Tomorrow is here!

Tomorrow is a day I have awaited for a long time. I am traveling, along with one of my colleagues at North Davis, over to First Baptist Euless to hear a man considered to be one of the top worship theologians and scholars in North America, a man I admire very much and respect greatly, Robert Webber. In light of this, I was familiarizing myself with some of his writings again and came across this quote of his. Chew on this thesis, and read Revelation, then, see what you think.

"The emphasis of biblical and ancient God-directed worship is ultimately about the victory of God over all the powers of evil. In worship we remember God's saving acts in history, and we anticipate the consummation of God's rescue at the end of history. "

Meeting People Where They Are...

I dread what I have to do over the next 10 days. Read three books, write 3 papers, GRAD SCHOOL HAS OFFICIALLY TAKEN OVER!!!

However, in reading one of these books, I came across a great quote from Eddie Gibbs. He puts eloquently into words a thought that many have said, but not so well...What do you think?

"Churches cannot stand apart from society and invite people to come to them on their terms. Rather, churches must go to people where they are and communicate in terms that will make sense to them, addressing the issues that shape their lives and speaking their language."

[--Eddie Gibbs, ChurchNext (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000) 39.]

What does that mean for the way we inculcate people into our churches? What does that mean for us and the way we prepare and construct worship? What kind of impressions do we want to make on this broken society?

Who would have thunk it...

I knew that I wouldnt be able to keep up with this blog on a daily basis as I set out to do...But the goal was noble, right?

Here are a few new definitions, thoughts on the dominant topic seen on this sight: WORSHIP. These, like another post of recent weeks, are based on Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz.
"Many of our attempts to understand the Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the totality of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and holy otherness forever..."

It is not about me...never has been, never will be!

This last week has been a very good one spiritually for me.  Wrapped up my first stint of speaking on Wednesday evenings...and I have discovered that that time of sermon preparation has been very enriching for me.  This last week I spent some time talking with by best friend Kevin about Psalm 107 as I prepped for the message.  Couple that with my beginning reading Max's new book "It's Not About me."  Whats all that to say?  When we find ourselves, like the fourth group giving their testimony in Psalm 107:23-32, in situations that we have gotten ourselves into where the waves are soaring above our heads, we gasp for air, thinking we can get ourselves out of this proverbial pickle, we realize that it isn't about us, and that it never has been about us or anything we can do.  We can no more die for our own sin than we can solve the world's hunger problem.  God has been so incredibly good to us...blessing us by taking us out of the calamities of life we get ourselves into, hearing us cry out for help, rescuing and saving us...then, we are to respond by telling the whole world of the healing, redeeming, saving, powerful message of God!

Reflecting on the Benefits of God

This week I am speaking from Psalm 103. After reading and re-reading this psalm over and over, a couple of things come to my mind. Firstly, who ever gave anyone the right to complain? IF you read this psalm between vs 3 and 19, David lists off a mere 17, yes SEVENTEEN, "benefits of God." David, whether he meant to or not, in this song he wrote to be sung in tabernacle worship of the people of Israel all but undresses those who come to worship with this selfish attitude of "It's all about me..." And secondly, God is good, all the time! I thought that phrase was so trivial a year ago. But if you read this psalm, and you see your place in relation to a God who has redeemed, healed, forgiven, renewed, loved, and grace-covered you, how can you even begin to think that GOd is not a god who is eternally, unutterably good!!

"Bless the Lord, O my Soul...and all that is within me, bless His holy name"

July 6th...Quite a hiatus!!

It has been, yet again, some time since I last updated the ole' blog. Safe to say that I am not addicted...For the next 4 weeks I am speaking on Wednesday nights. We are doing a series at the moment based on titles of the songs we sing in worship...coming from the angle of how so often what we sing is at the core of our theology, and how when we sing such things we rarely let it soak in what we are singing about. I am constructing the first of these 4 sermonettes coming out of Psalm 63, one of my absolute favorite Psalms. Being the worship-junkie that I am, something came to my mind as I read the middle portion of Psalm 63 that I apparently just have skipped over in past sittings. It prompted a question I need to ask myself constantly. How often, in moments of spiritual and physical longing and thirst do we rejoice in worship; realizing that we are held in the palm of God's hand, "under the shadow of God's wings?" Do we...can we...truly get our hands around the fact that regardless of how awful our life is or how wonderful life is at any given time, God's all-encompassing love is better than life. If I read this Psalm now, it speaks to me that whatever state our life is in at any given moment, our minds, hearts, souls and strength should be so overcome with the depth of God's love that we shouldn't be able to keep from singing, worshipping, outstretching our hands in praise to God, awaiting to receive his blessing. When is the last time we lay awake in bed at night, unable to sleep, because we were so overcome with the incredible-ness of the love of God?

