Praises With a Skillful Song

Golden Gate Bound

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 22:15:00 +0000

Just another post to say that my other blog at misterjoshuaray.wordpress.com is up and running. The screenshot is of the biggest update recently (and so far!). So if you want to hear a bit about SEMINARY then hit the jump :)

I don't know that I'll update this much more-this was big enough news that I wanted it to be here on the old blog too though.

Beginnings and Endings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 May 2014 19:12:00 +0000

I don't know if this will show up in anyone's RSS feed or if there are any of you that still check blogger for updates. I know that I haven't been here very much over the past nine months or so. But maybe someone somewhere will. So this is for you.

This will (as far as I can tell) be my last update here. I've started a new blog at a different website and the first post is a little bit about the 'why' of it all.

So here's the link for anyone who might stumble upon this. Thanks for reading :)

http://misterjoshuaray.wordpress.com/

Refresh

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 00:24:00 +0000

Seems like I'm continually tinkering with the site layout here. I've reverted to a simpler layout for the time being. It's refreshing to have a fresh start.

I didn't initially intend to say anything more that I just did-same blog, new look, thanks very much. However...as I thought about the idea of being refreshed, a song that I've listened to off and on recently came to mind. It's on the most recent Passion cd and it's called "Come to the Water."

The basic idea of the song? An invitation to come to the God (who offers the water of life) because "We believe You will satisfy / You bring our hearts to life."

I don't know about you, but I need that kind of refreshment every single day. Praise God that it's offered to us!

A Moody Response

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:41:00 +0000

I came across this short anecdote and couldn't help but share it! It was definitely convicting for me because I'm so often quick to criticize when I probably should address my own shortcomings. Anyways, the story is about the evangelist Dwight L. Moody:

"One day a lady criticized D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody's reply was "I agree with you. I don't like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" The lady replied, "I don't do it." Moody responded "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."

Wow. Talk about a truth bomb. God, help me to obey you and your commands first instead of trying to hold others to your standards hypocritically.

Monday Setlist- 03/18/13

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:57:00 +0000

It's been a while since I did this kind of update, but I led worship this past week at Navs and thought I could kill two birds with one stone: update the blog and talk about one of my favorite subjects :)

That subject is worship music, and specifically NEW worship music. At Navs this week Mikey spoke on generosity, and so I picked songs that talked about God's love for us and our response. That's where generosity needs to start for us.

Something I've been chewing on recently is that everything we do should be done out of overflow. We not only love because He first loved us: we have compassion because we were shown compassion, we comfort because we've been comforted, we forgive because we've been forgiven, etc. Being generous is no different. We need to start with how generous God has been towards us.

I introduced a new song this week: "Once and For All" from the latest Passion cd. The chorus is a simple statement of our beliefs as Christians. There's something powerful about declaring something in song, together, that people have believed for millennia (from the Nicene and Apostles' creeds and beyond). The chorus says:

We believe our God is Jesus
We believe that he is Lord
We believe that he has saved us
From sin and death
Once and for all

Simple, beautiful, and True.

Here's the rest of the setlist.

1. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman-(A)
2. "One Thing Remains" by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Jesus Culture]-(A)
3. "Once and For All by Chris Tomlin-(G)
4. "Lord I Give You My Heart" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong]-(G)
5. "Surrender" by Marc James [Vineyard]-(G)

Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:54:00 +0000

So much has changed in the months(!!!) since I updated last! And the crazy exciting part is that it doesn't show any signs of slowing down. There are some big shifts and updates on the horizon and I can't wait to share all about them!

That's part of the reason I'm re-activating this blog: it'll be nice to have a venue other than Facebook to put some stuff out there in the hopes of keeping you up-to-date on all the changes.

I'm kinda just coming up with the idea as I'm typing, but maybe a few posts focusing that each focus on a different aspect of the recent updates would be good. I dunno, we'll see. Expect to hear some more from me here though! (*fingers crossed*)

Navs FB Group and Emails

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:28:00 +0000

Soooooo it's been a little while since I've updated the blog. Specifically, it's been since April. I seem to go through cycles like that with my blog, my journal, really any kind of regular writing that I have to do. Don't know why, but it just seems to happen.

But I'm back. I'll be updating the blog semi-regularly, even if it's just to post snippets and have short updates.

There are two resources I'd like to direct you to, though. This blog doesn't quite have the reach that my ministry group on facebook does, so I'm planning on shifting updates relating specifically to Navs at CSULB to that blog and to monthly emails I'll be sending out.

So first of all, here's the link to that Facebook group if you aren't a part of it: ---> Josh's Navigator Ministry at CSULB <---

And second, here's a form where you can sign up for my emails if you don't already get them: ---> My MailChimp Navs Prayer Updates <---

Thanks for your support! Look for this blog to be updated more regularly! Promise! :)

Forgiveness is a Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:43:00 +0000

Lisa Gungor (from Gungor! haha) shares on forgiveness and letting go in a beautiful post over at the Worship Together Blog: "What rock are you holding tight in your fist?"

Sunday Setlist- 04/15/12

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:55:00 +0000

This weekend I had the privilege to lead worship at Centenary United Methodist Church in Modesto, CA, with a group of amazingly talented friends. The core of the band (Rachel, Brian, Christopher, and myself) is the same as the group that led worship for our regional Navigator conference back in the Fall, and the new additions (Peter and Katie) are welcome ones :)

As we thought about where to take the set and planned it out, Rachel and I chose to concentrate on God's name. Isaiah 26:8 has been a guiding verse this past year. It says:

In the path of your judgements,
O LORD, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul. (ESV)

We also aimed to mix more familiar songs with newer songs. The thread that ran through the songs then was opening with adoration and blessing God's name, singing and shouting his name, exalting him as the Name Above All Names, declaring that our hearts will sing no other name, and literally singing and extolling his name again before closing with a request to stir us up again.

1. "Blessed be Your Name" by Matt Redman (A)
2. "At Your Name" by Tim Hughes and Phil Wickham (A)
3. "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin (A)

4. "Forever Reign" by Hillsong (B)
5. "Your Name" by Paul Baloche (B)

6. "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes (E)
7. "Come Thou Fount" (E)

The weekend was both a ton of fun and very successful! Thanks to everyone that helped make it happen!

Relating with Women-Men of the Beach week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:10:00 +0000

After laying the foundations of Biblical Manhood in week 1 and considering the ways sin has marred those foundations in week 2, we heard from Daniel and Ken this week on the specific topic of relating with women. Here are the notes from Daniel's portion:

Amnon and Tamar

Amnon was David’s son, a royal son in the house of the king, one among many. Of his upbringing, knowledge of God, and interaction with his father, the Scripture is silent. In his first appearance, he is introduced as follows: “In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David” (2 Samuel 13:1). By this, the Scripture means that Absalom and Tamar shared the same mother, though all were the offspring of David. Tamar was Amnon’s half-sister.

We are concentrating more on the pattern of interaction here, but note that as her brother, it was not lawful for Amnon to desire Tamar. The Bible uses the phrase “fell in love,” which in general does not share the same touching significance of the modern use of the phrase. In NASB, it says simply that Amnon “loved her.” This is similar to Jacob’s desire for Rachel and Samson’s for Delilah. It is what we might call an infatuated lust, like that of the foolish man enticed by the wanton woman in Proverbs. It is lovesickness, that preoccupation with another person which in itself is not a bad thing. But it is dangerous in its effects.

