I admit, I love this time of year. I love it even more since the beginning of Facebook and Twitter. People always have something to say. Sometimes you can find a gem or two in there, but a lot of time it’s just people talking to see their words on screen. But the pendulum swings from super gushy “I have the best husband/wife ever” to super anti love “this day is the worst ever and I can’t wait until tomorrow”. Throw in the people who feel the need to always tell the world who St. Valentine is and why we should or shouldn’t be celebrating him and you’ve got a party. So most of the time I spend reading statuses and tweets because it humors me. I ALMOST forgot the ones who say their valentine is Jesus. I’m not even sure how to respond to that one so I don’t.

There are so many different opinions about this day, and I’m sure you can find someone to agree with whatever side you happen to land on. I have learned to base my love off of the greatest examples I have. My dad is probably the best example of a loving husband that I have on this earth. He has made the life long commitment to love my mom each and every day of her life. I can promise you that today will look no different than any other day in their home because he loves her that much all the time. He doesn’t wait until February 14th to shower her with love and affection. Of course, he spends enough money in the month of February between their anniversary and her birthday that it probably all feels the same. HA! But as much as I get my tangible examples from him, the reason I can follow his lead is because I know who he is following.

Christ love is the most intense, real, sacrificial love that could ever be imitated. It’s a love that far exceeds the commercially accepted norm that we debate for about a week before and a couple days after the 14th. Christ’s love is a benchmark. Christ’s love speaks volumes without saying a word. What’s even better is that his words are also very powerful. I take my love orders from the book of John.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:12-13

I’m called to love people as I have been loved by Christ. There’s no way in the world I can do that in my fallen, human state. But if I’m actively trying then the people I am trying to love will see that. So that begs the question, who are you trying to love? There are tons of people that are in need of THIS kind of love. Truth be told, we are all in need of this kind of love. A love that meets you where you are, pulls you through the tough times and carries you to the other side. That isn’t a flowers and candy kind of love. It’s a love that withstands persecution and rejection. A love that defies conventional logic. A love that no one should go without.

Is that the love that you are sharing today? Is that the love you are sharing every day? It’s true that Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be the only day that we share love of any kind. I propose that whatever day you show love, that it be the unconditional love of Christ. That’s the deepest love out there. I promise.

“As he walk the streets with lepers, prostitutes and lonely beggars…”

This song (written by a friend) has been popping up in my head as I’ve been doing some work lately. This may feel like a long way to make a point, but it works. We have a ministry in our church called connectors. This ministry is designed make sure that everyone that walks in the doors of our church receive a welcome and that it’s more than just a hello and thanks for coming. I believe that the people doing this are doing a good job because every week we have tons of stories about first time people. Why? It’s because we take things a step further and try to take time to really get to know the people that walk in the doors of our church. At the point you have set foot into our building, we don’t really care why you are there. The point is that you ARE there and we want to make sure that while you are there you engulfed in Christ’s love. It is one of the things that makes me proud on Sunday mornings.

One of the things that makes me the most proud about this is that it has similarities to what Christ did. During the week our people are talking to whomever they see. So when new people come to the church and I get a chance to meet them and ask them how they found our church a lot of times they are telling me how they met someone during the week and got invited to join our family. We are spending time where people are. We’ve gone past standing at the door screaming at people as they walk past hoping that they come in.

As I write this, I realize that this has not been everyone’s experience with the church. Not everyone has received a welcoming embrace. Some of us have received judgmental words and eyes. Some have experienced gossip and controversy. Some of us have even experienced the abusive misappropriation of scripture. All of these things are in strict contrast to a love that is lived out in scripture. Or at least I think so. Should there be discipline? Definitely. Should we be trying to point people toward truth? Without a doubt. Does every meeting with someone who doesn’t know Christ have to be a deliberate attempt to save them before they unexpectedly die from that thing that’s right around the corner waiting to take them? I don’t think so. If we are truly living lives that bring glory to God, then God, who is ALWAYS at work around us, will do the work that needs to be done in the hearts of those that don’t know him. When we look at the stories in the Bible, Jesus didn’t go into the tax collector’s home and start preaching to everyone (Mark 2:13-17). He went to eat with people who most people didn’t like. When he spared the girl’s life by challenging those with no sin to throw first, he was showing grace and to someone that no one else would give a second chance to (John 8:1-11). Those were examples of us connecting people to people. Once we do that, then we can talk about connecting people to God. Come back tomorrow and we will talk about that. As for today, tell me what you think about this.

Harold B. Lee said, “The most important work you and I will ever do will be inside the walls of our own homes”. I read that statement and it immediately hits home for me. I will usually work 40-45 hours in a week. Maybe more sometimes doing various things to get our church ready for the week and to help people in need and write music and all this other stuff. Because of the nature of my job, I get to spend a fair amount of time at home as well. I carve out time to spend with my wife and 3 children and do my best to make sure that they know that they are first in my heart. I am by no means sitting here typing this and wanting you to believe that I achieve perfect balance everyday and that I can easily pull that off in three easy steps. I’d be rich right now from writing that book and doing all the seminars, with TOTAL balance still being reached at the same time of course.

