Captive to the Call

More than 30 years ago I became captive to the call of God to be on mission with Him wherever He chose.  I had spent over 15 years in music, youth, and education ministry in Texas and Oklahoma.  One day a pastor from the Chicago area called and wanted me to come in view of a call to minister in  his church in the Chicago area.  I literally started laughing and told this pastor that God would have to burn a bush to get me to move to the Chicago area.  A year later we were on our way to Zimbabwe, Africa as music missionaries.  God has a sense of humor and used that experience to show me I was putting limitations on where and how I would serve Him.  

A crisis of Lordship took place in the next few months, with God showing me I needed to not just sing the words, but be willing to go wherever He led.  I came to that point after a missions emphasis in that church led by our present pastor. After my wife and I sang "Here Am I Send Me" in the service that day, I told my wife that the Lord would have to close the door or we were going to the mission field.  That was the beginning of our journey that took us to Zimbabwe as missionaries.

We became captive to the call of God to be a part of His mission force.  God gave me courage over the fear of going to a foreign country, doing new and different ministry, and facing the unknown.   Courage to face the fact that there would be times I would be in danger of being attacked in the bush by dissidents who were waging war on anyone like us after the war of independence.  Driving through areas where dissidents had been reported, I would find myself singing the words from "A Mighty Fortress":  "...the body they may kill, His truth endureth still."  This weekend I heard that Ron Dunn once said, "I have hit bottom, and it is solid."  Also a statement from Barnhouse, "I am indestructible - until God is through with me."  What testimonies of God's faithfulness!

Because of our freedom in Christ we are all captive to the call.  We are captive to the call of God to be involved and engaged with Him on mission to a world lost and dying, to places where they have never heard the name of Jesus.  We are captive to the call to go.......to pray....... and to give sacrificially so that others may go, and millions may hear.  mjm

Hope and Thanksgiving

In my daily reading this morning I was moving through Lamentations chapter 3 and came across the well-known, even memorized and sometimes sung, verses 22-23: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."  Many worship choruses have been written based on these words, as well as a well- known worship hymn.

Context is important.  This morning I noticed the verse before and the verse after, and realized those great truths and promises are couched between two verses on hope.  Then I thought about how appropriate all of this is here at the season we set aside for thanksgiving.  His love and faithfulness give us hope and lead us to worship in thanksgiving.  

Verse 21 states, "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope." The prophet remembered and rehearsed in his mind the abundant mercy of God, which gave him renewed hope.  This led me to reflect on the fact that when the church gathers for worship we, like the prophet, remember and rehearse the great, abundant mercy and sufficient grace of our Lord.  This gives us hope in the midst of a hopeless world and evokes thanksgiving in our hearts and on our lips.

The other bookend to these well-known verses is verse 24, "'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in Him.'"  The prophet and the church increase in our faith and hope when we consider the new mercies, compassion and faithfulness of our God.  And we are shown that it is our portion or inheritance in our hearts and spirits, under testimony of the Spirit of God.  We see the promise of deliverance from all evil and enemies with great supplies of His grace and glory: "...therefore I will hope in Him!"  That certainly elicits hope and thanksgiving in our daily personal worship and in our weekly gathered worship.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  mjm 

Prayer, Worship and Missions

Prayer should be a foundation for everything we do in ministry; the beginning to everything we do in life; and an undergirding to everything we do in worship and missions.  As we approach all of these things we must constantly be reminded by God's Word that anything we attempt on our own, separate from the power of God, will result in mere human accomplishment or even failure - falling far short of what God wants for us.  

This is why worship planning always begins in a spirit of prayer.  It is why we emphasize constantly praying for our worship services -- specifically with our worship leaders, choir, band, orchestra, etc., as well as over 100 worshipping prayer warriors in our church who are committed to praying.

It is also why we should be praying about the commitment of our church to world missions through going, giving and being faithfully committed to pray for those who are on mission.  Praying that we all will consciously seek to be on mission with God. Are we praying specifically for the ingathering of our world mission offering in December?

