Strong and Courageous?

Joshua 1:9 (ESV) - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

I now know for sure I am NOT courageous.

Over the past 8 years or so I have faced all kinds of trials. Some have been distressing, like the time loan sharks threatened my family in order to get neighbours to pay up the money they owe. And though the trials have bothered me (I am not Superman, for crying out loud!) none have been able to make me feel THAT scared.

Until now.

Ironic, isn’t it? Actual physical danger to my sons and I didn’t disturb my sleep, but the thought of traveling to Japan for my own personal upgrading gave me sleepless nights. And on the actual day of departure, the fear was so acute that it even upset my stomach.

Embarrassing!

Why does this trip trouble me so much? It’s like an onion, I’m sure I can find many layers of reasons should I be honest enough to look. But at a basic level, I have the full responsibility of making all the arrangements (flight and hotel), travelling to a country where I know very few people, and where I do not speak the native language. My usual support group isn’t there and I am totally unfamiliar to the place. Good enough reasons to feel uptight?

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV) - For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 

Paul tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, which tells me God does not want me to get uptight or anxious over the situations or matters that arise. But on our part we have to fan into flame, to awaken, to stir up, the spirit of power, love and self-control that God has already given us.

 

In other words, don’t sit back and expect it to work out without any deliberate effort on your part!

 

What are some of the ways we can stir up that spirit within us?

 

1)      Speak Directly

 

Open up your mouth and speak to your spirit. You can say, “Spirit of power, love and self-control, arise within me!” And do that a few more times, until it feels good!

 

There will be people who will criticise that as being merely mindless chanting, positive affirmations and all that. But the fact is, we already have clear Scriptural precedent of speaking to ourselves:

“Bless the LORD, O my soul” (Psalm 103:1, 103:22, 104:1)

And calling upon the LORD to arise:

2 Chronicles 6:41 (ESV) - "And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.  

And

Numbers 10:35 (ESV) - "Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you."

2)      Speak the Scriptures

 

John 6:63 (ESV) - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

If the words of Jesus are spirit and life, won’t they resonate with the spirit of power, love and self-control within us? 

John 16:33 (ESV) – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

To be totally frank, I don’t see any reason Jesus’ words in John 16, especially that last verse, would help me overcome fear. Jesus didn’t promise anything concrete and tangible here, so I don’t have a logical reason to find his words comforting. They are too vague for me.

 

But when I made the effort to speak the whole of John 16 to myself, reading it aloud 3-4 times in a row, I did receive courage and comfort in the midst of my trials and fears. And it was be a comfort that does not make logical sense to the un-spiritual. I don’t care. I’ll take anything God wants to give me!

 

3)      Pray it out

Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV) - do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God has given this promise, that if we will commit our problems to him, via prayer, supplication AND thanksgiving, we will have a peace that surpasses all understanding. In other words, a peace that makes no logical sense. To our hearts and minds this peace is like a strong and gentle father consoling a frightened child. “Rest assured, child, Daddy is here and Daddy will take care of everything!”

 

Just take this Scripture at face value, and pray about everything!

 

Bonus Tip – ignore pride

 

In my most recent struggles with fear, it wasn’t the fear that caused me so much emotional pain. It was my pride. I was supposed to be the one who had it all figured out. I was the one who had fought with and overcome fear so many times. I was the one who had successfully taught others how to deal with fear. How could I be so scared now? My pride did not want to accept that I had to deal with fear again.

 

The reason why the Bible has so much to say about dealing with fear is because it is a universal problem. You can be a church leader, extremely wealthy businessman, battle-hardened soldier or internationally acclaimed musician. Whatever your earthly reasons for confidence, no matter how many times you have overcome fear before, you will still have to face fear again, and deal with it using the same spiritual tools as the rest of us.

 

Since we all have to deal with fear some time or other, do share this with other  believers if what I wrote is helpful to you. In the meantime, be blessed!

 

Don't Entertain Fear

It's both amusing and sad at the same time.

