"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." - Colossians2:2-6
Iwas showed this passage this week and it did an astounding job at punching me in the face with a forceful, kung-fu round-house kick.
I guess I either used to be really in touch with God through daily consistent prayer 4-5 years ago OR I never realized till reading this scripture how much my life has become crowded with so many new things that more consistently take up my mind, that something had to be pushed out... I guess my communication with God was the first thing to go... OOPS
[God's gonna get an ear-full tonight]
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
WEBBER: Ch. 3-5
I've been so out of touch. I don't feel motivated to dive into the word, to a book about the word or to even really form my mind around God-based theories. I guess I'm in a stage of being over, over-anilization. I used to love looking deeper into meanings, disputed ideas or any kind of controversial topic, but honestly, just give me Jesus. I'm done over-thinking, overanalyzing, overworking all these ideas.... at least for now. SO - because of this, my eyes glazed over, that is, until I turned to page 42 and the following.
It talks about Jesus being a rebel. How he wasn't afraid to rework the rules that had been put in place by the pharisees. How he took the rules and repurposed their true meaning, by giving a whole new explanation to their purposes.
For example: The Sabbath was seen as a day that men where ultimately created for, they were to respect IT as a higher entity. but Jesus, he re-envisioned the sabbath as a day that is made to observe the Father, that the Son of MAN still had control over, the event was not greater than God, GOD was greater than the event. Which I'm pretty sure blew a few pharisaical minds. But I bechta nothing makes God laugh more than watching haughty, conceited minds get blown out of the water by a
barefoot carpenter's son.
I kind of love it when I see Jesus being a rebel and kick'n some a....butt.
I hope those pharisees thought they were getting punked and Jesus was like "haha, nope. Sorry, not sorry".
Righteous anger and truth teaching. FTW.
.peace brethren.
It talks about Jesus being a rebel. How he wasn't afraid to rework the rules that had been put in place by the pharisees. How he took the rules and repurposed their true meaning, by giving a whole new explanation to their purposes.
barefoot carpenter's son.
I kind of love it when I see Jesus being a rebel and kick'n some a....butt.
I hope those pharisees thought they were getting punked and Jesus was like "haha, nope. Sorry, not sorry".
Righteous anger and truth teaching. FTW.
.peace brethren.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
WEBBER: Ch. 1 + 2
Alrighty, well here I am, here we are, in worship lesson-class-sectional-thingy, together.
Please ignore my love and over-abundant use of commas, it is an unhealthy tick of mine to write how I speak; which is casually, often, and with little awareness of an end or period.
So, just as expected (and required): my thoughts on the first two chapters of the webber book entitled "Worship Old + New"
ch1.
The idea of combining worship from old and new sections and making it an entity on its own is a concept that I have thought of before but have never been able to eloquently put into words myself. I appreciate the way Webber describes the positive aspects of old and new worship is a refreshing way to explain theologically sound contemporaryism. Is that a word? Contempraryism? You let me know if you can come up with a better way of saying that one.
Moving on, my favorite part of Webber's explanation for old and new worship is the following quote:
Seriously people, why make worship more complicated then that? Thats the long and the short of what church, congregational, communal, CORPORATE worship should be like; despite the denomination, century or country.
God, people, lives-changed, hearts-healed. boom. done. g'night. Jesus can come now.
I think it is so special to bring in tradition from the first churches up through today's traditions. I am one to always value tradition not only because it deserves respect but because it is such a beautiful testament to how hearts can be touched through the ages by the same acts of honoring our God. By committing to memory the four main parts of a traditional service:
- Acts of entrance - The service of the Eucharist (communion)
- The service of the word - Dismissal
It will allow us as constructors of the contemporary service to hold true to old truths while updating the presentations and explanations.
ch 2._______________________________________________
The Biblical Themes of Worship throughout the Testaments
The meeting between the 70 elders of Israel, the young men, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu with God is a great picture of how God brings us together form different walks of life, different gift-sets and places to create a whole that has one purpose; to honor Him.
This is something I think a lot of church attendees forget, particularly when in search of home church. They look for a worship environment that is "comfortable" or that "fits" the best for them, when really, we as amazing creations by God are designed to have our own particular space within a diverse group.
God called his people together because they're different, because they worship differently for the same reason. This is just another reason why blended worship is such a beautiful picture of God's original intention for the church, to be eclectic for His name sake.
~ That's it for the Daily SmAcken - peace brethren.
Please ignore my love and over-abundant use of commas, it is an unhealthy tick of mine to write how I speak; which is casually, often, and with little awareness of an end or period.
So, just as expected (and required): my thoughts on the first two chapters of the webber book entitled "Worship Old + New"
ch1.
The idea of combining worship from old and new sections and making it an entity on its own is a concept that I have thought of before but have never been able to eloquently put into words myself. I appreciate the way Webber describes the positive aspects of old and new worship is a refreshing way to explain theologically sound contemporaryism. Is that a word? Contempraryism? You let me know if you can come up with a better way of saying that one.
Moving on, my favorite part of Webber's explanation for old and new worship is the following quote:
" ...Worship old and new is a fully committed to contemporary relevance. because Worship is an act of communication between God and his people, worship must touch the lives of people, stimulate personal and spiritual formation, and bring healing to relationships."This four line statement made me do an inward "uh, yes lawd" and an outward grooving of my head like I was listing to Smooth Jazz 97.8.
Seriously people, why make worship more complicated then that? Thats the long and the short of what church, congregational, communal, CORPORATE worship should be like; despite the denomination, century or country.
God, people, lives-changed, hearts-healed. boom. done. g'night. Jesus can come now.
I think it is so special to bring in tradition from the first churches up through today's traditions. I am one to always value tradition not only because it deserves respect but because it is such a beautiful testament to how hearts can be touched through the ages by the same acts of honoring our God. By committing to memory the four main parts of a traditional service:
- Acts of entrance - The service of the Eucharist (communion)
- The service of the word - Dismissal
It will allow us as constructors of the contemporary service to hold true to old truths while updating the presentations and explanations.
ch 2._______________________________________________
The Biblical Themes of Worship throughout the Testaments
The meeting between the 70 elders of Israel, the young men, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu with God is a great picture of how God brings us together form different walks of life, different gift-sets and places to create a whole that has one purpose; to honor Him.
This is something I think a lot of church attendees forget, particularly when in search of home church. They look for a worship environment that is "comfortable" or that "fits" the best for them, when really, we as amazing creations by God are designed to have our own particular space within a diverse group.
God called his people together because they're different, because they worship differently for the same reason. This is just another reason why blended worship is such a beautiful picture of God's original intention for the church, to be eclectic for His name sake.
~ That's it for the Daily SmAcken - peace brethren.
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