Song of the Week #35

Lyric Material

I’m trying to finish up this song today that I’ve been working on for a few weeks. It’s gonna be a worship song called, “Your Name is Love”. One of the things I do to formulate lyrics is just write out the ideas I’m thinking, then take from those and put them into a lyrical, or song, form. I thought that what I wrote down today (for what will eventually become the 2nd verse) would be good stuff for a blog. So today, I’m just posting these thoughts:

Things will come that will challenge us to remain focused on the truth. Our eyes will see things that deceive us and distract us. But these lies will fall to the word that has been spoken by God into the hearts of believers. His whispers out-scream their lies.

Song of the Week #34

Love and Relationships

Just had a very simple revelation:

Two things that the Christian community in the US has been stressing the last few years is that 1) God is love; and, 2) “It’s about a relationship, not religion.” If these two things are true, and we are seeking to imitate God to the best of our ability, then shouldn’t we be all about 1) love; and, 2) relationships?? Makes sense to me. A pretty simple revelation, but could profoundly affect somebody like me…

I’m one of those people that is prone to being driven by tasks and accomplishing things. People like me can sometimes view personal relationships as just another task to be completed during the day. For example, spending 15 minutes on a phone call to a friend, or carving out time to spend with your spouse can become something that is just another item to be marked off a list at the end of the day. This is not healthy!

Being first and foremost about love and relationships brings an entirely different outlook to life. If you are first about love, then you can see past people’s mistakes. If you are first about love, then you find it easier to see the greatness in people. If relationships are of foremost importance to you, then you don’t treat people like an object; you place people above tasks and don’t mind putting time into them.

One of the great points Stephen Covey makes in “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is that you should be effective with people and efficient with things. That means that you shouldn't merely schedule blocks of time to “deal” with people and relationships in your life as you would things, or tasks, that you need to get done. You must be patient and put the necessary time into the people and relationships that matter to you. You can’t treat people and tasks the same.

So I’ve got it in my mind today to be more like my Daddy: be all about love, and be all about relationships.

Song of the Week #33

Baby Resurrected!!

Be More Faithful

Don’t you hate it when people tell you they will do something and then don’t follow through? Or they commit to doing something, but then they back out? Or how about when they say they’ll be there at 7pm, only to show up around 8 or 9…how mad does that make you?

I know that kind of stuff kills me. When people continually break promises, back out, and show up late it makes it very, very hard for me to place any kind of confidence in them. Not only that, but it also makes me wonder if they value my time at all. I’ve heard it said before by people much wiser than me that if someone is habitually late then they consider their own time more valuable than everyone else’s; that is, whether that person realizes it or not (doing it intentionally, or unintentionally), they place a higher premium on their own time than they do yours. Ever known a person like that?

Ok, next question: how often are you that person? How often do you break your commitments? Back out? Reschedule? Show up late? Are you the one that is making a habit of placing your own time above other people’s time?? If the answer is yes, then it is time for you to change!!

As Christians, we should constantly be pursuing after the character of God. That means we should seek to emulate His ways and His characteristics so that we will be more like Him. It seems that we focus on certain characteristics like love, patience, and kindness—which are all wonderful—but neglect other parts of His character. Is God not also faithful?! Does He not remain true to His Word?! Why should we work on ourselves in all these other areas but not strive to be more like Our Father in this area?

Let me be blunt with you today. If you are a Christian, you should be faithful. When you give your word to do something, you should follow through. When you say you’ll help with something, you should show up to do it. When you say “7pm”, you should be there at, or before, 7pm. It is very simple really: your “yes” should be yes, and your “no” should be no.

As humans, we will screw up, and we will let people down. Only God is 100% faithful, 100% of the time. But we can be more like Him in this respect. I’ll leave you with 3 simple tips today that can help you be more faithful:

1. Consider before committing. Before you say “yes”, make sure that you are up to the task. Check your schedule, check your bank account, check your personal commitment level to this particular thing.

2. Learn to say “no”. If you foresee potential conflicts, don’t bind yourself. Although it may be hard to say “no” on the spot to someone, it will be much more beneficial to you both than if you cancel later.

3. Leave early. If you really want to get better at being on time, leave at least 15 minutes earlier than you normally would. It is human nature to underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something…we don’t take into account little things like the time it takes to gather our stuff before we head out the door, unforeseen traffic, parking, time it takes to walk from the parking lot to the destination, etc. If you arrive early, then great! You are showing the other person that their time is valuable to you.

May we all be more like Him every day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Song of the Week #32

Chicago, Forgiveness

Did yall see that crazy blizzard in Chicago?! I was there. 20 inches of snow kept me pretty locked down in the Red Roof Inn Chicago-Lansing. If I had ever doubted it before, a Mitsubishi Eclipse is not made for that kind of weather :)

I was up there to do some music things with a friend of mine, and also to hang out at Family Christian Center—the nation’s 20th largest church. Pastored by Steve Munsey, FCC has over 12,000 members. When you are that big, you gotta be doing something right, ya know? So I went in wanting to see how they run things, make some connections, and just glean anything I could from this mega-ministry.

I was impressed with their facilities and ministries, but the main blessing of being there was just hearing Mr. Munsey speak 3 times. He is an anointed and prophetic man of God, and also a wonderful speaker. I got to hear him in a very small setting on Monday evening as he taught their Bible College class in front of about 100 students. Then, I heard him preach in both services on Wednesday evening. The focus of Wednesday night’s message was forgiveness, and he said something that I feel is worth repeating. To paraphrase, he said, “Your level of forgiveness is equal to your level of faith.” That is quite a powerful statement. He also said that the people he knows who have the most faith also have the highest levels of forgiveness in their lives.

Wow. This is usually where I would elaborate on the point, but I just want to let his statement sink in a little. “Your level of forgiveness is equal to your level of faith.” Who among us doesn’t need to exercise forgiveness more in our lives? I know I do. If we harbor unforgiveness in our hearts, it can hinder what God is wanting to do in our lives. This is a hard one to deal with because it is really personal, but I want you to take a moment and look into yourself right now and see if/where you are still holding onto unforgiveness. Once you’ve identified it, give it to God and ask him to heal you and help you walk in that new state of forgiveness and wholeness. Forgive whoever it is that you’ve been holding captive (and that’s been holding you captive), and also ask the Lord to forgive you for bottling that stuff up in your heart.

* * * * *

If you want to watch Steve Munsey’s actual message on forgiveness from this past week, follow this link and click on ‘Archives’, then click ‘Watch Now’ beside of Wednesday 02-02-2011. It’s definitely worth your time. Lastly, I've typed out 2 Bible verses below that address this issue (my emphasis added in bold). The last one shows us exactly how Jesus handled forgiveness, even as he was being crucified.

May God bless you all this week. In Jesus Christ of Nazareth's holy name, Amen.

James 2:13 -- because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Luke 23:34 -- Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”…

Song of the Week #31