Knowing the end sure helps

I'll admit it, I'm a Portland Trailblazers fan. This year I'm trying to actually watch as many games as possible since I haven't done that for a long time.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the game delayed on my DVR. Just a bit into the Third quarter the Blazers were down and they looked to be losing steam from earlier in the game. Just then I got a call from a friend who said, "Did you watch the Blazer game? Wasn't it AWESOME?!?". I could tell by her demeanor that the Blazers had finished well.

"STOP!!! Don't tell me anything about the game," I said, "I'm still watching it!"

She agreed, but I knew that it ended well.

Knowing the end makes all kinds of difference as to how you view the present. In the game, knowing that the Blazers won made the turnovers, missed free throws and missed shots much more bearable. In our present situation, with the economy way down and likely dropping further, it would be really great to know how it is going to turn out for us here in the US.

Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of knowing what is going to happen in our economy. We really don't know what is going to happen with our nation. Many of my friends are disappointed in the President that our nation chose, and things just look down. And, frankly, for our nation, things might continue to get worse.

But that may be like watching your team implode in the last 8 minutes of a basketball game. If you know that they win in the end, all you're left wondering is "how are they going to pull this off?"

As I've been reading the book of Revelation recently, I have been trying to put myself in the position of its first readers: persecuted, having left home to find work outside the vast empire so bent on destroying all those who belong to your new-found faith. These families faced very real persecution every day. One of the empire's growing sports was watching these followers of Jesus get eaten by lions or be burned alive. How would it all turn out in the end?

Revelation 21: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."

Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. "
(Rev 21:1-7)

Praise God that there is hope that is more sure than Wall Street. There is treasure that will not collapse no matter what falls around it. There is position that cannot and will not be lost. All heaven and earth may crumble, but we can stand steadfast and sure in the promise that God Almighty will be our God and we will be His sons. No one can thwart His plans, no one can stay His hand in accomplishing what He desires. And though we may not see it now, He says "It is done!"

Come, Lord Jesus.

thoughts on the eve of breaking bread

I've just been pondering Paul's doxology at the end of Romans 11. It is so beautiful considering the depth of theology he has just been laying down: "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?' For asasdasdfrom and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." I'm sitting here amazed at the providence of the Almighty. "Who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?" Matt Redman wrote a song about this concept called "Breathing the Breath", on his Facedown record. We have nothing to give That didn't first come from Your hands We have nothing to offer You Which You did not provide Every good, perfect gift comes from Your kind and gracious heart And all we do is give back to You What always has been Yours Lord, we're breathing the breath That You gave us to breathe To worship You, to worship You And we're singing these songs With the very same breath To worship You, to worship You Who has given to You That it should be paid back to him? Who has given to You As if You needed anything? From You, and to You, and through You Come all things, O Lord And all we do is give back to You What always has been Yours We are breathing the breath That You gave us to breathe I love that statement: "And all we do is give back to you what always has been yours". God has never lacked praise. In eternity past He was praised in perfection by His Son, His Spirit and the angels. He made man in His own image to show His dominion and glory all over creation. Tomorrow I'm going to break bread with some of my brothers and sisters. I'm going to remember the One Who gave His life, who asked His Father to "forgive them for they know not what they do" as men killed Him rather than praised Him. I can't wait to be a part of the chorus that rises from the redeemed. I can't wait to fathom the depths of His grace toward me, a renegade, and towards countless others like me. And all praise that arises from this soul is something that does not originate in me nor in me does it find its culmination. It is from Him, through Him and to Him. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

Jealous for my affection

Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
(Exo 34:12-14)

This morning I pondered a message from John Piper. The message was about our affection for Christ- specifically, how does my affection for Christ compare to my affection for the "other" things I love in my life? How does it compare with my love of comfort? My love for "down time"? My love for Amy and Matthew?

I love to spend time with Amy and Matthew, they are gifts from God. I enjoy leisure time, kicking back and taking in a football or basketball game. And I believe that those things too are gifts from God given for my enjoyment. But when enjoyment of those things becomes an end in itself and not a means to enjoying God, I become an idolater.

This morning my prayer is that my affections, my deepest love, would be reserved for God alone. That I could enjoy all other things only as a means of enjoying Him, never letting my delight in temporal pleasures compete with my utmost delight in the one for Whom I was made.

God is jealous for my affection. He does not want me to take things which He has made good and mold them into idols. All things in my life should point toward the God Who made me for Himself.

We bow our hearts
we bend our knees
O, Spirit, come make us humble
we turn our eyes
from evil things
O, Lord, we cast down our idols

Give us clean hands
give us pure hearts
let us not lift our souls to another

O, God, let us be
a generation that seeks
who seeks your face, O God of Jacob
"Clean Hands", by Charlie Hall

The kind of musician God is seeking

I had the opportunity to sit down with a young man recently who wants to get involved in playing music on the worship team. As I was driving to the meeting and thinking about what I would ask him, I was struck with the thought, "What is God looking for in a musician?". I know that sounds like something I should be asking myself all the time. But it just struck me in a new way.