One of my favorite prayer promises since childhood has been Jeremiah 33:3:  "Call to me and I will answer you.  I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own." (The Message)  Or as I memorized it as a child, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (KJV)

Are we claiming that promise in our daily lives, in our worship, in our involvement with God in His mission to redeem the world to Himself?  Pray, pray, pray!  mjm

Music and Missions

Many of you know that I served some 6 1/2 years as a Music Missionary to Zimbabwe.  There are things to be considered and studied when doing music missions in another culture.  We don't go to impose our own taste and cultural biases on people as we seek for them to hear and understand the good news.  It is important that we help them in putting the gospel into their own heart language and their own musical language.  

When I arrived in Zimbabwe most of the believers were singing many of our hymns translated into their language with "our" music, which quite frankly sounded like a dirge in that setting.  I immediately went to work encouraging Christian nationals to write their own songs, starting with both their communication and musical languages.  I studied and tried to write in their heart languages.  That communicated the gospel far more effectively.  The worship was more of the heart and freer.  

Music used in the wrong setting can be a stumbling block rather than a stepping stone.  Even here in our own culture there are numerous subcultures.  Every Minister of Music must thoroughly know his congregation in order to use music that speaks to the majority of the congregation and covers all generations and subcultures.  Our job is to build bridges not walls, which can be a real challenge today.  We need both congregational participants and congregational worship leaders and hearers to experience the power of God through the power of music.

"State of heart" behind the music is the main thing.  It is too often that other issues eclipse the main thing.  We are really missing the boat when we create long discussions on style, what's modern and what's not, or insist on a steady diet of "traditional" hymns and anthems.  Any music we do in the name of ministry that places art over heart is not pleasing to God in any culture.  

May God help us see to it that music and musicians who know Christ place all their energies into the ministry of praising God; building up His people and reaching the unbelieving world with the clear, unclouded Gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord! And, yes, your gifts to world missions help make that possible every day.  mjm

Worship Evangelism/Missions

In the last blog we answered the question why worship by basically saying we worship because of who He is and what He has done.  In this time of mission emphasis in our local church, I am reminded of our worship theme for the year from Psalm 40 - "Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord!"  That theme has to do with worship evangelism/missions.  

When the world sees us singing "the new song" of redemption, praising God for all He is and all He's done . . . they put their trust also in Him.  It is as Gerrit Gustafson once said, "whole-hearted worshippers calling the whole world to the whole-hearted worship of God . . . and the fusion of the power of God's presence with the power of the Gospel."  

When we create an environment in which incomplete and broken mankind can find wholeness and completion in God's presence we have worship evangelism/missions.  It is the testifying of God's greatness, love, and faithfulness by His people.  In an older chorus from the 90s by Rita and Paul Baloche called "Sing to the Lord With All of Your Heart" we find these words:

"Let's become a generation who will passionately praise Him, boasting in the greatness of our God." 

That is why worship, evangelism, and missions, and/or the mission of God, all go hand in hand.  mjm

Why We Worship

Why do we worship?  Because of who God is and what He has done.  I was reading in Isaiah 38 in daily readings today and I was reminded of some great truths about why we worship.  God has been so much to us and done so many things for us how can we not worship?  

The Hebrew names for God give us insight into His doing great things for us:

Jehovah Jireh - "God who provides"

Jehovah - Rophe - The Lord our Healer

Jehovah - Tsidkenu - The Lord our Righteousness

Jehovah - Rohi - The Lord my Shepherd

Jehovah - M' Kaddesh - Lord our Sanctifier

Jehovah - Shammah - The Lord is There

Jehovah - Shalom - The Lord our Peace

Jehovah - Nissi - The Lord our Banner

 . . . and some of the names for God give us insight also as to who God is:

Jehovah - Yaweh - The Self existent,  Self sufficient, immutable One.

The names of God describe specific revelations of God's acts and God's nature. And worship is ... "the response of all we are to the revelation of who God is."  So central to the act of worship is the revelation of God.  Without the revelation of God our worship would be lacking, and even self-oriented.  No revelation - no response.

