Redefining the Word ‘Worship’ Guest Post:

here’s a guest post i did over at Brandon’s blog for his guest post fridays:

Lately God has taught me much about what worship really is.

 

Many people look at worship as something so much less than it really is. And I don’t want to preach about worship in this, I want to show you something that could change how you worship.

 

So having said that I want to share what I personally have gone through in this lately. (I know I know, it’s really boring when the writer talks about themselves, but bear with me it won’t kill you)

 

Recently, I have been really praying and thinking about my (praise) worship life:

• Am I really worshiping or just singing songs?
• Do I really mean the words I sing? With my heart?
• Am I worshiping with my life too?
• Am I really singing to God?
• Is he my main focus in life?

 

These are the kinds of questions I would ask myself, and they aren’t at all bad questions. Normally I had them all in check, and I still ask these questions, but…

 

What if I told you that even if you have all these questions right, and your worship was like that, then it still might have so much more unreached potential?

 

Yes, Worship is praying to God, It is meaning it with your heart, it is living it with your life. There’s still more though.

If you have all of that you are probably worshiping, which is great, but I want to tell you how to make your worship reach it’s full potential.

 

Yesterday I think it was, I was talking to God in the morning and I was thinking about worship and I pretty much said “God, I would give anything right now, to have more worship again like best I’ve had before”

 

See, with life’s distractions, I found it hard to find time for as much quality worship. But there’s something in us that just longs for worship, it is how God made us, and it’s why we always worship things (including God and things other than God) all the time.

 

So, yesterday afternoon and a little before, God gave me what I asked for, and I will always see worship differently.

 

He kind of redefined it for me:

 

Worship isn’t just the message,

It’s not just how you live your life,

It’s not just talking to God…

 

Worship, is how we tell God I love you,

Worship, is the opportunity that we get to experience God,

Worship, is when we tell God what we love about him,

Worship is when we take our mind, our heart, and our soul, all at once, and focus them on nothing other than God, and let the be filled with him

 

 

Worship, is our best way to true joy and happiness.

Why do I say that?

Because it’s what God made us for, to be his friend and worship him

 

It’s what makes heaven the place it is. Treat it like the precious experience it is and yearn for it, so that it can fill your heart with God’s joy.

Feel free to comment your thoughts here or on Brandon’s blog.

Guest Post: The Relevance of Light

This is a guest post I am doing over at my friend Brandon’s blog for his “Guest Post Fridays” today:

The Very Start

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 KJV)

Light is a simple word that is normally not thought very far into. It’s just light. But if you really study the importance of it, it isn’t just a sight or thing, it is so much more.

In the very beginning of the Bible, God starts to talk about light. He starts off in verse two saying that when he first made Earth it was without form, void, and full of darkness. So He then then created light, and He “saw the light, that it was good.”

When God created light, He did not just light up the darkness; the creation of light gave us beauty, vision, day and night, temperature, and literally everything we see today; all of this before we were even created. He used lead up to the creation of man, using light at the very start, but there is one about it that gives it so much meaning.

Lighting the Beginning Again

Later in the Bible, when God sends Jesus in the world, He begins to work in another way using light in the beginning. Jesus is the light of the world and when he came to us, he made us also the light of the world, calling us to shine our light.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5;14 KJV)

God then called us to shine our light, our light that creates beauty, vision of God, joy, and new beginnings.

God Wants Our Light to Shine

All of the beauties and wonders of the world that many look at in awe, are seen through the light that God created. How will the people in the world see all of the beauties, wonders, wisdom, and joys that God gives us without his light?

We need to give our light to others to see the wonders God showed us, just as God shined his light on the world to show of it’s wonders.

How are you shining your light to this lost world?
Let me know in the comment section.

Message in Music (Series)

So on Friday I got 2 new awesome albums in that I had ordered. These are two new albums by two amazing artists:

Casting Crowns: Come to the Well

Leeland: The great awakening

I had been waiting to get the Leeland one for a long time now and when I finally ordered it I got to get the new Casting Crowns one too! I am so glad I got both of them too!

Seriously these are great albums and the messages in the music are changing. Both are definitely worth the nine bucks for the spiritual growth and awesome music!

Since these messages are so great I thought I would share some of them and give what I got from them in a series. I can’t wait!

There are quite a few songs I wanted to share and I dont know which one I want to even start with yet! So be sure to check out these albums or look up some of the songs and be ready for some posts about the messages

What music has been speaking to you lately? Let me know in the comments. (sorry theres no link yet, im posting on my phone haha)

Who are You More Afraid of?

So today in my quiet time something I read was a small devotion in Billy Graham’s little devotion book called “Hope for Each Day.” (it has many small but powerful messages) This message was called ‘Cowardly or Courageous’ and it had part of the verse Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

He starts by talking about how the chairman of the history department of our great universities once told him that “We have become a nation of cowards.” and he said that he challenged his statement but eventually had to admit he was right.

He then says that even if we know something is right deep inside then we still wont out of fear of what might happen. And If the odds are in our favor then surely we will take a stand but if there is a risk then we want to play it safe.

After he talks about how we are so different from the early Christians. They boldly stood for the Gospel under many circumstances, even death.

Isn’t that true? Imagine what america would be like if everybody that said they were a Christian would give their life standing firm on the Gospel. But our fear gets in the way.

We do what is right under easy circumstances, but what would you do if I asked you this question. Are you more afraid of what people will do to you if you stand on God’s word, or what God will do to you if you don’t stand on God’s word? That question should be enough to tell you to stand for God in its self, but we have even more reasons also.

Dont let your fear get in the way.

Reviving My Dead Website

It has been over 2 MONTHS since I have last posted. This is something that I have felt very bad about and I apologize that I have basically stopped my blog. This blog literally ended with a “Godly Smell”.

