Genuineness

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 2 Thessalonians 3:16-17

Paul wrote many letters to the churches giving them directions, and the interpretations of the laws, as well as a testimony of Christ. He often wrote very harsh letters to the churches accusing them of being false teachers, of not loving, of greed, of adulterous hearts, he spoke to them about their lack of discernment. Paul often spoke in his letters with a feverish tone. He did not hold back in his wording. He definitely got to the point. But that is what made him a great apostle.

He loved the people so much, that he would do everything in his power to correct the people so that they would more closely follow God through Christ’s life and example. He knew that he had to be tough with the people, he had to be convicted of his own message. This is how all his letters were so everyone knew that his letters were genuinely from Paul. They could only be written by a man who was filled with the Spirit. Paul’s rebuking, his direction, and his love for the people were genuine. If he didn’t love them so, he would never want them to learn and grow.

Imagine you want to play basketball. So you join a league and find a coach who is going to teach you how to play. He shows up to the first practice and shows you how to shoot the ball. When you try again, you miss. He tells you its okay, and that you should just watch him. He tells you that you are fine the way you are now. That you would make it to the NBA like this. How untrue! How uncaring! If he really cared, he would push you to reach perfection. He would fix all your minor technical flaws. He would make you run drills. He wouldn’t let you leave until you made a certain amount of shots consecutively. And when you think you have reached your peak, he would push you even further to greatness. That is a basketball coach who will help you make it to the NBA.

So Paul in 2 Thessalonians is telling the church to not believe all the false accusations of Jesus’ second coming. He even tells them that people who might seem like they are apostles or prophets will tell them lies. He tells them to basically stop believing in their pop culture. But he gives them the charge to stay firm in the true faith of Christ revealed in the Word. He speaks against all the naysayers by calling them evil, liars, and unrighteous. Paul obviously has no problems with calling out those who oppose God. He then also said that some people in the church of Thessalonica were idle. He even points out that they should just shut up and work. Paul even warns people to have nothing to do with the person and instead of regarding him as an enemy, to just warn him. (3:13-15).

Paul clearly has some good things to say to the church as well as some tough things. But the important thing is that he is genuine. He tells it how it is. He then tells it how God wants it. There is no but and or, just how it is, and how it should be. So reflecting on this, I started to think about my relationship with other people.

How often do I genuinely approach someone. If there is something they did that makes me mad, instead of keeping it quiet, it would be better to talk that problem through with them and then move on. But how many of us quietly let that anger sit and foster? (I know I can let that happen if I am not careful).

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Matthew 18:15

Jesus never said to not bring up any transgressions. He said that if you do, make sure that you are calm and peaceful about it. That both sides come back in reconciliation so that brotherhood can be made. Being genuine isn’t only good for the bringing up of a church, but also building a strong relationship. If there is something wrong, say it! If there is something good, say it! But always tell the truth. And realize that the truth is better than someone lying to you.

So when you talk with someone again, are you being genuine? Are you telling them of your pains or your joys? Are you hiding behind a facade? Are you willing to be transparent and genuine even if that means being hurt or putting yourself in a tough situation? Paul got put in jail for being genuine. Jesus was crucified. Is there anything worse that can happen to you if you were genuine?

I pray that we will all be able to open up and live freely without lying.

-Chris

Incompetent

Life gets hard. I’m one of those people that have all these grand ideas to do something, and then I hit this speed bump. Or a brick wall.

I feel incompetent.

When I was in high school, and I was applying to schools. I wanted to apply to USC. But I felt really incompetent. Something about needing a portfolio of some sort in order to enter their film school scared me to death. Besides not having one, I felt like I would never be good enough to even apply there. I didn’t even know how I would pay for it if I ended up going there. But none the less, I kept chasing my dreams of doing something with film. Then even in college, I had to deal with the fact that I wasn’t really learning to do what I wanted to do. So I went about teaching myself, but then I felt like I wasn’t where I wanted to be. Then once I was out of college I am still dealing with the feelings like I won’t ever be good enough to be successful. I’ll be mediocre somewhere doing what everybody else does just working in order to survive instead of living out a dream.

If you’ve ever felt like that, you know that it can be a vicious cycle of never ending doubt.

Then there were some very humbling people in the Bible. First comes Moses. God chose Moses to be the one who will lead Israel out from captivity in Egypt.

Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. Exodus 6:6

But Moses later on doubts God.

But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”Exodus 6:30

Moses was not only doubting himself because of his speech impediments, but was doubting God’s ability to use Him for His will. I realize that my sin in this situation is that I would be doubting myself as well as God. God promises to watch over us and take care of us if we follow His will. He will guide us and make us prosper in all things.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

He has plans for our welfare and a future, with a hope. Of course the chief end of His promise is in heaven, but he also is talking about his plans to give us life on this earth. A purpose, a means, and an end. So with God promising to take care of me, how could I ever doubt Him. Well I do. There are many times when I ask God what he is waiting for. Why I am not where I want to be. There are times when I ask God why I have this desire to do things but I have not the talent. But how often does this kind of doubt turn into laziness. If we are not careful, we can start blaming God for our laziness. It might start something like this.

Man, I don’t feel like I can do anything that I want to do. God can you help me please. God, it still isn’t working. I’m waiting here for you but it’s not working! God, I’m STILL stuck where I am. Won’t you do this for me?!

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.Proverbs 28:19

So God tells us that he has plans for us. But we also must be working the land. We must not be lazy. God has plans for us, but those plans include us working in faith. God can plan for us all we want, but he requires us to put in effort and nothing else. All He ever asks from us is effort. He does not care about where we end up in life, but if we work hard, he will bless it. So my incompetence and slowly turned into laziness. This laziness only adds weight to my incompetence for I never get closer to my goal by being lazy.

They say that one lie will inevitably lead to another lie to cover up the first lie. And from there, one will constantly be lying until he can confess the truth.

Then thinking that you are incompetent will lead to laziness that further drives incompetence and will further drive laziness and which will end up in the lack of effort in chasing that passion. We then blame God for not following through with His promises. But God is not to blame, he planned everything out for us, he made doors open and gave us the talents to do things. But we did not take that challenge and put our effort in it. We are not entitled to anything from God. God is greater than us, anything He offers to us must be paid with a price. Just as such, God is entitled to us and can ask of us anything without giving anything back. But He does indeed give us something back. He gives us life, a promise for the future, heaven. Eternal rest.

Now back to Moses, imagine if he felt like he couldn’t convince Pharaoh. Even after God’s promises, God would never have used Moses to bring Israel out. Moses though he was unsure of Himself, went to Pharaoh every time God told him to and said exactly what God said. God did exactly as he said he would because Moses had enough faith in God to trust that God would take care of it. And God did! Even when Israel started complaining to Moses about how the Egyptians would kill them in the wilderness, and as Moses turned to God to ask why they were being pursued, God showed them a way, he provided a means to survive. God never changed course because we doubted. God will do all he has to do for our sake, now it’s up to us to follow Him.

If you are facing self doubt and feelings of incompetence, I urge you to take a look at God’s promises throughout all of the Bible. The people he chose to use were not the most qualified, nor were they even the greatest people at first. The disciples were all uneducated people who had no religious teachings. They were all people who turned away from Jesus when he was being delivered to the Jews. Paul was a Christian killer. But all these people God used because they turned and followed God. So in whatever you are doing, if you are pursuing not your own fulfillment but the fulfillment of God’s will and you trust God to take care of it. All you have left to do is try harder and trust in God to do the rest.

Grace and peace,

Chrissant

I Saw the Light

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. Ezra 3:10-13

So we find here the Israelites who would come to rebuild the temple and once they laid down just the foundation, they started praising God. After so many years spent in captivity, Israel had finally been allowed to go back home. (Sounds like this happened a lot in the old testament). But this generation made it a point to make sure that they had a place to worship God. And so filled with joy they were, that they sang so loudly that they were heard far away. But many of the priests and other people started to weep! They wept because they understand that their captivity was a direct correlation to their sinfulness toward God. They wept because they understood that it was the grace of God that allowed them to come back and worship God again.

It is both a privilege and duty to worship God. We are so overjoyed by the opportunity to worship God that we should make it a point to worship Him always. When we don’t the one thing that happens is that God will test our spirits to see if we really love Him. And it wouldn’t ever come to that point if we weren’t sinners. So being a believer is 2 parts.

1. We are sinners and we know that we are sinners that we understand that we deserve death. (Sad)
2. But God had an abundant grace and love for us that we may be forgiven through the Cross. (Happy)

Plain and simple, we have to be both broken and joyful! Our hearts should constantly be sorrowful and overwhelmed with love. We are so broken that we are blessed! When we understand this concept the last will always trump the first.

