Faith and Love Protect the Heart

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (NKJV) - But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 

You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.  

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

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1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 (the middle paragraph above) was brought up during the church sermon on Sunday. It made me realize that I haven't looked at this passage for a while, so I spent some time on it this morning. "Watch and be sober", it says. 

We need to be sober to put on the breastplate of faith and love. It is especially telling that Paul compares faith and love to a breastplate (protecting the vital organs, especially the heart). I have been having my heart hurt often this year, in fact, my heart is danger of becoming sick.

Proverbs 13:12 (NIV 84) - Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

So when hope is deferred, what else is there to protect the heart? Faith and love. So I have to make it a point to feed my faith by ramping up my Scripture time even more, as well as to keep myself in the love of God.

Jude 20-21 (NKJV) -  But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

How do I keep myself in the love of God? By looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which means that I am always on the look out for mercy, signs of his grace and help even in the midst of the trials or day-to-day life. So that summarizes what my spirit man is set on these days. Be blessed!

James' Law of Two Springs

People were telling me that someone I know is really anointed for worship. They say that he would break out into prophetic songs in the midst of worship and those who hear it are edified. "Wouldn't it be great if the two of you can combine your gifting and work together? Wonder-Twins activated!" (Reference to a kid's TV show from a long time ago)

No.

Given the choice I will not want to minister in worship with this person. Why? Because he violates what I call James' Law of Two Springs.

James 3:9-11 (NIV) With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Simply put, James' Law tells us we should not be one of those who praise God and verbally abuse or criticise other people. And because I have spent considerable amounts of time with that supposedly anointed guy, I know him to be such a person. He is the kind of person who would sing out loud, be very demonstrative and expressive in worship, and yet within hours after the service be complaining about his spouse or verbally abusing and threatening his kids.

Of course you would not know these things about a person just from casual acquaintance. But as time goes by a person's true colours are revealed. One of his closest friends from church (not me) confronted him over how he always managed to find something wrong in every situation, instead of looking for whatever he could thank God for (1 Thes 5:18). And within weeks of that confrontation this person was talking about wanting to change church because the worship leaders and the worship musicians were not doing a good job during worship.

Yeah, right.

Am I being too strict over this? I don't think so. Jesus said that all these are symptoms of an underlying problem, a defiled heart.

Matt 15:18 (NIV) - But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'

Especially when it comes to encountering God in worship, this is crucial. Consider Isaiah's encounter with God, recorded for us in Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6:5 (NIV) - "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

When Isaiah received a vision of the LORD seated on his throne and the angels worshipping him, the first area of his life that troubled his conscience was his lips. This strongly suggests to me that we cannot meet God face-to-face in worship without his holiness challenging us in the area of our speech.

Someone can sing out loud, break into spontaneous worship (which really impresses charismatics, I noticed) and yet not truly meet God face-to-face in worship. How will I know? I listen to such a person's words in day-to-day life. As long as I can see two springs of water, fresh and salty, where there should not be, I know this person hasn't fully met the Lord in worship yet.

Isaiah 6, by the way, explains the two opposite reactions people may have after an intense time of worship. Some people talk, it seems as if their lips are loosed and they start speaking of godly things a lot more. This is not surprising, as the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). As they testified of Jesus in worship, the Spirit of prophecy came upon them.

Other people, I noticed, just fall silent. It's as if they do not want to defile the holy atmosphere around them with their worldly words. Suddenly they have no need to speak, and it seems as if their souls have entered the quietness and rest of God (Isa 30:15).

The practical aspect of things:

If you are leading your worship team, especially the singers and the worship leaders, I highly recommend that you do not accept anyone on your team if he or she does not consistently follow James' Law of Two Springs.

If you have gone through my teaching materials you should know me by now. I don't talk very much about the spiritual side of worship, about the heart of worship and all that kind of stuff. Why? Because I have seen people major on all the intangible stuff because they don't have anything to share or impart about the tangible aspects of worship ministry. That's not my role in the Body of Christ.

But James' Law of Two Springs is the ONE thing I will teach and emphasize on when it comes to the intangible aspects of worship ministry. In my 14-15 years in the worship ministry, I would say that this is one of the most important aspects of a worshipper's personal life, and it has a direct spiritual correlation on this person's spiritual effectiveness (or otherwise) in the worship ministry.

Now what if YOU are violating James' Two Stream Law?
You need to get out of it. There are three steps:

1. Prayer – My own personal testimony: when I was 17 years old I was at a youth camp and the pastor shared about specially seeking out the people who get put down and showing God's kindness to them. As he shared I suddenly realized that I myself was one who would go around putting others down. So after that sharing I asked that pastor to pray for me.

And he did. He prayed that I would let go of all the hurts I received before and walk in forgiveness. After that time I found that I suddenly lost the drive to get in the last word, to dig an insult further in, and to make other people pay for all the pain I went through before. That cleaned up my speech very quickly!

