How do you worship when you don’t enjoy the music?
This is a hard questions to answer. It’s one that all of us struggle with from time to time. Or maybe a little more often than that. We live in an age were there are so many different styles of worship music ranging from classic hymns to ultra contemporary worship in which you feel like you are at a concert. Each of these styles affects us differently. Some of us start working on to do lists in our heads when we hear hymns. There are those who cringe when we feel the kick drum pounding into our chest. For some, it’s a particular writer of worship songs that engages us more than others. For a different group, a certain song writer pushes them away. For some of us we just don’t enter the sanctuary until worship is over.
Pastor Eric challenged us this week to ask ourselves the question “Which of us is right?”.
In the past year I have learned a lot about how different people view worship very differently. I have also learned how to approach worship when a particular song or set of songs doesn’t seem to engage me. I’ll give you an example. A favored song in our church is “God of this City”. This is a wonderful song that engages a large portion of our congregation. This song does absolutely nothing for me spiritually. I have tried in every way possible to find and engage with God while singing this song. Nothing. I actually began to find myself totally disengaging with the entire worship service due to my dislike of this song. About a month ago though, it hit me. I discovered how to engage in worshiping God through this song. It was very simple. PRAYER!!! When the song started playing on that particular sunday, God put it on my heart for me to pray. I found such joy in that time of worship. It was at this moment that I discovered how to continually engage in worship though I may dislike a song, hymn, or anything else. It was so simple. Prayer. So my challenge to anyone who may read this, if you find yourself being distracted from worship because of a song or instrument or even a bad mix. Stop and engage with God in prayer.
SK
Antelope Hunting 09
So a couple of weeks ago I went with my brother in-law Pronghorn hunting out in Laramie Wyoming. Let me tell you it was amazing. Probably some of the most fun I have ever had being out in the wild. Above you can see the view that we had as we started hunting that Friday morning. It was stunning, although we were a little too cold and tired to really enjoy it. Aside from the beautiful skyline, we saw tons of antelope roaming the prairies. Unfortunately at first we saw a ton of hunters as well. As we were hunting on managed property, we decided to drive a little farther up the ranch road to get away from all the action happening near the front of the ranch lands.
So we got to a point were we didn’t see anybody else around and decided to get out and take a look around. We had two trucks and 7 guys, so we decided we had better split up and hunt different areas. Sam, myself, Mike and his son Eric all got into Mike’s truck and took off looking for a group of antelope that we could sneak up on. After driving a couple of miles up the road we came up on a couple bucks and does sitting about a half mile in from the road. We backed down the road a bit and decided this was our first best shot at stalking the animals. A long walk and a short crawl later, I bagged my first buck.
As we were gutting this guy, out of no where comes another buck and two does. We were taken a little off guard, but hey this was a perfect chance for Sam to bag his buck. A few shots and a long drag later, Sam and I had our first antelopes in the truck my 9 am.
By the 1:30pm that day, everyone had completely tagged out and we had six animals in the trucks. It had a been a good day hunting.
So we got back to Mike’s place and started cleaning up our kills. One of our guys had to go over to the Fish and Game office to fill out some paperwork and found out that we could get a couple more tags up in Casper(about 3 hours away) Having nothing better to do for the next couple days, we figured what the heck, why not. So the next morning we got up at the crack of dawn and headed out. This hunting was nothing like the day before. We couldn’t spot any antelope at all. They had been completely hunted out the day before. After a few unsuccessful stops, we all split up again and started on a couple of long hikes. Well we came up over this one rise and Sam spots this big doe bedded down about 300 yards away. So we began our stalk to get in close. Only one problem, we weren’t gonna get much closer. Though we did discover one thing, she was acting kinda funny. Well after a beautiful headshot by Sam, we discovered that she had been gut shot earlier that day. So that was yet another animal in the bag.
It was time for me to get my final animal. After stalking a couple of antelope unsuccessfully, we decided to check out another spot. Well we were driving along some state land, and we spot this big doe bedded down about 3/4 of a mile in from the road. Well it was time to hike it in. Sam and I got out of the truck and moved slowly and quietly to get in range. We found this nice big pile of rocks about 300 yards away from the animal that were perfect cover. So after some belly crawling and a little patience I nailed her right through the back.
It was another amazing day and a great way to end the trip. Can’t wait for next year. Super stoked about Deer season now. Gonna have to buy a freezer if we have as good a luck this time!!!
One can only hope!!!
The Four G’s of Peacemaking: G # 2 “Get the Log Out of Your Eye”
So it’s been a while since I have had the chance to post up here. I have really missed it because it gives me the chance to really get my thoughts down coherently. But now I’m back and ready to go.
So Peacemaker’s Second G revolves around Matthew 7:3-5. The first time I had heard this passage was on Youth Group ski trip. It was expressed with such gusto and feeling that it has made it nearly impossible to forget Let me set the scene. We were in the conference room of a hotel, most of us are tired after a long day of skiing, but still enjoying our evening bible study. My mentor Jeff Reed brought up this passage in regards to our evening bible study. He took a little liberty with his translation though. So I’ll give it to you in the Gospel According to Reed version. ” Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye when you have a huge frigging plank that you have to have to yank out of your own.” Now add on top of that a really intense expressive voice and hand motions, and you might be able to see why that verse has stuck with me. It impressed upon me at a young age the importance of looking at my own faults before others. The difficulty then was to actually do it.
