Guest Blogging Gig ... He Goes Before Us

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He Goes Before Us

Worship 2016

I want you to close your eyes for just a minute ... okay wait ... that won't work since I want you to read ... but you get the picture. This was the lead in for our first Word of the Year small group on Saturday morning ... 

so maybe for us it reads, in your mind's eye ...  

think about how life has changed in the last  10 years ... The last 5 year ... The last year ... That last month ...  The last week .... Maybe even the last 24 hours

That's a picture of how much life could change in the coming day ... The coming week ... The coming year 

and now, shift your focus ... 

The Lord was not caught off guard by the delay of our gathering (by the blizzard that wasn't in the valley) ... I know of circumstances in several of our lives that  bear witness to that. But He alone knew last week that we would need to be sitting together at His feet this morning. 

““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.””

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

He alone knew. 

He was not caught off guard by the change in circumstance since he gave you your Word. 

He is the same yesterday, today and Forever ... Hebrews 13:8 

Only the Lord is able to tell us things that we can not know. 

Jeremiah 33:3 

“Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

Jeremiah 33:3 ESV

Heres the hitch in that for me ... I really wanted Him to tell me WHAT WAS COMING ... but it's my testimony that this is how he takes my weakness and prepares me for how He's going to chisel me to look more like Him. 

My word this year is worship ... And I had a picture in my mind of what that looked like ... 

But my perception is shifting quickly. Because while worship is my word ... 

Idolatry is my sin. 

“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.”

Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 ESV

I have spent a tremendous amount of time in the past two years mourning what used to be, what hasn't happened, what appears will never happen, what has happened in the past ... I've lived fearful of what's to come and maybe more to the point what I'm afraid won't come to pass ... 

EVEN AFTER WATCHING WITH MY VERY OWN EYES THE SCALES LITERALLY WIPED AWAY FROM AJ'S EYES ... 

something I prayed for two solid years over ... Fasted over ... Wept over ... More times than not day and night ...

Because I still trust more in my plans than in His. But no where in the scripture does it say be joyful when everything is going according to my plan. It says ... 

In every thing be joyful ... Eat, drink, Take pleasure in your toil ... That is His gift to us!!! 

And the New testament confirms that in James 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

James 1:2-6 ESV

Our days were written before the beginning of time ... He is the only one who is able to equip us for what is to come ... No matter what ... 

So as I learn to be a true worshipper of the one who holds all my tomorrows ... 

as I step into the fullness of embracing this 2016 Journey that the Father has for me ... 

as I trust Him with what I can not yet see ...

and believe Him for that which deposits tear after tear in HIs bowl that holds the tears of the saints ... 

what are you trusting Him for today? Could my group and I pray with you on a matter? 

Worship 2016

This is how we finished out our Christmas Eve service at Northstar Church in Knoxville, Tn. It was so the Lord. A month ago, I began to really wonder if I'd really listened to the Lord as I sought Him for my 2015 Word of the Year ... Communion. Because from July to December ... I hardly gave  it a thought. I spoke the words "I've really not done communion justice in the second half of the year." To which my dear friend replied, "I'm not sure it was yours to do justice to in the first place." And at that realization ... that my Word of the Year is about Him doing a work in me, not my working out the Word He's given ... He showed me how Communion had woven it's way through out moments and minutes and days and months through this year.

com·mun·ion

kəˈmyo͞onyən/

noun

1. 1. 

   the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.

   "in this churchyard communion with the dead was almost palpable"
2. 2. 

   the service of Christian worship at which bread and wine are consecrated and shared.

   synonyms:

   the Eucharist, Holy Communion, the Lord's Supper, Mass "the breaking of the bread during Communion"

1. • 
     

In January, I took a very literal approach to Communion.  I found a cute carafe with a cork, some neat little cups in a wooden box ... filled it with wine and set it out on a table my son gave me for Christmas next to a candle called Northern Lights ... and every night I was intentional about taking communion. By mid-February I realized that it had become routine and so I abandoned the everyday communion idea. February and March were full of intensely difficult and intimate conversations that left my heart reeling and begging for relief. Communion had happened as the Lord filled my mouth and enabled me to speak the very words that laid my most precious human relationship squarely on the alter and forced me to take my hands off of it. But, all of a sudden, Communion felt risky and dangerous. But isn't that the Truth of Holy Communion ...  it represents the most risky and dangerous prospect of all ... The God of the Universe allowed His own Son to come to earth and become fully man and die on the Cross for the gift of Salvation  that many, many reject ... and He knew they would. Yet He took His hands off and permitted it to happen? It was risky because when you  have communion with  someone you love ... even the most brief of separations  is difficult. But when you know that they are enduring hell ... the tearing apart of your heart is almost  too much to bear.  We know that experientially, don't we? On Christmas Eve, there were still places that were guarded from full communion in a couple of areas of my life. As we sang that night ... my heart was so inclined toward Mary and her not so Silent Night. I wondered if as she felt Jesus' birth nearing if she wanted to guard her own heart, somehow knowing what was to come ... and yet because the mother/son bond is so incredibly intense ... was helplessly in love the moment He breathed in humanity and let out a cry for the whole world? Communion at it's most raw, naked, exposed moment. When your heart is unable to resist what it yearns for and fears most become one. It was during our corporate Communion that the Lord washed over me a peace ... a Joy, Unspeakable Joy ... realizing that every new thing requires an exchange. If I was going to grasp my new life, I was going to have to lay my own dreams and expectations aside. And so as I waited in the front row for everyone to file ... I confessed that I really wanted life to turn out differently than it is right now. I wanted to go back ... to simpler, busier, fuller days. Days where I understood my role and my purpose. The past two years have been full of wrestling against what the Lord has permitted. I swung precariously on a pendulum of resisting communion that I longed for ... the intimate exchange of thoughts and feelings with ones I love ... and grappling at it desperately like I was wrestling a greased pig! I was exhausted. My knees were worn, and my heart was weary. I could stand before the Lord knowing I had done what He called me to do ... but it had taken a toll. And I realized as I sat in a moment of reflection that I was just a little bitter that I'd done my part and I didn't see where God had done His. And so ... once again, I laid down my dreams, expectations, hopes and the fear that what He had planned wouldn't be as good. Whew ... I guess that's why we had to sit in the front row ... I had a lot to talk to the Lord about before my heart was ready to come to the Table. I left ... resolved and at peace. Still not knowing many things. Christmas Eve with the most precious of friends ... laughter, good food ... joy ... communion ... wrapped up our evening. And as morning came ... the Lord began to unfold a gift ... confirmation that the past two years of praying and weeping were not in vain ... He kept His promise to restore what the locust had eaten over the past two years ... those things only hours before that He had called me to place on the alter ... A gift from my son that would lead my heart straight into my new word of 2016 ... worship. So my question to myself was ... what do I need to lay on the alter to embrace Communion? What do you need to lay on the alter so you can come boldly before His Throne? Where are you growing weary? Do you see someone around you who is growing weary ... and how can you encourage them today? Will you allow Him to do His "today work" in your heart so that you can fully embrace what's coming next?