Our joy and love of worshiping God will always trump our sadness in our sinfulness. God gave us the laws to show us our sinfulness.

For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20

But when our knowledge of sin is overwhelmed by our knowledge of God’s love for us, we are freed to worship Him.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.Hebrews 12:1-2

And so we see that Jesus’ sacrifice was not for us to see more of our sin, but so that we may finally put that burden down and chase after God. Jesus so joyfully sacrificed himself for us. Should we not also joyfully seek after Him!

So on that note, I leave you with this awesome worship song.

I Saw the Light

 

Grace and peace always!

-Chrissant

Broken and Contrite

Psalm 51:15-17

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Being a worship leader at church can be draining. There is a responsibility to lead the congregation into the worship of God. There is a great sense of responsibility. I often get asked if people can be a part of the Worship Team. Parents want their kids to be involved and they want them to help out with worship. Kids want to join for whatever reason and they all assume that it is just singing and playing an instrument. But this past Sunday, I was going over these verses again, and it really hit home about what worship really is.

Worship is neither songs, money, a sermon, spoken prayer, or fasting. I always ask the kids or parents why they should be a part of the worship team. And the number one response I get is to contribute to the worship. The next is, because they don’t fit in and want to. Well, I’m sorry but that would not fulfill the necessary worship towards God. So that goes to the first point in these Psalms. Psalms 51:15 states that God will open our lips. He is the only one who can teach us how to worship. How can we understand someone greater than us. If I were to ask you if an ant understands why you broke up with a girl, of course not! We are superior to an ant, or donkey, or any other animal because we have an understanding of why; to an extent. What we cannot always answer is why did God ___. And the answer to that is, we are not greater than God, but He is greater than us.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

So everyone knows the 1 John 4 passage about how God is love. But I bring up these two verses. We cannot know God if we do not love. But we do not love until God loves us first. God has to show us how to love in order that we will love, so that we can prove that we know God. What does that mean? Our faith, our salvation, our love, our strength, nothing comes without God first teaching us. So how can worship be different. If we require God to teach us how to love, how much more do we need Him to teach us how to worship. I say this because a lot of people that I talk with think they have something to bring to the table when it comes to worshiping God. They think that sacrificing their talents, or their time, or anything else is going to please God. But let’s face reality, God does not need anything from us, but He desires it. Why else would David, the writer of most of the Psalms, proclaim that he would not give sacrifices because he knows that God would not be pleased in just the act of sacrifice. This is proven in the story of Cain and Abel.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.Genesis 4:2b-5

You see, Cain was going through the motions of sacrificing to God. He simply brought fruits of the ground. This might signify that he was not giving God the best of his fruits, but some of the throwaways. He was giving God just random things. But Abel, gave the very best of his offerings. He gave the firstborn and all their fat portions! Basically, in that time, the fat portion was necessary nutrients because they did not indulge like we do nowadays. Abel gave God the very thing he needed to survive! So God isn’t even angry at Cain, He just simply didn’t accept the offering. God just didn’t do anything with it and instead God offers Cain some advice.

The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:6-7

And we know that later on, Cain didn’t heed God’s words but simply ignored it and killed his brother because of envy and pride. I say pride because Cain thought his offering better or just as good as Abel’s. So since he thought this unjust, he killed. What he did not realize was his own lack of a contrite heart towards God. God tried to save Cain from his own sin before Cain sinned, but Cain ignored it.

So what if people were to come to God in worship half-heartedly or just because they thought they had something to bring to the table. Will God accept that worship? Of course not! Especially as a worship leader where one is supposed to lead a congregation in worship, how can they not understand what God wants and still lead the people. I’m not saying that I am the best at worshiping God. On the contrary, I believe that I am still full of sin and make mistakes all of the time! I acknowledge my faults and take full responsibility of them. But when we worship God, it should not be in fear of our sin, it should never be in pride of our talents. It should be with a broken and contrite heart.