Listen: “Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.”

The Bible is very straightforward about the heart and desires of man! Amnon wanted to possess her. He wanted her, and denied her, he became ill, physically ill.

Now then, chart the course of his actions:

“So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill.” In this way, he manipulates Tamar into being alone with him.

“But when she took it to him to eat, he grabbed her and said, ‘Come to bed with me, my sister.’”

She tries to dissuade him, “but he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.”

With that, there is a switch, “Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her.”

Observations:

1. Amnon became infatuated with Tamar. He saw her and desired her. This in itself is natural, normal, healthy even. It is the course of things, the way God has made men and women to be. When a man looks at a woman, he sees the beauty and he is drawn to it.

2. However, these passions and desires are unregulated in the sinful heart, disordered, chaotic. What control we have over them is the product of upbringing, environment, and culture, all easily broken.

3. Amnon, in being led by these desires, takes increasing steps to satisfy them. He wants to get her alone, he wants her to satisfy his desires, so he manipulates the situation to give him the opportunity to enjoy her. But after setting this up, she still remains unwilling. So he takes what he wants through his greater physical strength. He forces her to give him satisfaction. The blunt physical nature of this forcing is the culmination of his efforts and is fully in line with them. In other words, his rape is not an aberration, but the results of the method by which he chose to satisfy himself.

This, then, is the pattern that is set before us in this story: Man desires woman, not just ordinary admiration, but a lustful, infatuated desire that controls and motivates him. He takes whatever action is necessary to have what he desires, with no ultimate regard for her. She is simply an object for him to satisfy himself with. As the barriers and restraints are stripped away, the act culminates in rape. After raping her, and finding his desire ultimately unsatisfied, he hates her.

Now, I am going to say something intense, perhaps even offensive to some. This pattern is the normal pattern of sin; this story is meant to represent to us the pathways of our heart. Can you apply this to yourself? Are you standing aloof from Amnon, as if you and he did not share the same sinful nature? holy self-doubt

Are we Amnon?

First, how is our story different?

1. Culture and the “thinkableness” of rape. The reason we tend to see this as a distant story is that the culture that most of us were brought up in (and I include not just the broader American culture, but also the family and church environments) this culture distances us from the thought of rape. If I asked you, would you ever rape a girl? I am sure that all of you would answer no without hesitation. This, believe it or not, is to a very large degree a product of the lingering effect of the intense Christianization of Western society during the 16th-17th centuries. After raping his sister, Amnon continues to enjoy all the benefits of being a royal son. We, on the other hand, would be subject to ostracism, social pariahhood, rejection by peers, etc.

2. Fear of the law. As a royal son, Amnon had little fear of the effects of his rape, provided he could do it privately. He is half-right. His father, when told about it, does nothing. Ultimately, Absalom does revenge his sister though. For us, rape would most likely result in prison and a track record to follow us the rest of our lives. This, of course, is one of the primary reasons for the existence of government: to constrain the natural impulses of sinful man through fear and punishment.

3. Finally, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit is at work in us, controlling and acting in opposition to our flesh. Can I get an, “Amen!”? Without the Holy Spirit, our restraints are fear and culture, both of which our sinful natures can and do overcome.

So, if we remove these differences in culture, we begin to see that we might be a little more like Amnon than we initially thought. Now, how does Amnon’s pattern express itself in our culture? Our culture is saturated, near infested, with sexualization. Everyday, television, magazines, and movies all tell us about how our sexuality is desirable and good. So what are its faces? I will name a few:

1. The highly sexualized representation of women in popular culture. Women are constantly being put forth as sexual models. We see this in advertising and other visual media. For us as men, this can create an expectation of the women we know. Their model becomes our norm and we can expect the women we know to adhere to it. For women, it can put pressure on them to conform to this image of womanhood. They see that to be a woman means dressing and acting provocatively to attract men.

2. Pornography. In our generation, pornography is incredibly accessible. I would not be surprised to find out most of us in here have looked at pornography and lusted after the women on display. Pornography reeks in its similarity to rape: we know what we want from these women and we take it without any concern for them. We devalue them as God’s children.

3. Rape itself is still common in pockets of our society, and other forms of rape exist such as date-rape and pressurized sex. Even in our society with the cultural stigmatism of rape and the powerful laws against it, it is still practiced. The heart of man is that of a rapist.

So, we ask ourselves this question then: are we Amnon? Are we any different? In general, we see that we are not, but how much of this is due to God’s common grace for us in creating government and a moral society to grow up in? We have safeguards in place to keep us from being Amnon in deed, but are we still Amnon at heart?

Two Things to Understand

1. In entering our relationships with women, we bring with us unresolved desires. These are the issues that affect us as we relate to women in our own particular way.

Think of it this way, we are driven by our problems and issues related to women, such that we tend to seek out something from them. This is the “Barney Stinson” man, the man who has experienced hurt or rejection or something that makes him seek out the approval/love of women.

This is stronger or weaker in us according to our experiences. But this is the pattern that touches on every interaction we have with women! So whether this is a large, addictive pattern in us, or a subtle and small pattern, it is present! The pattern is this:

Being created to desire women, the desiring of women tends to bring us pleasure, the illusion of satisfaction and wholeness. As we seek after pleasure outside of what is good as a result of our desire to find completion and wholeness, we desire women. This takes the form of real relationships, both ones that look fine on the outside and ones that look problematic. It can also the form of abstract, or imagined relationships. This is mental fantasy. In our day, pornography is common.

Finally, this pattern can be weakly sexualized or non-sexualized. The pleasure can take the form not of sexual pleasure, but the pleasure of being admired, respected, that component of a male-female relationship that mocks the provider/helper created model. Thus, where no sexual misconduct is occurring, relationships can still acquire the pattern of Amnon: man acquiring from woman the satisfaction of his desires, the created desire to be complemented in women. Thus, even man in whom sexual desire is repressed (homosexual) or absent (eunuch, or rarely in others) seeks to bring fullness and satisfaction to himself through women.

We must first examine DEEPLY this pattern in our own life, seeing it in the women we interact with. I guarantee that it is present in all our lives. I find it constantly cropping up in my own life.

2. The solution is not to try and control every interaction with women, to establish a whole host of rules regarding them, but to first of all be fulfilled in Christ, finding satisfaction in him so that we do not need to run to woman IN ANY WAY to feel satisfied.

This, of course, is the solution of the New Creation, being reformed in Christ. But as we studied last week, from this new condition, this new creation, we must take off the old self and put on the new self. But only in the context of this full satisfaction can we bring healing into our relationships with women.

Applications

1. We need to re-enter the identity we have been made for. The distortion is using women for our pleasure and satisfaction. The created identity is our protection and caring for women. How can we do that in this ministry? How can we make the women feel protected and cared for?

2. The number one way we can protect them is by guarding their hearts. This means what exactly? It means that we don’t create imitation relationships with them. It means that we act towards them with boldness and clarity. It means that we communicate with them and do not fall into relationship with them.

3. We have to value women as co-equal to us. With the fall, the chaos of the sinful world made men powerful and has long taught us that hierarchy is value, that primacy makes for increased worth. This is ungodly and false. We have to give our sisters the value they deserve, listening to them, valuing their thoughts.