I come from a Word-of-Faith background, and I get to fellowship with people who believe in biblical wealth and divine health. So they do not put up with financial lack or sickness; they will immediately pray for money or healing, as the case may be.

But I personally know many in the worship ministry who would tolerate and entertain the spirit of fear. Why???

2 Tim 1:7 (NKJV) - For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Sometimes the fear is obvious.

One worship leader I work with regularly ALWAYS puts her songs in keys that are too low for the congregation. And she does that even though she can reach ALL the higher notes she needs, even if she puts the songs in my key.

I'll remind her to use the best key for the congregation, and I always get a snap, unthinking reaction. "No, cannot, too high for me!" She would say that every time, as if I was one of those dabblers and wannabes who don't really know music, or as if I am just a musician and not a fellow worship leader trying to help. I get tired of having to remind her that I already KNOW her vocal range, and that I'm not out to embarrass her or mess up her singing!

Sometimes it's not so obvious.

I remember once being a guest worship leader (at another church), and facing a musician who told me he does not read chord charts. I remembered thinking to myself "what's he going to do on the keyboards then? Doodle all over the place and call it playing by the spirit?"

You can guess how irritated I was by that, until I realized he would rather keep his playing random (doodling) so that he could deny responsibility for his note choices and "inspiration". Basically, he was afraid of people judging his choice of notes and thinking they were lousy.

(They were, by the way. His note choices were quite random, but consistently lousy. They'd clash with the chords, rhythms and the rest of the band. The music sounded better whenever he stopped playing...)

And that was why he refused to learn how to read chord charts or write down the notes he needed to play to fit the rest of the band. Ironic, to 'protect' his note choices from being judged he ended up with totally lousy ones.

Fear has a way of messing up everything, I noticed...

The point of what I'm saying is this: many people, including myself, have areas in our daily lives where we need to face up to our fears. Whether those areas are music-related (sight-reading, singing or strumming) or not (writing in proper English, public speaking or making conversation with strangers) does not matter. We should not entertain or tolerate fear in our lives. We should face up to them instead.

How should we do that? Get the support and prayers of our friends, get coaching from someone who knows what he or she is doing, and just get on with it. God has given us a measure of faith (Rom 12:3) and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13), so let's throw off fear and live the life of faith he wants us to live!

Be blessed!

The Fallback Worship Song

If you ever study Old Testament worship, you will discover that the most popular worship song there is "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." You will find that it appears at key points in Israel's history. For example;

1. When David brings the Ark into Jerusalem (1 Chr 16:34) and institutes a ministry of constant prayer and praise unto the LORD;
   
2. At the dedication of the Temple Solomon built unto the LORD, when the priests and Levites sang praises to the LORD and his glory filled the Temple like a cloud (2 Chr 5:13). When the people saw that they continued singing the same song (2 Chr 7:3);
   
3. When the armies of Moab, Ammon and Mount Seir attacked Judah, King Jehoshaphat appointed singers who sang an abbreviated version of this song as they marched to the battle (2 Chr 20:21-22). And the LORD gave them a glorious victory.
   
4. When the people of Israel returned from exile and rebuilt the Temple of the LORD, they sang this song when the builders laid the foundation (Ezra 3:11) and it was so loud that it was even heard from far away.

So you can say that this is the fallback worship song, the song they sing whenever the common people want to declare the praises of God. This song was so ingrained into the souls of the people that you can easily unify their praises when you start singing this song. And when you unify the praises of the people, the glory of the LORD is comes upon us (2 Chr 5:13).

What are the Fallback Worship Songs of your church?

It is easy to dismiss the importance of the Fallback Worship Song. In this day and age we have mountains of worship CDs available, and we are totally spoilt for choice when it comes to the songs we have available for congregational worship. To make things worse, there are many people who take the Scripture's admonitions to sing new songs unto the Lord (Psa 33:3, 96:1) to mean that we should not be regularly and deliberately teaching and reinforcing the right Fallback Worship Songs to our churches.

