How Great is Our God…

I have probably sung hundreds of worship songs thousands of times. I might have meant what I was singing maybe half of the time. It’s not that I didn’t believe all the songs I was singing, but there were times where I was just singing to try to sound good, or just because I didn’t want to stand out as not singing, or I flat out wasn’t paying attention.

It is odd to me that in a specific setting and with a specific type of music, my heart and mind can be moved to openly and passionately worship God. It seems really selfish when I write that down.

About 2 years ago, in one of those specific settings, I was at a camp with a group of high school students having a great time worshipping God in a setting that I enjoyed. On the last night of camp, we sang a very familiar song, “How Great is Our God”. Like many times before, I sang this song loud, and well, maybe even harmonizing at times, but overall enjoying the song, the style, and even what the words were communicating. But what happened next was something totally new for me and I believe most of the people in that room…

During this week at camp, we had several speakers share about Reach4Life, a ministry to Africa that seeks to educate Africans on God’s call to abstinence and purity in hopes to fight the AIDS epidemic from another angle. We had heard stories, speakers, and figures to help us realize that this was actually going on while we’re living more comfortable lives…

During the middle part of this song a video began to show on the screen above the stage. It was an African kids choir and they began to sing “How Great is Our God” along with us, same key and all. The band continued to play, the lights dimmed, and we continued to sing along… man did we sing! What a powerful moment. In that moment, I believe I, and many others, were actually able to worship God in a selfless way that wasn’t dependent on the style, setting, or song. I worshipped God in a way I never had before. If kids in Africa can sing “How Great is Our God” with all that they face, then… He really is great. There we were in the hills of Central New York worshipping and singing about the same Great God with kids in Africa.

God is great not because of our circumstances, but in spite of them. No matter what we do, whether or not we choose to obey, or accept, or love… God is Great! God is great in Afica, America, Asia… God is not just the God of my life, my problems, my needs, but of the world. Even as I write this it fails to compare to the reality of who God is.

Worship is our response to what God has done… it has nothing to do with what pleases us or what we need to be in the right setting. It is a total surrendered and embodied “Thank You”.

God, how great You are.. thanks for letting me get a glimpse of that, even for just a moment.

Woe to the Unrepentant

I’m continuing my journey through Matthew and stopped for a moment on chapter 11.  In verses 20  - 24 Jesus talks about these towns that had witnessed most of his miracles, but did not repent.  It made me think of repentance and what it means to God.  To see that Jesus was bothered by the ungrateful response of these two towns made me spend a moment to wonder why.  Jesus goes on to say that if these miracles were performed in Sodom, they would’ve repented and in fact that on the day of judgement, it will be better for the Sodomites than for those who live in these unrepentant towns.  

We are an imperfect people who always need to repent.  No matter how far along we may think we have come, we are still far from God.  God wants us to come to him, to love him, to be in this perfect relationship with him.  God steps out and loves us in so many ways.  When we refuse or ignore repentance, we are distancing ourselves from God; even more, we are refusing to move closer to him. 

I think God is overjoyed when we repent.  In true repentance, when our hearts are broken and our souls laid bare before him, he knows we love him and want to love him more.  Even though there will be a time where we leave him for other gods, he looks forward to the time when he can win us back and we will repent and show our love for him once again.

Jesus leave…

I’ve been reading through Matthew lately and this morning I began with chapter 8.  As I was reading I began to think about what I was reading and why it was included in Matthew’s Gospel.  Often times I believe I just assume that what is written in the Gospels is just a chronological account of what happened to Jesus, like a secretary recording all that is happening in a meeting.  But in reality, Matthew is choosing what to include and where to include it.  

I began to think all this when I was reading chapter 8 verses 28 – 34, the story of Jesus restoring the two demon possessed men.  This is the story where Jesus casts out these demons into the large herd of pigs, who then rush in to the lake and kill themselves.  While I was reading this I was trying to see the meaning of why Matthew would include this in his story of Jesus.  Out of all the healings and times he casts out demons, he chose to go in depth and include this one.

At the end of the story Matthew tells that once the pig herders see this they run into town to share the news.  Instead of everyone running to the farm to congratulate and thank Jesus for saving the lives of these two men, they plead with him to leave.  For some reason, by Jesus doing this it inspires them to ask Jesus to leave.  Why?  Could it be they were angry about losing the herd of pigs, could it be they were just frightened that this happened, or was there another reason?

I believe they were afraid of what Jesus being there would do to their lives.  They were afraid of the change and discomfort that he would cause.  Maybe they had felt comfort in the way their lives were going and were alright with their two demon possessed men in town, they didn’t want that to change.  But with Jesus comes change.  There is no way to dispute that or to go around that.

I feel that I do this sometimes.  That there are times where I ask Jesus to leave.  I slip into a state of comfort where I enjoy where I am and enjoy knowing where I am going, however, following Jesus does not line up with this.  I have found that in my life when I am most intimate with Christ, I am most uncomfortable.  I have a peace with Christ and an assurance that I am where I need to be, but there is this underlying sense of unease in knowing that I don’t know what is going to happen next or how things will turn out.  

Intimacy with Christ inspires change in us.  The people in the region of Gadarenes didn’t want this change so they told Jesus to leave.  Matthew knew this change, he was a disciple, an intimate follower of Christ.  I simply cannot be an intimate follower of Christ if I am telling Jesus to leave.