4. We have to lead the ministries, families, etc. that we are a part of.

5. We must flee from passivity in our relationships with women.

Goodness of God

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:59:00 +0000

We must never tolerate an instant's unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same. -C.H. Spurgeon

Walk in the Light-Men of the Beach week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted the notes to the talk that Cavin and I gave last week. Today I'm posting the notes to Greg's talk that he gave yesterday morning: "The Dangers that Lurk Within: Walk in the Light."

Reprove

Men, you are not as strong as you think.
I repeat: you are not as strong as you think.

Last week, Cavin and Josh covered the Biblical Foundation for masculinity, showing us that true men:
1) Walk in submission and obedience to God
2) Take responsibility toward work and woman
3) Practice initiation and accept leadership

Easy. Now you know it, go and live it. Piece of cake, right? Wrong. Already, we’ve exposed two ways we deliberately reject this design, with embracing an exaggerated parody man on one end of the spectrum and outright suppressing our masculinity on the other. This week we will elaborate on this point and we will see even more ways and reasons we struggle to live inside God’s design for men. Obviously we can’t cover the entire breadth of masculine experience, but we will expose a few key areas and experiences that could have corrupted your fundamental understanding of what it means to be a man. We’ll also talk about what to do about it all, so that you can be equipped and encouraged in your pursuit of righteousness and a healthy understanding of masculinity. But first, I need to make one point clear:

As was mentioned last week, at the root of every perversion to our understanding of masculinity is sin, and this sin not only contradicts God’s truth, it also weakens our honest efforts to walk according to His plan. I don’t care how strong or mature you think you are, sin has had more impact on your mind and heart than you yet realize. Its stains run deep, and it is only through careful consideration that sin’s full corruption is brought to light. The process of exposing the consequences of the Fall and the weakness sin has wrought in our lives has only just begun.

This week I am here to challenge you. I challenge you to grasp what we mean when we say to practice the attitude of Holy Self-Doubt. I challenge you to realize that you are not as strong as you think. I challenge you to realize sin has had more impact on your life, heart, and mind than you yet realize. And I rebuke the pride in your heart that blinds you, that prevents you from acknowledging the corruption sin has wrought in you.

Take heed: Proverbs 16:5—
The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

Hear me now, men: Are you mightier than Saul, that you can ignore this warning?

Yes, Saul, who would become the first king of Israel. He was a mighty warrior, kingly in bearing, impressive in every way. He stood a full head taller than the tallest men of Israel; he was without equal. He came from a famous clan, hailed for its military prowess. The circumstance of his ascension was a mighty act of subjugation: he united the tribes of Israel, led them personally against the Ammonites, and claimed a great victory. For this he was hailed and confirmed as king. The beginning of his reign is spectacular—he is a mighty man, a powerful leader, full of the Holy Spirit, acclaimed by the prophet Samuel and celebrated by all the people.

But this does not last. By the end of his life, Saul is rejected by the Holy Spirit, abandoned and denounced by Samuel. Where once he was a mighty warrior, at his end he is routed by the Philistines and separated from his men on the battlefield, at which point he succumbs to a failed suicide attempt out of cowardice and fear. The last night of his reign as king he consulted a witch. He was widely discredited, known as a man of anger, jealousy and frustration. His main rival humiliated him time and time again. Victory on the battlefield eluded him unless David was with him. His attempts to harness the entire power of his kingdom to hunt down a small band of men were both futile. His firstborn was more loyal to his rival than to him. He dies a man rejected by God, foolish, weak, and alone. With him his line dies too, and the kingdom passes to another.

Why? Why does this happen? Why does Saul fail when at first he burned so bright? We can see several patterns in his life. He is fearful and passivity at critical junctures, such as when his army stands at an impasse with the Phillistines and daily endures the taunts of Goliath. Other times he is overly concerned with maintaining appearances, like when he begs Samuel to perform the sham of honoring him before the people, despite the rejection that Samuel has just pronounced. He shows a profaneness with the things of God, like early in his reign when out of fear he fails to wait for Samuel to perform the sacrifice, or when he disobeys God by keeping the best of the animals alive when God had instructed him to kill them all.

What we see is a man who on the outside seemed powerful, strong, and confident, but who on the inside was full of fear, pride, and vanity. The reality of the inner man eventually overcame the brave warrior, and Saul ended his days in disgrace.

Indeed. Are you mightier than Saul?

Or are you closer in your walk with Christ than Judas Iscariot?

Judas was elected as one of the 12, Jesus’ closest companions and disciples. He was commissioned to go out into Israel working miracles and calling the people to repentance. He was discipled by Christ Himself for three years, during which time he lived in closest fellowship daily with the very people who would impact the entire world for Christ. He was even trusted and respected enough among them to be given the formal responsibility of handling the disciples’ finances.
Yet by the end he was overcome by darkness in his heart. He became a traitor, a liar and a schemer. Most likely he feared men and loved their good opinion. But above all he became greedy, a lover of money. When he approached the Pharisees about betraying Jesus, he asked “What will you give me?” They did not offer him status, nor did they offer him accolades or privilege; instead, they immediately knew exactly what he wanted: money. And money he received.
Meanwhile, he lied to the Disciples, hid his sinfulness and scheming from them, such that as he left from the Last Supper to actually betray Jesus, the other Disciples thought he was going to get something for the feast or to give something to the poor. They had no idea what was truly in his heart.
And you know the end of the story. He betrays Christ, hands him over to the Pharisees, and is overcome with shame. He ultimately rejects the very money he once coveted, at which point he is belittled and dismissed by the very Pharisees he sought to help. He is lost and alone in his shame and remorse, and ultimately he commits suicide.

In both of these men, I want to point out that their sinfulness did not overcome them quickly. Both of them started well, with respect among their peers, but neither of them confronted the sinfulness in their hearts, nor did they recognize the weakness that sin produced in them. Despite the strength that their outward gifts suggested, the weakness that was inside ultimately overcame them.

Men, I call you to sober humility, the second attitude we mentioned last week, and I plead with you: avoid their fate.
Now, before I give you practicals about how to do this, I want to equip you to expose the depths of sin’s impact in your own life.

Rebuke

I’ve mentioned this idea of the weakness that sin brings into our lives. With suppression and parody man, we had two examples of what it looks like to outright reject God’s design for masculinity. But what does it look like to live with a weakened or corrupt idea of masculinity? Where does it come from, how does it manifest?

The issue at hand is the woundedness that we all experience. Woundedness in this context can be defined as sin you have committed or sin committed against you that has perverted your understanding of what it means to be a man. No one is free from this, though there are many types of wounds. And the thing to know is that just as with Saul and Judas, these wounds, this inner brokenness, cannot stay hidden forever. If they are not exposed and confronted, they will one day overtake you.

So let’s expose them:

The Wounds:
1. Distorted view of man from absent or abusive father
This can be either physically or emotionally, and this is extremely common. Think about it: if anyone is going to model for you what it means to be a man it should be your father. His actions or lack thereof will silently define how you understand what it means to be a man. Beyond this, it is our fathers who affirm us as men; they are the ones that welcome us out of boyhood and initiate us to manhood. If they don’t fill that role, who will?
2. Overbearing/Controlling mother
--The emotionally manipulative mother often works hand in hand with the absent father. This can keep a man in a perpetually emotionally constrained state, a state of perpetual childhood in other words.
3. Rejection by peers
--Rejected not just by certain people, but as a male. Common for unathletic boys.
4. Sexualization wound
--This is increasingly common as pornography has become widely available. A significant number of people our age, including, I imagine, a good portion of us in this room were exposed to porn in middle school or younger. This is a gap even between us and men in their early 30’s. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says that sexual sin is against our body and “wages war against our soul.” Significant soul damage is done here. Other forms of sexualization include sexual abuse, early sexual activity, and homosexuality.

