Know Your Enemy

I haven't posted in five days! Unthinkable! Happy Pi Day everyone.

I've been thinking about John 8:44 lately (Jesus is speaking):

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

We need to know our enemy. In the ever-quotable words of C.S. Lewis, "Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.” Mere Christianity was broadcast on the radio during World War II, so Lewis uses extensive wartime imagery throughout the book. Jesus, the rightful king of the world, will land, and will land in power, but for the time being the rebellion, headed by the devil, holds sway over the earth. [Jesus is holding off His full-scale invasion to allow as many people as possible to join his side- when he arrives it will be too late!]

Lewis is right in saying that we are in enemy territory, and we need to be aware of that. He is also right in saying that Jesus does hold the ultimate victory- there is nothing the Enemy can ever do that will undo God's plan. Our goal is to take back as much of this rebel-occupied territory as possible before the full-scale invasion. This is what we pray for when we sing "Build Your kingdom here, let the darkness fear": we want God's will to be done right here and now, and we want to beat back the false kingdom of the Enemy.

So: we need to know our enemy. I always think of the passage I quoted above when I think of Satan- it seems to me that Jesus' description is probably all-encompassing. This is who our Enemy is: he is a liar and the father of lies. He's powerful, because lying works. He has been lying to human beings from the beginning, and we are too weak to resist it on our own. Don't ever get the idea that Satan is weak- he's much more powerful than you and me. The good news is, he's nowhere CLOSE to God. There's no contest. Satan lies. That's all he does. It's his defining characteristic. While his lies are powerful, they're all he has! All he can do, all he has ever done, is lie. This passage gives me great hope- our God can move mountains, change lives, and raise the dead... all Satan can do is lie. When it all comes down to it, in the face of God Almighty, he's powerless.

But apart from God, his lies hold sway over us, and you know what? He pisses me off. Really, when I think about him, it's hard to stand him. He has lied too many times. He has lied to me too many times. He's still lying. He's lying to all the girls growing up around the world who don't think they're beautiful or valuable. People who starve themselves or harm their bodies in all sorts of ways to conform to artificial and impossible standards. He lies to people who mistreat their spouses, kids, or parents, telling them that kindness and justice aren't necessities. He's lying to everyone who doesn't feel loved or important, telling them that they're just a face, just a statistic. He lies to everyone who hasn't known God's love, telling them there's nothing more to life than this. I walk through hallways at school and see people who are being lied to- that they're not pretty enough, not smart enough, not unique enough, not popular enough, and not valuable.

THIS is what we're up against when we live as Christians. We're trying to beat back the Devil's manifold deceptions. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do just that. He can still deceive us, but he won't own us anymore. THIS is what's at stake- billions of people are not only headed for a very bad eternal residence, but their being lied to on Earth! People are worth more than that.

There's a lot of good news in this department- we serve a God who's in the business of telling the truth. Praise God! He is doing great things across the face of this planet, through his Spirit and through us. More people see the devil's lies for what they are every day. The cross already destroyed Satan's power for ever and ever. Now he's just trying to wreak as much havoc as he can. YOU are an instrument of truth, uniquely equipped by the Holy Spirit to combat the enemy's rebel forces in whatever way God calls you to.
Don't just pass the devil off as no big deal- but don't sweat him too much, because God Almighty is on our side.

The war is over, but the battle is on!

“In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth -- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.”
- C.S. Lewis (of course!)

Jingling Johnny

This post is entirely journalistic in nature. Here's the story:

So there's this band called Rend Collective Experiment (read my thoughts on them here). When performing "Build Your Kingdom Here," live or in their fantastic music video (here!), they employ an instrument which they have lovingly named the "jingling johnny." This is the odd contraption being wielded by Gareth Gilkeson, band leader and percussionist. It's beautiful, isn't it?

A jingling johnny is basically a stick that you thump on the ground, to which you may affix any number of various noise-making objects. Most include a small pie-pan-screen-door-spring contraption that makes a snare drum sound and numerous jingle bells. It has long been my dream to possess one of these beautiful contraptions.

