Turn It Around and Turn It Up!

I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice - oceans of it.
I want fairness - rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want.
Amos 5:21-24, The Message

I love contemporary worship music and I have lots of it, listen to it much of the time. But a few years ago when I was given the task of leading a praise team I was confronted with a reality of worship music that I hadn't noticed before, some songs used for worship, even some of the most popular songs didn't address God.

I don't mean that the songs weren't about God because they spoke of the goodness of God, but songs about God are different that songs sang to God. So I started paying attention. I also discovered that this wasn't just a problem of new contemporary worship songs, but was also true of many hymns. It's not uncommon (in these songs) to sing about God, proclaim characteristics of God, challenge people to sing for God, come to God but never speak directly to God.

In the book of Amos God calls it ego-music. It's music that makes us feel better, but doesn't do anything between us and God. And isn't that the purpose of most singing in worship, to draw us closer to God?

At least that's what God says. "When was the last time you sang to me?"

Listen carefully to the songs you sing today. Maybe it's time to change our tune so that we aren't singing for ourselves...

...but singing to God!

So Turn it around and turn it up...God's waiting and listening.

Peace ><>
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Famished

Have you ever been so hungry that it felt like your insides were beginning to devour one another? Fasting can bring on this feeling, so can simple starvation. Now most of us haven't suffered from starvation, at least for a long time, but we have felt the pangs of an empty stomach.

Do you remember how it feels to be without a drink of water for a while, a powerful thirst that comes from working, exercising or being stranded in the desert? Your mouth goes dry and it becomes hard to swallow. Saliva production ceases and it feels like your mouth is filled with sticky goo. That's real thirst.

We know what these feel like because somewhere in our lives we've experienced both of them, even if slightly. We also know the feeling of cool water on a parched tongue, the satisfaction of a simple sandwich to an empty stomach.

That's the image Amos is sharing with Israel, that God's true desire fo them was to hunger and thirst for Him!

But they didn't.

The truth is that's still what God wants, for us to have a healthy appetite, a ravenous hunger, a powerful drought, to be totally famished...

...for God!

Just imagine the bliss of the spirit as our famine is filled with the feast God has prepared just for us. It's okay to be hungry, in fact it's critical that we are...

...famished!

Peace ><>
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Can't Outwit God

I became a big fan of Survivor this season. I taped it every Thursday and usually stayed up late to watch it. I got into the characters and drama, the alliances and backstabbing, the broken deals and the word kept. It was pure drama all season. The tag line for Survivor is Outwit, Outplay, Outlast. It's the outwit part that usually plays the biggest role in the outcome.

It's the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes the game interesting, the secrets, the hush-hush meetings on remote parts of the island, all a part of the outwitting strategies people come with. Some smart people though are outwitted early in the game, trusting the wrong people, making the wrong promises, revealing the wrong secrets. The game of outwitting isn't unique to a reality game show, though. It's a game we all play in some way with God.

But we can't outwit God!

Our alliances, our deals, and especially our secrets are not kept from God. He's in on every detail of our life, sees what we do and who we really are. God knows our motivation for our actions and when we are trying to keep to ourselves, even what we are trying to keep to ourselves.

Israel, Judah and all the nations around them who have made alliances, deals and even fought wars couldn't keep anything from God. Nothing is sacred. Not even the "pagan" nations. All must stand before God's judgment. The book of Amos begins that judgment call for all the nations. No one was exempt. God knows everything and will judge accordingly.

Too often we fight against God trying to outthink, outwit, outplay in this game of life. But we can't. The good news is, God is on our side, making an eternal alliance with us, offering us the ultimate immunity from judgment (tribal council). No, we can't outwit God...


...so we embrace Him instead, because that's what He desires anyway.

Peace ><>
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Here's Your Sign

Bill Engvall, one of the Blue Collar Comedy guys, has as a part of his routine that some people should wear signs that say "I'm stupid." So when these people ask a stupid question, he gives some smart remark followed by "Here's Your Sign!" It's his way of saying watch out for the obvious, or simply pay attention! Like one time when he was packing to move, the moving truck was in the drive way, packing boxes were lining the driveway and one of the neighbors comes over and asks, "you moving?"

We don't want to be stupid, so we have to pay attention to the signs, especially the ones from God.

The prophets Joel and Amos gave us a sign that St Paul used in his writings to the churches, the "Day of the Lord." The language of Joel is used to describe the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon all the believers,

I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people.
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions.
I'll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
men and women both. (Joel 2:28-29, Msg)

I doubt if any of the disciples asked any stupid questions that day like, "I wonder if this means something?" They saw the signs because they were prepared. They were praying because Jesus had told them to. They were expecting something and it came.

I don't think we expect to see signs or Spirit-filled events so we don't. It's not that they don't happen, we just miss them. Even on the day of Pentecost some didn't see the signs of power, they just saw people they thought were drunk. Peter should have said to the religious leaders at the end of his sermon, "Here's Your Sign!"

It's these voices of truth, the prophets, who give us insight into what's really going on, the signs to look for, the language to name them. We still live in the that time, the Day of the Lord. The Spirit of God is still being poured out on all God's people and the signs of power are all around us. We just have to open our eyes and be expecting to see just what God is going to do next...


...maybe even through us.

That's right! The Disciples were expecting a sign and they became the sign! At COFS, we've been praying for Spirit-signs and over the past few months we've seen many. But we were not just waiting or wishing for them. No, the key to seeing is praying for them and expecting them.

If you need a sign (from the spirit) today, do so with prayerful expectation and wait with eyes wide open.

It'll happen.

Peace ><>
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