And men, I regret to inform you, this is not an exhaustive list: there are other ways that we have been harmed or wounded, and other ways we have been sinned against and are still sinning. In order to unearth them, you must be constantly vigilant, and you must avail yourself of honesty and humility. Basically, make Psalm 139:23-24 your prayer:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
And as you invite the Spirit to investigate your heart, you must ask:

1. How has my view of manhood been distorted? Remember: This is a lifelong process and it involves the careful application of the Word.
2. What wounds have I received? How have I been wronged?

Exhort

Men, it is God alone who can redeem us from our brokenness, and it is to Him I commend all of you.

Let me be specific: the way we fight against this inner brokenness is to Walk in the Light.
But what does that even mean? Check out Ephesians 4:22-24—

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitudes of your mind; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Men, from this passage we will draw a number of practical ways to walk in the light, but I must begin by reminding you that fighting our woundedness and walking in the light starts with God. We point to Him and rely on Him. The third attitude we mentioned last week is to have a thirst for God! Also, don’t forget that both knowledge of self and knowledge of God are revealed knowledge: we rely wholly on God not only to provide a proper and healthy understanding of masculinity, we also rely on Him to expose sin in our lives, just like we looked at in Psalm 139. With this, don’t forget that He is the only One who sanctifies us, who puts us through this ongoing refining process to make us like Him in righteousness and holiness. Remember the words of Philippians 1:6--that God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ; never, ever let your pride fool you into thinking you must rely on your own power to accomplish this work. It is critically important that as we look at these practical applications that we do not forget our reliance on God.

Now, in this passage, we see this process. First, to put off the old, perverted self, which is being corrupted. Here this word “corrupted” means being slowly eaten away and weakened from the inside. You see, if we do not put this self off, no matter what we put on ourselves, there will be an internal source of corruption that will eventually overwhelm us. The inner man must be confronted.

Second, we are to be renewed in our mind. This is the process of transforming our minds through the Holy Spirit working through his word. As we understand ourselves and God through the lens of Scripture, our minds are made new, and we are equipped for this putting off and putting on. Finally, we are to actively walk in the new revealed ways, to put on the new man, to conform ourselves to the vision of manhood presented in the Scriptures.

Men of the Beach, the call is clear: to walk in the light we must be vigilant and wait on the Lord as He chooses to reveal to us the darkness of our hearts. When He does so, we must not shrink back and ignore the issue. Rather we must enter into our woundedness and in humility recognize and acknowledge the dangers of our sin. We must confront the distortions that we have absorbed, and we must reconcile the conflicts between what we receive from our environment, our family, our culture, and even our churches, and what is true.

So, some applications:

1. Be vigilant: Do not forget the warning: There is weakness in your heart, as a man. You are not strong. Do you think that those men, Saul and Judas, and all the thousands of Christian men who have been overcome by the sin that lay in their heart, do you think all of them willfully ignored their sin? No, most likely in their pride they did not realize it was there. They imagined themselves beyond falling.

Judas travelled with Jesus for 3 years before his greed and pride overcame him and he fell. Saul reigned for 42 years before his sin ultimately wrought his end. Sin will withdraw from you, lie dormant, pretend that it is absent, while all the time it waits for you to forget, to let down your guard.

2. Live in Community: There is a God-ordained way for us as men to deal with our weakness, and to deal with it together. This is a way that you will never outgrow, that you will never move past your need for. This way is the depth and power of mutual encouragement, and this too is how men walk in the light.

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

All our weaknesses, all our flaws, all our problems and issues, all of them must be worked out in the light, not by us alone, not by our own strength, but on the mutual strengthening that we have only in community with others. And let me reiterate: following God’s command to work these things out in community is an expression of trusting and relying on Him to save you from your woundedness.

3. Start now and do it till the day you die: Living in community this way is not for today, not for tomorrow, not for college, not for our youth, but for all the days of our life. As long as we are susceptible to sin, we need men looking into our lives, examining it, and watching over us. And we need to do the same to others.

Some of us are doing this. Others have done this in the past. Others have never done it.

4. Don’t Hide: Sin has power when it is hidden. The hardest time to share is the first time. We have to permit each other access. They have to see us. What front are you putting up to your brothers? How are you obscuring yourself, hiding what is shameful?

If you get nothing more from this message than this one thought, I will be happy:

You must, throughout your entire life, allow men to see your life, to rebuke you, and you must do the same for them.

5. Let Nothing Stop You. Here are a few obstacles that you must avoid:

A) The cursed passivity of men. Men are passive and can live side-by-side with each other without ever knowing each other. You must be the initiator. Don’t wait for others!

B) Fear of rejection, shame. This is understandable, but a lie. In our attempts to hide our shame, we achieve the opposite. Just as with Saul and Judas, their hidden sin eventually overtook them, and the very shame they sought to hide became clear to everyone.

C) Perceived absence of men to share with. Moving to a new area, a new church—any transition, really. Can you commit yourselves to this in the long term?

You will only perceive this as urgent so far as you are aware of your sin and weakness. James 4:10 says “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” Therefore men, humble yourself, in your self-conception.

Foundations: Men of the Beach Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:18:00 +0000

This month at Long Beach we're doing a thing called Men of the Beach where a group of 25 or so guys are examining Biblical Masculinity for the month of March. As part of that, each week we have hour long talks at 6 AM on Thursdays. I'll be posting the notes from the various talks. It's at this time that I feel I need to acknowledge how much of a debt we owe to Steven Crawford for this whole program. This first week especially, but for all the talks overall, we are heavily indebted to him and the notes that he left from last time (which all we really had to do was tweak them a tiny bit).

And now, without further ado... Biblical Foundations for Masculinity:

I. Introduction

What is a man?

**Let’s start with the verse we put on the cards we handed out at Navs: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13

A short verse that seems fairly straightforward...but what does it actually mean? Even looking only at the instruction to “be men of courage”....what does that mean? What is Paul saying? What does it mean to be a man? Where do we look to for our “template”?**

A good place to begin is to draw a distinction between one half of our population and the other half. Elisabeth Eliot has a quote that will help us in this: “Men are men. They are not women. Women are women. They are not men.”

This simple-sounding quote is quite profound. Men are men. What this means is that they have certain innate characteristics that cannot be changed or altered no matter what culture they live in, no matter what environment they were raised in, no matter what education was given them. You are all men, a simple fact of creation. When God made you, he made you as a man and not as a woman. This fact has real meaning/significance.

However, just because we were made in a certain way does not mean that we understand ourselves. John Calvin says that there are two types of knowledge: knowledge of self and knowledge of God. It is important to remember that both types of knowledge are revealed knowledge, given to us in Scripture. Just as there are certain types of things that we can know about God from observing the creation (Romans 1:19-23), there are certain types of things that we can know about ourselves from self-observation. But even these things can be denied or suppressed, perverted or misused.

We also live in unique times. Now is one of the great times of gender confusion, self-misunderstanding, and the widespread suppression of the innate differences between the sexes. In academia, you can be fired for even suggesting that there might be differences between the sexes beyond the physical plumbing. This message has trickled into every area of thinking, from the church outward.

