A Few Nights Back

I was just praying a couple of nights back, and this verse caught my attention.

Psalm 65: 4 (NIV) - Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

This is the question: what ARE the good things of God's holy temple?

I have to admit, I couldn't think of anything offhand. I looked at the rest of the psalm to see if there were any answers or clues. It continues to talk about God's character and power over the elements of nature (Psa 65:5-7). Then it describes how God gives blesses his people with abundant harvests.

If you know me long enough, you'll know that I have no objections to tangible and concrete blessings, such as wealth and health. And in this psalm, wealth is given in its most primal form, not gold, silver or precious stones, but in the form of food. In times of famine, what is the point of having money if there is no food for you to buy?

But I personally don't believe these tangible blessings are the good things the Psalmist refers to in verse 4. Those are depicted as outside of the temple, how God nourishes the land to give a bountiful harvest. What about the blessings within?

Another passage that came to mind as I mused on this,

Ephesians 1:3-9 – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to son-ship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ…

This passage, I suspect, tells us the blessings within God's holy temple.

1. Being chosen for a destiny – vs 4-5
2. An adoption to son-ship (being an heir of God) – vs 5
3. Redemption and forgiveness – vs 7
4. Revelation of God's purpose – vs 8-9

Notice that forgiveness and being chosen also comes out early in Psalm 65?

Psalm 65:3 (NIV) - When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.

And in the next verse:

Psalm 65:4 (NIV) – Blessed are those you choose and bring near…

Of course, Paul explains everything a lot more clearly in his letter to the Ephesians.

But there's a problem I realized I have fallen into. When I look at Ephesians 1:3-9, I know the words. But do I get the reality of the words? I don't think so. I think truly grasping these truths require revelation from the Holy Spirit of God.

1 Cor 2:9-10 (NIV) – As it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" — the things God has prepared for those who love him — these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

That is why even in Ephesians 1 Paul prays:

Eph 1:17-19 (NIV) – I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Right now, I find that I need to go back to that same prayer. All the prayer, study and meditation on that passage I have done before does not count for much in the now. It's not about how closely you followed the Lord and sought him in the days, months and years past; it's about how closely you follow him NOW. I used to take the Ephesians prayer and pray it over myself, another sibling-in-Christ and my pastor, and whenever I made that my regular practice my heart and mind was set on things above, not things below (Col 3:1-2). But once I stop I start to drift away.

I guess that is why Paul says "I KEEP asking"!

How about you? Is your heart set on things above? Are you enjoying and delighting in the good things of God's house, his holy temple?

Be blessed!

Add an Ad, Anyone?

If you are interested in making money via the Internet, there are three main ways.

1. You use your blog or website to promote your products and services
   
2. You use your blog or website to promote the products of other people, and when a sale is made through your site you get paid a commission
   
3. You have a blog or site that has very high traffic, and businesses who want to get the attention of those who pay attention to you pay you to feature their ads on your site.

As you can guess, I chose the first option, to promote my worship ministry e-training material. I didn't expect other people to want to advertise their stuff on my site, so I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked if I'd be willing to host an ad for Louie Giglio's products on my site. Being a fan of Louie Giglio's work, I of course agreed!

So my site has only ONE ad. At the other extreme, there's another worship leader's blog that has ads galore. What he did was that he signed up for those ad programs that allow Google or the blog host to allocate ads to your site based on what their systems think is relevant. Problem is, their systems decide based on keywords, and if advertisers of wrong products chose keywords poorly, the wrong kind of ads can appear on your site.

This has resulted in all kinds of products being displayed at his worship ministry site. One ad clicked over to a "Free Develop-Your-Psychic-Powers DVD program", another to "Witchcraft Exposed", which promises to teach you witchcraft secrets and spells that others will not teach you. To be frank, I sometimes head over to his site JUST to see what kind of ads will turn up THIS time!

On one hand it's funny, and on the other, it's sad. Because I know about the quirks of the ad program he signed up for, and having been online for a longer period of time than he was, I once emailed him some time back to tell him the ad program was featuring yoga products on his worship ministry site. I was expecting him to either:

1. Ignore me, since I am a stranger to him and him to me
   
2. Thank me profusely for pointing out something he didn't know and was embarrassing him behind his back. Then deal with it.
   
3. Tell me that he has investigated yoga and thinks it's OK. And if that was his personal conviction, I can respect that.

But can you believe it? He actually emailed me, saying "The ads are beyond my control…" No, they are not! He chose to allow ads on his blog. He could have decided to use a free blog that wouldn't charge him anything for hosting his site, or he could have just trusted in God to provide the less than US$10 each month to host his site.

Nope, he decided he needed the few-cents-per-click income from his site more than the respect of fellow believers and the need to follow his own convictions. * fumes *

Anyway…

In case you are thinking about making money via the Internet, I sincerely believe that the Internet, as a market, has matured. Gone are the days of making mindlessly easy money online. Making money online now takes wisdom, hard work and a willingness to grow way beyond the average person's comfort zone.

I am not very much help in this area, since I am only a worship musician. But I'd like to remind urge you to remember: whatever you do online, especially when it comes to making money, please remember:

1. The God you one day have to answer to;
   
2. Your own convictions, your personal beliefs on what is right and what is wrong; AND
   
3. Your spiritual family, the rest of the Body of Christ.

Don't do things that you'd be ashamed to acknowledge before anyone, such as using automatic article spinners to produce and submit many different versions of an article for the sake of tricking Google's search engines. If I'd be ashamed to admit that to Google, how much worse would it be to admit it before the Judge of all the earth, right?

Thanks for putting up with my rant. I just needed to get this off my chest. Be blessed!

How To Plan Evangelistic Concerts

Many, many years ago, the pastor of a Singapore mega-church was invited to be the featured speaker at an evangelistic concert organized by a small church. Just before the start of the evangelistic concert the local pastor said, "Let's pray for a mighty harvest!"

The mega-church pastor asked him "How many non-Christians are there in the audience?"

"I looked, and I think there are at least two…"

"The rest of the audience are already members of your church?"

"Yes…"

"Then why go through all this work and effort to run the concert? You can just invite those two non-Christians to have dinner with me and I can just talk with them over the meal, right?"