Anyway, turns out Gareth and his wife Ali (also a member of the band- shouldn't be hard to figure out which one she is) have set up shop online selling handmade jingling johnnies for $280 a peace. Despite the fact that I know they certainly make high-quality instruments, I certainly could not justify spending that much money on such a device. However, as I looked at pictures of the thing, I thought "hey, I can probably build myself one for much less..." And sure enough, I soon found online videos and posts of people who had done that. It was at this point that I learned that the jingling johnny is also known as a stumpf fiddle.

So, sooner or later, building a jingling johnny for myself was firmly planted in my mind. The night I came up with the idea, my mom bestowed these pie pans upon me.

They next time my dad ran to Menard's, I tagged along and we bought a dowel rod, a plumbing reducer, and 2 screen door springs.

I spent the next couple days staining and then varnishing the rod.

Finally, yesterday, my dad and I went into the garage and did most of the actual building. This involved screwing one pan to the pole, pouring pinto beans into it, bolting the other pan on top, affixing the springs, attaching a rubber ball to the base of the pole, and affixing jingle bells at various points. In the end, we had this masterpiece:

Naturally, I brought it to church on Sunday to brag on it. We had some fun banging it around before church, and during the afternoon Josh and I actually spent multiple hours figuring out all the different was to use the thing (it is an entire trap set on a pole- it's really fascinating). Of course, neither of us could resist unleashing this force at Crave that evening, so we opened our worship set with an exclusive Joshcoe performance of "Build Your Kingdom Here" straight out of Bangor, jingling johnny and all. Here are a couple pictures of the result:

You can't really tell, but I wore my relevant "Build Your Kingdom Here" shirt in honor of the event. It was so much fun! My goodness, when it looks like Gareth is having the time of his life beating this thing to death, he really is! Anyway- thanks a lot to my dad for really helping me out with the construction, to Josh for piloting it on its inaugural voyage, and to everyone at Crave tonight for making it all so fun!

You'll probably be seeing the jingling johnny again. In the meantime, why not build your own? :)

Why I Love Worship Music

I wrote a summary of my overall view of worship a couple posts ago, here. To make a very long story very short, worship is anything that makes us less and God greater (John 3:30). We can do everything as an act of worship- in fact, that is how we are called to live (1 Corinthians 10:31). If we seek to worship first, everything "else" follows (Matthew 6:33).

Nice recap! Anyway, I followed this post on worship with two consecutive posts about worship songs, and you might be justified to say, "hey, I thought worship wasn't about music! What's up with that?" And you're right- worship isn't about music. But music, like anything else, can be used to worship God (hence resulting in the common misconception that "worship" and "corporate musical praise" are the same thing), and it is one of my favorite ways. In this post I'll share a couple reasons why.

God created music- that is why it is something so beautiful and so endlessly fascinating. God is a creative God. Once there was a universe without music, and then God came up with the idea. Think about that, huh! Anyway, I believe that God's main purpose in creating music was to glorify himself. (On a related note, God's ultimate purpose in doing everything is to glorify himself- more on that in future posts.)

So I think music that glorifies God is more beautiful and more fascinating than music that doesn't, because it's being used to exactly fulfill its ultimate purpose. We've all probably noticed, at one time or another, that music can communicate things mere words can't- remember, God made it. Music gives us a way to express things to God that we wouldn't be able to without it. And, by the way, while its true that God knows our thoughts, there is always value in expressing them out loud, and at times, out LOUD!

Something particularly beautiful happens when a group of believers gathers together and worships God, and something particularly particularly beautiful happens when that worship involves singing. The community present in a group of Christians praising their Lord and Savior is like none other- congregational singing itself encourages group participation. It's a great way to get a whole group on the same page: to sing something out saying, "we believe this!"

I love worship songs, as you have probably guessed from my previous posts about them. Worship songs can give words to prayers people have but have not enunciated. This happens to me quite a bit, and it's one of my favorite things about worship music. Sometimes I hear a song, and I basically say "MAN, I've been thinking this! But I never said it!... now I can sing it!" Just like God gives us words to speak right when we need them, He tends to give us a song to sing too. He's good, is he not?