In the church, the 20th century was a great time of retreat from the uniqueness of each gender. The charismatic movement, with its emphasis on personal experience of the Holy Spirit, led the way with many charismatic women ministers leading large ministries and congregations. Add into this mix, widespread acceptability of homosexuality, a powerful unifiying popular culture, and you have a potent brew of confusion.

It is important to note that the things that are happening in our culture are not new. Homosexuality was common and unremarkable in Ancient Greece. The denial of gender differences has happened many times before. But the rise of science has diminished the effect of the natural greater strength of men. Few men in the west labor in a field in which women are physically incapable of performing. The effect of this has been to call into question whether the differences between men and women does go beyond the merely physical. The feminist movement of the 20th century argued that the physical superiority of men had for centuries kept women in a subordinate position so that men could exploit them. There is a great deal of truth to this.

At any rate, in order to understand man, we must return to the revealed truth of Scripture to guide us. It is God who made man, and therefore he alone is to be trusted to instruct us on what a man is.

You have to understand a few things:

1. Your view of man has been perverted by the culture. This has strongly affected, and will continue to affect the way you view yourself, the way you interact with other men, and the way you interact with women. KNOW THIS!!!!

2. The church has been remiss in addressing this deeply. In this, they have been complicit in the acculturation of our understanding of men. The result is the absence of strong male leaders in the church.

3. You need to filter not only your thinking, but also your emotions through the Scriptures, testing them and discarding what does not align.

4. The thing that lies in back of all this is our sin, our deliberate rebellion against God.

What is the purpose of Men of the Beach?

1. To give a compelling vision of Biblical Manhood.

2. To encourage the repentance and faith that allows us to restore ourselves to this vision.

3. To give you the tools you need to grow in manhood throughout the rest of your life.

Men of the Beach is a beginning. The restoration of your manhood will continue for the rest of your life and remain incomplete until the day when your flesh is remade, unstained by sin. Remember this: When you are remade, when you are raised from the dead and appear before God, it will be as a man, not as a woman!

**I’d like to make a note at this point and acknowledge that there are those of us in this room who were here two years ago for the first Men of the Beach here at Long Beach and there are those of us who weren’t. Let me repeat that Men of the Beach is a BEGINNING! This month will not transform us into perfect men! Rather, it will help to instill, either for the first time or as a re-emphasis/reminder, Biblical understanding and practices into our hearts. **

Appropriate attitude for entering into these things:

1. Holy self-doubt

You are much more wicked and rebellious than you can yet imagine. Your heart, your emotions, your patterns of thinking, all are stained by sin and will lead you astray if you trust them.

2. Humility

We must come into the word to be instructed, to be taught. Our cry to the Word of God must be “Change me! Transform me! Teach me!”

3. Hunger for God

At the bottom of all this is the desire to know God. And to come before him, we must come as we were created. We must come as men.

The Biblical foundation:

Genesis 2, Obs.

1. Man is made first, from the dust of the ground.

2. God breathes into man.

3. Man is given a task to do. This is what man was made for. He is not made to simply relax in the garden, but for a specific task. God gives him work to do.

4. God commits a command to man. This shows that man was made to live in submission and obedience to God. He works before God as his image in the world. As his image in the world, he rules over all creation.

5. Woman is made from man because man alone is an incomplete image of God. Alone, he does not reflect the fullness of God. Women completes man because their relationship is a mirror of the Trinitarian relationship.

6. Man looks at woman and names her. He identifies in her a complement.
--J.I. Packer: “Two sexes perceiving the other as having in it that which completes what each individual, male or female, is at present.
-Sexuality—men and women are different and complementary and thus desire each other.

7. When they are placed in relationship, a certain pattern of interaction comes inevitably from this. Woman is the helper, men takes her on as his responsibility to protect and care for her—this is what happens when he says “she is flesh of my flesh.” Paul refers to this in Eph. “love your wives as yourselves.”

Let’s sketch out the full picture:

A man is a creature designed for work in the context of submission/obedience to God. When he works in submission to God, he is fully satisfied.

He is presented with a perfect complement in which his role in the interaction is to lead and protect.

Here we bring out the full picture of what it means to be a man:

Obedience/Submission to God
Responsibility in work and towards woman
Initiation

This is what a man is designed for. To be the initiator towards woman. To be responsible for work and woman. To submit to God and obey him in all things. This is a man.

Summary of Chapter 2, this is what it means to be a man:

Submission and obedience to God
Responsibility toward work and woman
Initiation/Leadership

What happened?

Genesis 3, Observations from the fall

1) Adam was with her. God gave Adam responsibility for the garden and the woman, and he allows both to come under attack. He rejects his design as protector. His role requires action, and he chooses inaction. He chooses to be passive.

2) He ate the fruit. Make no mistake, Adam sinned as well. The rejection of his responsibility culminated in his direct disobedience of God’s command.

-- 1Timothy 2:14 says that Adam was not the one deceived.

3) He is ashamed. He hides from God because he was naked and afraid that God would see him in his nakedness. He doesn’t want God to know what he has done. Guilt, shame, self-condemnation.

4) In his passivity, he rebels against God. He openly states that he will not do what God has created him to do. There is a sin of commission when he eats the fruit, but long before that there is the sin of omission.

Observations from the curse

1) To dust you will return. God promised that if they ate from the tree they would die, and God is true to his word.

2) He was created to take care of the earth, and now the earth is cursed. He will eat of it only through painful toil, it will fight him, and he will work until he dies. He can find no life or satisfaction in his job.

3) There is a pattern here. He is created for a task, and that task does not change. It is cursed.

Summary: Man’s design is to be responsible for the woman and the garden. He sins by rejecting that responsibility. His design does not change. He is still responsible for the woman and the garden. But now his design is cursed. He cannot find satisfaction in his design. He toils in it until he dies.

Bringing it home:

1) Adam’s story is our story. As men, we were designed for these things:

Submission and obedience to God
Responsibility toward work and woman
Initiation/Leadership

2) We cannot change our design. This is who God designed us to be, and in our natural state, it is still who we are. Think of the things that bring you pleasure. Think of the joy you feel at doing a task and doing well. The satisfaction you feel after a hard days labor. The excitement of pursuing a woman, trying to win her heart. These things are natural to men because they are a part of our design.

3) The problem is that we disfigure our design through our passivity and sin. Isaiah 53 describes us as sheep who have gone astray, turning to our own ways. When we turn to sin, we turn from God in hatred. You have to believe this about yourself.

We reject our design in two ways:

i. We deny and suppress our design
ii. We embrace a parody version of our design

This is not a black and white scale. Both of these things are present in all of us, although we do tend to lean toward one or the other. Know that we will never find satisfaction in either of these extremes.

Examples:

Parody man:

Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) from fight club. The main character, played by Edward Norton, epitomizes Durden as the ideal man. Durden is ripped, he is funny, he is great with women, fights well. People respect him, he does what he wants and he lives free from the control of authority.

Parody man seeks satisfaction in his work. This is the lawyer who works 70 hours a week to be the best. They want to be the best at what they do. Society and pop culture epitomize them.

Like James Bond. He is always competent, always has a plan, always has a girl. He answers to know one, and he gets what he wants when he wants. He has to be the best at everything he does because…

Parody man is haunted by a simple question: Am I enough?