So how does this fit into being a peacemaker. Well the log in our own eyes at some point has become something that we need or want. And when we don’t get these things, we become angry and judgmental to the point of taking it out on other people. This is the portion of the conflict that we are 100% responsible for. What has become so important to us that it has gotten in the way of our relationship with Christ and with another person? It is very easy to look at someone else and blame them entirely for the conflict we are in. It is very difficult, however, to figure out what we have done to contribute to the conflict.. To discover this we need to really examine our motives and ask some serious questions of ourselves. We need to pray and study scripture to discover where we are sinning. Finally we need to confess to God and others whom we’ve sinned against exposing the log in our eye and ask for forgiveness.. That confession needs to be honest and done with humility.
One thing that Paul Cornwell from Peacemakers said that really struck me in all of this was that “Forgiveness is only the first step. It gives you the capacity to resolve your conflict.” So finding out what my log was and seeking forgiveness for how it affected another person is only the beginning. It opens the door for me to begin resolving my disagreement and bringing me to unity with a brother or sister in Christ.
Lord give me the strength, guidance, and wisdom to seek out my own faults and issues. Give me the courage to address them and ask for forgiveness. Give me the strength to always believe the best in my brothers and sisters in Christ by examining myself for fault first, before I go looking for it in them.
SK
The Four G’s of Peacemaking: G # 1 “Glorify God”
So for those who are reading this and don’t know me, or haven’t heard about the happenings at South Park Church, you might need a little context for this series of blogs. Let me give it to you. For the past year at SPC we have been up and down the road of church conflict. Some of it we have handled well, some of it not so much. In the end we decided to ask Peacemaker Ministries to come down, give our church an evaluation and to train us in Biblical conflict resolution. What a blessing having them here over the past couple of days has been. I have learned more in 2 days regarding conflict resolution than I ever thought I would. I’m so excited that I have to share it with you. So here we go:
“The first step in evaluating how to handle a conflict is to ask yourself this question: How can I please God in this situation?” These are the words Paul Cornwell from Peacemaker Ministries shared with us Saturday morning. I was totally taken aback. I had to stop and think about the conflicts I had experienced lately and figure out if I had asked myself this question. I couldn’t remember if I had at all. In fact I am pretty sure I had not. At least not intentionally. But it is easily the most important step in the process because it sets the tone for how the rest of your conflict will be handled. Now I am the type of person that will honestly just try to start handling the conflict to get it done and over with. But this is most often not the most God honoring solution. In fact, it probably tends to exasperate the problem if I am completely honest with myself. So my way of handling conflict was more often contrary to glorifying God.
So how do I glorify God in a conflict? Well Paul had a great answer for us. There are three things you need to ask yourself to discover if you are glorifying God in the midst of conflict:
- Am I Trusting Him?
- Am I letting go and giving this conflict to God and allowing Him to lead me and give me strength to handle this conflict as He desires?
- Am I Obeying Him?
- Am I studying scripture and using the tools He has given me to use in resolving this conflict?
- Am I Imitating Him?
- Am I following the example Christ left for us? Am I being humble, slow to anger and soft in my speech?
The one that hits me the most is the last one. Am I truly imitating Christ in my approach to being a peacemaker? Something Paul said that i won’t forget is that: “Peace has everything to do with representing Christ in the world”
Lord, allow me to be a peacemaker. As I engage in conflict resolution, help me to pause and make sure that I am glorifying your name, that I am truly representing You.
SK
Servant For Life
One of the things that has always been a part of my life is service. I can’t tell you when or where it began, if there is a catalyst to me wanting to serve, or anything else. It has just been part of who I am. There have been a lot of factors that have contributed to this, serving at church, mentors, family, scouts are a handful. None of these things, however, are things that made or molded me into a Servant. God has made me a servant. It is at the core of His creation in me. I am designed to work and serve others so that His Light might shine through me.
I have been looking back over Philippians 2:1-11, which has been my life verse, and really trying to get back to my servant roots. While I was on the road touring, I got away from and lost touch of what it meant to be a servant of God. I was more concerned with getting a job done and moving towards the next one. It’s actually been a little difficult for me to reacclimate to being Christ like in servanthood. Last night I was reading vs. 6-7 and was struck by the word bond-servant. I realized I wasn’t yielding to God’s call for me to be bound to Him in my life the way I once had been, or the way I should be. It was an awesome moment last night at 1:30 am. I am a servant of God, bound to His Will and seeking to serve Him in whatever capacity I can. I will strive to obey Him as He directs me, and even though I might fail over and over and over again, I will continue to pursue and seek after God’s Will for me.
God use me as you see fit, put me to work as you need me to work. Direct me and guide me to do Your Will. Thank you for loving and redeeming me, though I hardly deserve it. Make me the Breathe of God. Make me a servant for life.
SK
