Fighting to love each other...

You know it makes me really sad that we live in a world where we don't show love!! We take every opportunity to insult and hate each other. Instead of honesty we sow gossip; Instead of sowing love we sow hate; instead of unity, we sow discord; instead of humility we sow pride and envy; instead of forgiveness and reconciliation we sow bitterness and isolation...and I'm just talking about within the church!!

I think satan must be having a field day. This is EXACTLY what he wanted all along!! I got this awesome email a long time ago that had a conversation between Jesus and satan. Satan had the world and Jesus asked him what he was going to do with it. Satan sneered and said "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!"

"And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.

"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"

"How much?" He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."

Jesus said, "DONE!"

Then He paid the price.

Think about that sacrifice. Think about what it cost for Jesus to come to earth in such a vulnerable way and give His life so that we would live. Think about the fact that God, whether you know Him or not, sent His ONLY Son to die your death!! Whichever way you want to look at it, we did NOT deserve that! We fall so short of His glory. We did NOTHING to deserve the sacrifice that was made for us. But the worst thing is that the sacrifice WAS made and now we do nothing to show how much it meant to us. We don't even think about it. Jesus paid the ULTIMATE sacrifice for us because He loved us...He came and showed us the right way to live, how to love and care for each other...and you can't say 'I wasn't alive then!' because it's all written out in black and white for you in the Bible. So why do we keep getting it wrong??!

I can't tell you how many times I've been hurt by other people, and likewise I can't tell you how many times I've hurt other people. You know, just since taking on my role as Youth Pastor here I've been hurt and insulted more time than I can count. There are SO many people who support me here, but there are also those few people who don't like me. People seem to think that you can prick a leader and they won't bleed. Let me tell you...they DO! And I'd normally say right at this point 'But, that's ok, cause you can't please everyone and not everyone will click' But, I'm not going to say that because it's just crap! I'm sorry but it's just insane to brush it off by saying that and not even give Jesus' example a second thought. Jesus CLEARLY showed us and TAUGHT us to love each other and be tolerant of one another! Let me just say that there are people who grate me the wrong way and I need this lesson just as much as anyone, but I think it's about time we stop making things like this seem so trivial. It's not trivial. We're talking about loving each other, and if we can't get that right within our own church circles then how on earth do we think that we're going to love the rest of the world??!!

But I promise you that if you are angry with someone, you will have to stand trial. If you call someone a fool, you will be taken to court. And if you say that someone is worthless, you will be in danger of the fires of hell. So if you are about to place your gift on the altar and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. Make peace with that person, then come back and offer your gift to God. Matthew 5:22-24

Man, God doesn't even want our worship while we're not at peace with each other. We think that we're ok because we go and do our weekly duty and we go to church and throw our arms up in the air and sing 'Here I am to worship...have all of me...' but at the same time our hearts are not right because we have these unresolved issues and we're thinking about the person two rows in front of us who we just can't stand! Or even worse, we have an issue with the preacher and so we switch off and miss what God's trying to say to us!! When are we gonna get real and sort ourselves out. God gave us a commandment to love each other and in fact He even called it His GREATEST commandment...of all the commandments that God wanted to give us, His GREATEST one was to LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS CHRIST LOVED US!! It's not something we can just brush off and say, 'Oh, it's no big deal...I love everyone else...I just don't get along with Fred!' IT IS A BIG DEAL!!! Jesus said, don't even bother coming to me and worshiping me and offering sacrifices to me if you still have a partially hardened heart even towards just ONE of your brothers!

I want to challenge you (and believe me, I'm feeling very challenged myself here!!...start loving each other! Stop putting each other down...stop hating each other...love like Jesus did! His love was NOT cautious...but EXTRAVAGANT!! Ephesians 5:2 LOVE LIKE THAT!!

Fighting to be a true worshiper!!

Wow...it's really been a long time since I last blogged. So here I am again...talking about WORSHIP!!

Have you ever thought about what it means to truly worship God? I mean, what is worship about? Do you know how to worship? Is worship just something that you do on a Sunday when you go to church and jump around and wave your arms in the air...?? That's great to worship that way...I'm pretty expressive myself when I worship. But I've had to ask myself recently 'Do people see that same act of worship in my everyday life? When people see me worship in church they might assume that I have it all together and that I must be really close to God because I can worship in such an open and expressive way...but when they see me outside the church doors, do they feel as convinced that I'm in a great relationship with Christ and that I'm living every moment of my life in heart felt worship? Do I worship God as the Scriptures encourage...in spirit and in truth?" Well, my friends, I'm ashamed to say this, but challenged enough to admit it, alot of the time my worship does not enter my everyday life.

