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This happens to me ALL the time……

I have shared with many people that the thing Christians call ‘worship’ is a struggle for me. Its not that worshipping God is a struggle, just that doing so as a result of, or as influenced by a formulated and rather repetitive song is tough for me. We should all know that ‘worship’ is not exclusively a musical thing but i find myself wondering if many of us do know that. But this post isn’t about that particular issue…..

Anyway, music stirs up ‘unexpected moments of worship’ within me, music by ‘secular artists!’

This post is inspired by an article in Relevant magazine – you can read the full article here – you should. Reading it helped me gather my thoughts on this subject and pushed me to blog this. I say ‘pushed’ because for some people, this is controversial or risky ground.

A couple of weeks ago i mentioned a need to pause and NOT sing during Church and to assess in my own heart if i was singing the words truthfully. As the Relevant article points out; ‘So many songs seem to address lots of the bright and shiny emotions we feel about God, but sometimes, we can be left feeling detached when trying to worship.’

I don’t want to just re-blog everything the article says so i’ll just say that for a long time i have experienced more ‘unexpected moments of worship’ than i could possibly count. So much so that id say they are no longer ‘unexpected.’ Moments of ‘worship’ during singing in Church are slightly more unexpected if i am honest!

There are many examples in the U2 back catalogue. Seriously, have you ever heard a song of ‘worship’ as amazing as Yahweh? Crumbs from Your Table? I am only thinking of one album with these two suggestions, i could quote U2 for days on end!

A more recent example for me is Josh Ritter’s album So Runs the World Away, it provides a few amazing moments – in the song ‘Lark’ he sings;

“I am assured, yes I am assured yes
I am assured that peace will come to me
A peace that can yes surpass the speed yes
Of my understanding and my need”

I could rattle on here and quote song lyrics all day but my point really is that we can & do limit our worship experience by assuming God only shows up in the words of songs written by Christians who are in the ‘Christian music industry.’

Much of the music i hear within the ‘Christian genre’ is really bad. Outside of the confines of that industry, the music is better – it just IS –  but also, the so-called ‘secular has more chance of inspiring ‘worship’ in me. Perhaps thats due to the honesty of the artists? Perhaps because they are spilling out the emotions of their heart into a song and not trying to create the new worship hit song?

God just does NOT define and categorise things like we do & an industry that is boxed in and confined to ‘Christians’ only making Christian music might just be very silly sounding to God – He works outside of all the rules we make!

“What is church? It’s people, broken people … pretending not to be broken … and that’s what breaks it…”

The quote is from Phil Groom’s blog post – here / The clip is from Rev, a new BBC sitcom – here – its profound!

I think what’s so great about Rev is, its not making fun of God but it is highlighting how absurd people are.

This clip exposes the ‘Jesus is awesome’ mask brilliantly – if you can watch the full episode on iPlayer, you must do so! It highlights so much of what is wrong with our “21st Century Church” but also shows a beautiful and genuine Christian reaction to such false behaviour. Like i say, profound stuff!

“If Bible teachers could only remember that the ‘Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’ and gave us divinely inspired truth, and never for one remote moment meant to give us anything to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, they would realise that the prophets meant to give us truth to transform spirit and soul and bring us into holy living and holy believing. They never intended that we should have theological baby rattles to entertain ourselves.”
A.W. Tozer

You have to admire Tozer’s ability to just ‘say it like it is.’

I just started reading one of the ‘never before published’ titles that landed recently – ‘Living as as Christian’ – and in typical Tozer fashion im blown away in the first chapter. Challenged is perhaps a more apt way to describe BUT…………yes there is a big BUT!!

How often are we challenged by a book or by a sermon to the point where it brings about change? Let me explain….

“Today we sing songs that are so dishonest that i sometimes hesitate to sing them. Yet when we sing the average hymn, if God Almighty compelled us to be entirely 100% honest, we simply could not sing them because their words would not be true of us.” A.W. Tozer

I read that Tozer quote yesterday afternoon and as i stood in Church last night i stared at some of the words and found myself not singing…i couldn’t help but be stopped in my tracks as i pondered the words and whether i meant them or whether we were all just entertaining ourselves.

I don’t say this to boast because these moments are rare – i promise you that – i am no saint!

Each of you can examine your own heart – so, feel free to chuck away this blog post as another aimless rant if you have this all nailed down!

Sometimes i just don’t care about what theological subject you are a ninja with, how well you can argue for dispensationalism or what kind of worship you prefer………its a baby rattle!

I know some of you will say “but its truth, and this is the right way to do things” which is lovely, but how is your life? How is the Holy Living working out for you? Do others think of you as a rude arrogant sod who knows a lot about the Bible? Do you have all the doctrine hammered down tight but yet can’t look a brother in the eye to say hello to him?

Has all the knowledge and intellectual thinking changed who you are?

If not, then what are you rattling, what theological/doctrinal toy are you playing around with?

Holy living and Holy believing…..NOT Holy entertainment! Thats what we need………

Buy the book thats kicking my ass – here – let it kick yours also!!

I wasn’t a fan of the book despite the hype.

I don’t particularly like fiction anyway but my main issue – as unpopular as it is – was the casual heresy. But, this post is not about that…..

“William Paul Young’s bestselling novel about a father’s renewal of faith after suffering an unspeakable tragedy has spawned a tangle of lawsuits over royalties and even the book’s authorship.”

You can read the full story here.

This is pretty sad news but part of me is not surprised by the chaos that seems to have erupted. Before you jump to conclusions, i am not claiming that this is their reward for the heresy – though i am quite sure some will say that.

Its sad that Christians cannot be in business or partnership together!

Ok, i think we know that Christians can and do forge wonderful business partnerships that are full of integrity and honest practice BUT isn’t it sad that more often we just hear about the ones that end in disaster?

The amounts of money involved when you have sold millions of books is obviously huge – i have NO concept of how big that must make your ego but these folks are supposed to be Christians aren’t they?

I think this is why i am not surprised.

I have seen, experienced and know ‘Christians’ who turn into assholes when money is at stake! The reason?

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Today is the 12th of July!

Here in Northern Ireland thousands of people take to the streets to “celebrate” the “Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690).” (from wikipedia)

In recent years an effort to make the whole thing a lot more cultural and a lot less sectarian led to a name change.

We all know that calling it ‘Orangefest’ takes the sectarian edge of it! Perhaps if they gave out free oranges to everyone? Or dressed up as Oranges? Promoted a national culinary delight created from oranges that we could all enjoy during the holiday period? Im clutching at straws…….

I watched “the 12th” once when i was still a child and i vowed to never endure it again!

I may often say i don’t care about it or i’m indifferent to the whole thing but if i am honest, i do care.

I care about something that gets labelled as ‘Christian’ and is clearly not. I care that many ‘Christian leaders’ from many Churches still join in and do not see the terrible influence they are having. I care that thousands of men & women think their parading and “celebrations” have God’s endorsement! I care that these things all add to the undercurrent of sectarianism that is evident in the “Protestant Churches” here in Northern Ireland.

Last year Gary Boal said this;

“Today on the 12th of July i’d ask you to bow your knee & worship the One True and Only Worshipful Master; Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God.” (read the full post here)

Even if you hate everything else i just said, at least know this….

One day you will bow your knee before God, and whether you were ‘Orange’ or ‘Green’ in this life will NOT matter! God does not support your cause no matter how much you name drop Him!

Orange…………..Jesus was and is NOT!