What Keeps You From Worshiping?

A couple years back I was playing with a Christian
Rock band called Two Towns Over. We toured and
played all over Florida and had a lot of fun doing it.
I remember one concert in particular outside on the
beach. It was a night worship service in front of a Church
right off of A1A. Th e words to the songs were projected
on the front of the Church and everyone from the road
could see it. We had finished our set and a local worship
band was playing. There were a lot of people there and
I was excited to worship in a public setting under the
stars with the cool salty breeze coming off the ocean.
It was great, until I heard someone shouting from
behind us, “Satan Rules” and derogatory terms about Jesus.
I turned around and saw two kids on bikes, dressed in all
black and sweaty from all the riding they must had been
doing. Th e shouting got worse and people began to become
more than annoyed. I got angry, and I mean real “I’m going
to beat them with a bible” anger. I stopped singing and
walked in their direction. As I got closer the anger grew
and grew, their shouting got softer and softer until silence.
At that very moment something changed in my heart,
I said a half second prayer that seemed like twenty four
hours of prayer and fasting. I said “God, speak through me.”
Just like that, my heart was changed and I talked with
them about what they believed and as I spoke to them
more gathered around us to listen to the two atheist
high school students. We invited them to an after party
at my friends house where we played more worship
music, and everybody treated those two high schoolers
like best friends. They stayed and even started singing
some of the songs with us. I don’t know if they ever
started going to church or were baptized and saved. But
I do know that we didn’t let Satan ruin our worship, in
fact God turned something evil into something good.
What keeps you from worshiping? What stops you in your
daily life from singing His praises. Is it the guy that cut you
off in traffic while you were listening to the Christian radio
station? Is it the new songs we do in Church? Is it the lighting?
Th e baby crying next to you? Is it anything? Or is it you?
I think what really keeps us from worship is ourself.
We get in the way with what we want out of worship (say
that five times fast). We fear intimacy with God, and are
distracted easily.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else
in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If nothing can separate us from His love, we should not
allow anything to separate our love from Him

Endurance for the Race

I've been reading about the life of David today preparing for a message (set to give December 28th) Yes I'm working on it now. I'm very excited about it.

God is so good, He's so gracious and loving. I find that the more I submit the more energized I feel in my Faith and the stronger my Faith seems to be. Maybe it's in submission that we find our faith the strongest. I have been giving up more parts of my life to Christ and hope not to try and take them back.

God has given us the bible to fuel our faith, to spark the embers of hope and love in us. I love that God has put down for us the very mind of Christ. His thoughts are not secret from us, His motivation is not in question. It is the endurance of God, the endurance.

endure

Read it, soak it in, let it pour from your heart through your mouth and strike the ears of the wicked and change the hearts of all men. God use Your enduring word to save, heal and redeem us. Make us ready to hear it and not be crushed by it but transformed by it's power. Thank You God for the word.

endure with us.

565

It's the number in the top left hand corner of the page. A random number it would seem. So to give it a meaning go to the fifth book of the Bible (Deuteronomy) go to the sixth chapter and the fifth verse...go ahead I'll wait.




How cool is that! Isn't the Bible amazing? That's the mind of Christ you hold in Your hand. It's bound to be good.

VIsion of the Future Kingdom

We will work together in perfect harmony to worship. All of our work in heaven will be to glorify God. None of our efforts will go unsavored by our King. He will join us in our work and we will never tire. We will run with Jesus and not fatigue. He will lead and we will follow into places He has made for us. Houses made just for us, specific in design, lovingly crafted and built on grace.
Our songs will lift up and ten thousand years of singing will feel like a nights rest. We will find rest in the Lord, we will have peace. The Holy Spirit will fill our every being, we will have oneness with the Spirit. Our will will be the will of the Spirit. Our thoughts never drifting from the mind of Christ. We will not think ourselves equal with God but forever in His mercy, remembering our past but covered in the blood we will be renewed. Our bodies will be like art and we will know all in heaven as our brothers and sisters in Christ. The Great marriage of the Church and Christ. The body united and perfect in Christ. His Kingdom will have no end, and the Fathers reach will have no bounds. All will be in His hands, He will caress His children with approval.

He approves of His Son, He approves of You.

Love is built on the Cross

Christ is the foundation for love. It's by His love we truly know love and can love. Jesus said he is the rock, the bedrock, the stone foundation, the cornerstone, and the cap stone.

Ephesians 3:19
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The measure of Gods love is what fills us.

Prepare the way

Last night we had our second worship meeting at Chad's house. We heard a great message about how when we are called to leadership there is a period of preparation that must take place. In fact, preparation has been something God has been showing me more and more. So much so that I wrote a song today about God's preparation.

Prepare me Lord for Your Love
Prepare me Lord for Your Truth
Prepare me Lord for Your Service
Make me more like You, Make me more like You

Lead us to Your Holy Place
Bring us into Your arms
Draw us closer so we can feel the
beating of Your heart.

It's a simple song that I hope we get to do as a Church one day.

The forgotten blog

This was to be my first Ben's Blog, but I cut my beard before I put it in the newsletter. So to put it in perspective I had a beard when I wrote this. Enjoy!