In the two chapters prior to Isaiah 38 the Assyrians have attacked and the Hebrews are miraculously delivered by God.  God revealed Himself by deliverance and they are worshipping Him.  After this deliverance, Hezekiah becomes ill and is told that his illness will end his life.  Was he angry with God for allowing his illness?  This would be the attitude of one who thinks God owes him a comfortable life.  Unfortunately that attitude has become the norm in recent years of "American Christianity".  We act as if God owes it to us to have wealth, health and no trouble.  But, we don't deserve it.  Psalm 34:19 says "The righteous man may have many troubles."  Hezekiah's response and choices are recorded in verses 12-20 of Isaiah 38.  

Do our trials bring us to the place where we are broken before Him?  Do they lead us to experience God?  Do we look for God in the midst of them?  Do we waste our sorrows and pain?  Hezekiah shows us the way to victory.  Verses 18-20 are filled with worship.  Hezekiah has experienced God and believes THAT to be better than anything God can give him.  He has seen that God is good.  Hezekiah has come to the place of seeing God in a way that He had never seen Him before.  

Just a side note - once again we see "singing and praise" tied to the power and victory of God. May we worship faithfully as He is revealed!  mjm

Worship Offerings

"I was led by the Lord to give a certain amount for our church's world mission offering, and even though it was hard, I did.  The very next week I un-expectedly received that amount, plus more money than I had given."  I've heard many stories over the years like that.  However, that is never our motivation for giving.  It is clearly shown in God's Word that giving is a form of worship.  

Giving is a paramount part of worship. The offerings that we receive in our churches and our response to appeals for those in need are part of this, but there is much more.  At the very heart of the offering in worship is the giving or offering up of our lives to Him.  God has created us to be channels of blessing to others. The only way we can do that is to allow Him to flow through us.  He pours in and then says, "Trust me.  Let go and more will come forth."  

The act of worship includes coming to know God's heart and nature and worshipping Him with joy. This leads to trust in the Lord, and brings obedience. When we follow that path of obedience in our giving, we manifest another part of our worship.  Giving, in fact, is a Biblical covenant of being faithful in our tithes and offerings.  

When we give ourselves in worship, we are giving part of our lives.  For most of us the investment of our time and talents produces a monetary reward.  So what we give of that represents the whole of our lives.  Our attitude should be "Lord, You are my life.  You have created me and made me what I am.  You have given me gifts and talents to do the work you provide for me. " 

Our worship in giving is not just about monetary offerings.  It is the giving of our service, assisting others, and caring and loving in the Lord's name.  However, ultimately it is seeking God's heart - His heart to redeem man back to Himself; His heart for His mission; and then responding to Him in obedience. During this season of being challenged to pray, go, and give to His mission, may we remember that it is an act of worship of our Lord!  mjm

Mission without Worship?

Mission without worship is not really God's mission.  There is a great move among the church today toward mission projects, local and urban missions volunteering and even giving sacrificially to missions.  There is a trend toward activism growing in volunteerism but at the same time not growing in worship of God.  

Members of congregations and mission groups are very active in doing good deeds, but simultaneously are often disconnected from Biblical understanding and intimate communion with God.  They are focused on the mission of justice while at the same time being distant from the God who defines what is just.  Too many want to do God's work without seeking God.  In Amos 4, the call to the people of God was to seek God and turn to Him.  Our worship of God requires that we find the beginning place for mission in God Himself.  There are too many who get lost in mission activity and not in God Himself.  

As we begin the season of missions emphasis may we remember that this is about the heart of God.  It is about the mission of God.  It emanates from God Himself, not a program from the church or the personal desires of His people.  

Our mission must be filled with worship---responding to God in praise and adoration.  We need to acknowledge His presence in the mission.  Worship and works authenticate one another.  Mission without worship is just as off-balance as worship without mission.  We are in partnership with a God who is on mission.  The mission comes from God and the work is done in partnership with Him.  

In worship we deal over and over with the ultimate truth that Jesus, who overcame the powers of evil through His death and resurrection, is able to overcome those powers of evil that are now at work in our own lives and in our own world.  Worship inspires people to be on mission with Him. Authentic worship mobilizes people for mission.  Our expressions of worship must ultimately result in mission. As we enter this season of missions emphasis, let us first worship Him!  mjm