Songs

I never know what's going to be on my mind first thing in the morning, often it's a song.

This morning it was a kid's song from years ago, "So Noah, he built him/He built him an arky, arky/Noah, he built him/He built him an arky, arky/Built it out of gopher barky, barky/Children of the Lord"   

I don't know why I remember a lot of the words to Tennessee Ernie Fords, Kiss Me Big. Often it's a song I hear bouncing around in my mind (there's a story behind that we need not unpack). 

I love it when a song we sang in church gets stuck in my mind. The hymn Salvation's Song is one of my favorites right now, "So with every breath that I am given/I will sing salvation's song/And I'll join the chorus of creation/Giving praise to Christ alone/Singing glory, honor…" 

Waking up to "Giving praise to Christ alone" is better than "Kiss me baby till my eyes pop out." 

I wonder what God sings? I'm sure it's not a hymn from 2010, 1975, 1840, or 1532. God has his own list of songs that He sings over the people He has redeemed.I'm guessing His songs aren't sappy. His songs would be about a love that would pay a huge price and be strong enough to break the power of death. His songs would be in minor keys and have intense rhythms. A song that God sings would be about His grace that is beyond exact duplication. A God song would somehow be about both Himself and those created in His image, about how He makes all the difference and can defeat any enemy that stands in my way.  

Imagine hearing a song that God was singing with all of heaven. I can't grasp what that would sound like in my feeble imagination. I can't find any human expression of music and velcro it to God assuming they match. But, I can imagine it happing even if I can't imagine the sound. I can live in the poetic expression of its reality even if I can't feel the vibrations of it in my ear. I can be free because of the song of love and victory that God sings.  

I can sit with the Psalmist and listen with my faith...
 
You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:7)
 
Maybe I'm taking it out of context. Maybe the Psalmist is hearing the songs of deliverance that the people are singing because of God's protection. Maybe you can't handle the thought of God singing. Zephaniah could -
 
Zephaniah 3.17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
 
We think of God being the Audience of our worship. Have you ever thought about being the audience of His concert? Listen well today.


Surrounded,
 
Pastor Dave

Who do people say that we are?

"The wrong question for the church is, How many people are present.  The right question is What are these people like?"

Quoted from Rethinking Church, James White

Jesus asked his followers the question, "Who do people say that I am?" (Mark 8:27)

Jesus was asking a deeper question than I will ask.  He always does. 

This was not an insecure poll to find out what Jerusalem's TMZ was saying about him.  He really didn't ask the question for his insight.  Jesus was dusting the junk off the spirits of the disciples that had been placed there by people who didn't know who He was. 

Who do people say that we are?  The answer for Jesus involved the sins of the world.  The answer for us - not so much.

But, it's not an insignificant question, Who do people say that we are?

Your name is a copout answer.  "People say I'm Dave."

Church people should "be" something.  They should be able to be described.  They should be able to have characteristics that are identifiable and attachable to the One they serve.  

It may surprise you, but I'm not looking for the word "holy" here.  "Everyone in that church is holy."

If we don't have people in the church who are not "holy" yet, we are not being obedient to the call of the One who makes us holy.  

What are we like?  

I'm somewhat fond of the thought of changing.  If we aren't being changed we aren't getting to the point of our need.  I want to be a church of changers, a church of growers.  People who are being transformed from whatever we were to whatever He called us to.

Everyone, even people who haven't crossed the faith line yet, can be changing so they are closer to Christ.  That's what happens when you gather where Jesus shows up - you change.

Growing,

Pastor Dave

Why I'm Smiling

This morning I read Psalm 31 and a word picture has made me grin… almost laugh.

 

This Psalm of David may have been written while on the run from a jealous King Saul.  In the fifth verse is the famous last line that Jesus breathed from the cross, "Into your hands I commit my spirit."  The result for Jesus was reentrance into the eternal presence of the Father.  The result for David was trusting that God would protect his life.

 

A few verses later in the Psalm David sang these words, "You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place." 

 

That's the line.  "Set my feet in a spacious place."  It could read "a big room."   

