Monday, March 29, 2010

Prophetic Worship

Our oldest son Josh, a creative and thoughtful graphic designer has a real, honest and contagious love for God. Not only is he artistically gifted, he plays the "heck" out of a guitar and loves to break into new expressions of worship. I think leading worship might be his most powerful gift.

This past weekend, while teaching through Paul's letter to the Galatians, I used a quote by Don Williams about the nature of true Christianity. Don says, it's all about "Unzipping (your heart), God jumps in and you zip back up". In simple terms, Don is describing the Holy Spirit entering into a person through faith and making His home in the life of a new believer.

On Saturday morning, hours before I was g0ing to teach this message, Josh sent me the lyrics of a new song he is learning. Here are the words to that song.
Peel back our ribs again and stand inside of our chest
We just wanna' love you, We just wanna' love you
Peel back the veil of time
And let us see You with our naked eyes
We just wanna' love you, We just wanna' love you, Yeah
Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on the lips of the found
And gravestones roll to the rhythm of the sound of You
Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on the lips of the found
So separate those doors and let the son of resurrection in
Oh let us adore the Son of Glory drenched in love
Open up your gates before him, Crown Him, stand Him up
We want your blood to flow inside our body
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just wanna' love you, We just wanna' love you

Growing up in a traditional church, we sang songs with lyrics,
"I serve a risen Savior, He's in the
world today..."
When my wife and I first came into the fullness of the Holy Spirit
in the late '70's, the songs we were singing were songs like,
"More love, more power, more of You in our lives".
The Holy Spirit is breathing into this young generation of
Jesus followers a much more raw, aggressive and desperate
language as they appeal to God for new life.
They don't just want "more",they want God to
"Peel back their ribs"
.

I believe this kind of gut wrenching cry is prophetic
and God's response will be powerful.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Action in Waiting

My wife and I are reading a book together. It is entitled Action in Waiting by Christoph Blumhardt (1842-1919). A friend of mine told me years ago that if I wanted to be challenged to live a life for Christ, he advised me to "read the dead guys". The forward of this book is challenging enough. It begins by saying:

A prominent pastor of our day concludes one of his books with these words: "I'm enjoying God these days. He answers my prayers, He empowers me. He gives me insights from his Word. He guides my life. He gives me loving relationships. He has wonderful things in store for me." "I", "my", "me", "me", "me". Is this what the kingdom of God which has come in Christ is about? God catering to and pampering individual Christians? Is God's rule centered on "me" and "mine"?

This challenges and stirs my thinking as does the entire book. It makes me wonder if I'm reading my Bible with the correct set of lenses. Man do I love God. He never quits challenging my heart. Oh that I can come to love him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.