So, because I know I can use my blog for God and that he wants me to use it for him, I am going to not only revive this blog and start posting again, but make it better than it ever was before.

Before, I did not post consistently and I did not have things like themes and widgets at the best I can make them. Now I will be posting more consistently and I will also be working on the theme, widgets, categories, and other cool stuff that makes blogs more user friendly. (you can expect some changes from how it looks now soon)

The one thing that I am really exited for though is writing more posts. In a good Christian blog, the actually site is the body. But the posts are what are really important. In this body that is a website, there must be the content and posts which are the blood, flowing through the website keeping it alive. Without those posts and the content, the blog will not be useful.

I will definitely be coming back to this blog and making it better than it was before, But more importantly, sharing with you what God shares with me!

What are some ways I could make the site better or what would you like to see? How can you make your blog better? What has God been calling you to do lately? Feel free to answer one of these questions in the comments!

ps. I have WordPress on my phone now so posting will be easier and I can post from almost anywhere!

The Godly Smell

This is a very serious post. (kinda)

I was reading in my quiet time recently and found a very cool (and fun) example of Christians. Now The Bible uses a lot of examples, but this one is probably one of the funniest (or most funner), and it has a cool message to it.

Here’s something that the Bible says about us in 2 Corinthians ch 2:

14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. 15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

The Bible says that we are a “fragrance” or “aroma”. So basically we, as Christians, are like a big Godly smell. (hopefully you smell good) Why is the Bible making fun of you?, don’t worry, it’s not.

I know what your thinking, what does it mean, if we are a big Godly smell? (even though that probably wasn’t what you were thinking at all) Well, there are a couple of things that we can learn about our smelly selves from this example, and these things involve our ministry. (how you work to spread the smell)

There are 4 things that I got from this example,

• Spreading Out:

Before I say anything, I would like to say that smells, are usually in the form of a gas, because, if your friends squirts liquid up your nose, (nice friend) you probably wont smell it, and not only because you would be too busy trying to get it out and getting mad at your friend (but you wouldn’t because you are actually applying messages you learn, like this post, to your life. Right?)… , but if you walk into a nice restauraunt or somebody is cooking dinner and you are really hungry, you will smell the gases coming from the cooking food. (and become hungrier)

Now that you know that a smell is typically a gas, back to the point. Gases are always spreading out.

In verse 14 it says, “14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

We need to spread out and share the smell of Jesus to everyone, this means that we are going to have to work hard to share Jesus with as many people as we possibly can.

• Bringing People to Christ:

In verse 15 the Bible says: “15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

We need to go out to the people that need Jesus and show them Jesus. We need to be like a good smell. When people smell something good they want to follow it to where it comes from. We need to go out and show Jesus so that people will let us bring them to Jesus.

• Working Together

The more of a smell there is in one place, the more likely it will be noticeable. If we are like smells, then alone, one of us may be ignored, but in a small (or large) group, we will be noticed, people will see God working in us, and we will have a stronger scent.

We need to work together to go out to the lost and save them.

• Renewing yourself

As a gas spreads out, it will start to fade away. The smell will be less noticeable and it will just go away. Unless there is a source to the smell, it will die out.

We have a source and we need to renew ourselves each day. Our source is God and we need to be in his word each day to renew ourselves. If a Christian isn’t in the word every day then they can start to lose their scent. Make sure you have that daily quiet time that keeps you renewed and keeps your scent strong.

We are one big smell and our ministry is the scent that we spread. We need to be like a strong scent that draws people to the source by doing these things and watching our ministry.

How are you keeping your scent strong? Are you renewing your mind everyday?

If you could have renamed this post what would you have named it? (for fun)

Let me know in the comments.

3 Reasons Why We Need to Use More Scripture

Recently I was reading in my quiet time and found some things that really spoke to me about my messages. They talked about worldly wisdom and Godly wisdom. And after reading this I knew where God wanted me to apply it.

Something that I struggle with, that I see we can sometimes do, is not use as much scripture as we should in our messages, or even normal ministry, like witnessing to friends. It is something that can be critical in or ministry.

The two main passages that spoke to me about this were in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. These two passages were 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2:6-8

Here they are:

“18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1 Corinthians 2: 6-8

These verses do not directly say that we need more bible verses in our ministry, but they do provide some reasons:

• Godly Wisdom is Better:

1 Corinthians 1:25 says: “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” That means that even the least of God’s wisdom is better than ours, or the world’s. If God’s wisdom is that much better than ours then we need to use his scripture, which is our best source of Godly wisdom, more.

• Our Wisdom May be Helpful and Even True But it Can be Useless If there is No Scripture:

The second half of 1 Corinthians 2:6 says: “…yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.” Now when I read the wisdom of this age I think of the wisdom from earth and the wisdom we get from earth. This means that worldly wisdom doesn’t really do anything.

When we don’t use scripture or don’t use enough scripture in our ministry, we use our wisdom or some of our wisdom, which God may have given to us. This wisdom can become useless or less effective if we don’t use the right amount of scripture.

• If We Don’t Use Scripture then Our Wisdom Can become False:

The wisdom that we need to use in our messages needs to be like the Godly wisdom mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2:7, which says: “…the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,” We need to use scripture more because, without it, the wisdom we use may not be this kind of wisdom.

We need more scripture because worldly wisdom is dangerous and without scripture our wisdom can become worldly. Part of 1 Corinthians 1:21 says: “… the world through wisdom did not know God…” It is worldly wisdom that keeps the world from knowing God. We don’t want any worldly wisdom to interfere with our ministry.

It is very important to use scripture, because it is our best source for wisdom and it is Godly wisdom.

What haven’t you been using enough scripture in? How can you use more scripture to fix this and improve your ministry? Let me know in the comments.