[loud silence follows]

That pastor shared with us that story in the debrief after a series of evangelistic concerts that were initiated, organized and executed by the youth ministry of his church. What impressed him was the fact that besides putting effort to have a good show (or why call it a concert?) we put in tons of effort to bring in the non-Christians to hear the message.

Those efforts paid off. We had, on average, 50-60 salvations per show. Not bad considering that at least 90% of it was run by students who had to juggle studying for exams with practising for the concert!

All this came to mind recently when a student of mine approached me to help for her church evangelistic concert. She asked me about how to find musicians, and I offered to help find them. But I needed to know what type of concert it was going to be, so I could find the appropriate musicians. And that was when she admitted that she didn't know and haven't yet planned what type of concert it was going to be.

Here's my advice to her (and anyone else planning evangelistic concerts)

If you want to do something big worth doing, you need the specific plan. When Moses was given the assignment to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, God gave him specific plans, blueprints and details. You need that kind of plan first before you even ask God about how to get the resources you need.

So if you say you want to do a concert ...

1) Who is it for? English-speaking? Chinese or dialect-speaking? Or others? What demographic do they belong to? Youth, working adults, male, female, families with kids... who?

You need to be focused on this, because in this day and age people have a lot of demands on their time. They won't turn up for something just because posters were put up or things like that. If you know WHO you are targeting, you can then formulate a plan to invite them for the concert.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but if you live in a city like Singapore, the days of organizing an evangelistic rally with a famous speaker and having hordes of non-Christians, young, old and in-between, lining up to attend it, are long gone. People have separated themselves into their demographics (working adults, families with kids, elderly with health challenges, grandparents actively involved with their grandchildren, entrepreneurs, and so on). There is no more one-size-fits-all approach to reaching and connecting with them!

To know more about how social dynamics have changed in many parts of the world, head over to http://jvworship.blogspot.com/2010/10/introduction-to-marketing.html, I give a brief overview there.

2) What do they want?
This is the plan for inviting them to the concert- you have to show them that they should sacrifice 1-2 hours of their time to be at your concert. If you don't know what they want, you cannot persuade them.

Moreover, when you give them the reasons, you have to speak to them in THEIR language. As Paul said, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I may save some." (1 Cor 9:22). Many Christians are lazy when communicating with non-Christians; they make no effort to hear them before they start speaking down to them. It's like saying "Jesus is the answer!" but not stopping to ask them first what is their question.

Very shoddy. Any businessman who takes this kind of attitude towards getting customers for his business DESERVES to have his business fail… Are we less serious about an evangelistic concert than a businessman is over growing his business?

3) How can you give it to them?
If they want entertainment, you have to be more entertaining than what people get from TV, because otherwise they can stay at home and watch TV. If they want interaction, you need to offer them interaction that is better than joining their colleagues at the pub or the karaoke lounge. If they want information, you have to make sure the information you present them really adds value to their lives. What do they want?

The Problem is...
Many people plan evangelistic concerts based on what they feel other people OUGHT to want, rather than what they really do want. It's a very self-centred way of doing things, and it puts off the non-Christians. Evangelism is about connecting with people and then connecting them with God. And if you want to do an evangelistic concert, you'd better have evangelists on your team. And listen to what they say.

Many of the serious worship leaders and musicians I know have a prophetic inclination. They find spending extended periods of time praying and praising God something very natural, but are less developed in their people skills. That is why few of them can teach or evangelize. I suspect many Christian singers and musicians who have an evangelistic gifting end up in the secular world and connect well with non-Christians. But if they are left alone and without genuine fellowship and discipleship from fellow believers, they easily end up compromising their testimony, like salt that has lost its taste.

You may think that the hours you spend in prayer and worship makes you more spiritual than them. And maybe, just maybe, you are. But if you have no evangelistic gifting, you NEED their wisdom, advice and help to make an evangelistic concert work. God made us such that we need each other in the Body of Christ in order to come to the fullness of the measure of Christ (Eph 4:15-16).

In the end…

… After you have looked at all these questions and waited upon God, you may find that an evangelistic concert may not be the best thing to do after all. You may plan some other outreach event instead, and it may not even involve music. We musicians tend to look for ways to drag music into every church activity we are involved in. But that may not be necessary or wise all the time.

Don't do what I have seen too many pastors and leaders do – get started doing something and THEN ask God to guide them. That's wrong. The better way is to wait upon God for his instructions FIRST and then move from there. It can be difficult, because the flesh usually swings between rationalized laziness and frantic activity to try and please God. And as I am fond of saying, the fruit (results) don't lie!

So if you are planning for an evangelistic concert, I hope you will find my thoughts and opinions helpful. Be blessed!

Working With Your Pastor and Being the New Guy

A couple of quick points:

First, I came across a couple of very useful posts recently. They are about:

1) Working Together With Your Pastor - Useful advice for worship leaders on how to partner with your senior pastor.

2) Being the New Guy - if you are taking over a worship ministry established by someone else, what should you keep in mind?

Secondly, I'll be announcing a special gift for those who are on my Hidden-Truths mailing list. So if you are interested in growing in your understanding of spontaneous worship and playing for prayer time, make sure you keep an eye on your email inbox!

That's all for now. I'll be in touch...

Hobble, limp, grumble, whine...

(Personal blog post)

It's the end of Feb 2011, and the thoughts most pressing on my mind: my toes hurt!

I kicked them against something hard (and that's all I'm saying, I don't want to look totally lame). They didn't hurt at first, but later there was pain even as I played piano pedals during church. And after playing for service I ran to the washrooms, looked at my by-then-swollen toes and realized I was going to suffer for the next few days...

So I went about limping around today. I did SOME teaching even though the doctor recommended that I rest completely for two days. But I drew the line at carrying the guitar around for teaching guitar. That would be going too far, so I postponed my guitar teaching to another day.

It sounds lame (no pun intended) that with all the horrible things that could have happened to me but didn't, my mind is fixated on my poor hurting toes. I'm limping around as I walk, and as I hobble I am feeling really sorry for myself.

Yes, I reserve the right to be silly once in a while! :D


Another thing on my mind this month was how I managed to clear a lot of my old clothes, as mentioned in my blog posts. It was a good experience, letting go of whatever I knew I had to let go of. I guess that's one of the beneficial aspects of Chinese New Year, the custom of cleaning out the house, which leads naturally to clearing out whatever we ought to really get rid of.

