• I was recently having a discussion with someone about why I think it is so important for worship/christian songs to be as theologically correct as they can be.
• I used the hymns as an example. Hymns have several verses of truth repeated to the same music.
• Hymns were greatly used in a time when many people were illiterate and could not read scripture for themselves, so they would learn songs to learn scripture. This is what oral tradition cultures do.
• This person may have missed my point and started defending modern worship songs.
• I have no problem with modern worship songs, because as he said "many of them are based on verses from the bible". Too true. And I enjoy many of those songs.
• The problem comes in, when I hear songs that reinforce a bad mindset from the beginning.
• For example, one song that really irks me is Michael W. Smith's Above All. This is a song that I have heard in many, many churches in my short 11-year walk with Christ. There is probably nothing inherently wrong with this song...but I do think it espouses incorrect thinking about the purpose of Christ's death. Here is the chorus:
•          Crucified
  Laid behind a stone
  You lived to die
  Rejected and alone
  Like a rose
  Trampled on the ground
  You took the fall
  And thought of me
  Above all
• Ok...so in some ways this is technically correct. Jesus died for me. But I think many of our songs over emphasize him going to the cross for me!
• I have heard many songs and many preachers say Jesus would have gone to the cross even if I was the only one who accepted him. OK, true....
• But to be more accurate Jesus would have gone to the cross if NO ONE accepted him, because the Father told him to. He lived to Glorify his Father. He lived a life Obedient to his Father. At one point Jesus didn't do something that was good, because the Father said it wasn't time yet.
• Jesus accomplished many things with his death on the cross, but the nitty gritty reason he chose to die on the cross was because the Father willed him to. Just so we're clear.
• But many of our modern songs, act like Jesus had fluffy feelings about us and he was comforted on the cross by the thought that he was dying for me.
• This also just reinforces our individualistic views of our relationships with God. Yes, it is a personal choice, and yes we do get to commune with God one-to-one. BUT we were meant to live in community. We were meant to interpret scripture as a body and not as an individual. and even down to the core of our songs reinforces a "Lone-Ranger Christianity".
  
• Do you see what I am getting at here? Many people in our culture are still illiterate, maybe not in the literal sense, but they are Biblically illiterate. Old Hymns were used to teach people doctrine and truth. New songs are often used to do the same, but people are not as careful to make sure their songs are full of truth, as much as making sure their songs stir the emotions to sell more records. Yeah, I said it.
• I am not saying one is better than the other (in the hymns/modern songs debate)...please hear me out. I am just trying to say that we need to be discerning about what songs we choose to teach our congregations, don't ya think?

• But the reason I got into that whole discussion in the first place is that two songs have really been reminding me of truth and bringing me comfort lately.
• There are a few things that I have been praying about recently that if God doesn't come through, one person may die physically and the other spiritually and my heart has been heavily burdened as I pray specifically and intentionally, but also surrender to His will.
• I can pray very specifically that God intervene in a situation and he might do exactly what I asked him to. But he also has the big picture. He also knows exactly what is truly Best in the scheme of His Kingdom.
• As I have been praying over the last couple of weeks, I often will end my time by listening the song Graditude by Nichole Nordeman. It's about asking God for something that seems like such an obvious need to you, but recognizing that however God answers, we should be grateful because he is doing what is best, and maybe that doesn't look like we think it should:

• Send some rain, would You send some rain?
  'Cause the earth is dry and needs to drink again
  And the sun is high and we are sinking in the shade
  Would You send a cloud, thunder long and loud?
  Let the sky grow black and send some mercy down
  Surely You can see that we are thirsty and afraid
  But maybe not, not today
  Maybe You'll provide in other ways
  And if that's the case . . .
  
  (Chorus)
  
  We'll give thanks to You
  With gratitude
  For lessons learned in how to thirst for You
  How to bless the very sun that warms our face
  If You never send us rain
  
  Daily bread, give us daily bread
  Bless our bodies, keep our children fed
  Fill our cups, then fill them up again tonight
  Wrap us up and warm us through
  Tucked away beneath our sturdy roofs
  Let us slumber safe from danger's view this time
  Or maybe not, not today
  Maybe You'll provide in other ways
  And if that's the case . . .
  
  (Chorus)
  
  We'll give thanks to You
  With gratitude
  A lesson learned to hunger after You
  That a starry sky offers a better view if no roof is overhead And if we never taste that bread
  
  Oh, the differences that often are between
  What we want and what we really need
  
  So grant us peace, Jesus, grant us peace
  Move our hearts to hear a single beat
  Between alibis and enemies tonight
  Or maybe not, not today
  Peace might be another world away
  And if that's the case . . .
  
