Yesterday, I taught two of the campus worship teams some broad, theological concepts of what is the definition of worship, in the way that we do.
I had two errors, one REALLY bad exegesis, and one rather loose one.
Darn.
Hopefully, God'll anoint me to get better at this...
I'm also learning that leading people on this level is totally different, and I have no real clue how to do it.
Hopefully, God'll anoint me to get better at that too...
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Discipleship.
I had a scary realization today.
Do we seek discipleship for the sake of discipleship, or do we seek discipleship in our lives for the sake of following after Christ?
I think that there is a certain pressure in our church for discipleship, accountability. These are both excellent things. You should seek to confess your sins to one another (James 5:16), and we ought to meet to continue to exhort one another (Hebrews 10:25) .
But when was the last time we asked ourselves, "Why am I doing this?"
If, at the center of it, the pursuit of Christ is not first and foremost, then we can easily just become behavior modifiers, or a good-people factory.
Today, I realized that there was a lot of me that wanted to be sanctified for the sake of being sanctified, not for the sake of being more intimate with Jesus. And that broke me.
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
My works are as empty as the Pharisees, my sacrifices just as horrendous and offensive as the Israelites. But, with Christ in the center, then...it's all in focus. It's all with reason. It then changes from a yoke of slavery, thinking that I need to be someone, thinking that I need to be that amount loving, that amount outreaching, that amount generous...into me admitting my brokenness, my weakness, my selfishness, my arrogance, my complacency, but still thanking God for the grace of His easy yoke and light burden.
When I look at Jesus, when I stare intently at His face, then do I learn how to deny myself and pick up my Cross, because His beauty is enough to make me pick up anything to get just a little bit closer. It's enough to make me drop anything just for the sake of being a little bit nearer (Hebrews 12:1-2).
I won't just walk blindly. I will follow.
Do we seek discipleship for the sake of discipleship, or do we seek discipleship in our lives for the sake of following after Christ?
I think that there is a certain pressure in our church for discipleship, accountability. These are both excellent things. You should seek to confess your sins to one another (James 5:16), and we ought to meet to continue to exhort one another (Hebrews 10:25) .
But when was the last time we asked ourselves, "Why am I doing this?"
If, at the center of it, the pursuit of Christ is not first and foremost, then we can easily just become behavior modifiers, or a good-people factory.
Today, I realized that there was a lot of me that wanted to be sanctified for the sake of being sanctified, not for the sake of being more intimate with Jesus. And that broke me.
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
My works are as empty as the Pharisees, my sacrifices just as horrendous and offensive as the Israelites. But, with Christ in the center, then...it's all in focus. It's all with reason. It then changes from a yoke of slavery, thinking that I need to be someone, thinking that I need to be that amount loving, that amount outreaching, that amount generous...into me admitting my brokenness, my weakness, my selfishness, my arrogance, my complacency, but still thanking God for the grace of His easy yoke and light burden.
When I look at Jesus, when I stare intently at His face, then do I learn how to deny myself and pick up my Cross, because His beauty is enough to make me pick up anything to get just a little bit closer. It's enough to make me drop anything just for the sake of being a little bit nearer (Hebrews 12:1-2).
I won't just walk blindly. I will follow.
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