So now I face a more spacious wardrobe and a more organized working room. Hopefully I can keep myself disciplined in this area for the rest of the year. Keeping my personal space organized, though it sounds very trivial, is one of those little things that affect how well I deal with big things.

What's the next step? To make my first 2 hours in the morning even more productive. Tell you more about it next time. Got to get on with some other matters, so I'll continue some other time. Stay tuned! :)

How to Change Your Spiritual Wardrobe

For those of us who like everything listed out neatly, here are the two lists in Colossians 3.

What To Take Off

• sexual immorality
• impurity
• lust
• evil desires
• greed (= idolatry)
• anger
• rage
• malice
• slander
• filthy language
• lying

What To Put On

• compassion
• kindness
• humility
• gentleness
• patience
• forgiveness
• love

The driven, task-oriented amongst us will probably print out the lists, put them up somewhere they would see every day and make them their New Year Resolutions. From experience, only the very disciplined amongst us can make it work. And for the rest of us, we will find it very frustrating, because we are not doing things the way God wants us to do them.

How ARE We Supposed to Change?

1) Think About Godly Things

Colossians 3:1-3 – Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (NIV)

I remember the days I so wanted to live a God-pleasing life. I had been a believer for years before that, but because I was not in fellowship with other brethren and didn't have a proper devotional life, I was convinced that it was unrealistic and unattainable. But I still wanted to try anyway.

I wasn't too sure I could follow the instructions in the Bible, but I decided that the least I could was KNOW what the instructions were. So I just made it a point to read the Bible daily. At that time I didn't know the power of reading the Bible aloud, but even then the 15-20 minutes each time, done 2-3 times a day, was enough to start changing my mind into thinking that obeying God wasn't that unrealistic and unattainable after all.

And let's face it, that was a very necessary first step!

2) Know God

Colossians 3:10 - … and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (NIV)

In verses 9-10, Paul tells us since you have take off our old self (and its habits) and put on the new self by being renewed in knowledge in the image of our Creator. This tells me that I ought to put less attention less on changing my lifestyle and more on knowing the God who created the new me.

Consider the following:

Lev 20:26 - You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own. (NIV)

Knowing the holiness of God will spur us into holy living. Notice how God uses himself as an example for us to follow?

Deut 10:18-19 - He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (NIV)

And in the New Testament, we are told to imitate God:

Eph 5:1-2 - Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (NKJV)

But how can we imitate God unless we deeply and intimately know him? We need to meditate on his wonders and his deeds (Psa 77:12). When we do, and realize that we are his children and thus carry his DNA in our spirit, we then begin to find ourselves living as his children would.

3) Recognize that we are the chosen, holy and dearly loved

Colossians 3:12-14 - Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (NIV)

This is the earlier step, Knowing God, and carries it a step further. When we know God and how much he loves us, it becomes easy to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and so on. Why? Because we know God is like that, and he has treated us thus. And that makes it reasonable for us to do likewise.

Conclusion:

All these steps may seem simple. They are. But don't let the simplicity deceive you. They require us to put in consistent and regular effort to renew our minds. We used to live in the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph 2:2) and so it will take time and deliberate effort to change our thought patterns and emotional habits.

It's not an easy journey. But I can assure you that you will find joy and delight in it as you know you please God in your thoughts, words and deeds. Shall we continue this journey together?

Be blessed!

My Old Clothes

I gave away a large stack of my old clothes recently.

It took a number of trips, lugging heavy bags, taking Singapore public transport and then doing a 'heave'-offering into the Salvation Army collection centre. And from the looks of things I'll still have to make a couple more trips over the next few weeks.

We Chinese usually do loads of spring-cleaning and housekeeping before the Chinese New Year. That makes it an appropriate time to look through the wardrobe and decide if you REALLY want to wear that crazy shirt you bought the last holiday…

After totally forgetting to do this for years, I finally buckled myself down and forced myself to start on seriously evaluating my wardrobe and the clothes therein. And it started me thinking about my spiritual dress sense also. To make it very simple, our spiritual dressing is made up of:

1) What We Take Off

Colossians 3:5, 8-9 – Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry… But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (NIV)

Why were there so many of my old clothes left in my wardrobe? Because I didn't grow physically over the past 12 or so years. Many people I know wear forced to give away their old clothes because those clothes didn't fit them anymore. But for me, my height, my arm-length and even my waistline has remained the same, so I could get away with wearing the old clothes that I used to wear 12 years back.

It's just like how some believers, when they first turn to Christ from an extremely bad background, such as drug and alcohol abuse, crime and all that, change spiritual dressing very drastically. Because what they had to get rid of was very obvious and easy to see, you could see the changes in their lives very quickly. They knew their old ways just didn’t fit their new identity in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).

It was like people whose waistlines grew a few inches. It's obvious that their old jeans don't fit anymore!

Some believers don't have horrible backgrounds when they come to Christ. Maybe they were by nature nice people already, or their parents had brought them up well, or they had really good self-discipline. Because the things they had to get rid of were not so obvious, they could actually get away with staying the same, not totally surrendering their behavior and emotions to the Lord, and people around them wouldn't notice.

It's like me keeping old clothes from 12 years back because they still fit OK!

So why I get rid of the old clothes then? Because no matter how much I washed them, they still stink. There was a moldy, stale smell that wouldn't go away no matter how many times I put those clothes in the washing machine.

Likewise for our attitudes and habits. Even though they may still fit in our lives (they don't cause us or the people around us major inconvenience or problems), after a while, as we mature in Christ we realize that they stink, we don't like them and we really ought to get rid of them.

2) What We Put On

Colossians 3:12 – Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (NIV)

Why did I get down to evaluating my wardrobe after all these years? Because I was given lots of new clothes and I needed to make space for them in my room.

That is my primary motivation for getting rid of anger, malice, slander and other inappropriate habits from my life. Even though they were not really obvious and not causing that much problems, I needed to get rid of them to make even more room for compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

One thing I appreciate about how Paul expresses himself here – he compares those virtues to clothes. One thing that sets humans apart from animals – our clothes are NOT a part of us, and we therefore have a choice in what we choose to wear.

Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? (NKJV)

We can't change the color of our skin, but we can choose what we wear above it. Likewise, despite our basic nature, we can choose to wear compassion, kindness and the other virtues over it. At the very beginning, when we struggle with our old emotional habits and thought-life, putting on compassion can make us feel like we are faking it, that we are pretending to be kind and humble people when we aren't. The accuser can jump in to heap condemnation upon us and discourage us from the Christian walk, or we sometimes totally discourage ourselves without his help.

As long as we know that it feels uncomfortable and unnatural at the beginning, we are not expecting it to be a miraculous change and we are not very disappointed if we slip up and make mistakes. This allows us to keep on at it for the long haul, and after time what we wear becomes an integral part of our personal identity. Gentleness, kindness and patience are not longer just clothes that we may or may not wear that day; they become vital and irreplaceable aspects of our spiritual dress code.

And by that time we cannot imagine or accept replacing them with anything less!

It's just like my current dress sense. There are colours and types of clothes I know I will NEVER wear. I don't care what other people say. I am NEVER going to wear Bermuda-pants (I think I look ridiculous in them) or the brighter, fiery colours (such as yellow, orange or red). I'm sticking to my favourite colours no matter how boring they make me look. My clothes and the colours I choose are now a vital part of my personal identity and I am sticking with them!

Of course, it helps that I am already married and am no longer spouse-hunting…

So when was the last time YOU waited before the LORD and asked him what he wanted you to change in your spiritual wardrobe?

Be blessed!

When You Have to Change A Whole Church...

One of the greatest challenges a worship leader could ever face is changing the worship culture of an entire church. Whether it is a performance-based culture (they sit back and watch you make a fool of yourself on the stage) changing to a participation-based one (the people actually sing out their praises to God), or a liturgical service being changed to a contemporary service, it is a huge and daunting challenge. So if your pastor comes to you and gives you the task of creating more dynamic praise and worship in your church, here are some suggestions to help.

1) Take it slow

As I mentioned in the last chapter of my Invisible Worship Musician, God gives his people time to adapt to changes. In Exodus 16, after the people of God were delivered out of bondage in Egypt, they began clamouring Moses for meat. They said:

"There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted..." (Exodus16:3, NIV)

This suggests to me that they saw meat as being the only viable food for them. God, however, had different plans. He wanted to feed the people with manna. However, he had the kindness and gentleness to meet the people where they were, giving them what they were used to first, before giving them what he decided was his perfect plan for their food.

"At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'" (Exodus 16:11, NIV)

This same principle also applies to establishing a worship ministry paradigm that genuinely serves the people of God, or converting your church's liturgical service to a contemporary one without alienating all the faithful members of your church. Whatever you do, please remember that it takes time for people to get used to changes in general. So do be patient with them!

2) Use the Fallback Worship Songs

What are the Fallback Worship Songs of your church? The ones the people love to death and will sing no matter what? The ones that convey the timeless truths you want people to remember when crisis strikes and their faith is tested? If you do not know what they are, go find out, and start using these songs. They will be the backbone of your church's worship culture.

It's interesting, the Fallback Worship Songs of a church can be very different, depending on its background. If the church is performance based and the members are hungering spiritually to exercise their spirits by really participating in the worship, the Fallback Songs can be very simple, musically and lyrically. But if you come from a liturgical church, the Fallback Songs can be a hymn that has 3-6 stanzas of lyrics that the faithful members of the church can sing from heart. So make use of that!

Quick tip: for a liturgical church, Chris Tomlin's How Great is our God (CCLI #4348399) is a fantastic song to teach them, because its structure and lyrics is easy for them to take to.

3) Work with a small group first

What's easier, changing the worship culture of 200 people or 10 people? If your goal is participation for the sake of unity (as shown in 2 Chr 5:13), you'll probably find 10 people easier to manage than 200. So if you need to change the worship paradigm of your church, find a small group of people you can work with and start there.

I would prefer that you plug yourself into a group that is already running and start to work from there, instead of starting your own group. If the group is already running, you can get to see the worship dynamics of the church upfront and personal, and you can better figure out what is feasible for you and what isn't. If you intend to start another group, you will have to first seek the approval of your church pastor, and then expect that you will have to shepherd the group instead of just focusing on the worship and leaving the overall leading of the group to someone else.

Joining and working with your church's prayer meeting (if it has one) is a great way to start. The people tend to be more expressive, and there is a greater link between prayer and praise that you can tap on to create a more dynamic worship culture. Also, if you do a good job at this meeting and people encounter God's presence strongly there, word will spread and more people from your church will join that meeting. And from there the fire will spread to the rest of your congregation, just give it some time.

Conclusion:

It can be difficult to change the worship culture of an entire church. But it can be done. Other people have done it before and you can do it too. If this is the vision your church pastor has for your church, and you believe in your heart that this is what God wants you to do, go for it! It will take time and serious, dedicated effort. But what worthwhile endeavour in life doesn't?

Temple Trip with Jessiah

(Personal Blog Post) 
 

Jessiah and I went to a Taoist temple recently.

It was not for a cultural or enrichment thing, it was because he won an award for his academic performance in school. The award was presented at the temple, and so we had to go down to that temple to receive the award.

Jessiah was obviously uncomfortable as we got nearer to the temple. You must understand that it was to him a canopy of unfamiliar sounds (chanting, gongs and droning music) and smells (the incense from the joss sticks). I, on the other hand, because I was raised in a non-Christian family, was much more familiar with all these elements. In fact, they brought me back to nostalgia lane, back to a time when I was so much more innocent and optimistic (and spoiled rotten by a doting grandmother)…

I am still not used to having a camera with me everywhere I go, so I didn't take many pictures of the place. But here is a picture of the tent where the awards ceremony was held. You can see how many other people were there as well. It was quite a large ceremony.

So as I sat down and waited for the ceremony to begin, I realized that I didn't want Jessiah to grow up culturally stunted. In his day to day life, he is exposed to Western culture almost all the time. I want him to be culturally-savvy, able to move confidently and wisely in different cultural contexts. Because I would accompany my parents to various temples (Buddhist and Taoist) when I was a young kid, I am still comfortable with going into temples. I am not freaking out, convinced that I will get demon-possessed and will lose my anointing if I stay there too long. No, I am relaxed, in the moment, enjoying the experience and looking to see what lessons the LORD has in store for me that day.