Read the words of this olden hymn, recently reworked by MercyMe, original words, still intact...
"The Love of God" F.M. Lehman, c.1917

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell;

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every ma a scribe a trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.

The Noblest of a Father's Goals

Several years ago, Phillips, Craig and Dean wrote a song for each of their children...This Song, called "Lord I Wanna Be Just Like You," is carved out of the desire of every parent to be a great role model for their children. The older I get, the more I reflect, and the more that I reflect, the more I see Christ in my father, mother, grandmothers and grandfathers...It is the noblest of all goals as a parent to reflect Christ to your children so they will then model Christ in return..."Lord I [the father] wanna be just like You [The Father] so he [my son] can be just like me!"

Well...It has been another while!

I have got to get better at maintaining this BLOG!!! Anyway, there you have it! Sunday was a great day at North Davis. We took the whole worship time to gather around the table, sharing in Christ's body and blood communally the Lord's supper. I think too often in Churches of Christ we have lost sight of what Communion is all about. As my senior Minister said, "we have made it the Lord's snack...we have ritualized, privatized, and trivialized, Americanized, industrialized," and another -ized word that I forgot, "what was the most important meal to the early Christian community." We need to recover that sense of community that early Christians shared when they took the Supper together. Yesterday at the close of our worship time we sang a song called "We Are the Body of Christ," and a gentleman came up to me at the conclusion and said that he had never felt this type of unifying activity done at this church before. That is a powerful statement, both for the positive and for the negative. ON one hand, we have hurt ourselves in the past by not doing worship as an act of unification of the worshipping body. On the other hand, we are beginning to recognize community-forming activities as a vital part of the worshipping church. May God bless us as we draw closer to one another, and as we draw closer to him!!

Well...it's been a while!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted something, yet not as long as others that I Know! Anyway, here is a quote I would like to share for this morning! Whoever Joseph Joubert was, he was a wise man!

"That which astonishes, astonishes once; but whatever is admirable becomes more and more desired."
— Joseph Joubert

Do You Like Jazz???

No...this is not a reference to a crude gesture of Jim Carey in "Bruce Almighty," but it stems from conversation I had with Greg Pirtle, the youth and student minister here at ND. We were talking about PostModernism, and authors like Brian McLaren who have written about it as well as books we might like to read and he showed and read to me the Author's note from a book called "Blue Like Jazz," by Donald Miller. Listen to these few words.

"I never liked jazz music becuase jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing a saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. AFter that, I liked jazz music. (LISTEN TO THIS NEXT SENTENCE) SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO WATCH SOMEBODY LOVE SOMETHING BEFORE YOU CAN LOVE IT YOURSELF. IT IS AS IF THEY ARE SHOWING YOU THE WAY. I used to not like God because God doesn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened.

Listen to that again and think about how it might apply to our relationship to God, or to Worship...the possibilities are endless!!

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO WATCH SOMEBODY LOVE SOMETHING BEFORE YOU CAN LOVE IT YOURSELF. IT IS AS IF THEY ARE SHOWING YOU THE WAY.

Everybody's Workin For the Weekend

Every morning when i come into my office here at the church, the first thing is this running quote, scripture, and image slideshow on my computer screen. This morning, alongside a gorgeous photo of the earth in a moment of eclipse, was overlayed this quote from Blaise Pascal...

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."

How often do you ponder on the magnanimous nature of God...A God who sits enthroned above the universe, who created everything, and whose word, logos, created worlds, kosmos...What a powerful thought that with even God's breath, we can be swept away in an instant and anything can be accomplished!! O What A Glorious God!

A Great thought...

