This is a shot of our concert at the Reformed Church of Bellville in Paris. 

Praise Him on His Terms

Praise the LORD
Praise God in his sanctuary
praise him in his mighty heavens
Praise him for his acts of power
praise him for his surpassing greatness
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet
praise him with the harp and lyre
Praise him with tambourine and dancing
praise him with the strings and flute
Praise him with the clash of cymbals
praise him with resounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD
Praise the LORD
-Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is a beautiful poem filled with the imagery of worship. It gives us some incredible advice for where, why, and how to worship our God. The main point is clearly stated in the first and last lines of the poem. “Praise the Lord.” Everything between those lines supports that exhortation.

HIS sanctuary, HIS mighty heavens
How many times do I find myself asking God to come near to me? God desires to be near us, but sometimes when we find ourselves most in need of God, it's not because He's gone anywhere at all, it has much more to do with where we are. We know that Jesus came, not only to die for us, but also to know us and be near us. He bore our sins so that we could have unhindered access to the Father as a result of Christ's righteousness. So if we have free access to the Father, why do we find ourselves asking Him to come to us? This first verse of Psalm 150 encourages that if we want to be in God's presence we don't need to ask him to come to us, He's already done that; we need to go to him.

Acts of power,surpassing greatness
These two things: “acts of power,” and “surpassing greatness,” are just another way of saying, praise God for what he's done, and who He is. There is always something that we can praise God about. Sometimes our circumstances will naturally cause us to praise Him. At other times we’ll struggle to see God anywhere in our lives, but we can always praise God for who He is because his character never changes. No matter how difficult our circumstances, there’s something to praise God about.

Praise Him LOUD!
I love this part of the poem. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of instruments that we can use to praise God, but it does give us some great ideas of what worship can be like. The first thing I notice is that worship is active. David speaks here of playing musical instruments and dancing. Praising the Lord was not just an exercise of the mind; it was an exercise of the body and spirit as well. The work and nature of God should drive us to action. In verse 5, he not only encourages us to use cymbals, but resounding cymbals! Have you ever heard quiet cymbals? Maybe I'm letting my cultural bias interfere with my interpretation of scripture, but I'm getting the distinct impression that David liked his worship loud!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is an amazing thought when I consider the state of our world right now. Some day everything will praise God. Someday everything will declare his mighty acts of power in the universe and his greatness that blows away our wildest imaginings. He's worthy to be praised by every living, breathing thing, but there will still remain a sense that it's still not big enough. It's not loud enough. It's not yet intense enough. It couldn't happen long enough. I don’t see anyone checking their watches wondering when worship is over. No one will be waiting for song that they like, and no one will be concerned with what anyone else thinks—except, of course, God himself.
That will be the truest worship ever experienced. Until then let’s strive to live our lives so they honor the one who will someday be honored by everything. Let our lives begin and end with one thought and let everything in between support this exhortation:

Praise the Lord!

Jack of all Trades, Master of Everything

Luke 5: 4-5a
"When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, ..."

I wonder what Peter was thinking when Jesus asked him to put down the nets on the other side. Peter fished for a living. He was an expert, he'd done it a thousand times and he didn't need some preacher telling him how to do his job.

My harsh assumptions on Peter's motives really only come from what I see when I look inside myself and imagine myself in the same situation. I would probably try to explain to Jesus that I had already tried that once, or show him my chart of fish migration patterns during this season or come up with some other complicated web of logical reasoning to not get my nets all wet and dirty again (I hear it’s a lot of work to clean those things.) Of course, I would have been completely wrong and would have missed out on the incredible blessing of not only a whole grip of fish, but the opportunity to see God do something that’s amazing and beyond my expectation.

Jesus is pretty much and expert at everything. As skilled as I am I will never be better at it than Jesus. The whole deity thing definitely gives him an edge. Sometime I forget that, though. Sometimes I don't want to admit it. Why is it that I would take pride in being able to accomplish something without God's help? Is that some kind of badge that I would wear proudly into the throne room. "Look Father, I did all of this and I didn't even need you!”

Fortunate for Peter he’s a lot smarter than me. He throws up an initial logical reason for not putting the nets down on the other side, but seems to quickly concede to Jesus’ wishes.

Luke 5:5b-11
"...but I will do as You say and let down the nets." When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men." When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

An amazing thing happens when you’re obedient to Jesus. First, you find out that He actually knows what He’s talking about. And second, your daily routine becomes a transformational experience. Simon was literally floored when he saw all of the fish. Not because he’s never seen this many fish before, but because he got to experience a little of Jesus’ power. He was terrified when he realized the truth about who was standing before him, but Jesus did something even more amazing. He turned these fishermen into fishers of men. Jesus had a purpose for them and it had nothing to do with their skills. Jesus wasn’t lacking any talents of abilities so much that he needed to gather this dream team of talented professionals to complete his mission. This group of disciples was chosen based on the receptiveness of their hearts. They were willing to be obedient when it didn’t make sense, amazed when they saw the result, and abandon everything for his sake when he called them to something bigger.

Lost In Paris

Last week I had the priveledge of spending time in Paris, France. It was my first time out of the country. I went with a band and we got to play music for a hundred or so people. I was under the impression that we might play for a bigger crowd...I wasn't dissapointed, but I kind of felt unimportant.

We walked around a lot. We saw some buildings that we hundreds of years old. I stood next to them. Touched them. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but I was wrong. It made me feel really small in comparison to history.

In Paris there are 12 million people. I was only one 12 millionth of the population. That seems kind of insignificant doesn't it?

So what does it all mean? Was I depressed the whole time I was there? No way. It's Paris, France for crying out loud. It was awesome! It's great to be reminded of the reality that the world didn't begin when I was born, people's destiny is NOT hanging on me or my gifts, and there are so many types of people out there are that are so different than me. Those are all great things. It's good to remember that we are insignificant sometimes because it can get our head out of the clouds and planted firmly on God's green earth. And it reminds us of who really is big. And if that Big Thing is for us than it doesn't matter how small we are.

I feel bad for the people that think they're big. Life can only be a struggle against reality...that's not a battle I want to take on.