 

This means that I have to make a conscientious effort to bring him into different cultural situations and teaching him how to manage himself well there. That is something that I have neglected (to be honest) and I realize that I'll have to try to fix that this year. How? Hmmm… let me get back to you on that!

Side note: here is something I found VERY amusing...

I never knew that Taoist temples had money changers too! I wonder if Taoists ever felt that a particular temple had a corrupted money system in place and wished for someone to go charging in, whip in hand and start overturning the money changers' tables!

Criteria for Worship Minister?

Last year, I wrote on paying your church musicians. Recently, I came across Greg Jones writing on this topic from a different angle. He wrote on what to look for when your church is hiring a worship pastor, the full-time staff who heads the worship ministry. He calls that position 'worship leader', probably because in some churches the worship leader not only leads worship, but also gives pastoral care and training to the rest of the musicians and singers as well. And is, of course, a member of the paid staff.

Read his article here

As I said, his angle is different. It's about what to look for in someone you are going to engage as paid staff, while mine is about whether to pay the people you already have and are serving. But it is interesting to see where we converge:

1. Teaching - I believe that if your church believes in mobilizing the people for the ministry, especially for the worship ministry, then you will want to pay the musicians who lead and teach the other musicians. Greg Jones talked about how a worship leader/pastor who cannot teach may be able to tell the worship team that they are at level A and need to go to level B, but does not have the ability to equip the team as to how to get there. And this can lead to lots of frustration.
   
   
2. Possible conflicts – In my post, I wrote that if you decide to pay only the head musician and not the rest of the band, that could give problems if one of the musicians thinks the guy in charge is less deserving of it than he/she was. Greg brought up another possibility I did not consider: if the worship leader/pastor is unable to anchor the music and has to depend on a layperson (volunteer) to do it, then the layperson may feel taken advantage of. That can lead to dissension, conflict and resentment.

All in all, Greg gives a good perspective on the issue. He has his own experience as a worship leader and musician. He also thinks through his points and has useful insights to share. Let me know what you think of his article, OK?

Be blessed!

Pub Musician, Worship Musician?

Can someone who is playing at a pub or a rock band also play in the worship team?

The question seems to boil down to whether playing in a pub or rock band disqualifies someone from playing in the worship team. I've done my own pub-band time and other secular gigs as well, so here are three things that I'd look at when it comes to this issue.

Alcohol – Does the person have a problem with alcohol abuse? If so then he/she ought to avoid the pub environment in the first place.

Eph 5:18 - Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit (NIV)

I have no problems with believers drinking alcohol. If the Bible does not prohibit it, neither should I. But the Bible DOES prohibit getting drunk. So if we are talking about a believer who plays music at a pub and he or she consistently gets drunk, then I'd think twice about letting this person play on the worship team.

Secular music – I also have no problem with believers playing secular music. The Bible does not prohibit it, neither should I. But the Bible does speak out against confusing the sacred with the secular. Consider this passage:

Eze 33:31-32 - So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. (NKJV)

The reference to secular entertainers in Israel shows that they did exist in those days. In this passage, God says that ignoring the word of a prophet is like treating him/her just like a secular entertainer. The Bible does not condemn secular music, but it does tell us not to treat the Word of God in the same way, as mere entertainment.

The Believer's Word Life – And that refers to both the time the person spends in the Bible and his spoken words.

A secular pub is usually an unedifying place. The Bible does not give us a definite order to avoid all unedifying places, in fact we are told that the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19). So that means that we cannot totally avoid unedifying places. But we CAN keep ourselves from being polluted by the world (James 1:27). And that is what we should aim for.

So if a pub or rock musician wants to play on the worship team, my first question is this: has he or she been polluted by the world? The fastest gauge of that is his or her speech, because the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). If the believer has been polluted by the world, his or her speech will usually be the first to go haywire.

Quick tip: don't just listen to how this person talks in church. Drop by the pub when this musician is working, hide yourself one corner and pay careful attention to how he or she behaves when no one knows you are around. There are pub musicians I know who consistently shine forth as lights in a warped and crooked generation (Phi 2:15), even at the pub itself. I'd be honoured to have those people with me on the worship team anytime!

I'll also watch for this person's hunger for the Word of God. Why? Because if his or her heart has departed from the LORD, he/she will lose the hunger for the Bible.

Jeremiah 2:15 - My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (NIV)

And once the hunger for the Word of God is gone, the pollution of the world will come in very quickly. So does the musician in question skip church services? How is his/her personal time in the Word of God? I'd ask what was the latest insight he/she got from the Scriptures recently. If you see a panic-stricken expression on the face, that's a warning sign for you right there!

Conclusion: Every believer will have areas in life where they need help. A believer who is pub or rock band musician and who has any of the above problems is NOT a lesser person in Christ than we are. They just need help in those areas, just as we ourselves do in other parts of our lives. If a pub or rock band musician has problems with alcohol abuse and with being polluted by the world, then whether he/she is included on the worship team is a decision that is best made by the pastor in charge. Why? Because the LORD may use the musician's involvement in worship ministry to spur him/her to take God seriously. Because the ramifications are heavier than usual, it is best to leave this decision to God-appointed leadership who will pray and seek the mind of God on this situation.

Let me know what you think?

The Anchor Worship Musician

It would be great if every musician in your church worship team knew how to anchor the worship music. By that I mean:

• they are all able to read where the congregation dynamics are headed,
  
  
• they all know how to cue the worship leader and congregation to start singing, and
  
  
• they all effectively use the music to unify both the praises of the people and the rest of the musicians.

But that does not just happen out of nowhere. Anchor musicians will have to be carefully cultivated. A musician who can anchor a worship team will usually play either the piano or the guitar. Those two instruments are able to provide a full rhythmic and harmony (beats and chords) support for the congregation, and are thus easier for the rest of the band to latch on to and follow.

Besides that, anchor worship musicians -

1) Need to know the various chord progressions that work as intros and for free worship. A good song intro is one that cues the worship leader and congregation to start singing. Sometimes hiccups happen in the worship session and the unity of the singing gets disrupted. The anchor musician has to know what to play that would lead the congregation back into the song or into the next song. At this point, being able to improvise a quick song intro (around 4 bars long) is an essential skill to have.

