Lead Worship

Once again an incredable quote.

“I’m often accused of being irreligious, and I suppose it’s for this very reason. Whether it’s Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, or any other ism, when a religion is created on the subtle premise that God withholds His love and you must submit to the system to earn that love, I consider it the worst of corruptions.

“But again these traps work only because of two things: we long for love, and we are convinced that all love is conditional.

“Ironically, this is where so many have a problem with Jesus. For centuries the church has been telling us if we want God to love us, we need to follow the rules. It’s been far more important to focus on the sin problem than the love problem. This is the only way the institution can maintain control over our lives. After all, if love is unconditional, what will keep them following our rules? Don’t we want people, first and foremost, to be good? If our goal is to get people to conform, you can accomplish that without love, but you can’t maintain a civilization without the rule of law.

“What governments have not always been able to do, religions have accomplished with amazing effectiveness. They keep people in line.

“What in the world would happen if people actually began discovering the actual message of Jesus Christ-that love is unconditional? What would happen if we began to realize that God was not, is fact, waiting for us to earn His love, but that He was passionately pursuing us with His love? What would happen if the world got out that Jesus was offering His love freely and without condition?”

When will churches start being about selling Jesus and not programs? When will we quit trying to get people to fit into our programs and into Jesus? Could this be the reason we haven’t seen the Presence?

“Bitterness, for instance, is like a cancer that makes you blind. I had allowed hurt to make my soul toxic, From my end, I was sure that I was just becoming a realist. In fact, I was desensitizing myself. Why risk being hurt more? I didn’t realize I was becoming blind to love. I couldn’t see the people around me who really cared. Their sincere efforts went unnoticed. If you had asked me then, I would have said they weren’t there. I look back now and realize I just couldn’t see them, but they were right in front of me the entire time. Bitterness turned to skepticism, which turned to cynicism, which turned to an emptiness of my soul.

“Bitterness is the enemy of love because it makes you unforgiving and unwilling to give love unconditionally.

“It is the enemy of hope because you keep living in the past and become incapable of seeing a better future.

“It is the enemy of faith because you stop trusting in anyone but yourself. I bring this up because I think many of us become blinded by a bitterness of the soul. If we are not careful, we will lose the ability to see such things as beauty, truth, or even affection. More importantly, you may close your eyes to what your soul needs you most to see.”

-Soul Cravings, Erwin Raphael McManus

Is this what my church work has become? This weekend has been a free-for-all love fest on self in the worship department at Faith. Members getting jealous of one-another. Others blew attitudes. One member looked me straight in my face and told me that I was successfully making them look stupid.

What hurt was not the comment. What hurt was the fact that the comment didn’t hurt. This was stated right in front of an intern. He asks “If this is what ministry is like, I don’t want to be a part of it.”

I lied to him. I told him that it was not. Well… it shouldn’t be.

John became instantly fearful the instant he arose to the thrown room of God. Just like Isaiah, he must have had this “Uh oh” moment when you realize you probably could have done a lot of things differently. In an instant, all life-priorities became clear.

But John was waiting for the redemption of man. The voice told him that he was going to see what was going to happen to the end of the church age. He saw undescribable sights. He barely has the descriptive ability to write what he saw and what he wrote will never do justice to the actual presence.

After a moment in awe and wonder, a legal document was confronted to John. It was a will of execution. It had to be opened for the redemption of man to be complete. This was it. Finally the full redemption of man! John had been waiting for this moment but never imagined that it would unfold right before his eyes. Finally, the faith of the saints would be made complete! Finally, the believers will be with their creator! Finally, the bride will be with her groom! “O death where is thy sting? O grave where is your victory?”…

“Who will open this will?” asks a strong, stout angel. “Who will begin the ending of human history?” What about Abraham? Jacob? Moses? Noah? Isaiah?

No one could open that will…

“What!?!” says John. “Someone has to open that scroll!” John knew that if this will was not executed that mankind will not be redeemed. Was that it? John was to see the ending of the human history to find out that human history is nothing more than some enigma? This can’t be! “Please someone must start that execution!”

At that moment, a baby lamb, still bleeding at its neck, walks forward. God hands this lamb, our Savior, the will. He will redeem us!

At first John began to hear the 24 elders singing, “You are worthy to take the scroll.” Then John hears “The Lamb is worthy-The Lamb who was killed.”

“Where were these voices coming from?” asks John. He began to look around and thousands of millions of angels began to sing out, “The Lamb is worthy-The Lamb who was Killed!”

This was followed by the entire creation joining in. Every woman, child, man, animal, bird of the air, lion of the field, fish of the sea cried out “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the One sititing on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!”