When a Samaritan woman was talking to Jesus about the current worship "hot" topics of her culture, Jesus made a comment that revealed the heart of God for her and for everyone like her who would listen:
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." (John 4:23)

Did you catch that last little part? I have read this many times and always get stuck on what "spirit and truth" means that I neglected something just as important: The Father is seeking worshipers.

The first thing that I think God is looking for in a musician is a worshiper. Someone who gives all of themselves to God with reckless abandon. He is looking for someone who will worship Him whether they are on the stage playing music or in the pews or in their occupation. He is looking for believers who are worshiping when they walk through the doors of the church and who walk out the doors worshiping.

I wonder if we have the same priorities that God does. Are our lead worshipers worshipers or song leaders? Are our musicians musicians or worshipers who are currently using their instrument to give expression to the worship in their hearts?

What would our worship times look like if our musicians were skilled enough that they weren't trying to focus on just getting through a song but rather on making melody in their hearts to God? What would happen if our lead worshipers were more defined by adoration than observation?

The Father is seeking those who worship him in spirit and in truth. When he looks into our churches on Sunday mornings and sees the worship band playing, is He finding them? When he looks in the pews and sees the musicians who have a "week off" is he seeing worshipers or observers?

"As we come into your presence
and stand in awe of you
you radiate the pure light
of never-changing truth
you shine as we praise you
exposing all we are
as we draw near in Jesus
search our hearts

Give us the grace to see
what you see as we sing..." (from "All We Are" by DHB)

I got to record a choir of ladies from Westside for a song on the new record. It was a lot of fun to do music with these ladies in a different venue than normal. They were very gracious and accommodating. The disorganized artist that I am, I forgot to bring printed lyrics for them, so Gail wrote them out and taped them to a ladder. L to R: Gail Williams, Joy Bongiorno, Cindy Pickett, Nicole Graham. (I guess that's me in the background). This is us rehearsing the parts.








To add the last part (that of the gospel soloist with a huge voice), I asked my Aunt Kathy (who is a gospel soloist with a huge voice- go figure!) to come down from Puyallup, WA to sing on the record. It turned out great!





I recently posted a few preview tracks to my myspace music page (www.myspace.com/danhickmanband). I didn't put this song on there yet because I've got to put some more finishing touches on it. But I did post some nearly finished versions of "The Heavens Declare", "All We Are (Unite Our Worship)" and our version of "Be Thou My Vision".

Noisy Young Peoples' Music

"I can't stand all this noisy, young peoples' music!!!" screamed the Professor in the Colby Kid's Praise tapes I listened to as a boy. I was just reading a blog by Dan Kimball (www.dankimball.com/vintage_faith/) and found two very interesting letters sent in regarding new church music. Check them out...

"I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it. Last Sunday's new hymn - if you can call it that - sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this - in God's house! - don't be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need."

This letter was written in 1863 and the song they were concerned about was the hymn "Just As I Am".

Another letter said:

"What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last Sunday's was particularly unnerving. The tune was un-singable and the new harmonies were quite distorting."

This letter was written in 1890 and about the hymn "What A Friend We Have In Jesus".

In The Studio

I'm excited to offer the news that I have been busy in the studio recording some songs that have been circling around live but have never been recorded ("The Glory of Your Grace" and "The Heavens Declare" are among them).








Tim Fish (lead guitar and BGVs) has been helping with some arrangement and production on this project. He is a very talented musician and has a good sense of vision for each song. He has been a great joy to work with in the sometimes hot studio at the Otto Farm (you know, Ben Otto, the chief engineer par excellence?). Tonight Tim and


I got a surprise visit from Amy and Matthew too, which completely made my day.







I would love to give some audio samples, but that would be like showing you my half-haircut. But I can tell you some of the songs we've nearly completed so far:
The Glory of Your Grace
The Heavens Declare
Someday
Your Name, Your Renown
All We Are (Unite Our Worship)
Be Thou My Vision

I'm also in the final stages of a few other worship songs and we should be recording those shortly. We'll most likely throw into the record a few of our favorites, "Away", "Who I Am" and "Run" (none of these are congregational worship songs, but their messages resonate) as well as the never heard "Fight or Flight", which is a very personal song from my experiences in the past year. I can't wait for you to hear this project!

Extravagant

Kissing my wife would not make me a good husband, nor would buying her flowers, writing her songs or laughing with her late at night. What would make me a good husband is fidelity, providing for her, honesty, being a spiritual leader for her and other not-so-visible signs of love for her. Without these I cannot be a good husband. But kissing, flower buying, songs and laughter flow out of our relationship naturally because of the strength of my love for her that is also expressed in fidelity, etc.