So you pray also. Find some spiritual leader such as your pastor to pray for you. There is power that comes from humbling yourself in prayer and seeking God for him to rein in your tongue.

2. Scripture – Replace unedifying thoughts and speech with the Word of God.

Colossians 3:15-16 (NIV) – Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

3. Worship – In this I am not referring to serving in the worship ministry, but simply singing praises to God, both as part of a congregation and by yourself. Remember Isaiah 6? When Isaiah saw the Lord and realized the sinfulness of his speech, immediately he received atonement for his sin.

The more we faithfully and consistently offer praises onto God, the more opportunity we give God to meet with us and change us, and at a more gradual and comfortable pace than Saul had when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Many charismatics I've met seem to prefer the sudden God-turns-up-and-zaps-me kind of transformation. That sudden encounter worked for changing Saul on the road to Damascus, but it was certainly very uncomfortable! I'd rather live in submission to God and avoid such drastic measures.

Conclusion

Many people in church circles despise the power of a reined tongue. They make light of it by saying things like "He can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?" By this they imply that it is easier to say the right things than to do them. And then they think that because they do the right churchy kind of things, they need not watch their words.

James 1:26 (NIV) - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

I have been touched by God in this area of my life. I know that my words, even when they offend, are not spoken out of malice or resentment. So I tell you: It can be done. God really wants to be there for you, to change your heart and purify the speech that arises from your lips. And when he has done his work you'll find that life is a lot better, your heart is a lot lighter and your praises to God feel a lot more powerful.

In other words, tap into the power of the One Spring!

You Gotta Sing!

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12, NIV)

Those of you who know me longer know that I am driven by dissatisfaction.I can only tolerate staring a problem in the face for how long before I end up compelled to do something about it.

Even in my emails about the drums, guitar and the keyboard teaching that I am doing, you can tell that I get involved with a particular field only if I believe that there are no viable alternatives to what I offer, or there are sufficient problems with what else is available. I rant a lot.

So I'm gonna rant about another topic, vitally important for worship musicians to understand.

You gotta sing!
As I said in my guitar course email, too often we have worship courses created by musicians with musicians in mind. They play Christian music for Christian gatherings and teach others to do the same. The unspoken emphasis is on good music, not on what works for worship.

I remember a conversation I had with one such person. Aw man, he was talented. If you think I'm good, you should have seen him, in raw music skill he had me choking in the dust.

The conversation went something like this:

Him: "Why don't we do THIS chord here instead of that one?"

JJ: "because it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "But it sounds richer harmonically."

JJ: "Yes, but it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "But it's musically more interesting."

JJ: "Yes, but it clashes with what the worshippers are singing."

Him: "The chord you want here is so conventional and boring. Everyone does that chord."

JJ: "Yes, but it fits in with what the worshippers are singing."

You can guess how the rest of the conversation went. In the end I gave up, and spent my time praying that nobody I taught would ever look at the chord sheet and ask "JJ, why is THIS chord here? Wouldn't it clash with the singing?" I probably would have burst an artery.

God is merciful. Enough said.
Now that you are in the habit of listening, take things a step further and sing, to see if what you play fits with what the worshippers are singing.

Because that's what we are counting on worship musicians to do. In the years before we started to understand music and how to play for worship, we assumed that the musicians would choose chords based on what would support our worship of God, not what tickled their ears musically.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

Since this is what we wanted musicians to do, this is what we ought to do ourselves. Please, guys, before you get seduced by the Dark Side of the Force, please remember that serving the cell group or congregation is the reason why we minister as worship musicians. Decide everything,
from the key you use for the song to how hard you whack the hi-hat cymbal, based on what enhances the worship for the people of God.

"Test everything, hold fast to what is good…" (1 Thess 5:21)

And the way to really check if what we want to play supports the worshippers' singing is to sing. You wouldn't believe how many musical problems would have been solved if the musicians took the effort to sing along with what they wanted to play in the first place, to see if it fits.

In worship I'd rather you play music that bores you stiff than music that distracts the people in any way.

Now, before those of you who haven't heard me play jump to conclusions and think that I am one of those anti-skill advocates in the worship arena, some of my more advanced students (Dynamic Devotions) have seen me spend ONE HOUR explaining the chord variations to "I Worship You, Almighty God" that fit into the singing.

And I wouldn't have discovered all of them if not for me singing and listening to both the singing and the chords I was playing.

Think about it. If it takes one hour to explain the variations that can arise from "I Worship You, Almighty God", that means that the chord variations do have depth. They effectively add fresh color to the same song and yet do not distract from the worship.

So take the time to sing and listen to what comes out. For those of you who are actively taking lessons from me, you warm my heart when you show me the stuff you discover by yourself by testing your music choices by singing along with what you play.

More than anything else, this joy of seeing you grow is what drives me on in my teaching efforts.

Be blessed!