The Heart of Worship

“Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. “- 1 Chronicles 16:8-11

“Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”- Psalm 33:1-5

“Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his^; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”- Psalm 100

What is worship? So often we think of worship as simply singing praise songs at church on Sunday morning. Or maybe worship is just what we do every Sunday when we go to church. Something I have been really convicted of this past weekend is looking at what true worship is. I had the opportunity to work a concert this past Saturday by a band named Starfield. They are Christian Contemporary band that just released a new worship CD. In the middle of their concert they sang the song “Heart of Worship.” As I sat there, I realized that this was the first time I had ever just stopped and listened to the lyrics of this song. The whole song hit me really hard, and I realized something that we, as humans, have been lacking in what we call “worship.” I have found myself just reading these lyrics over and over again.

When the music fades

And all is stripped away

And I simply come

Longing just to bring

Something that's of worth

That will bless your heart

I'll bring You more than a song

For a song in itself

Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within

Through the ways things appear

You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You

All about You, Jesus

I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You

It's all about You Jesus

King of endless worth

No one could express

How much You deserve

Though I'm weak and poor

All I have is Yours

Every single breath

I'll bring You more than just a song

For a song in itself

Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within

Through the way things appear

You're looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about You

All about You, Jesus

I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it

When it's all about You

It's all about You Jesus

Its all about you

Jesus

The lyrics and meaning of this song ring so true. We get so wrapped up in what we like in worship, and how we like to see worship done. We talk about the “worship experience” at our church and whether we like it or not. We complain about the worship. But in reality…..the center of true worship is Jesus Christ. The heart of worship really is all about Him. True worship should be rooted in the truth and the greatness by which we were created to worship him. From the beginning of time, man was made in God’s image to worship and obey his commands. But rather than making God the center of our worship, we tend to make worship our own. We put a standard on what worship looks like. We criticize worship if it doesn’t meet our specifications, and we judge others when they worship. We should listen to the second part of that chorus and be sorry for the things we have made worship to be, when it really is all about Jesus.

            So next time you think of worship, I would encourage you to think of it in a broader sense. Take a moment and look at the world around you. The lush landscape, the bright blue sky, the wonder of the sun in the sky, the creation of life, and most of all the price paid for us as totally depraved human beings. In Luke 19, the Pharisees tried to get Jesus to silence the worshiping of the disciples, Jesus turned to them in verse forty and said “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Lets do our part and not get to the point that the stones are the only ones worshiping our God. Take time today to recognize the blessings in your life, and the many reasons we have for worshiping God.

What do we Say?

I've been wrestling a lot with what to say in certain circumstances this past week, and maybe you can relate. Occasionally someone will say or do something that completely ticks you off, or that just gets on your nerves like crazy! In an instance we have to chose how we respond, and what we communicate through that response. Occasionally, if it isn't something that big, we can wave it off and go about our day without it bugging us to much. But there is a big chunk of those times where we feel the need to stand our ground or defend ourselves, depending on the circumstances. So we might lash out, or say something sarcastic that implies something about the other person.
The reaction we have, and how we respond in any given situation tells people a lot about our character. Aesop, the ancient storyteller, told this fable: Once upon a time, a donkey found a lion's skin. He tried it on, strutted around, and frightened many animals. Soon a fox came along, and the donkey tried to scare him, too. But the fox, hearing the donkey's voice, said, "If you want to terrify me, you'll have to disguise your bray." Aesop's moral: Clothes may disguise a fool, but his words will give him away.
So often what we say an do is a direct example of the real person inside of us. We can put on outer disguises and try to go about pleasantly, but when something gets on our nerves, we hold on, and just can't seem to let go. When we can't forgive and move on, forgetting what that person said, we eventually respond in any given way, to someone around us. Maybe you are mad at your boss, so you go home and take it out on your family, maybe you are mad at a friend, so you take it out on your siblings, or maybe you are mad at yourself, so you take it out on those around you. None of these instances are ok. 
Ephesians 4:29 says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." This is a very powerful statement, especially for those who struggle with their words, and what to say in any given circumstance. Are we using our words constructively to build others up, or are we tearing people down with each phrase we emit? God calls us to be encouragers, and representers of His name. We can't let the flesh get in our way and cause us to sin against other people.
So I want to encourage you today to look at yourself and those around you. First of all ask yourself, Am I being uplifting to people around me today, in what I say, in what I do? And second, How can I better be an encouragement to those around me, even if I don't get anything in return? How can I build people up today? Henry Ferguson once said "If someone paid you ten cents for every kind word you said about people, and collected five cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?" Lets think about that today. 