I disagree with that.

I firmly believe that as we teach our church people new songs we also need to regularly reinforce some of the old songs, the ones that truly speak to our people's hearts, the ones that will be the timeless truths you want people to remember when crisis strikes and their faith is tested. In other words, we need to keep them familiar with the Fallback Worship Songs of your church.

When you do that, this is how your congregation benefits:

1)The Fallback Worship Songs become a familiar starting point from which they can learn new songs.

Consider the following passages:

Psalm 106:1-3 (NIV) – Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD or fully declare his praise? Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.

And

Psalm 107:1-2 (NIV) – Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this — those he redeemed from the hand of the foe

Notice how the two Psalms start in the same way and yet continue differently? The people can ponder the goodness of the LORD and contrast it with their own sinfulness (the theme of Psalm 106) or they can ponder the goodness of the LORD and see it demonstrated in many ways in their lives (the theme of Psalm 107).

The beginnings of these two psalms show us that a Fallback Song can allow us to launch off into newer worship songs and give the people a context to remember them.

2) Fallback Worship Songs help shape their confessions of faith

Psalm 118:1-4 (NIV) – Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Let Israel say: "His love endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say: "His love endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say: "His love endures forever."

What do your church people really believe about God? Depending on your denomination, they may tell me that they embrace the Westminster Confession of Faith, or maybe the Baptist, Scottish or Mennomite Confessions.

But I am not referring about a statement of doctrine here. I am talking about what they hold on to when the boss tells them they are fired, the bills are piling up on the table and the creditors are hounding them. I am asking about who God is to them when the phone rings and it is from the hospital about their kid, or the doctor takes out their medical report and asks them to take a seat before he/she continues.

Who is God to them then? THAT is their confession of faith.

The Fallback Worship Songs help shape their confession of faith. The newer songs just sung in passing in church and quickly forgotten, have little or no effect on it. Why do I say that? Because a genuine, dependable trust in God takes time to develop. Sometimes it can even take generations.

2 Tim 1:5 (NIV) – I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

The Fallback Worship Songs in your church arise when the worship leaders reinforce the songs that already resonate with the people of that church. In other words, the worship leaders must give time for the lyrics to sink into the hearts of the people. That takes time, patience and deliberate effort, like that of a farmer working his field for harvest.

3) Fallback Worship Songs remind the people of the faithfulness of God.

Ezra 3:10-11 (NIV) – When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD:

"He is good; his love to Israel endures forever."

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

Ever had those moments when you suddenly hear an old song and it brings back a flood of memories to your mind and heart? In the Old Testament, God had his people deliberately use this song for the purpose of telling his people that he has remained the same. The people have sinned and fallen so far away from God, ever since the time David brought the Ark to Jerusalem and Solomon completed building the Temple. And yet God has not changed. He has remained faithful to them, and true to the promises in his Word.

In my life, one of my Fallback songs is Through It All (Reuben Morgan, 2001 Hillsong Publishing, CCLI 3452774). I still remember vividly that it was the last song I used in the very last worship music class I conducted. I was leaving formal employment with that school then, and my future looked uncertain and bleak.

And ever since that time I have gotten and lost jobs, been humbled by my mistakes and failures and experienced the lowest valleys of my life. Yet in the midst of it all, God has remained faithful to me, picking me up from my mistakes, providing for me and my family, given me wonderful learning experiences and brought me to beautiful places of rest for my soul.

When we use the Fallback Worship Songs of our own churches, we remind the people that God has stayed the same, from the time they first learned this worship song up till now. They may have been exalted by the Lord since then or humbled by their own mistakes and failings, but the LORD still remains faithful to them.

Conclusion:

A farmer is deliberate in preparing his field and choosing the seed he will sow for his harvest. A pastor prays and seeks the Lord for the sermons he preaches to build up the faith of the flock God entrusted to his care. Let us, as worship leaders, be just as diligent to seek the Lord and sow the right Fallback Worship Songs into the hearts of his people!