Being in the pastoral spotlight for most of my life, I’ve learned a few things. One, that spotlight is really hot! Two, it doesn’t just shine on you. It shines on everyone in your family. When I was younger I simply hated that. I was blessed to grow up in a family that was stable and where I was raised and nurtured to love and fear God. We weren’t a drama filled family where there was always something to point to. So as a result, that light was moved in closer. In the culture I grew up in, there was ALWAYS something going on behind the scenes and so if you looked hard enough, there was something bound to show up. I think it may have frustrated some people that there wasn’t much to uncover. One of the things that people could say (which was a plus), was that my father taught his family how to love and serve God. It showed at church and wherever else we ended up. Of course, it wasn’t long before my dad started Christian Fellowship and I started to lead the worship. I was 10 when I started doing that and although those were some tough years in the beginning, it was clear that I had a heart to worship because that’s the way I was trained.

I always wonder what would happen if I spent all this time leading people and even teaching some younger than me what it means to be a lead worshiper and then realize that my family doesn’t even know. I sometimes think, “What if I’m not being that leader in my own home?” “What if my kids don’t know how to worship or who they’re worshiping?” Then I have moments like this past Sunday morning during our sound check and run through when the band was singing ‘All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises’ by Paul Baloche and my oldest daughter, Kahmylia, is standing right in front of the stage all by herself singing at the top of her lungs, dancing with her hands raised in the midst of her own little praise session. At that point I saw firsthand that they are catching something that I’m telling them. 

Again, I’m not writing this today as some sort of expert. Any of you that know me know that is about as far from the truth as you can get. But I know when God is speaking to me and when He takes me through things in my life I want to share them with others so that maybe I can help someone else see. So I leave you with a popular scripture to go with this post today. It sometimes seems cliche because it gets used so much. But parents, leaders and those teachers who are just starting back to school, don’t take it lightly because it’s true. I’m a living example of it. I’m hoping to continue the trend with my own.

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)

Perfect. No flaws. No Blemishes. Unconditional. Not inappropriate. Missing nothing. A man?

That’s right. I am still amazed at what it took for my sins to be cleansed. Jesus was the only one with a love so perfect, so complete, that could completely wash away everything that had been done and was to come. That’s mind blowing. I’m eternally thankful everyday for that fact. We tend to think about it more during this Easter season as I have been doing myself. It goes beyond all reason in my mind that God would send His son to come and die. But He did. We are forever changed as a result.

When something is perfect, it gets lots of notoriety and lots of times it is considered very valuable and rare. A pure diamond. Someone pitches a perfect game. Both of these things are rare and if either of them surfaces they will receive lots of publicity. We are always searching for something perfect. The perfect gift. The perfect boyfriend or girlfriend. The perfect steak. The perfect car. The car company Lexus uses the tag line ‘The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection’. I think we are all constantly searching for that perfect thing. Until now, there’s no one that has been able to find that here on this imperfect earth. Especially when it comes to love. There’s only one way that a love could be perfect. It has to come from a perfect person. A perfect love is one that we can fully embrace because it fully embraces us. There is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to a perfect love (1 John 4:18). Christ’s perfect love is flawless.

There’s someone out there that needs to know the freedom that comes from a perfect love. You may sit next to them at work. You may sit next to them in church. You may sleep next to them at night. They are all around and they are missing the one thing you have. They may not know that there is a love that exists that cuts right through the dirt and sin in their lives and cleans it out. We have a job to share that perfect love with the people that don’t have it. We have to worship in a way that shows the people sitting in the chairs next to us what it feels like to experience that perfect love during our corporate worship times at church. We have to continue to learn what it means to live in this perfect love that we have been given. A perfect love can be overwhelming to try and understand. It’s a difficult thing to receive. It’s irrational to expect. At least from anyone on earth. But the Father in heaven presented us with a perfect love. That perfect love was sent down to us to cleanse us from us our sins and take them upon himself. Share that love with someone this week. Share that love with someone today.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.19 We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:13-19

This past weekend I celebrated 7 years of marriage with my wife. We were completely blessed to have been given the whole weekend to ourselves. We were able to reconnect and spend time just being us. Once you have kids, you lose a lot of that and it’s harder to make time for it. Anyway, I learned quite a few things about myself this weekend. Some of them were things I actually rediscovered. Here they are…

1. I love reading mystery novels. I love mysteries and thrillers and didn’t remember. We went to Borders a couple times this weekend (see #2) and I starting reading a book that I couldn’t put down so I ordered it at Amazon.com. I’m so excited to get this book and read. I’ll probably write about it when I’m done.