Knowing the chords that work for free worship also allows the anchor musician to lead the rest of the band when playing for spontaneous worship. You ought to confirm all these chords in advance during practice, but sometimes a congregation can build up a lot of momentum for a song that you did not plan for. So that time it helps if you are able to choose suitable chords and flow into spontaneous worship from there.

2) Should be able to think as a worship leader – the best way to get this ability is to lead worship in a small group setting. Leading worship at a small group, with only one instrument and a few people, is the best training ground for worship ministry ever. Doing this, falling flat on your face a few times, seeing firsthand and upfront what works and what doesn't, is the fastest way to learn how to lead worship.

And once you have this ability, you are able to gauge what the worship leader needs and provide that for him or her accordingly. Does the worship leader need the first note of the melody to start the song? Or the rhythms to be clearly brought out so the people get the timing? When you think like a worship leader you'll be able anticipate what you ought to play next.

3) Must dare to make mistakes – if the pianist or guitarist does not boldly lead the worship leader, congregation and band through the instrument, it is often because he or she is afraid of making mistakes.

Making mistakes is part and parcel of being an anchor musician. Sometimes we mis-read the dynamics of the congregation and sometimes we lead the people in another direction from where the worship leader is going. It's easy to tell people to pray and listen to the Holy Spirit for him to guide you in your music, but the fact remains that while learning you will slip up once in a while. And frankly, I don't see that as a problem. It hurts our pride, true, but that helps us keep our confidence in the LORD and not in our own skills, experience or worship ministry wisdom.

Conclusion:

Many musicians do not realize the power they have to communicate and lead people with their instruments. Many of them see playing their instruments merely as an opportunity for personal expression while serving the Lord's people. I hope I have helped you see the potential to use your instrument not only for personal expression but also to unify the praises of the congregation effectively. If so, then the next time you take up your instrument in the worship team, play carefully and with the awareness of how you can through your instrument help to anchor the rest of the worship musicians!

Another Source of Worship Ministry Conflicts

Some time back I talked about one of the causes of worship ministry conflicts, people placing different levels of priority on performance and participation. There is actually another cause of conflicts and misunderstanding in worship ministry, and it is how we see worship ministry through the eyes of our own personal giftings.

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) - Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

What usually happens is that people will tend to fellowship with others with the same gifting. Teachers will enjoy hanging out with other teachers, prophets with other prophets and so on. This is how they develop themselves to be even stronger and effective in that particular area. The problems arise when they assume that they are the only ones who are right and the others are wrong. And THAT can lead to massive conflicts, strife and even people leaving the ministry.

Let's see how it works out in the following scenarios

1) Choosing songs for a worship set –

If you are a teacher, you'll probably prefer songs that are Scripture set to music and those that have solid lyrical content (like hymns). If you are an evangelist, you might prefer invitation-type songs such as So You Would Come (Hillsongs). If you are more prophetically inclined, you may prefer songs that are more figurative, poetic or symbolic, such as Dance with Me by Jesus Culture.

You can already see from here how conflicts can arise. Not many people are at the level of maturity when they can see the differences how other people approach worship ministry and celebrate them.

2) And how about worship music?

An evangelist will prefer what appeals to the pre-believers, exciting, performance-style music. Why? Because it is more likely to bring in the crowds for him or her to preach to. A prophet will prefer more a repetitive, droning style of music. A teacher will prefer more laid-back, unobtrusive musical accompaniment that does not distract the people from the lyrical content.

3) What if the church is spiritually dead in the area of praise and worship?

A prophet will be more inclined to think finding an anointed worship leader or on-fire worship team to minister to the congregation will work. This is more like the style of Old Testament prophets; they would seek God, speak to God's people to bring them the message on God's heart, and things happen. A teacher will try to get a worship trainer or pastor to teach the congregation. A pastor will be the one who worries about whether there are groups of people within the congregation who are alienated by any changes in the worship ministry or style, because it's unacceptable to him (or her) to rejoice over the 99 sheep who remain and write off the 1 who leaves (Luke 15:3).

Conclusion:

Of course, we know everything isn't that cut and dried in real life. Many church leaders have a mix of giftings. For example, many pastors have the teaching gifting to some degree, in fact, Paul puts it as a requirement (1 Tim 3:2). Timothy was supposed to both teach (1 Tim 4:11) and do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim 4:5). And Peter, in Acts 2:17-18, says:

Acts 2:17-18 (NIV) – "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."

This suggests to me that every believer has the potential to move in the prophetic gifting in some way. By the way, Jack Deere has written a chapter on how the key people in the history of the Presbyterian denomination (such as John Knox) actually moved in the gift of prophecy. It makes an astounding read. It's in his book Surprised by the Voice of God. Do check it out, it's a very good example of how a teacher (Jack Deere) sees the gift of prophecy from a teacher's perspective.

Anyway, many people I have met slant their thinking along one particular gifting, and have the priorities that come with that gifting. So I hope that this post will help you see your own slant and understand the perspectives of those around you, so that we can understand each other better, have less conflict and work together for the glory of God!

Be blessed!

P.S. Jack Deere's book, Surprised by The Voice of God, is a well-thought-out, Scriptural look at how God speaks to his people today. It has my highest recommendation for every believer, especially those who are seriously want to hear the voice of God in their lives and want to avoid the common mistakes. You can get it here!

Bass and Bible Study

(Personal Blog Post)

An unexpected day off. Good, I need the rest as well as some time to chew on what's been happening…

Playing for Sunday service was interesting. The music director took the bass (usually he's on one of the other instruments). You see, there are two sorts of people who play bass, those who really understand harmony and those who don't. Those who don't will play the bass notes they are supposed to, just like what's on the CD or what's written on the chord chart. Those who do may actually change the chords of the song on the fly to better fit the energy of the moment.

That's what the director did on Sunday. For example, one of the songs had a simple F – Bb – C – F progression that came out for both the verses and the chorus. And we knew the worship leader was going to camp on this song quite a bit. So the director did a pedal point thing, playing an F note on the bass throughout the changes, making them:

F – Bb/F – C/F – F

What this does is that it creates a lot of musical tension. People subconsciously expect the bass note to change with the chords, and when the bass note doesn't it creates a sense of building up. If you do something like that, you can actually go back to the original bass line later on in the song (maybe the last chorus, for example) and that would give the song a huge burst of energy.

