belong to him, so you will stand forever, too!

Enduring Truth // Psalm 59:16-17

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

David was in trouble—due to no fault of his own. He had been a model citizen. In fact, he had proven himself a true national hero during a military crisis when Israel’s warriors had failed to step up and demonstrate courageous leadership. As you know from I Samuel 17, David had unintentionally made a name for himself on the battlefield by killing Goliath of Gath—the champion-giant of Israel’s archenemy, the Philistines.

As a result of this heroic act, David, still a young man, was recruited into King Saul’s army, and fast-tracked right to the top as captain and confidant to the moody and maniacal king. He was even given Saul’s daughter, Michal, as his wife. But things turned bad when the unstable king began to show signs of irrational and insane jealousy toward David. It got so bad that he took out a hit on David’s life.

David wrote this psalm when he got wind of Saul’s plan, and he was forced to leave his wife, abandon his home and flee for his life. As you can see from the title given in the Psalter , “When Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him,” Saul henchmen were assigned to stake out David’s dwelling in order to carry out their immoral and illegal plot (Psalm 59:3). And according to David’s song, they were doing more than just trying to murder him: They were attempting to assassinate his character in the eyes of a nation that had come to adore him as their warrior-hero (Psalm 59:10, 12). So David writes about them and puts a tune to it—a song that immortalizes their evil and invites Divine destruction down upon their heads.

Now you might be wondering what all this has to do with you. Perhaps you’re asking if there is anything in this psalm that elevates it to the status of good devotional material meant for your edification today? That’s a good question—I’m glad you asked. You see, although I doubt that you will ever have a “hit” taken out on your life, chances are there will be people in your life from time to time who will try to assassinate your character and ruin your reputation. And when that happens, you can hearken back to David’s experience and, if nothing else, remember this one thing:

Though people can kill your body, assassinate your character, and ruin your reputation, they can never silence your song.

At the end of the day, evil people will be no more, but your integrity will keep you in favored standing with the only One who has the power of eternal life and death. Powerful people may try to bring you down, but he is true Strength. They may try to force you out, but you belong to him whose name is Fortress. They may make your life miserable, but you are held in the loving care of one who is your Refuge.

Evil people and unfair times will pass, but God stands forever. And you belong to him, so you will stand forever, too! So go ahead and sing.

Thrive: I normally wouldn’t recommend Elton John songs for worship, but you may want to even sing one of his: I’m Still Standing.

Posted on

Since This Is True, Why Wouldn’t You Generously Give?

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

When we give back a portion to God of what is rightfully his, he entrusts us with even more to give back. The more we give to God, the more God gives us to give. And when we enter that cycle of generous giving, we become a conduit of God’s blessings—both material and immaterial. It is true: you cannot out-give God.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 29:13-14

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!

Are you a generous giver? I am not talking about the amount that you give, or could give, I am referring to your heart, or the attitude you have toward giving financially to God’s work. Truly, when you read the whole of scripture, you cannot be anything other than generous when you understand this one eternal principle:

Everything in your possession is not really yours; it all comes from God. Giving generously from it simply is giving back to God what is rightfully his.

Now here is a corollary truth that makes giving back to God the smartest thing you could ever do: When we give back a portion to God of what is rightfully his, he entrusts us with even more to give back. The more we give to God, the more God gives us to give. And when we enter that cycle of generous giving, we become a conduit of God’s blessings—both material and immaterial. It is true: you cannot out-give God.

King David understood this. In 1 Chronicles 29, he is appealing to the congregation of Israel to do what he has done. He has joyfully made a generous contribution to the construction of the temple. David is on the bell lap of his life’s journey, and he is diligently making preparations for something he always wanted to do: build a grand house to God. But God had told David he wasn’t to be the one to build it; Solomon would be that guy. However, David could certainly make preparation for it. And boy did he! Just read the chapter to see what David had left in the bank, so to speak, for his son’s project.

Notice the king’s plea that the people follow his example of generous giving. In today’s church language, he is taking an offering like none other. But it is the verse I have selected that is the key to what David was requesting, and it is the key to whether or not you are going to give from a mindset of generosity. That mindset comes from a prayer; it is actually from something he said to God about God that unlocks the extreme generosity of giving:

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name, but who am I and who are my people that we should be permitted to give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we only give you what is yours already! (Living Bible)

Since it all comes from God anyway, giving the portion that he prompts you to give back to him is a fundamental issue of faith and trust and obedience on your part. When you get that right, your generosity gives God a shot, through your offerings, to not only replenish what you release to him, but to open up the spigot so that heaven’s abundance literally overflows in your life.

Again, your giving activates a circular law of generosity. That law says that when you are generous with what God has provided, he will give you more so that you can give away more, and as you give away more, he will give you more to give away. And thus you have entered the cycle of generosity.

God measures giving by generosity of heart. The amount debited from your account doesn’t count—it is your attitude that makes you a candidate for this cycle. It is not rote obedience to some law of tithing that God is looking for from you, it is the overflow of the spirit of grace that reflects God loving ownership of you and all that you have. When you settle the issue of generosity, then the law of tithing and questions about how much to give become moot.

I cannot determine giving for you; no one can—it’s a matter of your heart. But if you get it wrong, you are going to miss out on the thrill of generous giving. Get it right, and you will become a pipeline for the abundance of heaven.

And who in their right mind wouldn’t want that!

Going Deeper With God: Settle the matter of who owns what you have—you or God. If you go with God, then rejoice the next time you give: you are worshiping him. And then get ready for the goodness of heaven to flow to you and through you.

Posted on

Now That’s Great Worship!