Another thing I like about worship through music- hearkening back to Why I Love Rend Collective Experiment here- it's FUN! (Disclaimer: lament and mourning can also be worship- everything can!) God made music something that can fill us with joy time and time again; something to enjoy, play, write, sing, and create. I LOVE playing worship music. It's my absolute favorite thing in the world. I plan on doing a ton of it in college, and if all goes according to plan, make a living out of it. There is, as a general rule, nothing I would rather do in any given slot of free time. I can't say much more than the simple fact: it is fun, people! If singing about God and his awesomeness doesn't bring you joy, you're doing something wrong, because that is some joyous stuff to sing about!

As is already true, this will not be my only post on worship music. I'm sure I'll be able to think up more to say about it. I think about it, listen to it, and play it- well, all the time. So I'll probably blog about it often too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Always remember it is about true worship first and music second. I'll leave you with these lines that reflect my prayer at every worship night, that behind the music are hearts in honest and unabashed worship:

When the music fades all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring something that's of worth 
That will bless Your heart
I'll bring you more than a song 
For a song in itself is not what You have required
You search much deeper within 
Through the way things appear You're looking into my heart

"Give Me Faith"

Let's talk about another song! Same band. YES, I'm on an Elevation Worship kick. If you haven't Spotify'd them yet (as I suggested in my last post- I think I just invented a word), you are missing out. Anyway, I'm going to introduce to one of my favorite songs that I've discovered recently, "Give Me Faith." There's a video at the end of the post if you have not heard this one (we played it 2 Sundays ago).

The bridge of this song is my absolute favorite part, one that puts into words a prayer I've offered up to God many times before, perhaps with less eloquence and/or EGs. However it's not one of those deals where you have to suffer through 3/4ths of a mediocre song to get a sweet bridge- it's an all in all good song, the bridge is just the best part.

The verses and chorus share the request from which the song gets its title: "Give me faith to trust what You say". It's nice and singable, with themes of surrender ("all I am I surrender"), recognition of our status ("I'm broken inside"), and acknowledgement of our deep need for God and his guidance ("I need you to open my eyes").

The bridge, which the live performance I linked below begins with, goes thus:

I may be weak, but Your Spirit's strong in me

My flesh may fail, but my God You never will

It's awesome because it is an exactly equal presentation of our weakness and God's strength. This paradox is one of those things that we'll never wrap our minds around- just HOW strong God is and just HOW frail we are. We need him, and this bridge puts that need very poetically. It also calls attention to all the times God pulls through for us- times when our weakness would have failed, but God never did.

Singing this bridge out loud and proud (is there any other way?) is one of my favorite things to do nowadays. Such an honest cry out for the Help we will always need, and always have... try it out!

"Open Up Our Eyes"

Yes, worship is more than music. Regardless,  I still love worship music very much, and I'm going to talk about it a lot :). I'll post every now and then when I discover a new song that I fall in love with and want to share with you all. I'll share what I like about the song and any interesting bits of info I have on it.

Right now I'll talk about "Open Up Our Eyes" by Elevation Worship. We played this song tonight. I'll put a video to it at the end of the post so you can listen.

This song came from 2 Kings 6:15-17:

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, no, my lord! What shall we do?" the servant asked

"Don't be afraid." the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

And Elisha prayed, "Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The verses of the song are basically bread-and-butter praise, calling God "greater", "stronger," and "mighty."

The chorus is at once a simple reflection of God's goodness ("Your love endures forever") and a prayer that God would open our eyes like Elisha's servant's were: "Open up our eyes, surround us with your light."

The heart of the song is this prayer; the song is asking God to bring us greater awareness of his constant protection and the battles he is fighting for us.

The song's FANTASTIC bridge, "Our God is fighting for us always//We are not alone" echoes Exodus 14:14: The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still. This bridge has basically been "on repeat" in the back of my head since I first heard it. What a great truth to walk through the day with! Whom shall we fear?

Life definitely may be hard or ugly at times, but I am thoroughly convinced that we are constantly being spared even more pain by God's constant providence over us. Perhaps chariots of fire even intervene. This song gives a lot of confidence and strength to my daily life- it's hard to complain about minor obstacles when you have the God of the Universe fighting for you! This song also brings peace, because we don't have to fight, God will do it for us. We can just rest in this hope.

I love this song, and I am going to be carrying it with me for some time. I hope you enjoy it as well.