If you want to be a bassist who can control the music in this fashion, you need to really know the notes of the chords. Like how a C major chord is made up of C, E and G, how a C minor chord is C, Eb and G and all that. You will also need to have a good sense of chord progressions, when a melody line allows for more than one possible set of chords to be used, so you can decide when to change the chords for a better musical effect.

Finally, you need musicians who will keep out of your way. There's no point on the bassist keeping to the F note in the changes, for example, if the pianist will still continue playing the F, Bb and C notes in the lower registers of the piano. That way, you end up with a muddy sound in the bass part of the sound mix. Bad…

If you are a pianist or guitarist in a band with this kind of bassist, you need to listen carefully to the bass at all times to recognize when the bassist is changing the notes. When that happens, keep yourself out of the way! One of the best bassists I know personally once told me that he enjoys having me on the keyboard, not just because of my piano skills, but also because I keep out of his way. Many other keyboardists he plays with don't care, they just happily clutter up the sound trying to play along with the bassist (and messing things up)…

By the way, that bassist was the buddy who helped me to record my Youtube vid on auditioning church pianists . When I talked about keeping out of the way of the bassist, he was giving me two thumbs up from behind the camera. It was only that day, after the video recording, that I found out how other keyboardists bugged him so much!

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Another thing: it's nearing the end of the year now. I started doing inductive Bible study on the books of the New Testament this year. The goal was to cover one book each month, so I am supposed to be done with Colossians by now. But because I got massively distracted a few times this year, I am only up to Ephesians.

Yeah, I set Bible study goals for myself and FAIL too, just like many other believers!

Since I am expecting a bit more free time this December, I'll be able to catch up on the books I need to work on to get myself back on schedule and ready for next year. The key point, however is this: even though I didn't meet up with my own expectations and achieve my own goal for Bible study this year, I still got a lot more Bible study done than I would have if I did not decide to do it.

Yes, I could have still kept on cruising with the way things were last year. I was already spending a lot of time in God's Word even without the inductive study, so I wasn't too shabby. But because I set the goal this year and kept at it most of the time, I put myself in a place where God could reveal to me more and more of himself through his Word. And that's always good!

So if you have been setting goals for yourself and failing, or starting on New Year's Resolutions and quitting them by February, don't lose heart! All you need to do is to make sure that you go further, do more and last longer than the last time you tried. That's called progress, isn't it?

Just Between You And God

I would that every believer sing praises to God daily, not just on Sunday at church.

Psalm 92:1-2 (NKJV) - It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night

And that is why I think it's a joke if someone claims to be serious about being in the worship ministry and yet does not take out time for personal worship moments with God. A person who needs to have good music and an audience before he or she starts singing passionately unto the LORD or dancing around is a hypocrite, in Jesus' opinion.

Matthew 6:1-2 (NIV) - Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

I don't think that Jesus is not talking about total absolute secrecy. If he was, then I'll have to donate things to the Salvation Army collection centres in the middle of the night while wearing a ninja suit. And I'll look really weird when I'm arrested by the police (for suspected burglary or attempted terrorism) and they discover children's clothes and old toys cunningly hidden in secret compartments on my clothes and ninja-utility belt…

I believe Jesus is referring to the heart, to the motive of our giving. Are we fine with people totally forgetting about our giving later on? Or do we need the honour in the eyes of others before we give?

And the same thing applies to prayer (and by implication, worship).

Matthew 6:5-6 (NIV) - And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

In other words, if all you want is the applause of men, then that is ALL you will get. But if you want the reward that comes from your Father in heaven, then you have to be prepared to go without the praise that comes from other people.

The reason why many people do not have a consistent and regular personal prayer and worship time is because it does not always feel good straight away. You have to be prepared for months of not feeling as if you are getting anywhere. And all Jesus would say about it is that the Father, whom we cannot see, will reward us. Yet nothing concrete and tangible is promised as the reward. Is it money? Power to heal the sick and raise the dead? Influence and authority?

Jesus doesn't tell us.

That means that the only people who are going to take Jesus at his word here are those who can 1) See the unseen God through eyes of faith; AND 2) believe that the Father knows best how to reward us for seeking him. And this was the case for Moses. He too saw God and valued the reward he knew God has prepared for those who seek him.

Hebrews 11:26-27 (NIV) He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

Seeking after the honour that comes from men is a lot easier. It's tangible and immediate. Some people are so earthly minded that the tangible and immediate things are good enough for them. So if praying, reading the Bible and worship doesn't feel good immediately, or at least within the first 5-10 minutes, they quit and make excuses for themselves, saying that they are not the spiritual sort.

Let me be blunt here: no one is. No one is born into the Kingdom of God finding all the things of God easy. Sure, we might enjoy prayer, worship, feeding on the Scriptures and other acts of righteousness at first because they are new and exciting to us. But soon, the routine and dryness sets in. That is when we have to make the choice: are we going to seek God only when it feels good? Or we will preserve no matter what, because we have set our hearts and minds on heavenly things (Col 3:1-2)?

It takes conscious decision and deliberate effort. That is why we are told to crave spiritual milk in order that we may grow up in our salvation (1 Pet 2:2). If the Bible tells us to crave spiritual milk, it means that it is not something that we would naturally do as believers. It requires us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2)

You know what I wish?

I wish that I could spur the average believers around me to seek after the things of God more. I wish spiritual hunger was contagious and that I could infect people with it, then they would overflow with the desire and discipline to spend personal time with God. I wish I could make them treasure and experience the relationship and fellowship that is just between them and God, that which no one else can ever fully experience or understand because it is strictly between God and them.

That is why I get so frustrated sometimes, when I meet believers who need to have God dumbed down for them. For them I try to show them how easy it is to get started with prayer and the Word of God. We all have to start somewhere, true. But if we are not growing in our faith, and find ourselves exactly the same place we were spiritually 5-10 years ago, then something has gone wrong somewhere. The writer of the book of Hebrews says:

Heb 6:1 (NIV) - Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity…

Conclusion: I am tempted to end this post with a few how-to-es. How to see the invisible God, how to trust in him to reward us, how to get started in prayer and all that. But I suspect it is not necessary. I suspect that every believer who is honest before God will know how he or she stands spiritually. I believe every believer who is honest with themselves already knows, deep in his or her heart, what God wants him or her to do next and what is the first step. The only question now is: are you going to take that next step forward? Go for it!

