Finding Strength in Your Weakness

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 
2 Corinthians 12:10

Can you say that?

Have you ever said that?

Choosing the weak
One of the most startling things about 2 Corinthians 12 is that this is not an exception to how God works; it is the rule. The pattern in God’s work on earth is to channel his power through human weakness. God does not skim off the top ten percent—the most gifted, the most articulate, the smartest, the best educated—for significance in the kingdom.

He picks the screw-ups. The nobodies. He picks people like you and me.

Weakness in the Old Testament.

We see it time and again in the great story.

Abraham, not man enough to put his own wife before himself, is the father of God’s special people. The younger son—Abel rather than Cain, Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau, David rather than his more impressive brothers—are the ones through whom God’s promises travel. Gideon, cowering in the winepress, the least of his family, is chosen to lead 300 to defeat a horde of Midianites. Jeremiah, young and timid, is chosen as God’s mouthpiece (Jeremiah 1:1–10; see also 9:23–24). It is the lowly to whom God looks (Isaiah 57:15; 66:1–2).

The theme of strength through weakness is not only individual but corporate. The more the Hebrews were afflicted in Egypt, the more they multiplied (Exodus 1:12). Israel was loved and used by God despite being the runt of the ancient world (Deuteronomy 7:6–7).

The New Testament is full of weakness too
In the New Testament the theme of strength through weakness is ratcheted up even further.

Jesus repeatedly upends our intuitive assumptions about significance and strength. It is in losing our lives that we find them (Matthew 10:39). The last will be first (Matthew 19:30–20:16). Those who serve others are the greatest (Matthew 20:26–28). The kingdom is like a tiny seed that nevertheless provides the largest, most shady branches (Mark 4:30–32). It is the grain that falls into the ground and dies that bears much fruit (John 12:24–25).

Paul drives home the theme of strength through weakness more decisively than anyone. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27–28). “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Weakness isn't “good,” but God uses it
Human weakness is not inherently good. There is no weakness in the first two chapters of the Bible or the last two. But in between Eden and the New Eden, human weakness is not a problem for God. It is the great prerequisite. It is where God locates his power.

Jesus experienced the worst weakness
Let us follow our Master, who “was crucified in weakness, yet lives by the power of God” (2 Corinthians 13:4). The pattern of his life is ours—life out of death, power out of weakness.

Even more fundamentally, though, Jesus experienced in our place the worst weakness of all. On the cross the one person who ever lived in perfect strength his whole life long, who never knew any moral weakness in himself, bore the wrath deserved by moral weaklings.

Feeling inadequate? Perfect.
Do you know yourself to be weak? Inadequate? Not up to snuff in intellect, family background, educational opportunities, financial resources?

Get ready.

You are just the kind of person God loves to use. The power of God—power to kill sin, power to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, power to speak courageously on the job, power to love the unlovely, power to lead many to Christ, power to make your life count—such power is for inadequate people.

Acknowledge your frailty to God. Look to the Savior. He embraced the weakness of the cross so that you and I, weak sinners, can experience the blood-bought power of God—now.


http://theresurgence.com/2011/04/11/finding-strength-in-your-weakness

God is Most Glorified When We are Most Dependant on Him

Some of us have been duped into thinking that the Christian life is meant to be lived in our own strength.

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We’re Westerners. We like to be strong. We grow up thinking that things depend on us and our abilities. We import all of this into our Christianity, we believe we’re meant to follow Jesus on the basis of our own resources.

In short, we settle for a natural life when we could be living a supernatural life.

We Don't Grow Out of Dependence
God calls his people to live supernatural lives, filled with the Holy Spirit—to live in expectant and full dependency on the living God, believing and trusting that what seems impossible to us is possible with God.

Just as a toddler is meant to depend on his father and mother for everything, we’re meant to depend on our heavenly Father for everything. Again, we’ve been duped. We thought we were supposed to grow out of this toddler phase. No. The whole of the Christian life is meant to look like the toddler phase in terms of dependency—we are to always depend on God for everything.

Why?

Because God is God and we are not.

Don't Settle for Independence
To live a natural life is to live a prideful life. When you live life based on your own resources, sight, and strength, you declare that you don’t need God.

“To live a supernatural life is to live a humble, thrilling, and God-honoring life."

”When you live life based on God’s resources, sight, and strength, you declare that God is God and you’re banking everything on his ability to come through.

Abel, Abraham, Caleb, Rahab, Gideon, Daniel, Nehemiah, Mary, the Apostle Paul, and the early Christians whose lives are recorded in the book of Acts all lived supernatural lives. Who they are and what they did makes no sense apart from radical dependence on God.

We were never meant to trust in our own five loaves and two fish. We are meant to live as though, at any moment, God can turn five loaves and two fish into something we never dreamed of.

Don’t settle for a natural life. Live a supernatural life. Read your Bible and see that that’s the only kind of life we’ve been called to live.

I believe that God is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him. To the degree that you live dependent on yourself, you dishonor God. To the degree that you live dependent on God, you glorify God.

“I want to give God a lot of glory with my life. Don’t you?"