It haunts him, drives him crazy. He feels that he is not enough and so he hides behind his accomplishments. This is Adam, afraid because he was naked, so he hides. This question haunts us all. Am I enough?

He never finds satisfaction in his work, he never feels like he is enough, and so he hides. He is afraid of not being man, of disappointing, of being ridiculed, of being disrespected.

Suppression:

The other side of this coin is suppression. This is the man who denies his ambitions, who closes the door completely to the responsibility of men.

Jim Halpert from the office. It’s not that he doesn’t work. It’s that he is passive. He has no ambition. In his relationship with Pam, he lacks initiative. He is quiet, and doesn’t stand up for what he knows is right.

Other more comical examples include Homer Simpson, Peter Griffen. They are incompetent, lazy, and it is obvious that their wives are in control, not them. We laugh, society applauds, but what does it tell us about men? Is this what manhood has become?

It is important to note that homosexuality has its roots in the suppression of our design. This is not necessarily a conscious decision. Often it has its stems from some deep hurt that a man experienced as a child, usually from his father. Someone who does not understand his role as a man, begins to deny his manhood because he does not view it as a part of himself.

Two extremes. Suppression and parody man. Sadly, we see these played out all too often in our culture. Suppression of our design and rejection of our responsibility leads to addictions such as pornography, alcoholism or drugs. Parody man, thinking that women will fulfill him, view them as objects and abuse them.

Where does this leave us?

Man is defined by these three things:

Submission and obedience to God
Responsibility toward work and woman
Initiation/Leadership

All three of these are fatally weakened by sin. As fallen men, we follow the pattern of Adam, we reject our design, and embrace passivity. We need to be aware of these things. We need to know the Word of God, and what it says about our design as men. We need to realize our tendency to suppress this design or embrace the parody. We need to be honest with ourselves. Scripture warns us of the dangers of self flattery:

Psalm 36:2 For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.

We need each other. We need to repent. We need humility. We need to wipe the slate clean and start over. What does it mean to be a man? What does the Word tell us? Will we listen?

God is... (Isaiah 30)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:37:00 +0000

Observations from Isaiah 30 (ESV):

The Lord IS a Father (v. 1), The Holy One of Israel (v. 12), a God of Justice (v. 18), and our Teacher (v. 20). He HAS plans (1), GIVES his Word (8), INSTRUCTS his children (9), SPEAKS to his people (15), WAITS to be gracious (18), EXALTS himself (18), SHOWS his mercy (18) and SHOWS himself (20), HEARS his people (19), BINDS up brokenness (26), and HEALS the wounded (26).

Hallelujah! What an amazing day to begin asking "Who are you showing yourself to be, Lord?" during my quiet times! What a mighty God we serve!

Talitha, cumi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:33:00 +0000

I've been reading through Mark recently, and for whatever reason the story where Jesus raises Jairus' daughter (Mark 5) has stood out to me each time through. Matthew Henry's commentary on a specific aspect of the miracle, Jesus' words to the girl, especially hit home:

It was customary with the Jews, when they gave physic to one that was sick, to say Arise from thy disease; meaning, We wish thou mayest arise: but to one that was dead, Christ said, Arise from the dead; meaning, I command that thou arise; nay there is more in it -- the dead have not power to arise, therefore power goes along with the word, to make it effectual...Christ works while he commands, and works by the command, and therefore may command what he pleaseth, even the dead to arise. Such is the gospel call to those that are by nature dead in tresspasses and sins, and can no more rise from that death by their own power, than this child could; and yet that word, Awake, and arise from the dead, is neither vain, nor in vain, when it follows immediately, Christ shall give thee light, Eph 5:14.

What in your life is dead and has no hope of life outside of Christ? In that area are you fearing or believing? (Mark 5:36b)

Visiting the USC Navs!!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:41:00 +0000

This past week I was invited by Steven, the Campus Director of the Navs at USC, to come and do worship for their Nav Nite. Because classes don't start until tomorrow at CSULB and most of our students weren't in the area yet, I was able to take advantage of this opportunity to spend time with my friends investing in another expression of the Navigators here in SoCal.

Because their ministry is a newer ministry (only re-established a year and a half ago) than ours, I went with a "shorter is better" philosophy for this set. Better to keep things simple and not wear out your welcome!

The text for the teaching that week was Philippians 1:1-11, so I chose three songs that centered around the themes of God's creative and regenerative work in our lives and our response of glorifying Him. "Cannons" embodied both of those elements: the creator God who established the world with but a breath and our response to him in the phrase "All glory, honor power is yours, amen." "Glory to God"...well, that one's pretty self-explanatory. Again, the emphasis is on our response to the Creator God giving us breath to breathe and praise his name.

Why did I choose this specific focus? Philippians 1:6 says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" and verse 11 says that this change leading towards purity and blamelessness is to be "to the glory and praise of God." A pretty beautiful truth, no?

As a closing song, I chose one that I'd never done before: "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. I don't know about you, but sometimes I look at myself and doubt that God could use someone like me for his purposes. That's why I absolutely love the chorus of the song:

You make beautiful things :: You make beautiful things out of the dust :: You make beautiful things :: You make beautiful things out of us

If God could create the entire universe out of nothing and then make humans from the dust...well, maybe, just maybe, he could create something out of the mess that my life resembles sometimes!

Sidenote: While playing the worship set, we had all the lights except the projector (which had a predominantly black background) out: I couldn't really see my chord charts or lyrics! Thankfully 1) these are songs I'm fairly familiar with and 2) they aren't terribly complex either!

Worship Set:

1. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham (G)
2. "Glory To God" by Steve Fee (G)
3. "Beautful Things" by Gungor (C)

Does your view of God as Creator affect your day-to-day experience? Do you have trouble believing he could do a work in your life even though he created everything in existence?

Seeds of Context

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:39:00 +0000

As I walked past this bowl of fruit this morning, I was reminded of a quick illustration regarding context, especially with regards to the Scriptures. The thought came from the Life Group curriculum that we're using at ROCKharbor and that was developed by Francis Chan, so the OTHER reason I was reminded of this thought is that I adapted it into the introduction for the Bible study Alicia and I are co-running this semester on Acts. But the bowl was the "reminder of the reminder" this morning, so I'll stick with that!

Chan writes, "When studying Scripture, think apple rather than orange." He explains:

Typically, when you eat an apple, you take a bite out of the whole fruit. When you eat an orange, you break it into isolated pieces and then eat the pieces individually. Whenever we read a verse, we should be mindful that we are taking a thought (a "bite") from a larger story. Always keep in mind that every verse is connected to a chapter, a book, and the entire Bible.

I know I may seem like a broken record here, but to use the potentially easiest example, Jeremiah 29:11 is an amazing and powerful verse. By itself, it's a pretty tasty morsel. Let's remember that it's part of the "apple" of Jeremiah (70 years of captivity, judgement, exile) though :).

God, reveal to me the larger story that your Word paints. Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from your Law (Psalm 119:18), because without your Spirit illuminating it I am prone to make mistakes. Thank you for the gift of your Word-may I and others handle it carefully and accurately.

Weekend Setlist

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:02:00 +0000

This past weekend The Sunland Navigators hosted an conference for college juniors and seniors called EDGE Preview. Over the course of the weekend many different post-college opportunities with The Navigators were presented, but the overall focus was on trusting God wherever he takes you, not just if it's in ministry and not just specifically with The Navs.