This means that we have to understand that we are sinners first and foremost. We have to understand that God does not need us. We have to understand that God is above our human knowledge. We have to be led by the Spirit. In order to be a worship leader, one must become aware of God’s will and character. He knows that we are sinners. He knows we are lowly. He knows that we should die for our sins. But because he loves us so much, He sent His Son to die so that we may once again be united with God again.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.Acts 19:5-6

Here is a prime example. In this chapter of Acts, Paul passes through Ephesus, he comes across some disciples who are trying to worship God. But they have not yet received the Spirit and have only been baptized into John’s baptism. But when Paul tells them of how John’s baptism was a precursor to Jesus, they all believed and were filled with the Holy Spirit and then they were able to worship! How great would it be if we came to God asking for His Spirit instead of demanding that God accepts our offerings. He will show us greater ways to worship Him.

And even Paul says that we can only accept Christ through repentance Acts 19:4. This goes back to what David was saying about being a broken and contrite heart. We have to come clean spiritually before God. So the challenge I give to all people before they are allowed to join the worship team, is if they understand how to worship God. Trust me I don’t, but God fills me with the Holy Spirit so that I may understand what He desires from me. How great would it be, if we were like Abel giving all the best we have, even if we aren’t leaders or a person in power, but as we recognize our own unworthiness in God’s presence, He fills us with the Holy Spirit that we can worship Him!

I have no desire to be part of a church who employs all these great musicians to be their worship leaders. I desire to be part of a church who will worship God out of a broken heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, giving all of what we have. If great music and great sound come with it, awesome, but great songs with no heart will have not please God.

So let us please God how He wants to be pleased!

Grace and peace!
-Chrissant

Water, Reflection, and Hope

One of the oldest memories of singing praise songs comes from elementary school. It was the song  As the Deer. That song for some reason always got stuck with me and later on in life when I joined the praise team at church, I would sing it to myself often because I often didn’t know what else to sing.

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longs after thee
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship thee

You alone are my strength my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship thee

And that is quite the words to be singing. I find it hard to grasp what these words say all the time. You know that deer and other types of animals would seek water that they would be willing to drink water in the face of crocodiles, lions, and other such predators?! If you haven’t watched Nat Geo, you should. These animals are to the point where its almost like, what are you doing?! But to say that my soul longs for God in that way, I’m not sure I am always like that. Sometimes, I know I need God, but I often try to turn away from him for fear of these predators.

To say that God is my lone desire, I also have a hard time dealing with this. To be completely honest, when I am in my desert period, when I am going about my daily life, do I think of what God wants me to do all the time? No way. To be honest, I often seek other sources of pain relief or satisfaction. And let’s be honest, my life is not always the most worship-ful toward God.

To be honest, God is the only strength and shield. But we have to allow Him to be. I often don’t like God’s version of strength and shield, so I bring my own plastic sword and wooden shield to a spiritual war. I don’t rely on God because I rely on myself. And not alone that, my spirit doesn’t yield to God like it should, no, in my heart, God often takes a backseat to myself. And I lack a desire for Him, and in turn, I don’t worship Him.

BUT, there is a hope in all of this. Everyone has their own reason for putting God to the side. I for one, often put Him to the side because I know God is a living God and that He is ruler of the nations. I don’t like the situations He puts me in sometimes. I’ll be honest. I don’t. But at the end of the day, He is the hope of my life! Everything God does, is for me to know who God is. If that means that God has to show me tough love, he will. I can rebel all that I want, but at the end of the day, I will turn back to God because He is the only one who can save me from myself.

God’s desire is to be reunited with His children, whom He lost when they turned away from Him. So all that He does, is geared toward this one thing. That we may come to know God. So when I am lost, when I lose my way, God pursues me all the more. But understand this, that God does not seek us because we are greater than He, He seeks us because He is greater than us, more righteous and loving than we are.

The passage which this song is based on kind of tells it all.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
Psalm 42:5

So it kind of tells me clearly, Why am I bringing myself down? You see, God enters our heart and knocks on the door, but He does not come in until we open the door and let him. So when we hope in God, there is nothing that we could deny. God is real and He is greater than all things. It’s true, He created all things, and allows temptations but only so that our worship to Him is true and honest.

So it’s strange, whenever I sing this song, I find that I am not singing truth. So I enter this deep reflection of myself. And in reflecting, I find what I lack is that I am living for myself and not God. And in that, I find hope. Because when I see that, I know that God is pursuing me all the more.

As the deer pants for water, he reaches the water’s edge. And before he takes that drink, he sees a reflection of himself and knows, that the water is exactly what he needed.

Hope you all spend some time reflecting today!

God Bless!
-Chrissant