2. I love Borders. I don’t know if there’s a difference between all the bookstores in the world, but Borders has a more inviting feel to me. I love the colors on the inside and I felt compelled to stay and read. Eva and I love reading books and we love spending time together in that way.

3. There is a lot of good music in St. Louis, MO. I love this town. It’s home for me, but as I grow older I’m finding out things that I didn’t know when I was little. There is good music here that isn’t always on the radio. We went to a GREAT concert Friday night (see Concert Review) and I’m sure that I’m missing so much good music here.

4. I have amazing friends. The more time we get to spend with them the more I realize that God has really blessed us with some great people. I can’t wait to see what God does over the next few months as we get to know them better.

5. I must really be growing up. Eva and I went to a couple movies this weekend and one of the movies we saw was profanity laced. It did nothing for me and sort of took away from the story of the movie. There was a time in my life where I didn’t care and would watch anything. That’s not the case anymore.

6. Jim and Jeremiah may quite possibly be the perfect storm of public embarrassment. They may also be the perfect storm of straight fun in many forms as well. There’s not much else to say about that.

7. I will, always have, always will, love ice cream. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

8. I don’t write new music because I’m lazy and can find many things to do besides sitting and writing.
8a. I really want to start a music group. That has been my dream and it won’t go away. I’ve done all I can to turn away from this idea, but it keeps putting itself in my line of vision.

9. I adore my children. I loved having the time away where I could connect with Eva, but I was quite happy when my kids came home last night.

10. I cannot live without my wife. Period.

11. God is amazing! He continues to bless me in ways that I KNOW I don’t deserve. I’m not sure why He keeps it up, but I’m so glad He does. Thanks be to God for everything I learned this weekend. I also pray that I keep learning things. If I stop learning, I’m dead.

What a weekend this has been! For the most part, it was all a blur. There were so many good things that happened, and some crazy ones, too. Through all of that, God did some very cool stuff. First things first, story:song:life was amazing and I can’t thank my friends enough for helping and being a part of making it something special for everyone involved. It was fun being on stage with such amazing musicians, and having Bry Hampton share her art brought another element to the night. Hopefully there will be some music and video clips in the near future…

Also this week, my wife and I were able to get away and really look at our lives and where God is trying to lead us in this church search. We essentially visited 3 different churches in an entire weekend while still going to our own. This process has been really trying, but God has really been guiding us in some real amazing ways. But the big thing for me this weekend was the encouragement. There have been so many people in our lives this week that have given us very specific encouragement when we really needed it. One that really stood out was last night. As we sat in Springfield, MO in ‘Grandma’s’ house, we were filling her in on our lives while we sat at a table with homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu among other things…anyway got distracted for a bit… Grandma was really just sharing how God has guided her life once she decided that God was in control and she was going to follow him. Her encouragement was real and it was timely. She spoke the Word of God, which is where true encouragement comes from. She shared with love, compassion and confidence, knowing that God is real and that He still works today. You can’t find that type of love anywhere. You can only find that kind of love in the community of believers. I TOTALLY appreciated it and it gave me more than enough energy to drive home after an ignorantly long day…

This whole worship180 concept comes from a desire in my mind to help people reevaluate the way we look at worship. This whole thing oozes the idea of enriching your community. Grandma is family and she shared her heart like only family can. She was enriching her community. I was glad that I was able to experience first hand the one thing I’ve been trying to promote and share with others. I was also glad I was able to experience strawberry cake…

So as God continues to work, I’ve decided that I’m going to actively watch Him. Man, is He good! I am constantly surprised at what God has been doing throughout this whole idea. It would be very easy for me to get ahead of myself and move faster than I’m supposed to with this thing. I have to be able to be still and listen to God and let Him lead me.

I have no idea what it is that God is doing right now. The more that God does, the more I realize I don’t know what He’s doing. I do know that there is a plan and this is what I have up until now…

So I was hanging out with a friend (I’ll leave him anonymous until the linear notes of the CD) last night and we were talking about this idea. As we talked and shared and let God work, we came up with the idea of worship180 being the overarching theme of this ministry. We then started to put some things together graphically and it started to come together a little more. The scripture that stuck out after awhile was 1 Corinthians 13:12. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. I won’t go into all the nerdy details that we came up with as far as how we will make that look in the future, you’ll have to wait for the website for that. However, it’s fitting that the passage comes from the “Love Chapter”. When we are dealing with worship, we are expressing our love for the Master. We want to show Him how much we love Him, but we don’t know truly how to love Him. We don’t know how to love Him fully because we don’t know Him fully. The desire of the ministry is to help us look at the gospel, which will help us to see Him a little more clearly.
From a ministry front, we don’t totally know what God is doing yet, we see through this mirror very dimly right now. The hope is that as we continue to look to Him for guidance and direction He will continue to clear the glass out a little. Stick close, this is getting good…