P.S. I only recently discovered this band, Elevation Worship. They are quite fantastic. Check them out!

What Is Worship?

You've probably heard sermons that say "worship is more than music" and go on to define worship as something more then "that thing we do when we all stand up and sing". Since this blog is focused on worship, I thought I would share my definition. Well, it's not exactly a definition, I don't claim to have some insight that no one else does... I'll share how I think about and approach worship. That's what this post is about. Will the title of the blog be explained? Maybe ;)...

If you did ask me to define worship, I would put it simply and say that worship is anything that looks like John 3:30, "He must become greater, I must become less." Anything that makes us less and God greater, that's worship. Anything. NO, worship is not just music.

Thinking about worship as a thing we do on Sundays or something that happens when we all sing together is a really huge misconception. You see, "worshiping God" is basically the name for HOW we should live our lives. Living a life of worship means following 1 Corinthians 10:31, "so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." As Christians, we are called to approach everything we do by saying, "how can I do this for the glory of God?"

Now, doing so is actually impossible. Doing it with all of our strength for literally everything, I mean. We are too imperfect for that (in Heaven we will finally be able to perfectly worship God). For now, the process of becoming more like Christ can be boiled down to one simple goal: worshiping God more.

This goal isn't actually simple, it's a very complex, multifaceted thing, but I think of it as simple because, if we worship God, than all the rest of a Godly life follow. Kindness, gentleness, self-control, evangelism, wisdom, excellence, and all of the other things we are called to do and practice flow from worship. If our lives are all about making God great, then of course we're going to tell people about him! If our lives are all about making God great, then of course we'll behave in ways that point others to him! If, whatever you're doing, it makes God great, than you may be inadvertently fulfilling one of his other commandments!

Actually, it becomes clear that not only are our good acts a result of worshiping God, but our sin is a result of not doing so! You are never going to set out to do something with the aim of making God great and, in doing so, sin. The universe just doesn't work like that. If we were to worship God in literally everything we do, we'd never sin (remember, that's impossible for this life). It really does become simple: do things for God's glory, and in doing so your sin will be combated. Jesus tells crowds in Matthew 6:33 to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [food, water, clothes] will be given to you as well". Living a life of worshiping God (i.e., "being a Christian") is a question of HOW, not WHAT.

It is the combination of these three verses that, from a bird's-eye point of view, encapsulate the Christian life. That's why I've put them in the sidebar on every page in this blog. I think that trying to "do this, and do that" or to "not do this, and not do that" is all wasting time, treating symptoms rather than the real problem. We don't have sin issues, we have worship issues. If we do everything to make God greater and ourselves less, everything, than all of the particulars will fall into place.

This is by no means all I have to say about worship. It's life, man! That's what this blog is about! "Finding Worship" refers to the constant effort made to find HOW to worship through everything I do. Sort of like, "finding the fun in it", I like to "find the worship in it": how can any given act, however mundane, be done for His glory? This is the question that, as much as God empowers me to, I ask about everything I do.

Don't think I'm some sort of worship master, by the way. I DON'T worship with everything I do. I do a LOT of things that are not for God's glory. I am convinced that it is impossible in our earthly flesh to worship perfectly- but I am even more convinced that God is dedicated to making us better at it!

That's what I pray for myself, and all of you, all the time. Lord, make us better worshipers.

Be glorified!

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."
-C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

Concert Recap: Rend Collective Experiment

This should be a short post, I just thought I should record my most recent encounter with my favorite band in the whole wide world :). I should start by admitting that I actually didn't go to a Rend Collective concert, I went to a Kari Jobe concert that they opened for. I confess that I definitely went to see the Collective.

MAN, those guys have fun! They really mean all that they say about celebration! No matter what they do, be it beating on trash cans or stomping in unison upon the stage, they make it look like so much fun it is hard to resist the urge to run up and join them. They played around six great songs, all of them ones I loved to hear, including My Lighthouse (radio single from their upcoming album) and Burn Like A Star (brand new song on the album that has only been played live TWICE).

Short story short, I had the time of my life, enjoying a great night of celebration and worship with my awesome friends- thanks a ton guys!


Burn like a star
Light a fire in our hearts
For Your glory For Your fame
In this darkness light a flame in us