 

Imagine being surrounded.  I was a young man sledding down a hill in the woods when a bunch of dogs surrounded me.  There were four or five of them and were snarling and barking at me as I stood frozen.  Thinking back, I think they were each 400 pound dogs with teeth the size of meat cleavers, but my mind may have grown reality.

 

I do remember fear.  I remember feeling surrounded.  I remember knowing I couldn't out run them up the hill.  I remember standing outside and feeling like I was in their cell.

 

They left. I slowly thawed out and went home looking around at how big the space was around me.  When I wasn't in the cell of dogs the woods were huge!  I walked through the field where the neighborhood played baseball - it was a gigantic, vast, wallless stadium.  My feet were in a spacious place because they weren't in the cell of angry dogs.

 

So, this morning I grin, almost laugh with joy.  I have been released from the hand of the enemy who longs to bind and constrict me.  I have been delivered from the foot shackles of bondage and the enclosing walls of sin.

 

I have room to run and investigate all I can see of God.  There is ample space for me to stretch within the covenant of His love.  I am not frozen in fear of what the enemy has, my feet have been set in a spacious place - God's love and grace.

 

Don't tell my wife, but the picture I have in my mind is the closing scene of the 32 hour long movie The Sound of Music.  You know, the family running on the top of mountains over looking the rest of the earth.  It's a spacious place.  Guilt isn't roomy.  Sin isn't freeing.  The enemy of my soul doesn't give me room to run.  But... "You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place."

 

"The hills are alive with the sound of music"

 "la la la la" 

 

Pastor Dave 

Flexed Muscles

Someone flexed their muscles and took down some buildings.

Someone else flexes their muscles and builds a new building.

Flexed muscles make a speech on how to fix the nation and others flex their muscles in disagreement.

Nations flex. Unions flex. Bosses flex. Athletes flex. Spouses flex. I flex.

Everyone attempts to show how much power they have. Then a river rises and reveals how little we all really have. A virus shows up and exposes hidden weakness. A limitation is found and strength can’t be seen anymore.

I’m struck this morning with the arrogance of humanity and the frailty of humanity. It’s all over the news. “Terrorists will not defeat us!” “Fire displaces 100,000 people.”

In 30 second soundbites we proclaim how powerful and resilient we are, and how limited and helpless.

The Psalmist knew about flexing. He watched it. He was in awe.

Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the desert; the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
11 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.

Believers, let’s let God do the flexing.

In awe,

Pastor Dave Tweet

Supernatural

I'm reading a book by G. Campbell Morgan that was written in the early 1900's. This morning I found myself camping on these words, "Supernatural is an awkward word; it will become obsolete when we have more light. If we could climb to the height where God dwells, things we call supernatural would be perfectly natural…."

That made me think about the moment when I will step from this side of eternity to the other. It made me think about God. I made me think of how little we know in the midst of our "understanding."

I've known peace during moments of turmoil. If the elements of my situation were to have been put in a life blender and mixed together the flavor, texture, and taste would not have been peace. But… I had it. It was somehow supernatural.

I've known strength during times of weakness. There have been times my physical, spiritual, emotional tank was like three day old leftover Thanksgiving turkey - dry. I had nothing to give. And yet, at just the right time something (Someone) filled the reserves of my soul and the miracle of perseverance happened. It was somehow supernatural.

I've known confidence during seasons of brokenness. When my spirit was fractured by outside sources and I questioned everything about me. When I searched for value in me and what I've done and came up empty. When I didn't find hope. Somehow I was reminded Whose child I am. When I remembered God's love for me brokenness was revealed as temporary, and a deep, foundational, mountain-like confidence erupted and grew. It was somehow supernatural.

Peace. Strength. Confidence. When I taste them here it's supernatural. It's an interruption of the normal. That taste is a finger of an eternal God leaving a print inside a limited universe. But….

There will be a day when I will swim in what I now know as a drop. There will a day when what is a miracle will be life. Not a humdrum "normal" that is bored with abundance, but an awe filled celebration of the Father's full provision of what I long for now. When I walk into a land whose calendar has one page on it labeled "forever" what is supernatural now will become natural.

Until then - I'm am His.

In faith,

Pastor Dave