Tag: worship

Significant Worship

A Psalm Study, 108:1-6

A Song. A Psalm of David.

 1 My heart is confident in you, O God;
      no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
 2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
      I will wake the dawn with my song.
 3 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
      I will sing your praises among the nations.
 4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
      Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
 5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
      May your glory shine over all the earth.

6 Now rescue your beloved people.
      Answer and save us by your power.

–Psalm 108:1-6, NLT

David has tapped into strength and significance.  The astounding part of it is–it’s a Person, not a method.  He has a relationship that alters the reality around him.  David is outrageously enthusiastic about this.  He exudes a confidence that can’t be contained.  Our strength is in a person!  (Not religion, a moral code, ethics or even discipleship.)  It’s Jesus, it is a relationship, that is personal–a intimate friendship.

David refers to a ‘harp and lyre.’  These are obsolete for the most part.  But I think any musical instrument can be used.  A piano or a guitar, (even a cherry red Stratocaster) is quite acceptable.  But there is an interesting shift.  David’s heart and soul is his musical instrument!  Worship starts right there, not in a set of drums.  His heart is the primary place of worship.  That is where worship must happen.  And we can easily confuse this.

King David understands innately the significance of worshipping God.  He visualizes going out to all the peoples of the world–not as a diplomat, but as a worshipper.  That is his central thought and theme.  No trade treaties, or ambassadors or even peace envoys.  But Jehovah God is his ingrained purpose.

And worshipping Him is a reasonable thing.  David proclaims two attributes that are ‘sparkplugs’ for his spiritual life, (v.4).

  1. Love
  2. Faithfulness

These ignite his love and worship.  When King David thinks about them, he can’t help but sing and worship.  And they are extremely significant for us as well.  When you think of God’s love and His unceasing faithfulness–and if they are properly seen, and understood, you too will worship.  As a matter of fact the existence of heart worship is evidence of a healthy spiritual heart.

David wants to God to show Himself to the whole earth–everyone!  Far jungle tribesman and Eskimos, all need to see God!  Everybody gets to see Him. That is the wonderful purpose of Christian missions.  David wants desperately to share this with all.  He has a true zeal (and sometimes that scares us).

Verse 6 hints of the existence of sin and evil.  These are things so engrained and prevalent in our society, and in our hearts–we need a deliverer and a savior.  Jesus has to step in.  We have no other options, and our creator has got to be our Savior.  When we begin to realize our desperate predicament, all the vanity (an old fashioned word) and emptiness, we are halfway there. I encourage you to worship, everyday.

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ybic, Bryan

 

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My Favorite Name

This is a post that I first wrote on my own blog, Linda Kruschke’s Blog, in December of 2009. I somehow stumbled upon it the other day and thought it would be a good one to share here at Broken Believers. It is a good reminder that God is with us, and God wants us to be with Him. That is true for each and every person, no matter how broken or lost.

As Christmas is fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about the many names given to Jesus in the Bible. He is called the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Alpha & Omega, and many more. But my favorite name of Jesus is Immanuel.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Isaiah 7:14

This verse is quoted in Matthew 1:23 regarding Jesus, and in Matthew the writer defines the name Immanuel to mean “God with us.”

When I look at one of my many nativity scenes, that is what I see: God with us. For thousands of years God tried to get the message across to His people that He loved them and would always be there for them. He spoke through miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea, and through prophets, such as Isaiah and Daniel. But in spite of all His attempts to get through to them, His people didn’t always get it.

So God decided to become one of us, to be with us, to experience life just as we do. I like the name Immanuel because it reminds me that God loves us enough to be willing to experience all the pain, trials, and heartache that we do, to fully understand how we experience relationships and love. God did this in hopes that we could and would better relate to Him. Because ultimately what He wants is for us to be with Him.

This Christmas, I hope you will feel the blessing of being with God and of God being with you. I hope you will experience the fullness of Immanuel.

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A Peace That Teaches

“Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God!”

Colossians 3:16-17, The Message

At times, there has to be a forceful unity in us and through us.  The idea of “tuning” yourself to someone else is a bit rattling, and even scary.  “What if they are confused, or indifferent?”  There exists a real fear of combining our hearts with another. It is a special challenge in our culture that stresses individual rights. We think ‘me’ when we should be thinking ‘we.’  We need to fall in step with someone else.

There also exists a need for us to cultivate thankfulness and gracefulness. To be blunt, this is not an easy thing.  It is most hard.  Cultivation implies so much– long days of work under a hot sun. But, if it works we will take it. For many of us, this could become our very next step in our discipleship.

This passage in Colossians seems to emphasize our real need to let the Word run furiously throughout our lives.  I have watched “The Running of the Bulls” in Pamplona. We are being chased.  But what I have seen is both beautiful and frightening.  The Book of Colossians can be like this.  So many challenges, and yet also very wonderful ones.

God’s Word however, is penultimate, it is to be supreme.  It simply demands total control of us. We are charged in these verses, to let the Word go crazy in our lives.  But it can’t rest stagnant and alone.  Rather we are to become belligerent and insistent voices that directs everything to Him. We stand, and then we reflect all of the glory to Jesus.

We learn in these two verses on the need for us to sing.  Singing can be something we grind out.  A great deal of effort exists before we can really make this take place.  But I still don’t think this is what the Apostle Paul has in mind.  Music is bound to happen inside our hearts.  We are to become saints of praise– singing saints.

Dear one, be a believer that sings.  Find your voice, and then lift it up to Him. If you have come to this point, I must believe you have truly understood His exceptional grace to you. But we also need to sing for our brothers. Countless times I have been encouraged by the songs coming from my companions of this amazing journey.

CCM Classic Focus on Bob Ayala

Blinded in his youth, Bob Ayala began performing in 1969 at The Salt Company, a Christian coffeehouse in Los Angeles, CA. He released his first album in 1976 and was also voted Best New Artist that year by CCM readers. He later became involved with Keith and Melody Green‘s Last Days Ministries and released an album on their record label in 1985. In December 1999 he released two independent albums and he continues to perform concerts.

 
 Bob Ayala has been a Performer/songwriter and a member of ASCAP for 3 decades. Blinded from his youth, He didn’t let this slow him down and began his CCM performer/songwriter career in the 1970s. By 1980 he recorded 3 albums with Myrrh Records, a division of Word.  In the mid 1980s he released his fourth recording project on Sparrow records.

Bob was a staff writer with Hosanna! Integrity music for 3 years. They recorded about 20 of Bob’s songs. After the contract ended, a mutual decision was made to not renew as most of what he was writing and wanted to write was not in the worship genre, which was their main emphasis at the time. Despite having been a performer since he was 14, his passion was songwriting, more than performing. Bob’s strong suit has always been as a lyricist.

Recently, he has set his sights on plying his talents to writing main stream country music, and finds himself coming full circle, as much of his early music had definite country influences.

“Pour Through Me”

Since he is one of my definite favorites, I can’t help myself.  This cassette was called “Rescued.” I listened to it, over and over, until the tape wore out.  This was way back in 1986, when I was doing high-visibility evangelism with a dozen other believers, out of a ratty old Victorian in the Mission District of San Francisco.  His music helped come through this challenging time of my life.

“Its My Dream”

Both of these are songs from YouTube. But this is a sad song. It gets shared because of the excellence of music and lyrics (I love the gentle sax.) I am really excited to share them, as Bob Ayala was a profound influence in my life.

Please go to the BB Classic Christian Music Index and see what else is listed.  We have dozens of great CCM artists from the 70s and 80s.  I know you’ll be blessed.  https://brokenbelievers.com/classic-christian-music-index/