Someone's Always Watching

Phillipians 1:12-14 "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.¹⁴Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly."
Each tuesday night, I meet with a group of guys for a small group time where we discuss God's word and lift each other up. Last week we started going through the book of Phillipians, and I have really enjoyed it. Last night in particular there were some things in the passage that we discussed that really stuck out to me, so I thought I would share those this morning. The first thing we have to realize here is that Paul is in prison in ROme when he writes this. He isn't just going about his normal life of traveling and such not. So that kind of sets the tone for how powerful these words are coming from him. 
The first thing that stuck out to me is how he refers to the fact that as a result of his suffering, as a result of what has happened to him, it had become known throughout the entire palace guard, that he was imprisoned for Christ. In other words, there had to be something visible about what he was doing. There had to be an attitude coming from him that was different from the other prisoners. Not only was his attitude and zeal for God in prison a ministry tool, it was also an encouragement to fellow believers. It says next that because of his chains, his fellow brothers are preaching with more power, more courage and fearlessness.   I think the thing that stuck out to me the most was the fact that it was because of his chains, and his struggles that this ministry occurred. It wasn't just because he was a nice guy that was standing up for Christ, it wasn't because he had a perfect life, no, it was because of the struggles and the hard times that he saw the response of those around him. 
This really made me think about the power of ministry we have within our struggles and hard times. I believe that people tend to watch us more closely when we experience a trial or a hard time, just to see how we react. It is in those times that we often don't think about our actions and just respond depending on the situation at hand. Sometimes that is with anger, sometimes it is depression, sometimes it is just how we communicate with our body language. Nevertheless, people are watching. 
So the point I want to make today is that we are constantly being watched. As believers in Christ, and as people who preach the word of God, we are watched extremely closely. We can chose to respond in the way that first comes to mind. We can chose not to think about it and just react. Or we can chose to think about how this struggle could be used as a powerful tool for God, and then react accordingly. What do people see you as today? Can they see a strong follower of God, or just another person? Food for thought. 

WHY ME GOD?!

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."
How many times do we look at our lives and the circumstances in our lives and wonder, WHY ME GOD?! I know for me this semester, it has been quite often. For those of you who don't know, this is my second year here at Moody Bible Institute. I decided last year that I was going to take 19 credits this semester, that way I wouldn't have to worry about doing 19 my senior year. Coming into this semester I had a strange feeling that this was going to be one of my hardest semesters, and it no doubt proved to be right. After the first week, I was feeling completely overwhelmed, I had 7 classes, 12 text books, and a lot of goals for the coming year. To top things off, that first week I found out that the job I was guaranteed to have, all of a sudden couldn't afford to hire me. Now for any of you that know me, you would know that I have had a job since I was 11 years old. I had never dealed with this before in any way shape or form. At first I just kind of shrugged it off and said to myself, its all good I will just find another job. So I started looking everywhere I could, but nothing came up.....So i prayed about it more and kept looking...for two weeks I looked for several hours each day, trying to find anything. But still nothing turned up. By this time I not only was mad about this situation, but I was also starting to regret that I had taken 19 credits to begin with. What was I thinking?! And within this, I started to question God. I started wondering why this was happening. Why is all this pressure being put on my life now? WHY ME GOD?! 
Then one day, I was reading 2 Corinthians, and I came across the verse that is posted above. It starts out, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles..." That first part hit me really hard. The attitude in which that is expressed in is amazing! Praise be to God! There is a spirit of rejoicing there, a spirit of knowing that God is in control. The verse continues to give a reason for the comfort we receive from our Father in heaven. It says, "so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Wow! That is all I can say about that. It definitely gives us a different perspective on how we react to the situations in our lives. 
We are called as God's people to be an example to those around us, to both Christian and non-Christian people. Are praising God, and looking for the areas that he is showing us comfort? Or do we sit around and ask ourselves WHY ME GOD?! We forget our true purpose. My thoughts then went to one of my favorite verses in James chapter one verses 2-4 which says, "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature, and complete not lacking anything." God has a reason for the struggles we go through. He has it fixed into his plan in some way or another, we just have to trust him. We can chose to try and deal with it and figure it out on our own, or we can come back to God and remember that the more we put our faith in him, the more he will strengthen our faith, and mature us in a way that people can see a difference. 
The last half of the verse in 2 Corinthians is such an amazing part of it.  Verse 5 says, "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." How awesome is it that we have the opportunity to share Christ and the gospel, through our struggles. We never know who is watching us, how we react could essentially be the changing factor in someones life. The key to that though is when it says through CHRIST, our comfort overflows. Not through ourselves, not through another method we might use to find comfort, but through Christ. 
I have given up trying to solve all the problems in my life on my own. Its really a lot harder that way than if we just give it all to God. We like to be in control of things, and manage our lives the way we want them to be, but in reality....its God who has the final say. But we have to chose to give it to Him, and chose to look for the areas in which He is working.
So my encouragement to you today is to look at the difficult situations in your life. Maybe it is relationship issues, maybe it is mourning the loss of a loved one, maybe it is financial problems, whatever it is, you know. Try to look at it, not from the standpoint of WHY ME GOD?! But rather from with the attitude of a servant, and ask What for God? Seek him for how he will fit this into the plan for your life. Come to him with your tears, with your struggles, with everything you have. He always wants to listen, and He will always give an answer.