Ben's Beard Tracker.
I don't know if you've noticed but I've been growing a beard. I've found out that there truly is a secret fraternity of bearded people. You'll get a nod from another guy with a beard, also children are scared of you. It's itchy and sort of crazy looking. We will see how long I can stand it.
But just for you nay sayers here is a list of Great men who had beards

1. Jesus

Yeah it's a short list but He is the greatest, I didn't feel anyone could really be in the same category. Which brings me to my point that you can look like something but not be it. Does growing a beard really bring me any closer to being like Jesus? Probably not, just as going to church every Sunday doesn't mean we are a Christian or any closer to God then we were before. God is concerned with your heart. He wants you to be in a relationship with Him. So lets make the most of our Sundays together, lets really worship while we are here and not just play the part. Lets be worshipers in Spirit and Truth.

Also I wanted to say how amazing it is to be involved in something that is being led by God and for His purpose, lets keep our guard up and not give up because the road ahead will not be easy. Lets remember that God is our Strength and Shield and we don't need to be afraid but trust Him.

“God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”
The Message: Ephesians 6:10-18

As promised, My Top Five Worship Albums

I guess I have to clarify what a worship album is to the music industry and what a worship album is to me as a worshiper. (can they be different? I think so.)
A worship album is traditionally music designed with the intent to get your focus on God. Lyrics, melody's, rhythm, feel, it's all created to get you into the mood to worship God and hopefully you do.

I believe that God created music and despite some groups not being Christian or having ever made a worship album, I still feel I can worship God because I worship God for the music and not the music for God. So here are my Top 5.

5. Illuminate: David Crowder
This was an amazing follow up album to "Can You hear us?" It was more electric and the use of looping was more prevalent. Great songs on this album like; Only You, O Praise Him, Deliver Me, How Great. The whole album is pretty much a slam dunk and dominated my Cd player for about a year.

4. Speechless: Steven Curtis Chapman
Not a worship album by industry standards but with songs like With hope, and Be Still this album truly brought me to a place my other Christian rock albums were not. With beautiful lyrics that didn't feel like tired recycled lines, this album has a quality that only Abbey Road studios could have produced.

3. Welcome to the freak show: Dc Talk
The first time I heard the Jesus Freak album I was pretty young but knew I wanted more. So when this live album of Dc Talk came out I was more than ready for it. With new versions of some less than stellar songs on prior albums Dc Talk manages to revive and renew some old material and make you love it. My favorite song is The Hardway. This was the first song that I heard that made me really see that I was lost without God. Go get this Album.

2. Can You hear us?: David Crowder
So original, so different. I remember hearing this album for the first time and thinking that I had never heard songs like this, especially for worship. I need words is the first song on the album and is short and sweet, mellow and melodic and then you are dropped into Our love is loud which became a standard song for many worship bands. It was hard to rate this album above Illuminate because both are so great but if it wasn't for this album Illuminate could never have happened. Some keys songs are God of Wrath, You're everything and the Split Track of Undignified and You Alone.

1. Naked: Andrew Phillip
Let me make this clear, I love all those albums above. I think they are great but compared to Naked they are like Etchasketch to Vincent Van Gogh. Naked is not just my favorite worship album, it's my favorite album. It's Just Andrew and a slightly out of tune Piano, 12 tracks, and all the mistakes kept in. It's absolutely perfect. It's real, from the heart, open and intimate. You are at the throne room of God. This album is harder to get a hold of, but I would love to make you a copy. Andrew is a local worship leader and is a great guy with a real passion for worship. At one time every song has been my favorite so it's hard to pick out which ones are key. Kiss, Exodus, and Dogs and Diamonds are probably the most comfortable and catchy to a new listener. Get this album!

anyway thats all for now

Lots of new worship

So before I countdown my favorite worship albums (which I will do soon)
I just wanted to say that if you are not listening to North Points Louder than Creation album you are missing out.

go to www.northpointmusic.org
to get a copy.

Also I just heard a great song today called "Lead me to the Cross" by Hillsong United.
Check out the video here

good stuff, see ya later

What you Give vs What you Get

“Wow! Worship was great.” or “I didn't get much out of worship today”

I started leading worship when I was in the eight grade for my youth group. I had just started playing guitar and I had no idea what I was doing. The band consisted of all teenagers and I was the youngest (kind of like now minus the teenagers). It was intimidating being such an inexperienced musician leading in songs I could barely play and sing at the same time but somehow we managed to survive Wednesday night Youth group. Other than seeing others draw closer to God and experience Him, I didn't know what I wanted out of worship. I think my passion was for others to experience God in a real way. Unfortunately I was discouraged right away. Most would sit through worship and if they stood they barely sang or looked interested. It became harder and harder to get on the stage and get excited about God. My excitement for worship began to slide downhill and it got to the point that I was getting nothing out of worship.

It took years of God leading and teaching me that it was never about what I get out of worship. It's about what I give. The concept that my feelings and spiritual well being were not the main focus of worship was a completely new concept to me. It wasn't that God didn't care about my spiritual health, in fact, He cared and cares more than I ever could. But it's through giving that we grow. It's through sacrifice that we find our place as worshipers.

So looking back I can see that all those times I didn't get anything out of worship was because I was focused on my spiritual fulfillment and not on God. I think almost all of us have experienced this in our lives with Christ. I think it's important to keep God at the center of our lives where ever we go and remember that it's about what you give, not what you get.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
What I'm listening to: Louder than Creation by The North Point Worship Band Get a copy at www.northpointmusic.com