Let’s repent of our less-than-supernatural way of life. Let’s live supernatural lives. Let’s depend, supernaturally depend, on God.

Don't Settle for Your Visions
This is the heart of the gospel. The good news of the gospel comes to us in our complete inadequacy, a message of supernatural grace and transformation for the undeserving. That’s how the Christian life starts and it’s how the Christian life is meant to continue, knowing our inadequacy, and Christ’s total adequacy to forgive, satisfy, lead, help, supply, love, and move mountains.

I’m concerned about the loss of faith that moves mountains. I don’t think this is a faith intended for a select few. We know the living God, the God who calls us to live in light of the fact that he is real, sovereign, near, wise, good, and attentive to our prayers.

Could there be anything that the enemy is more eager to do in the Western world than trick us into living natural lives with smallish faith in a smallish God?

We’ve settled for me-sized visions for our lives and our churches when we’re meant to move forward with God-sized visions.

I’m done with me-sized living. I don’t know how I got to confusing Christianity with me-sized living, but I did. A few years ago I repented of that and asked God for the grace and power to trust him like he’s meant to be trusted. I’m figuring it out, having fun, and realizing that living a supernatural life is a lot more interesting that the life I once lived.

God is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.
God is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.
God is most glorified in us when we are most dependent on him.

"Beat that into your head. Beat that into your leadership. Don’t settle for anything less."


"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2

http://theresurgence.com/2012/04/02/god-is-most-glorified-in-us-when-we-are-most-dependent-on-him

Love Moves Slow

by Audrey Assad

The slow burn of intimacy.

Have you ever gone for months, or even years, without hearing God’s voice? I have. And I have seen dear, faithful friends and believers, other women who desire intimacy with God, do the same. It can be incredibly frustrating, painful, and discouraging, as I know from experience.

Not even six months ago, I was pouring out my vexation about this to my spiritual director. I am twenty eight, and I have been a fully invested Christian woman for nine years, raised in a Christian home for my whole life, and I still struggle with discipline in prayer on a daily basis. I have trouble desiring to spend time with God, which looks and sounds even more ridiculous than ever as I type it out on my laptop. It feels like I don’t hear from Him as often as I used to. If you asked me to list all the things I believe about God’s goodness and faithfulness, the list would be long, indeed. I have walked through mountains and valleys with Him in the last nine years that have proven His faithfulness to me over and over again. Yet even still, I fight a gruesome, silent battle with spiritual drought.

It turns out, I am not the only Christian who struggles now in this way, nor have I been the first. I, like many others before me, have “left my first love” again and again, times without number. It is no coincidence that my favorite hymn says, “Prone to wander ... prone to leave the God I love.” (- from Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.) Sometimes daily, I vacillate on a see-saw between spiritual ardor and blasé. I always thought I would be long past that by now. I thought the “further up and further in” I traveled into God’s heart, the less I would struggle with seemingly simple things like ‘desiring God.‘ I thought that roller-coaster type of wavelength between those mountains and the valleys was just for teenagers. Yet here I am, a twenty eight year old woman, and still going up, and down, and up, and down again. So what’s the story?
 
Read more at: http://blog.worshiptogether.com/worshiptogether/2012/02/women-in-worship-audrey-assad.html

Confessions of a Former Worship Leader

What is our worship music really pointing to?

Growing up as the oldest son of a pastor, as well as a trained musician, the use of music as an expression of worship has been an integral piece of my church experience. I can vividly remember, as an eager fifth-grader, my excitement and anticipation over the opportunity to play bass guitar in a worship band for the first time. From that point on, as I became competent on instruments such as guitar and piano, my life would become dominated by musical, corporate worship. Whether it was at summer youth camps, university chapel services, informal gatherings around a campfire or meetings at newly planted churches, I happily assumed the title of “worship leader.”

For many years I felt no need to carefully examine how I approached corporate worship in the church. After all, I loved playing music, I seemed to be an effective leader and I was happily giving my talents back to God. However, I eventually realized it was not that simple.

As a freshman at a Christian university, I spent the majority of that first year “church shopping.” I quickly became enamored with one of the church communities near my university campus; its seeker-sensitive approach, flashy light shows and blaring music created an exciting change of pace for a straight-laced pastor’s kid. The worship leader this particular morning nailed the Christian rock-star image: good looks, styled hair, faded jeans and an expensive acoustic guitar. About halfway through the second song, I noticed an unused microphone, which was set-up at approximately his waist level. “What purpose could that serve?” I wondered in a quick moment of curiosity, and then I quickly raised my hands and lost myself in the tunes. The sound was mixed wonderfully, the vocals were outstanding and the set of music was carefully constructed to serve as a powerful crescendo to the last song: “Hungry” by Kathryn Scott. As the leader belted out the final refrain—I’m falling on my knees, offering all of me—he acted on his words and literally fell to his knees. It was at this point that the aforementioned unused microphone came into play. It was preemptively placed at the perfect height and angle so the leader would be able to sing while on his knees without stopping his guitar-playing.
 
