Merge Worship

I just saw this video from Apple on another blog. It talks about changing the world. Sometimes when God gives you big ideas everyone looks at you like you are crazy. I've had some of those crazy looks over my time in telling people the visions and passions of my heart. It can be discouraging and disheartening at times, but I was encouraged after this that it's OK to be a little bit crazy. I think I'm going to listen to some Seal this morning. "No we're never gonna survive, unless; we get a little crazy..." Here's to being a little crazy.

This past weekend one of our elders, Mike Hartsfield, was teaching about Jonah. He talked about responses to grace. What stood out to me was the sailors response to grace. These were pagan sailors who cast lots to “see which of them had offended the gods“. (Jonah 1:7-emphasis added) The sailors were confronted with God’s grace when God stopped the storm after they threw Jonah overboard. They cried out in prayer to God to spare their lives and He responded by silencing the seas. Their immediate response was “awestruck by the Lord’s great power, they offered Him a sacrifice and vowed to serve Him”.(Jonah 1:16)

These guys were truly awestruck by God’s power and grace. He was fresh and new. The fact that He would care enough to save them was an overwhelming thought. They had to sacrifice to Him on the spot.Their ship had not been destroyed! Their lives were saved!

Do you remember that day? The day that your life was changed? The day you were saved? I’m afraid the I’m guilty of becoming too familiar with grace. Somehow losing the awestruck wonder that God would come down to die for me. That Jesus loved me (and you) enough to give His all for me. It’s easy to forget sometimes what condition my ship was in when He found me and where my life would be without Him. I believe we’d all do well to “remember His kindness” (Psalms 42:6) and reflect on the truth that He “rescued me from death; You have kept my feet from slipping.” (Psalms 56:13a)

Grace should never stop being amazing. What ways to you remind yourself to be amazed by His grace in your life and keep your amazement fresh?

We’ve been talking a lot recently at my home church about “Harvest Time” and God’s desire to bring people away from Him into relationship with Him. Here's something I posted on our church blog about this topic.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about how worship can help play a role on Sunday mornings in this theme. During my devotions yesterday, I re-read the scripture that says, “And if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to Myself”. (John 12:32 NASB)

I know this was Jesus giving a preview of how He was going to die, but I also believe that as we lift Him up in our worship (and our daily lives) others will be drawn to Him. My personal belief is that when we worship with passion, it sparks the longing that God has placed in everyone to be close to Him. When we tap into the eternal nature of worship (read Revelation 4-5) it resonates with the eternity that God has placed in their heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:!1) One way that we can continue to move toward “Harvest Time” in our gatherings is to “lift Him up” and allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to draw people to Jesus. Let’s worship with passion and fire this Sunday morning! I’m looking forward to it.What’s some other ways you see worship and harvest intersecting?

Many of you probably saw my friend Mike Craig sitting with me at church this week. Mike is like a brother to me. Scratch that, he is my brother. I'm exactly a month and a day older than him and enjoy telling people that I've known Mike his entire life. I was thinking on the value of his friendship and what it means to me. That made me think of a mutual friend of ours, Walt Smith, as he's the third of this trio of brothers. (there's more guys who are like brothers to me, but trio works better for this story)

It dawned on me that Walt wouldn't have been my friend if Mike hadn't led him to Jesus. Talking with Mike about it, I found out that he told Walt on his side porch that he "was going to hell if he didn't come to OUR church". While Mike's theology might have needed some work in our younger years, Mike's willingness to reach out didn't just change Walt's life but mine as well. Walt is a great friend. Always ready to go the extra mile to show he cares for me and my family. The first to apologize in a fight and the last to hold a grudge.

I don't have many friends like Walt. Most people will unfortunately go their whole life without a friend like him. Many times I look at evangelism as only a means to get people into heaven or connect them to Jesus, but I was hit this weekend with the fact that Mike's act of personal evangelism had a huge impact on my life. I have another member of my family, because Mike cared enough to reach beyond himself and tell Walt about Jesus. Personal evangelism changes more lives than the one you're evangelizing. Whose world could you change today through personal evangelism?