I came across this wonderful quote this morning as I sifted through my plethora of daily emails, subscriptions, and devotionals. I want to share it with you for your own pondery! God's Richest Blessings!!!
DJB

"When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, Care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life..." (Jean Shinoda Boden)

Just another "Manic Monday"

Well,
Mondays are often pretty hectic around the NDCOC office. Review of Sunday, staff meeting, worship leadership team meeting, all that good stuff...and all of that to say that it officially feels like I am not a college student anymore. I have felt as if I were on vacation for the last week, but now, and as I got up early this morning, my inner being said to my brain as I woke up this morning, "Welcome to the 'real world!'" Still, I would not give it up for anything. God Has Blessed me beyond anything my brain could ever get its arms around by putting me where I am at this very moment in time. Hopefully you can reflect upon God's purposeful actions in your lives as well. Have a great week!

Sunday, Sunday...

Sundays can be long, tiresome, even exhausting to say the least. Early mornings, late evenings, but the people make it all worth while. I am reminded Sunday after Sunday why I have come to North Davis: such wonderful, loving and encouraging people. Just today I shared funny mother stories and funny church stories with a family whom I have come to love since we have spent so much time working at the church, often late at night together. Those are such rewarding times and they make ministry extremely enjoyable.

Now...For today's worship thought.
This morning somewhat of a joke was made out of somewhat of a "serious subject." You know, those pesky handraisers which we often seem to categorize into the "closet Pentecostal" category. As I have journeyed on my pilgrimage of faith thus far I have come to consensus with something biblically profound, and that is this: WORSHIP IS A VERB...not to plagiarize from Robert Webber's book. For so long we have used worship as a noun for the time and place where we offer praise, prayer, and hear the Word of God. As I grow and Mature in Christ, however, I tend to lean toward a definition of worship as an action taken on our behalf in response to the redeeming action of Christ. Worship is ABSOLUTELY a verb. As has been said, worship, the act of ascribing worth to something or someone, is the primary act of Christ's church. And it is an act that can not be done in passivity. We must no longer become an audience. We must truly, with our hands lifted high, worship the Lamb of Glory and King of Kings. May the Body of Christ become an active group of worshippers who can come before the throne just as they are, hands outstretched in praise, worshipping God without fear of those persons sitting around us looking upon us and placing us in the category of "those people." May we recover what is at the linguistic origin of the meaning of the word worship: a word of action, ascribing praise, honor and GLory to Christ!!

Read the words of Psalm 96, a psalm with which we called each other to worship this morning at North Davis...
May God BLess You this week...
DJB

Ascribe to the LORD , O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

Worship Thought for Today, May 13th

In the opening words of his book "Israel's Praise," Walter Brueggemann pens these words:
"Praise is the duty and delight, the ultimate vocation of the human community; indeed, of all creation...Praise articulates and embodies our capacity to yield, submit, and abandon ourselves in trust and gratitude to the One whose we are...Praise is a human need, and in it we find our deepest joy."
We humans are created as beings who have this deep hunger to worship something. In view of the incredible love God has shown us, we worship him, that is our response, bowing our knees to him in praise. As I begin my journey into full-time worship ministry, I continue to search for and find ideas, truths, and develop a theology of worship. Viewing my ministry in the light of the fact that worship is the utmost human need really puts a new spin on things!!! May we treat the praise God is due as that very thing, "the ultimate vocation of the human community."

Worship Details for Sunday May 16th

In case youre feeling overzealous, here is the order for Sunday! We have got a couple of new songs to learn tonight, so make every effort to be there, rm 220, 7pm!! Be a Blessing

WELCOME & FAMILY NEWS
WORSHIP IN PRAISE-D.J. Bulls
CHORAL READING: Psalm 96:1-9

Hallelujah Praise Jehovah 3
I Stand Amazed 147
Lord Most High SCREEN
Crown Him With Many Crowns 193
We Will Worship the Lamb of Glory SCREEN

THE LORD’S PRAYER—D.J.

I Sing Praises 97

WORSHIP AT THE TABLE & IN OUR GIVING—

During the Sharing of the Bread
I Worship You, Almighty God 64

During the Sharing of the Cup
The Great Physician 291

During the Sharing of our Blessings
I Will Sing of My Redeemer 513

DISMISSAL TO KIDS’ CROSSING & SPANISH WORSHIP

Our God He Is Alive 23

MESSAGE – “The Homecourt Disadvantage!”
Doug Peters

GARDEN OF PRAYER
In My Life, Be Glorified 309

PASTORAL PRAYER – Elder I. Rotation


BENEDICTION – WORSHIP LEADER