I had the privilege of leading worship the second morning for the group of 115 or so students and staff. The setup was two guitars, two vocalists, and that's pretty much it. Fun story about the morning: about half an hour or so before our set I discovered that the output jack had fallen INTO my guitar! I had to enlist one of our students with smaller hands and arms than me to reach inside my guitar (after I'd taken all the strings off!) and reposition the jack. Thankfully the screw wasn't hard to track down and we had enough time to perform the "operation" and get my guitar back into playing shape before the set! (It was still kinda crazy to have my guitar basically having open heart surgery though! Thanks Cherenda! :D)

For the set I chose to focus on God's promises, his power, and our response. "You Said" by shane & shane is about one of the most Navigator (especially Sunland Navigator) friendly songs you'll come across: It's all about claiming God's promises, uses imagery from Psalm 2:8 and Matt 9:35-38, and is all about God's glory reaching the Nations. "At Your Name" is a recent favorite of mine...there's something that just works about literally shouting "Yahweh" and dwelling on his might that's...well, powerful. And singing "Living for Your Glory" can be a powerful time of reflection and earnest prayer where we surrender again to God's will (see my friend Caitlin's blog for an example!).

1. "You Said" by Shane & Shane (G)
2. "At Your Name" by Tim Hughes and Phil Wickham (A)
3. "Living for Your Glory" by Tim Hughes (D)

What promises from God are you having trouble believing? What problem are you currently facing that is too big for him? What areas of your life do you need to surrender to him to live completely for His glory?

God, help me to believe your promises, your power, and your purposes. May I seek you and your kingdom first, before all others.

The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About? - Desiring God

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:11:00 +0000

I've been doing some reading up and study on God's sovereignty for NavWest recently and stumbled across an article by John Piper called The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About? - Desiring God:

We all know the amazing promises of Romans 8: that all things work for the good of those who love God, that no one can be against us if God is for us, and that nothing can separate us from Christ's love. But have you ever wondered why Romans 9, a rather blunt and harsh (at times) exposition of God's absolute sovereignty immediately follows? I hadn't, but Piper traces the connection beautifully, concluding:

"Romans 9 comes after Romans 8 for this utterly crucial reason: It shows that the word of God’s covenant with Israel has not failed, because it is grounded in God’s sovereign, electing mercy. Therefore the promises to the true Israel and the promises of Romans 8 will stand! That is the gospel of Romans 9. The promises purchased by the blood of Christ will be performed by the sovereign power of God."

God, thank you that you have the power to back up and complete your promises! Thank you that we can cling to them because we know that you set the world into motion with a word and that you love us. May I live in light of this reality.

Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis by N.T. Wright

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:27:00 +0000

"Among the many things that need to be said about the gospels is that we gain nothing by ignoring the fact that Jesus chose twelve male apostles. There were no doubt all kinds of reasons for this within both the symbolic world in which he was operating and the practical and cultural world within which they would have to live and work. But every time this point is made – and in my experience it is made quite frequently – we have to comment on how interesting it is that there comes a time in the story when the disciples all forsake Jesus and run away; and at that point, long before the rehabilitation of Peter and the others, it is the women who come first to the tomb, who are the first to see the risen Jesus, and are the first to be entrusted with the news that he has been raised from the dead. This is of incalculable significance. Mary Magdalene and the others are the apostles to the apostles. We should not be surprised that Paul calls a woman named Junia an apostle in Romans 16.7. If an apostle is a witness to the resurrection, there were women who deserved that title before any of the men."

An excerpt from Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis by N.T. Wright

God Provides, even...ESPECIALLY...the small things

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 23:03:00 +0000

For those who don't know, this is a capo: more than that, it is a broken capo. Capos are used by guitar players to change the key that they're playing in without changing the chords that they're playing. It makes everything MUCH easier. It also makes pianists and other 'real' musicians hate guitar players =P

My capo broke at our regional conference several weeks ago, and since then I've been either too busy or too lazy to replace it. While capos make things easier, they are by no means necessary: you can get by without them. Furthermore, I have another capo that kinda works the same way...it was made to do something different (cover some of the strings but not all of them) so you can kinda cheat and use it as a full capo.

The other day I was strumming my guitar as I sat on the grass in Parkside waiting to practice with Rachel for some worship we'd be playing together when I saw one of the maintenance guys walking towards me. "Great" I thought to myself. "They're probably wanting to mow the grass or water or something and need me to move. The guy and I made that awkward early eye contact too where we both knew we saw each other but were still kinda too far away.

When he got close enough, he asked me a simple question: Is this yours? He was holding a (different but similarly functioning) capo in his hands!

I told him that it wasn't mine, but he gave it to me anyways! Without having to do anything for myself, God totally provided a new capo for me! I sat there kinda stunned-i had NOT expected anything of the sort to happen and so it was a neat moment where all I could really do in response was shoot up a prayer of thanksgiving.

Sometimes I think we can fall into the trap of taking spiritual promises from the Bible to mean that there will be physical blessings, expecting things on this side of eternity that we shouldn't. BUT...sometimes we don't take them literally enough!

Thank You, God, that you care enough to orchestrate the provision of something as simple and small as a capo for my guitar. May I trust you in the bigger things (finances, family, health) also!

"And my God will supply every need of Yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:19

Redesign

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:24:00 +0000

Recently Starbucks changed their logo. And by recently, I mean within the past few months. Forgive me for not commenting on this sooner, but I really haven't had much reason to comment on it until now.

My day to day interaction with Starbucks didn't change much as a result of this change. I still have a gold card, still get my coffee the same ways at the same times, and still spend way to much money there. Seriously, how does that even happen?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that, while the wrapping changed, the product stayed the same. Starbucks doesn't sell CUPS-they sell COFFEE. (Well, they sell tumblers and mugs and stuff, but that's not the point.)

I've changed the way the blog looks and the way you can leave comments and interact with the content I put here. Unfortunately the blog won't display the comments that people have left on the last few months worth of comments, but switching now ensures that comments will henceforth be saved!

A couple of months ago I saw John Mark McMillan in concert, and as he was introducing a new song he said something that I'm still chewing on today:

Truth doesn't change, but language evolves.

The blog might look a bit different, but I'm still doing the same stuff, writing the same way, and serving the same God! :)

Conference Setlist 10/28-10/30

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:22:00 +0000

This past week we had our Regional Conference for the Navigators: 370 students from around 14 different campuses (in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Utah!) gathered in Pine Valley, CA (near San Diego) for three days to pursue God intentionally and corporately. This is an annual event but this was by far the largest amount of people that we'd ever had come! We maxed out the facilities at the camp we were at and were scrambling to find places for everyone to lay their head down at night! Praise God for an amazing problem to have to deal with: TOO MANY STUDENTS! :)

I was honored to be asked to lead worship throughout the weekend, an opportunity I jumped at! God has blessed me with this passion and our ministry at Long Beach with an overabundance of talented musicians! So I assembled a six piece band (including me: two acoustic guitarists, one electric, piano/keyboard player, bass player, and drummer) and we set to practicing and preparing.

I could go on and on about how the weekend went, but to keep it short and simple: it surpassed all my expectations! The band really came together well and I think we found that balance between not being so BAD that you're distracting but also not being so GOOD that you're distracting (i.e. making it a performance). The feedback that I got over the course of the weekend was nothing but encouraging and I'll never forget specific moments from the weekend like the first song, the various times everyone sang a-cappella ("How Great Thou Art" being the most obvious), and the ways I saw God moving and answering prayers during the extended time of worship Saturday night.