I think it can be the same in our worship of God. Raising hands, bowing facedown or tears do not make us worshipers. Loving God from the heart, obeying Him and loving our neighbors are our primary acts of worship. Without these, we are not worshipers of God. But our worship of God should manifest itself in the same ways that loving our spouse should.

How extravagantly do we express our love for God? Consider the following passage.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."
(Joh 12:1-8)

300 denarii is about a year's wages for someone back then. I'm not sure how much you make in a year- $30,000? $50,000? $80,000? Imagine taking a year's worth of your earnings, saving it all, buying something with it and pouring it out at the feet of Jesus.

No wonder the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. It was an unbelievable amount of perfume. The house probably smelled like that stuff for months after this incredible act of worship.

How does our worship compare to the example of Mary here? Does your act of worship fill the room and seem excessive to those around? Could you say that your worship is "extravagant"? Or do we stand around like the disciples and wonder why someone would do something so outlandish?

Louder still

I'm doing, sort of in fits and starts, a Bible read-through with Amy. It's a chronological one, so the layout is different and it's really interesting. Here is what I read the other day that blew me away (no, this wasn't all that I read that day :-)...

1 Chronicles 23:1-5
When David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel. David assembled all the leaders of Israel and the priests and the Levites. The Levites, thirty years old and upward, were numbered, and the total was 38,000 men. "Twenty-four thousand of these," David said, "shall have charge of the work in the house of the LORD, 6,000 shall be officers and judges, 4,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 shall offer praises to the LORD with the instruments that I have made for praise."

Notice the number of musicians. So I thought about what that would look like, how it would sound. You know what they did to make music big and loud before they had amplification? They added people with instruments. How loud is one lyre? Not too loud. One cymbal? Approaching loud. Harps? I don't know, depends on the size, but not too loud. What about two? five? ten? Then imagine 4,000. Imagine the amount of air being moved, in time, in harmony, for the express purpose of the praise of the greatness of the God of Israel.

In David's day they didn't turn it up, they simply got lots and lots of trained musicians to make the music loud. Hundreds of musicians can be loud. Thousands of instruments would be incredibly loud.

Do you think that God was trying to make a statement to Israel about Who He is?

A number of years ago I attended an airshow. At one point in the show they had a Hawker Harrier, one of those Vertical Takeoff and Landing jets. Just before the jet took off, they cleared everyone far, far away and told people it would be really loud. I was not prepared for how incredibly loud that thing would be.

As the engine started pushing down air the sound became unbelievably loud. People who already had earplugs were covering their ears. What was incredible is that the thing hadn't even taken off yet. It just got louder and immeasurably louder. Funny, I haven't seen the Harrier there since. I think it overwhelmed everyone.

There is a sense of awe and fear when something is that loud. In our churches today, what are we saying about God with our volume? Is it "shock and awe" or "stealth"?

In the Psalms we are encouraged to shout God's praise and to shout for joy (20:5; 32:11; 33:1; 35:27; 47:1; 65:8; 66:1; 71:23; 81:1; 132:9, 16). Why is that? Is it so God can hear it way up there? I don't think so. I think we say something awesome about God in a shout that can't be said the same way with a normal volume.

Do we have a time to shout the praise of God in our churches? Does our volume ever get loud enough that we're shaking the building, making people outside wonder, "what are they doing in there?"

Or do we always keep our volume at a comfortable level, making great statements about God in not-so-great a way? Who is determining volume level- Biblical examples or guardians of the ear?

Of course, not every time is a time to crank up the volume. There are many times for weeping, repentance, silence. But we need to expand the dynamics of our worship to include the whole range. Do we range from pianissimo to fortissimo or just live in the middle of mezzo forte?

I think Matt Redman captures the heart of this in the title track of his album, Beautiful News.

Shout it out, let the people sing
something so powerful should shake the whole wide world
Make it loud, make it louder still
Savior, we're singing now
to celebrate Your beautiful news

backwards

I don't know how it goes at your church, but I think we do church backwards. We start off with a "worship" song that I call a "throwaway" song because the only role of that song is to get people inside. Then we have the joke hour, err, announcements to let everyone know what they should remember at the end of the service just before they go.

"Ha! That guy was FUNNY!" we're saying to ourselves as the lead worshiper begins to call the body to worship. Worship is a response, right? And what are we responding to? The announcements?

After the music we have the preacher come up and give us a message from the Word. And any good preacher will try to illicit some sort of response. But upon "Amen" most of the conversations we hear are not believers sharing with each other about how we're going to take this message that the Lord has spoken through this man and live it out. No, we talk about announcement-material.
"Did you sign up for the retreat?"
"How do we get to so and so's house for Care Group?"
"Are you coming to the Mother-Daughter Roller Derby?"