Read the rest of this article at:  http://m.relevantmagazine.com/god/worship/features/23692-confessions-of-a-former-worship-leader

hope.glory – challenging worship perceptions and practices in Salvation Army gatherings

By Phil Laeger

As I write this, I’m listening to the near final mix of our live worship recording that took place in November of last year. I can’t wait to release the album and DVD. This project is—for me anyway—the culmination of the hopes and dreams and prayers and tears and frustrations and vexations and sweat and optimism and roadblocks and open doors of the past 10 years. Wow. Maybe I need to unpack that run-on sentence a little…

I have been so privileged to be part of music ministry in The Salvation Army over the past nearly 15 years. It has been a great journey and the groups I have played in and led have been given incredible leeway in a lot of ways. We’ve led worship at youth councils and conferences, camps, retreats, etc, etc. Some of those times have been life transforming for me. We have seen people give their life to Christ, people broken free of addiction, people transformed in a very real way by the power of God in worship. It has been humbling to be used by God in that way. We have had extended times of energetic praise and extended times of reverent and precious worship, dripping with the presence of God.

Read the rest of the article at:  http://www.phillaeger.com/hope-glory-challenging-worship-perceptions-and-practices-in-salvation-army-gatherings/

The Motions

Watch this video and let your heart come to it's own conclusions.

A Few Recommendations (Part 3 of 3)

Prepare Yourself
The next thing I want to talk about is sheet music. If you watch your favorite guitar player in concert, they aren’t going to walk on stage with a music stand and all their charts. They take the time and effort to memorize all the music and words. If rock stars can do this for money, why shouldn’t we do it for God? Try and memorize your music! Then you don’t have to flip anything, you don’t have to cart around charts and you aren’t providing distractions for the congregation.

Whenever you get on the platform at your corps and get ready to practice or lead, try to remember these things. Your ministry is incredibly important so you need to make sure you are prepared for it. Practice everyday, improve and give God all the glory!

Traits

What are some important characteristics of worshippers (in this instance I mean singers, musicians, worship leaders etc.)?  A popular quote comes to mind. "always preach the gospel and if necessary use words."  It's no different in worship.  If we are going to step up and sing/play an instrument/lead worship in a congregation, we must demonstrate worship in our lives and be an example of it, just as Jesus said he "set an example" of being servants in John 13:15. 

I thought about it for a bit this morning and found this verse in my Bible:  "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12)

Be an Example in Speech:

We need to be wise about what comes out of our mouths.  If you lead worship, make sure you are biblically prepared and that you have prayed so that you are sure that what you are going to say is correct and comes from God.  Secondly ALL OF US need to make sure our daily conversations reflect the message of the songs we sing in worship.  Proverbs 12:18 says "...the tongue of the wise brings healing."  So make sure to stay away from gossip, hurtful conversations or speech, and profanity.  This includes our comments on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Be an Example in Life:

We need to have Kingdom priorities.  Do we store up treasures here on Earth? The bible says that our heart is where our treasure is stored (Matthew 6:19-21).  Many of us look for fame, popularity, recognition, and even status as musicians.  Jesus said, "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) So let's set our hearts on the Kingdom of God; God will take care of the rest.

Be an Example in Love:

We sing about God's love.  We must demonstrate this love in our lives:  We must love VERTICALLY (God) and HORIZONTALLY (our fellow man) genuinely and let it reflect in our lives. If our congregation can see God's love reflected in our daily lives, and a passion to serve and proclaim Jesus on and off the stage, they will truly be open to following us into worship.  When the congregation feels that we genuinely love them as well, they will more willingly worship with us.

Be an Example of Faith:

Worshippers need to have faith and grow in the faith.  How is this accomplished?  By studying God's word, and spending time with God.  When we have a deep understanding of God, this is transmitted to the congregation.  We must continually grow and constantly try to know God more.

Be an Example of Purity:

As worshippers we must reflect Jesus' character.  Nothing wrecks our credibility more than moral compromise.  Our lives must reflect a moral purity.  This means we should know our moral standard (God's Word) and live in obedience to God.  When we know God and live our lives in worship to Him we seek to please him in everything we do.  We can live our lives in such a way that people will not have anything negative to say about us.  Titus 2:7-8

Some resources adapted from "The Complete Worship Leader" by Kevin J. Navarro

Wonder

"Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchanging, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things."1.

If you skipped over that last paragraph I suggest you read it over carefully.  There is an incredible sense of wonder in it, as though when St Augustine spoke it he couldn't contain his awe toward God. 

In a world where every bit of information is at our fingertips and everything can be explained it's easy to lose our child-like wonder at who God is and what he does in our lives.  But we must never forget the GREATNESS of God if we are to worship Him sincerely.  In Job 36:26 it says "Behold, God is great, and we do not know him."  Can we ever know God or even explain him completely?  No of course not.  That's where wonder comes in.  Paul wrote in Roman 11:33 "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!"

When you have your devotional time, or when you go up on that stage to play an instrument or to sing, remember to revel in God's wonder.  Express your sincere praise to the Creator of it all and stand amazed at his awesomeness.

1.The Confessions of St. Augustine, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol.1