Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Perception

        It’s amazing to think of the many ways we perceive God.  We often think of God as a bearded man who sits on a cloud in the sky, waiting for us to really mess up so that he can fry us like an ant under a magnifying glass. No one would probably say those things aloud, but that is exactly what we believe at times. Why do we think of God in this way?  Why do we believe the worst about God, when he always thinks the best of us? There is often a disconnect between what we know about Him, and what we feel. I may know God is for me, but have never felt that way. It all goes back to my heart, and what I believe.  What I believe in my heart is the reality I see in life.  Could it be possible that there are two realities going on at the same time? Yes. We as people have a reality, but God has a reality that is a heck of lot better than ours.  My reality may be that I’m a failure, cant do anything right, full of lack, and unlovable. God’s reality is that I am whole, complete, and lacking nothing.  I may be experiencing failure and lack, because I haven’t chosen to believe the truth of God’s reality. Until I embrace the truth that God has made me whole I will always end right back up in destructive ways of thinking.  So it could be a simple as changing my belief in my heart, to change my life.
            

       I believe it is good to sometimes challenge the way I think, just to see where my heart is.  When I read something that God says about me, I often ask myself, “Do I really believe that?” Not that I just know it with head knowledge, but do I believe it in my heart?  My heart is where I live life from; it’s where I make all my decisions about life and about God.  So over the last year I have been challenging what it’s in my heart, and asking God to reveal things that aren’t of him.  I’m not going to lie some of the things that have surface aren’t all that pretty, but its good it rises, so I can allow God to speak truth over that and start believing the truth.  I have found the more I do this, the more I start believing that I am loved, valuable, a success, the head not the tail, and more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. That is what YOU are too! We are his children and he loves us. What a simple, yet amazing truth! Even when I have failed, fallen short, he does not see that. He sees a SON! Choose to believe that today! Choose to believe that when God sees you He doesn’t see failure. He sees a success! Change our perception of God from an angry God, to a God who loves and thinks the best of us!
Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us: they cannot be recounted in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. –Psalm 40:5

-Jason

Saturday, February 25, 2012

"The Glory of God, is Man Fully Alive"


For as long as I could remember I have had a passion for worship.  I can remember as a young kid watching my Dad leading worship with such joy and excitement. I was so enthralled with it.  I said to myself many times,  “That’s what I want to do someday, I wanna be like that.” I remember going to countless late night worship services at the church and seeing my Dad lead people into worship, and I was convinced that's what I wanted to do with my life, lead people into the presence of God. 
             
           I started leading worship when I was about 15 yrs old, and I have loved every minute of it. I have hard times, times of discovery, and times when I thought it couldn’t be any better. Recently, I have had an opportunity to take a break from leading worship. I would be lying to you If I told you that I haven’t missed it a lot, but through this time, God has been really changing my perspective about what worship truly is.   For most of my time leading worship, my perspective has been mostly performance-based. Somehow I believed that if I didn’t have my life together, then I wouldn’t be effective and couldn’t worship God as freely as I wanted to. I felt as if I had to try to clean myself up to be able worship God. The belief was that God needed ME to shape up to move in worship.  Not true at all! God wants us to worship Him wherever we are, however we are! Not just with music, or at church, but by the way we live our daily lives.  Worship services at church are awesome, and I’m glad we do them, but my everyday, every minute worship with my life is what is truly rewarding.

God has been revealing a lot to me regarding worship, and the purpose of me starting this blog is to share some of the things that God has put on my heart regarding worship and my relationship to Him. I have never thought of myself as a blogger, but I thought I would give it a go!  I hope that the things that I share minister to you like they have ministered to me.


-Jason