Normally when I lead worship I share the songs and link to youtube videos of the songs, but this time there's just too many! We played close to thirty different songs and repeated a few of them, so if I were to do that...well, it'd just take FOREVER. I have a compromise, however, with two aspects.

First, I've still included the list but only linked to songs that are newer or people asked me about. If you have questions about any of them, however, PLEASE let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you!

Second, if you have Spotify you can go to my profile (click here!!) and I've put all these songs in a playlist! If you DON'T have Spotify...well, you should lol. Anyways, I hope one of these two ways will be beneficial to you!

I've organized the songs into a list that's arranged by the them of each talk they were with, since that's how I chose the songs in the first place. Again, let me know if you have any questions or anything!

Jesus
1. "Your Love Never Fails" by Chris McClarney [Jesus Culture] (Bb)
2. "In Christ Alone"by Stuart Townend (D->E)
3. "Hosanna" by Hillsong United (E)

4. "Lead Me to the Cross" by Hillsong United (D)
5. "Jesus Paid it All" modern arrangement by Alex Nifong (B)
6. "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (C)

7. "Center" by Charlie Hall and Matt Redman (E)

The Nations
8. "The Highest and the Greatest" by Tim Hughes (Bb)
9. "Saviour of the World" by Ben Cantelon (Bb)
10. "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (Bb)
11. "Be Thou My Vision" (E)

Laborers
12. "Here I am to Worship" by Tim Hughes (D)
13. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman (A)
14. "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes (G)
15. "I Lift My Eyes Up (Psalm 121)" by Brian Doerksen (C)

16. "Living For Your Glory"

Extended Night of Worship

17. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham (G)
18. "You Alone" by David Crowder (C)
19. "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan (C)
20. "Nothing Is Impossible" by Planetshakers (C)
21. "Our God" by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (G)
22. "Your Love Never Fails" **
23. "At Your Name" by Phil Wickham and Tim Hughes (A)
24. "One Thing Remains"by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Bethel Church] (A)
25. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle (C)
26. "The Lost are Found" by Sam Knock and Ben Fielding [Hillsong] (A)

The Lost
27. "I've Found a Love" by Ben Cantelon (A)
28. "At Your Name" **/"How Great is Our God"/"How Great Thou Art" (A)

29. "Rescue" by Desperation Band (C)
30. "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall (B)
31. "The Lost are Found" **

32. "Be Thou My Vision" **
33. "Our God" **
34. "Forever Reign" **

**=repeats

What song(s) were most impactful for you? Which ones had you not heard before or in a long time? Favorites?

Sacrificing Sacrificed Food

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:43:00 +0000

"All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up." -1 Corinthians 10:23

Lately I've been wrestling a bit with the surprising ways that my own selfishness can interact with the freedom that we have in Christ. That might sound like an odd combination, but it's a very real concern that I'm still in the process of wrestling with. Let me explain a bit.

Sometimes I feel like the believer in 1 Corinthians 8 who just doesn't have a problem eating food in an idol's temple. Although there are many so-called gods in heaven and earth (v-5) I know that in actuality there is one God (v-6) and that "food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do" (v-8). What does it matter where I eat this? God made it and I do all things to his glory, so it shouldn't matter, right? In isolation, this is not a bad argument. Paul is agreeing that there's nothing inherently wrong with the actions of the believer who would do something like this (although there's a distinction he draws later with actually participating in idol worship through this food in chapter 10).

The problem with this line of thought comes when other believers who hold different convictions enter the picture. We see this in verse 7 of chapter 8: not everyone has the same attitude towards food sacrificed towards idols and "their conscience, being weak, is defiled." We run the risk, then, of harming our brother and sister by our own actions (v-11). And not only that: "Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ" (v-12).

By wounding another believer's conscience, I sin against Christ. That's a scary thought, folks! By disregarding those surrounding me, I risk destroying the brother for whom Christ died. That is a sobering thought.

For the sake of argument, Paul asks: "Am I not free?" (9:1) Can't I do what I want without thinking of these other brothers? Paul shifts examples from food sacrificed to idols to raising support from local churches and other rights he has as an apostle to show that even he isn't immune from this struggle of thinking of others first instead of being selfish with the grace that God has given him.

Paul's conclusion is that "we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ" (9:12). Think of others before yourself and don't let your choices/behavior, which you can control, influence others negatively. Paul goes on to talk about being "a servant to all" (v-19) and doing this all "for the sake of the gospel" (v-23) and then warning against idolatry (the first portion of ch. 10), before arriving at perhaps the most famous part of this passage and how I began this post: "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up" (10:23). But what is "helpful"? What "builds up"? Paul's answer is the next verse.

"Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." (10:24) What ultimately matters is the rest of the body. What ultimately matters is my brothers or my sisters. I must love them as Christ has, i.e. sacrificially. I must honor them and thusly bring glory to God, not myself. It isn't easy, but it's what we're called to do. As we follow Paul's example and Christ's example (11:1), we must deny ourselves for the sake of others and live lives that embrace grace not selfishly but selflessly.

God, help me to think of others first. Thank you for the grace that you've given me and the freedom I have to walk in it, but help me to "pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding" (Rom 14:19) and not my own selfishness. Thank you for your sacrificial love-may my love grow to resemble yours more and more every day.

The Aroma of a Crushed Sacrifice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:05:00 +0000

I've been thinking about trees a lot lately: to be specific, fig trees. The story of Jesus cursing the fig tree in Mark 11 really stood out to me when ROCKharbor went through their series on Mark and I've been occasionally returning to the story and the idea of fruitfulness for the past few weeks.

We have a fig tree in my backyard back at home, so I'm familiar with the taste, smell, look, and feel of figs. It was definitely a recurring Saturday-morning activity at the Ray household for Dad to rouse the troops (all five of us guys-Katie usually helped Mom inside) and set us to work on the various plants that needed trimming, etc. Of everything on that list, the fig tree was always one of my least favorite. Why? To put it simply, because it grew so much and bore so much fruit! The fruit literally coats the ground under the tree and the tree grows enough to constantly need trimming.

A week or so ago I was walking down the street to a friend's house when I stopped dead in my tracks. It was late, so it was dark, and I was either texting or checking something on my phone because I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings, but something wrested me from my relative inattention and turned my thoughts to the present. What stopped me dead in my tracks? The overpowering scent of figs.

As I looked around, I realized that not only was I standing under the largest fig tree I've ever seen aside from the one in my backyard, but that the ground was covered in ripe figs that this tree had dropped. The figs were EVERYWHERE. The grass, the sidewalk, everything was covered with figs, some crushed and others intact. I took a few moments to survey the scene, and as I did everything that I'd been dwelling on the past few weeks came flooding to the forefront of my mind.

What a beautiful picture of our relationship with Christ and the call we have as Branches connected to the Vine! The "problem" with both these two fig trees isn't that they aren't growing or aren't producing fruit, but exactly the opposite! They are producing TOO MUCH! They can't hang onto all the fruit they're making. Furthermore, there is NO mistaking just what exactly they are and what their purpose is!

God, may I glorify you by bearing much fruit and so prove to be your disciple (John 15:8). May my life be "a fragrant offering and sacrifice" to you (Eph. 5:2), having the same effect on others that this tree's crushed fruit had on me. May I have faith in you, God (Mark 11:22).