Be blessed!

Spiritual Metabolism and Digestion

Something interesting happened to me. A couple of weeks ago, I meet up with a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and he diagnosed me as having a very low metabolic rate. In TCM terminology, my body was too cold.

Now if you see from my Facebook pics how scrawny I am, and watch how I usually eat a lot (shoveling French fries down my throat like there's no tomorrow) and notice how difficult it is for me to sit still, you would understand why I was very skeptical of this diagnosis. The practitioner then convinced me by mentioning that I don't sweat easily, even out in the sun. And that was evidence of a low metabolic rate. At that time we were in an air-conditioned place, so there was no logical way of him knowing about my sweating habits. And that lent further credence to his diagnosis.

Then why am I so thin? Because my metabolic rate was too low, even my digestion was ineffective. In other words, I was unable to absorb and utilize the nutrients in my food. It was like someone giving me a wallet with $20 every day, and I would take $5 and throw the rest of the money away along with the wallet… I am convinced of his diagnosis, so I have started making some lifestyle changes to bring my body to a more optimal level of health.

His diagnosis also got me thinking: how many Christians have a spiritual metabolic rate that's too low, and therefore cannot even digest the Word of God properly?

How will you know if you have an optimal spiritual metabolic rate?

1. You will be hungry for spiritual food, the Word of God. Physically I can eat a lot, but a couple of weeks ago I could also miss a meal here and there and not feel hungry. I should have recognized that as a bad sign. The same thing applies spiritually. If you aren't craving and hungering for the Bible, something is wrong with your spirit's metabolic rate (1 Pet 2:2).
   
2. You will have loads of energy for the things of God. Physically I was active, but I found myself unable to bring my fitness to the next level. In fact, my energy level was dropping. Spiritually, how does worship, prayer, godly fellowship and acts of righteousness make you feel? Bored and listless? Or excited and enthusiastic? You can discern your spirit's metabolic rate right there.
   
3. You will sweat. As I mentioned earlier, physically I sweat very little. Just on Monday I sprinted for 3-4 minutes (late for an appointment and I missed the correct bus-stop) and didn't break a sweat. Bad sign. Remember, sweat helps your body remove toxins and waste from your system. Spiritually, that translates to you sweating out bad thinking, wrong ideas and lousy attitudes. Do you feel yourself getting rid of the junk within your spirit (2 Cor 7:1), the things you know are toxic to your walk with Christ? If you have difficulty in this, take a good look at your spiritual metabolic rate. Something might be wrong there.

What are the causes of a lousy spiritual metabolic rate? Here are a few.

1) Lack of proper feeding. If you don't feed on the Word of God in the first place, don't expect your spirit to have anything to properly metabolize.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Col 3:16, NKJV)

I hope I don't sound too harsh, but I get really frustrated when I hear the excuses some Christians give for not spending proper time in God's Word. Some of them would be hilarious if they were not so pathetic. God, give me patience with Christians who think getting life lessons from Korean soap operas is a viable alternative to feeding on the Scriptures!

2) Lack of action. Worship, prayer, godly fellowship and acts of righteousness are the natural fruit of feeding on God's Word. I pity the sermon junkies, people who go from one preacher to another, expecting to find someone who can preach them into feeling good without them having to take corresponding action. Ultimately, these people are doomed to a Christian existence (notice I didn't choose the word 'life') of boredom and frustration.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25, NKJV)

When I hear people complaining about sermons after the service, saying that this sermon wasn't 'anointed' or 'spirit-filled' or things like that, I wonder what they were expecting. Were they expecting something that would zap them into feeling good before they start obeying the Word of God? I heard a popular preacher who helped propagate that myth. He would talk about how some people would suddenly, naturally and effortlessly start living the life God intended for them after listening to his sermons long enough. The end result was a congregation of spiritually passive people, people who were waiting for God to zap them into wanting to forsake sin, read the Bible, pray and then live out godly lives.

*shudder*

3) Spiritual Indigestion. If you feed on the wisdom of the world instead of God's Word, you of course cannot expect to get the same results as feeding on the Bible.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Col 2:8 NIV)

There are two types of thinking often confused with the Word of God, secular positive thinking (self-help and personal development) and secular morality. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against secular positive thinking and secular morality in general, in fact, I do read up on them at times. But I have long decided that if I have to choose between those teachings and the Word of God, I'd take the Word of God.

I'm sure there are other Christians who claim they would decide the same way. My question for them is this: are you so familiar with the Bible that you can tell when a thought or concept is from the Bible or from some self-help author? And has the Scripture taken such a hold of your heart that the Scriptures, rather than Napoleon Hill, James Allen or Stephen Covey, are what your heart leans on when the crisis of life strike?

And there is one final group of people with a messed up metabolism. They are spiritually active and feed seriously on the Bible, and yet find themselves running out of steam, making big mistakes in their lives, and are unable to hear the voice of God and discern his will for their lives. They are those who have, in the midst of growing in doctrine and faith, forgotten how much they have been forgiven by God.

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Heb 8:11-12, NIV)

Think about it: if those who know their God will be strong and do great exploits (Dan 11:32), and we can know God only if our sins are forgiven (Heb 8:11-12) then those who start off strong and later lose momentum may have forgotten how deeply God has forgiven them of their sins. I used to think that it was good enough that God has forgiven me, even if I forgot to acknowledge truth at times. But now I have changed my mind. I now believe that if I don't regularly acknowledge my forgiveness in Christ, I shall live as if I am not forgiven.

… that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 6, NKJV)

The above passage suggests that if I do NOT acknowledge every good thing that is in me in Christ Jesus (including forgiveness and redemption) then the sharing (or fellowship in the faith) becomes ineffective, useless and nullified. And that has been my own personal experience also. Whenever I find my spiritual hearing dulled and my discernment inaccurate, it is usually after an extended season of paying so much attention to the other teachings in the Bible that I forget to meditate on the forgiveness and redemption God has given me in Christ.

Conclusion:

Spiritual metabolism, converting what you get from the Word of God into action in our lives, such a vital topic because it determines whether we live our Christian lives as God intended. I am sure I can't do justice to it with just one post. Nevertheless, I hope that this would at least get you started in looking at your own spiritual walk with God. Is there anything you realize needs some tweaking?

Be blessed!