Last year I spent a little bit of time at The Salvos 'Street Level' in Sydney. Street Level is a place where the homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, transvestites, etc come to find love. Basically, they provide internet services, meals, church, groups activity's/programs etc. It really is an awesome place. It's a place where they find love and acceptance in the middle of a city that doesn't want to know about them. While I was there serving meals this one Friday night, I remember sitting there thinking 'Wow...this is so sad...these people are so poor...wouldn't it be great if they had so much more and if they could do something in life.' I remember standing there thinking that in some way I was better than these people because I had more than them and I had come further in life. Man, what an attitude!!! God was soon to break that!

I led worship in their chapel that night and I was so filled with the Holy Spirit and felt so convicted about my attitude. Watching these people worship God was so truly amazing. They were bringing a TRUE act of worship. I worship God for all that I have. For all that He's made me. For all that He's done in my life. For His provisions. And yet, these people left my worship for dead. These people worshiped God even though they had nothing. No money, no home for some of them, no family, only a few sets of old dirty clothes, no life skills and yet here they were throwing their arms up to God in worship to Him. Here they were dancing and singing at the top of their voices about how great God is. The Holy Spirit moved in that place in such a powerful way and I could just sense the anointing He was pouring out on them...yes, He was anointing these sinners...these people who the rest of the world thought were nothing. And even though they knew what the world thought of them, they still joined together and worshiped the Lord with all their heart because they had discovered the truth of Jesus.

You know I was so ashamed that night and at the same time it was one of the best times in complete worship I think I've ever experienced. But you know when the real test comes? It comes when you turn off the music, lose the emotional high that the music creates and you leave the church. Then what? Do you continue in worship or do you wait till you hear the music again? This is one of those things that people are continually confused about. When you say 'worship' people straight away think about music and singing...but that's not what the Bible says. It doesn't say 'Singing will be your only act of worship EVER!' Worship is a life style thing. In her book, Extravagant Worship, Darlene Zschech says:

Worship is a verb, defined as "regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion." It is an active expression of our love toward God. It is vibrant and visible by our deeds and not only by the words we speak. Worship involves the giving of ourselves totally to the Lord. Worship is neither a ritualistic activity nor a musical emotion. It embodies and reflects the selfless generosity of Christ. Worship is a movement of our hearts, our thoughts, and our wills toward God's heart, thoughts, and will.

What a great definition of what worship is about. I think that sums it up really nicely actually. We need to stop thinking that worship is all about the right kind of music and the right words in a song. That is only one part of what worship is about. There are so many other things that we need to do to engage in true worship. Worship is a selfless act in which we hold NOTHING back from God and we pour ourselves completely into His will. Darlene also says in her book,

To practice extravagant worship, we need to get good at saying, "I lay down my life." Come to Jesus with a grateful heart, and in everything you do live a lifestyle filled with extravagant worship.

The number one thing that we need to do is to lay our life down. That's our first and most important act of worship. To lay your life down means that you are being completely selfless in your worship and it means that you recognise that your life and your worship to God has little to do with you, but infact it's all about God. He gave us life and He promises us eternal riches...I think the least we can do is to give our lives back to Him for His service and in a complete act of worship.

Worship is not just about taking time to sit down and read your Bible and pray and sing a few songs on your own or corporately...as Darlene Zschech puts it, worship is a VERB and is visible by our deeds! Hanging out with mates, cleaning a toilet, playing games, assignments, playing sport, shopping...you can worship God in all of these things. The way that you behave, the things you do, the things you buy...are you doing those things in worship to God?

We need to offer ourselves and our lives to God in all things. In everything we do. The kind of worship that God wants is WHOLE HEARTED EXTRAVAGANT WORSHIP! Be over the top in your worship...trust me...even then it's not as much as He deserves...so keep giving more and more. I see too often when we worship God and we have an awesome time praising God with our singing and our church service...the message we hear, the tithe we give...we do our weekly duty...but then we leave and for the rest of the week we live as if we never worshiped God to start with.

Let God challenge you...be challenged to give MORE in your worship. Be challenged to make your life a COMPLETE and TRUE act of worship. Worship Him in spirit and in truth.

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" John 4:23-24