  (Chorus)
  
  We'll give thanks to You
  With gratitude
  For lessons learned in how to trust in You
  That we are blessed beyond what we could ever dream
  In abundance or in need
  And if You never grant us peace
  
  But Jesus, would You please . . .

• At the end though, you still see that hope that Jesus will provide what you're asking for. I don't think Jesus is ever disappointed or angry with us, if we are sad for a time when things don't work the way we want them to.
• He knows we don't have the full picture and he knows that what we prayed for so earnestly was important to us and we have to mourn the loss of it.
  
• But at the end of the day he wants us to looks back on it and say. I know you are good, I know you know what's best and you are my strength. Please encourage my heart.
  
• That is where I am right now. God doesn't seem to be answering the way I would like him to right now, but he is encouraging me to hold on and see what he is up to. The things that are happening right now make me soul weary, for my dear friends going through them, but things like what's happening in Gaza and Darfur also just make me long to be home with Jesus, so that I don't feel this heaviness anymore.
  
• I take great comfort in the song His Eye is on the Sparrow (I like the Lauryn Hill Version, but any version works for the lyrics):

• Why should I feel discouraged?
  Why should the shadows come?
  Why should my heart feel lonely?
  And long for heaven and home
  
  When Jesus is my portion
  A constant friend is He
  His eye is on the sparrow
  And I know He watches over me
  His eye is on the sparrow
  and I know He over watches me
  His eye is on the sparrow
  and I know He watches me
  
  I sing because I'm happy
  I sing because I'm free
  His eye is on the sparrow
  And I know He watches me (He watches me)
  His eye is on the sparrow
  And I know He watches (I know He watches)
  I know He watches me
  
  (I) I sing because I'm happy
  I sing because I'm free
  His eye is on the sparrow
  And I know He watches me (He watches me)
  His eye is on the sparrow
  And I know, He watches me
  He watches me
  He watches me
  I know
  He watches me.

God is an incredible lover!

• I am reading through my one year bible and I am in Hosea right now. The thing I love about Hosea is God’s expression of his jealousy and hurt.
• God wants Hosea to be able to experience what God feels when his people cheat on him. So he tells Hosea to take a prostitute for a wife and to keep taking her back.
• I know I’ve talked about this on my blog before, but the story of Hosea is told beautifully in the movie Moulin Rouge.
• If any of you married/engaged/dating people have ever been cheated on by your significant other, you know the intense pain that that betrayal can cause.
• Has it ever occurred to you that God feels this pain when we choose to find our satisfaction in some other god?
• If God could show vulnerability (I’m not suggesting he is weak here, just honest about his hurt), Hosea is probably one of the best pictures of this.
• I’ve not experienced this sort of betrayal, but the things I imagine people experience intense feelings of hurt, distrust, and anger.
• If you read Hosea, you noticed God expressing all of these things.
• I know that people want to be careful to bring God down to human levels and reactions, and I do want to be careful to not be mocking or lowering of God here, but you can’t deny the intense emotion that God feels because his people have turned to other gods, even though he has been perfectly faithful, loving, devoted and protective of his people.
• May I suggest that the most amazing part of this is the grace that God extends in the midst of this hurt. May I suggest that this makes his Grace even more amazing than we often realize.
• In human terms…if your husband/wife cheats on you, you might extend them grace and agree to go to counseling with them and try to save your marriage once, twice, maybe even 3 times. But there comes a point when you probably would not be able to trust them again. There would come a point when they’ve cheated too many times.
• Do you realize that we turn to other gods almost daily, and while it grieves God’s heart deeply, he forgives and forgets every time…not on the basis of our ability or willingness to change so much, as on the basis that he is confident that His love can change us, that His Son’s work on the cross was sufficient, that Jesus’ intercession on our behalf is so moving to the father’s heart, that the transforming work of the spirit is so powerful.
• We live under such incredible grace. I am soooo guilty of taking it for granted, but it is also what daily transforms me and helps me choose God’s perfect peace over the temporary peace that other god’s offer.

• Speaking of lovers! Bryan Clark (pastor at Lincoln Berean) has recently spoke on singleness. It’s been fascinating for me to listen to the message and also listen to the reaction across the board (from married and single people).

• What I loved is that Bryan laid the smack down on both married and single people and by “laid the smack down” I mean boldly declared the truth in love.