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

When the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached in the worship set, there you have had a great worship set. Martin Luther was right: “Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music.” If your minister of music accomplishes that week after week, you are fortunate; you have a minister cut from the same cloth as Asaph.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 25:1

David and the army commanders then appointed men from the families of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun to proclaim God’s messages to the accompaniment of lyres, harps, and cymbals.

In the broader sense, worship is about offering all of our lives before God as an offering, which is how the Apostle Paul clearly spelled it out in Romans 11:36-12:1,

For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. To him be glory evermore. In light of that, I plead with you to give your body to God— your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and let it be a living sacrifice, holy—the kind he can accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? (Paraphrased)

In the narrow sense, we mostly think of worship as what happens in our corporate gatherings as we lift music and singing to God. That is an accurate but partial explanation of worship. Now what we need to keep in mind is that the narrow sense of worship must be defined and controlled by the broader sense of worship. Namely, the offering of our lives and praise is not primarily to make us feel good, though it does, but it is the logical response to God for who he is and all that he has done. Worship is all about our response to God. As Paul said, “Everything is from him and through him and for him.”

Since that is true, I would argue that praise and worship services ought to be designed with a ruthless commitment to fulfilling that statement. It ought not to be so much about what moves us, or what the latest, greatest song or lighting technique or creative technological or theatrical movements are. Nothing wrong with making effort to be contemporary, mind you, so long as it is committed to being “by him, though him and for him.” Worship ought to be about proclaiming what God wants to hear and to be heard.

David got that right, and he actually codified it for all time by writing it into the job description of the first organized worship leaders of the temple era. He charged Asaph, the senior worship pastor, to ensure that his associates led the music and singing in such a way that what was done “proclaimed God’s messages.” Now that is the standard for judging any worship set as great. Did it proclaim God’s messages?

It is my sense that too much of modern worship in America misses the boat on that. The lyrics are light on good theology and the music is good mostly for entertainment sake—it’s hip, it’s edgy, it shows off the talents of the musicians, it makes you want to move your feet. Again, nothing wrong with that, but if the primary focus doesn’t meet the prophetic benchmark—proclaiming God’s messages—it falls short.

When the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been preached in the worship set, there you have had a great worship service. If your minister of music accomplishes that week after week, you are fortunate; you have a minister cut from the same cloth as Asaph.

If that is the kind of worship leader your church has, make sure you show your appreciation for her or him. Give them the greatest compliment any musician in the house of God could ever receive: “you helped me hear God’s message today!”

Here is to the modern day Asaphs in the body of Christ: May your tribe increase!

Going Deeper With God: Before you “confront” your worship leader with this devotional, first pray for them until God has transformed your own heart with the broader definition of worship: that you are offering all of your life every day to God as a pleasing sacrifice.

Posted on

Make Music In Your Heart

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Might I suggest that maybe you, too, have a song in your heart? In fact, if you truly appreciate what Jesus has done for you, you should. So why not make music in your heart, at least to the Lord? Perhaps you should even begin to record your songs. You see, what is in your heart—the love and gratitude that is there toward God—is a song in unrecorded form. No one other than God and you may read it, but the God part of that combination is reason enough for you to write it. And who knows, but maybe at some point in your life, or after your life ends, others may pick up what you have done and be inspired to make music in their own heart with the song that God has put there.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 23:1-5

When David was old and full of years, he made his son Solomon king over Israel. He also gathered together all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites. The Levites thirty years old or more were counted, and the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand. David said, “Of these, twenty-four thousand are to be in charge of the work of the temple of the Lord and six thousand are to be officials and judges. Four thousand are to be gatekeepers and four thousand are to praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have provided for that purpose.”

David was quite the renaissance man, and that was way before the Renaissance Age. His skill, knowledge and artistry were well known among his peers, and his renown for matters of leadership, warcraft, musicianship and spirituality continue even to this day. No wonder he was and is the most loved king in the Bible.

Among David’s many achievements, none is greater than the contribution he made to the songbook of the human race, the Psalms. David was a songwriter par excellence, and a choreographer of immense creativity—he was able to direct skilled musicians in putting together the worship services of the temple—and a skilled craftsman of fine musical instruments. David’s all around artistic accomplishments are unmatched, even to this day.

That is mostly because David had a song in his heart. Music was not something that was manufactured; it was organic to him. When he was just a boy, he began playing a harp, writing songs, and performing to the flock of sheep over which his father had given him charge. David’s worship bubbled out from his core to the Lord, and over much time, in long stretches of solitude, refined by circumstances in which he met God’s deliverance, the sweet singer of Israel honed his craft. He became greater and greater as a singer, songwriter and musician. And while we will never truly know the expanse of David’s artistry, we do have the book of Psalms that surely impresses us with the brilliance of this man!

So other than great appreciation for the multifaceted talents of David, what should this mean to you? How should you apply this to your life? Might I suggest that maybe you, too, have a song in your heart? In fact, if you truly appreciate what Jesus has done for you, you should. So why not make music in your heart, at least to the Lord? The Apostle Paul says that is actually a function of the Spirit-filled life:

Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

So with the Spirit’s help, at the very least, why not start with writing down your song? A song? Yes, what is in your heart—the love and gratitude that is there toward God—is a song in unrecorded form. So record it; write it down. Every day, or once a week, or at some regular interval, commit to writing down you thoughts in journal form. No one other than God and you may read it, but the God part of that combination is reason enough for you to write it. And who knows, but maybe at some point in your life, or after your life ends, others may pick up what you have done and be inspired to make music in their own heart with the song that God has put there.

What might seem like a silly activity could actually be what inspires even more worship to the God who truly deserves much more than what we have given.

Going Deeper With God: Today, record your first song. Hey, at least it’s a start!