It's funny, because it seems like it is exactly opposite of a much more logical order:

Hearing from God's Word
leads to
worshipful response
leads to
how can I involve myself in what God is doing?

You see it over and over again in both the Old and New Testaments. God reveals Himself or does something and the response is worship. Worship, at its very core, is a response. Yet the order in which we do things at many churches would suggest that worship is just a preamble to the meaty part of the service.

I wonder if part of why some of our churches have a low view of worship is because it's just that thing we do before the message. Worship is the thing we do before the important part, which is the preaching. It's like the previews at the beginning of a movie. We settle in, get our popcorn ready, take a few sips of the soda and make some comments to our date (or friend or whatever). Then the REAL movie starts.

Worship is not a preamble nor a preview. It's really not pre-anything. Worship should be our response to God's revelation. Changing the order won't necessarily lead to everyone understanding the responsive nature of worship, but it certainly would help put worship in its proper place.

All spent out with the common

So last night I was listening to, and pondering the message of, the song "Hosanna" by Brooke Fraser. It made me want to leap, pump my fists, do a back flip, go nuts, whatever. "He IS HERE! HE HAS SAVED US!!!" I was celebrating in my heart and pounding the steering wheel with the drum part. I wished I was with the saints to celebrate together the realization of the Messiah's coming. And yet I knew that, if I was around all the saints, it would probably be pretty tame. No jumping, no backflips (I can't do them anyway), no dancing.

I began to wonder, "Why is it that our corporate 'celebration' of our God's coming is so tame and so mild?"

It takes us a great deal of self-control to keep our composure when we're angry about something. Our faces redden, our blood boils and we try hard to keep from lashing out. Yet our joy is often slowly stirred and our passions take a great deal of priming for us to even begin to express love for the Savior.

The other thing I thought about is how we use grandiose words to describe ordinary things and have none reserved for the truly awesome. Just this morning I used a plastic bag that claimed to be "awesome". Really? Then what is God? Really, really awesome? Our vocabularies have reached their zenith to describe mundane, ordinary things. We have leveled out the common and the holy in our words and have nothing left for the One worthy of great words.

No wonder we have no wonder in our worship. We're out of emotions and words. We've spent our passion on frustration, our words on what is common. We gather before the living God! What do we offer Him that we're not offering to everything else? What praise and passion is reserved for God alone?

I don't write this as one not guilty of the same. I struggle with this so hard. I get so excited about so many things, but what excitement do I reserve for God alone? Oh that I would learn to be reserved around the things of this world that I might become undignified in the presence of the awesome God.

Enter His Gates

I was behind a lady the other day at my local Starbucks who ordered the most complex sounding drink I've ever heard. It had a couple of "half-pumps" in it and strict temperature demands. When she got her drink, she took a little sip and immediately retorted to the barista that she must have put in more than half a pump of some syrup.

I stood behind her marveling at how specific her demands were for her coffee. I was amazed that someone would accept nothing less than exactly what suits her tastes. And I was aghast at how much she is like the Church when it comes to worship.

I hear people say all the time "I love it when so-and-so leads worship, but when such-and-such leads I just can't worship..." "I would worship so much better if so and so ALWAYS led worship." We all have favorite songs and favorite types of music. But what in the world are we expecting the songs and instruments to do? Are we expecting them to lift us to a place we won't otherwise go?

Now, don't get me wrong. The Church needs musicians who play excellently. Well-written songs can express what is in the heart of the Church and be a fantastic way to lift up worship to our great God. But have we become addicted to music in worship? More specifically, have we become addicted to the musical style that we like or a certain group of songs that we like?

I can't lead anyone in worship. I can lead BY worshiping. But leading in worship can only be done by the Holy Spirit. When we approach corporate worship with cold, dead hearts it is no wonder that our offering to God is passionless and dull.

I think that corporate worship can be really wonderful and alive when believers come into the door already worshiping. Then the music is just a means of expression and not the critical part that it so commonly now plays.

What changes from week to week? Or song to song? Maybe the quality or the instrumentation or the lead worshiper. But God hasn't changed! God is no less worthy of honor, glory, blessing... (worship!) when the worship team doesn't suit our personal tastes. God's glory and greatness can be found in the songs written by Redman, Tomlin and Baloche. His immanence and love can be found in the Gaither songs. The profound riches of his work are throughout the newer songs written by Keith and Kristyn Getty, or the older Hymns of Worship and Remembrance. But none of these songs can make us worship. They can help us express what is in our hearts, but the worship needs to be in our hearts first just bursting to come out no matter what the baristas are making that day :-)