• The truth is that we called to be obedient to Christ TODAY regardless of our circumstances. We are never to have the excuse that we are waiting for something to change before we live for God fully or are about His mission.

• We were called to where we are for a purpose and no amount of circumstances give us an out or a free pass to selfish-ville. No amount of pain, trial, tribulation, joy, responsibility or circumstance gives us a way out. God has called us to love and know him, to build his kingdom, give him glory and invite others in…period.

• I have sat with wonderful single people, who have no debt, nothing holding them back, and they feel called to over-seas missions or inner-city ministry, or full-time ministry of some sort and they say to me “Well, I don’t think I can/should/want to go serve until I get married”. And when I get to the heart of it, it’s because they are afraid that if they jump into ministry without a spouse that it means they don’t need the spouse to do ministry and God will not give them a spouse and force them into a life of singleness.

• Now, this is just a low and poor view of God. This is thinking that God is trying to get by with just giving us just enough of what we need to function and that if we act like we can function with less God will be like “Phew, she can make it without a whole lot of blessing, without a spouse, without…, and that just saves me the trouble of having to bless her with more.”

• God loves to give us good things, but my friends we’re not going to trick him into giving us good things that he never intends us to have. And sometimes he will call us to give up something small (that seems big to us) in order for us to get in on the Big thing he has for us.

• Bryan talked about how as single people, we are in the unique situation to serve and minister to people and to share the gospel in a way that married people cannot. When people are married their devotion is divided because it’s not just to God, but they have a whole other person that requires their attention and devotion. And Bryan is exactly right. Neither being married or single is more spiritual or better, but each is unique.

• One of the things I love about being single is that if I need to go meet with someone in crisis at midnight or 3am, I don’t have to justify it to anyone. I don’t have to make the decision of whether this is going to strain my relationship with my significant other. If I need hang out with a non-believer a lot because I am investing in that person, I’m not putting a marriage on the line.

• Now don’t get me wrong. I want to be married. I would love to be able to do life and ministry with someone else….BUT I will not wait to do ministry, go to the missions field, or dig deep into the wealth of God’s word until I am married. I will waste these years of freedom/ability to minister if I do that.

• But lest you believe that I or Bryan let married people off the hook in their work for the mission because they have someone else to focus on, let me say that they don’t have an out.

• I have also sat with Godly married people who have said, well we aren’t going to serve anywhere because we really need to just focus in on our marriage and family. We need to raise our kids right and my ministry is my family right now. OK…that’s some what respectable, but it’s also too often used an excuse to check out on the mission.

• Bryan boldly talked about how much selfishness is lived in under the guise of ”family is my ministry” type thinking. And as a single woman, I do not presume to judge the hearts of married people in this arena, but I do, without shame, ask you, my married friends to honestly ask God if you are doing this. If you’d allowed your marriage to turn so inwardly focuses that you have checked out of the mission?

• Let’s talk about the unique position that married couples find themselves in. As a single woman, I cannot really speak to well into an unbelieving married couples life, but a Godly married couple can walk with an unbelieving couple and possibly help save their marriage or help save their families.

• They can also build in to single peoples’ lives and be honest and vulnerable about how hard marriage and relationships are. Single people need to be awakened from their dream that marriage will be bliss and all of their troubles will be gone once they are married. That their loneliness will be gone, all of their sexual urges will be satisfied, and that all their needs will be fulfilled. The fact is that whether married or single we will only find true satisfaction in Christ.

• I am grateful for the countless married couples that have spoken into my life about the realities of marriage and have allowed their relationship to be a mirror of my life for me to see how ill-prepared for marriage I really am. This mirror helps me to cry out to God to make me the person I will need to be if I should ever get married, but it makes me intensely content to be single as long as God blesses me with this gift of singleness. Thank you married friends for ministering to me in this way! You’ll never know how much you’ve blessed me.

•  I also greatly appreciated Bryan talked to both married and single people about not viewing singleness as some sort of social disorder that needs to be fixed or treated. As long as this attitude lingers, single people will feel like outsiders and married people will have this smug sense that they’ve some how “arrived”. I
• We have to seek to love each other and learn from each other. And as long as either or both groups is bitter toward the other we are harming the body of Christ. While there are times for us to be exclusive in our life experiences and do things as single people or married people….we can’t live there. We must be careful to live as one big family of Christ!

I think I’ll stop for now, but I do intend to get back to the thing I asked you to ponder on Friday…so keep pondering it.

But I am curious what your thoughts are on Hosea, God’s grace, Married and Single living.