In Christ,
Matt Spangler

Rest in the Arms of God

Matthew 11:28 says, “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” What does this mean for us? How can we apply this to our lives. I had never really thought about the principle of rest in the sense that my devotional book describes it. When we think of rest we think of relaxing, maybe taking a nap, getting reenergized for the rest of the day, so what does that mean when we are referring to our spiritual lives? We obviously can’t just take a break from being the Christian example that we are called to be. In the book My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says this,

·      “ A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health i. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he IS the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, ‘Lord, what is your will?’ A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer. If we try to overcome our self awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, ‘come to me, and I will give you rest.’ That is Christ’s awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes the rest-The rest of the completion of activity in our liives that is never aware of itself.”

I don’t know what this means to you, but what I found in it is that, as children of God, we need to act like it. We need to be able to rest in the arms of our father, who knows everything. We need to be able to go to him and not doubt that he is in control. We don’t need to question whether he will hear our prayers or not, because he has promised us that. We can come to him no matter what, and he will give us rest. Rest being, we don’t have to worry about this life or what is going to happen, because it is all in his plan, and he has us in his hand no matter what. We can relax about life. We can chill, because He is in control. I think the picture of rest is one that really sums up how our attitudes should be towards our lives as believers. God expects so little of us, and takes care of so much, yet we put so much of it on our own shoulders. We need to be able to come to God and give it to Him.

Don't just Defend Yourself, Fight Back!

As I was reading in a book today called, Cultivating a Life for God by Neil Cole, he brought up an interesting point. He started discussing the church and how it is going to face opposition. That is a fact. “One sign of a healthy church is that she faces hostility from hell” (119). So often I think we get discouraged when we face all kinds of opposition and as a church body, we don’t react in the right way. In Matthew 16:18, shortly after Peter’s confession of faith to Jesus, Christ is blessing Peter and tells him that he will build his church upon this rock. Jesus then goes on to say that “the gates of Hell will not overcome it. Cole brings up an interesting point as to thinking about what a gate is. “Police don’t pack loaded gates. Postal works don’t go crazy with semi-automatic gates. Terrorists don’t hold victims at gate point. Dogs don’t run loose with little signs around their necks that read “Beware of Gate” (119). This is because a gate is a defensive mechanism. We usually picture a gate within a wall surrounding a city or a fortress. Often times as a church or even in our personal lives we spend way to much time on the defensive side of things, trying to defend ourselves from the gates of hell. But we are commanded to take an offensive stand. Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” James 4:7: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” We need to not only prepare ourselves with the armor of God, but we must be ready to fight. To resist the Devil and whatever he throws at us. Each new day that God blesses us with; the Devil is going to be waiting and ready to tempt us. This can encourage us in that if we are facing opposition within our church as well as within our own lives, then we are walking in the right direction. "If you wake up in the morning and don't run into the enemy head on, then maybe you're going in the wrong direction" - Unknown Pastor. I know this really encouraged me to look for opportunities to use the weapons that God has given me, and take a stand for him rather than just trying to defend myself. I definitely believe that we need to take that step and prepare ourselves for those opportunities that are thrown at us. We serve an awesome and a powerful God, through whom we can do all things.


In Christ,
Matt Spangler

Gods Word; Joshua 1:8

I started classes just over a week ago now, and things have been flowing along quiet smoothly. One of my favorite classes is my studying and teaching the Bible class, which basically instills us with the proper methods by which to study the Bible and get the most out of it. This past week I decided to put into practice some of what I have learned so far, and study a verse in Joshua. God opened my eyes immensely to how much His word contains and what we can learn from the smallest details within each passage of scripture! I wanted to share some of the insight I gained while studying this one passage, and I hope that it will encourage you in your walk with God in some way. If nothing else I hope it motivates you to dive in deep and really focus on all God’s word has to offer us. 

Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

To start off, lets look at the context of this verse. This verse is one part of a written account of the commands and encouragement that God gives Joshua in order that he may better lead the Israelites. Now if we stop and put ourselves in Joshua’s shoes for a second, we can really begin to appreciate these verses a little more. Here was a grown man, who had traveled with the Israelites and followed under Moses for a number of years, and all of a sudden he is in charge of all these people! Moses is dead and everyone is looking to him for God’s will and direction. That is a lot of pressure on one guy! But God takes this time to strengthen Joshua and assure him that He will be with him through everything.

            Now lets break apart the text a little bit. We can easily tear this passage up into 4 easy to understand sections.

1.  “Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth….” So what is God saying here? This section tells Joshua what he should not do. God simply says, don’t forget about my laws and my commands! In the NIV text it uses the word depart, and if we look at what the word depart means, it doesn’t simply mean getting up and totally leaving, but rather it can mean simply to wander away from a direct course. It could simply be getting distracted by the world, or by our own desires and allowing God’s law to become secondary, and God instructs him not to do that.

2. “…but meditate on it day and night…” Ok, so Joshua knows what he shouldn’t do, and now God tells him what he should do! This has to be one of my favorite parts of this passage mainly because of one word, and that is the word “meditate.”  Now if I were to ask you what meditate meant, what is the first thought that pops into your mind? Most of the time we think of the people sitting cross-legged on those weird mats and making that annoying ummmmmmmm sound. Or we simply think of a study of something in particular. While these maybe partly true, the real definition of meditation has two parts to it. The first part is the study element. It is taking a bit of information and in depth studying it. Pulling every bit of information we can from the main source and occasionally from other sources and opinions, until we feel satisfied with the amount of knowledge gained from the section. The second part to the word is to chew over or reflect deeply on a subject. In other words, it is taking what we have studied and thinking about it over and over again. If we put this into the context of the verse we see that that is how God commands Joshua to go about keeping the law. That doesn’t mean he can simply go sit in his tent and study the law and then go about his life as usual. It means that after the study has taken place, he has needs to think about it and process it through out the day. God tells him to do this both day and night. Which means that it needed to be a constant thing. He needed to be thinking through the law and what it said all the time.

3. …”so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it…”  In this third section, God informs Joshua why he needs to meditate on the word day and night. So he doesn’t just tell him to study it and leave him hanging, he gives him a reason for doing it. That reason is simply so that he can do everything that is written in it. Now step back for a second and think about this. If you received something brand new that you didn’t know how to use, you didn’t know the guidelines or boundaries for whatever it is you got, what is the first thing you are going to do? Most likely, you will (or should) read the instruction manual for that product. Often times we will try to figure it out on our own or just skim the manual and not read it in its entirety, and occasionally that works. But more times than not, what happens? You usually miss something or forget to do a step and you end up having to start all over again. The same principle applies to the scriptures and laws that God has given us. We so often just skim the surface of the scriptures so that we can say that we went through the motions, but we miss the deep drastic parts that can be communicated to us through that text. We don’t understand everything in it; therefore we can’t do everything written in it! It’s a chain reaction that never leaves us filled like we need.

4. “Then you will be prosperous and successful.” The last part of this verse God tells Joshua what will happen if he does everything spelled out in the last three points. If he takes the proper steps, doesn’t forget the law, meditates on it day and night, and pays attention so that he can follow everything in the law, then God is going to take care of him. He will be prosperous and successful. Now that probably didn’t mean he was rich. That probably didn’t mean that he ended up getting the best land. But rather, he was successful in the eyes of the one in which it counts. That his treasure would be where it is not destroyed, but rather lasted for eternity (Matt 6:19-21).

So how can we apply the principles told to Joshua, to our own lives? How can we put ourselves in his place and really put into practice what God is saying here? The first step is realizing that as God’s children, our job here on earth is to make disciples of many nations and teaching them all that God has commanded in his word (Matthew 28:19-20). In other words, God has put us in charge! We are the leaders of his people. And if we are to be leading his people and to be modeling Christ in our ways, how are we going to do that unless we know the rules? How are we going to do that unless we can follow EVERYTHING in the law? God has given us a job, and it is up to us to take the time to meditate on his word. To get everything out of it that we possibly can, and to act upon that knowledge.  So next time you open God’s book of rules, don’t just read it to say you read. Don’t half way read a passage and think you know what it is trying to say. Dive deep and get all you can out of it. Take small bites and enjoy them to all they are worth. And then live them out everyday that God blesses you with. Our time here is short. Don’t neglect it.

In Christ,

Matt Spangler