Seeds of Context

As I walked past this bowl of fruit this morning, I was reminded of a quick illustration regarding context, especially with regards to the Scriptures. The thought came from the Life Group curriculum that we're using at ROCKharbor and that was developed by Francis Chan, so the OTHER reason I was reminded of this thought is that I adapted it into the introduction for the Bible study Alicia and I are co-running this semester on Acts. But the bowl was the "reminder of the reminder" this morning, so I'll stick with that!

Chan writes, "When studying Scripture, think apple rather than orange." He explains:

Typically, when you eat an apple, you take a bite out of the whole fruit. When you eat an orange, you break it into isolated pieces and then eat the pieces individually. Whenever we read a verse, we should be mindful that we are taking a thought (a "bite") from a larger story. Always keep in mind that every verse is connected to a chapter, a book, and the entire Bible.

I know I may seem like a broken record here, but to use the potentially easiest example, Jeremiah 29:11 is an amazing and powerful verse. By itself, it's a pretty tasty morsel. Let's remember that it's part of the "apple" of Jeremiah (70 years of captivity, judgement, exile) though :).

God, reveal to me the larger story that your Word paints. Open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from your Law (Psalm 119:18), because without your Spirit illuminating it I am prone to make mistakes. Thank you for the gift of your Word-may I and others handle it carefully and accurately. 

Weekend Setlist

This past weekend The Sunland Navigators hosted an conference for college juniors and seniors called EDGE Preview.  Over the course of the weekend many different post-college opportunities with The Navigators were presented, but the overall focus was on trusting God wherever he takes you, not just if it's in ministry and not just specifically with The Navs.

I had the privilege of leading worship the second morning for the group of 115 or so students and staff. The setup was two guitars, two vocalists, and that's pretty much it. Fun story about the morning: about half an hour or so before our set I discovered that the output jack had fallen INTO my guitar! I had to enlist one of our students with smaller hands and arms than me to reach inside my guitar (after I'd taken all the strings off!) and reposition the jack. Thankfully the screw wasn't hard to track down and we had enough time to perform the "operation" and get my guitar back into playing shape before the set! (It was still kinda crazy to have my guitar basically having open heart surgery though! Thanks Cherenda! :D)

For the set I chose to focus on God's promises, his power, and our response. "You Said" by shane & shane is about one of the most Navigator (especially Sunland Navigator) friendly songs you'll come across: It's all about claiming God's promises, uses imagery from Psalm 2:8 and Matt 9:35-38, and is all about God's glory reaching the Nations. "At Your Name" is a recent favorite of mine...there's something that just works about literally shouting "Yahweh" and dwelling on his might that's...well, powerful. And singing "Living for Your Glory" can be a powerful time of reflection and earnest prayer where we surrender again to God's will (see my friend Caitlin's blog for an example!).



1. "You Said" by Shane & Shane (G)
2. "At Your Name" by Tim Hughes and Phil Wickham (A)
3. "Living for Your Glory" by Tim Hughes (D)




What promises from God are you having trouble believing? What problem are you currently facing that is too big for him? What areas of your life do you need to surrender to him to live completely for His glory?


God, help me to believe your promises, your power, and your purposes. May I seek you and your kingdom first, before all others. 

The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About? - Desiring God

I've been doing some reading up and study on God's sovereignty for NavWest recently and stumbled across an article by John Piper called The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What Is Romans Nine About? - Desiring God:

We all know the amazing promises of Romans 8: that all things work for the good of those who love God, that no one can be against us if God is for us, and that nothing can separate us from Christ's love. But have you ever wondered why Romans 9, a rather blunt and harsh (at times) exposition of God's absolute sovereignty immediately follows? I hadn't, but Piper traces the connection beautifully, concluding:

"Romans 9 comes after Romans 8 for this utterly crucial reason: It shows that the word of God’s covenant with Israel has not failed, because it is grounded in God’s sovereign, electing mercy. Therefore the promises to the true Israel and the promises of Romans 8 will stand! That is the gospel of Romans 9. The promises purchased by the blood of Christ will be performed by the sovereign power of God."

God, thank you that you have the power to back up and complete your promises! Thank you that we can cling to them because we know that you set the world into motion with a word and that you love us. May I live in light of this reality.

Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis by N.T. Wright

"Among the many things that need to be said about the gospels is that we gain nothing by ignoring the fact that Jesus chose twelve male apostles. There were no doubt all kinds of reasons for this within both the symbolic world in which he was operating and the practical and cultural world within which they would have to live and work. But every time this point is made – and in my experience it is made quite frequently – we have to comment on how interesting it is that there comes a time in the story when the disciples all forsake Jesus and run away; and at that point, long before the rehabilitation of Peter and the others, it is the women who come first to the tomb, who are the first to see the risen Jesus, and are the first to be entrusted with the news that he has been raised from the dead. This is of incalculable significance. Mary Magdalene and the others are the apostles to the apostles. We should not be surprised that Paul calls a woman named Junia an apostle in Romans 16.7. If an apostle is a witness to the resurrection, there were women who deserved that title before any of the men."

An excerpt from Women’s Service in the Church: The Biblical Basis by N.T. Wright

God Provides, even...ESPECIALLY...the small things

For those who don't know, this is a capo: more than that, it is a broken capo. Capos are used by guitar players to change the key that they're playing in without changing the chords that they're playing. It makes everything MUCH easier. It also makes pianists and other 'real' musicians hate guitar players =P

My capo broke at our regional conference several weeks ago, and since then I've been either too busy or too lazy to replace it. While capos make things easier, they are by no means necessary: you can get by without them. Furthermore, I have another capo that kinda works the same way...it was made to do something different (cover some of the strings but not all of them) so you can kinda cheat and use it as a full capo. 

The other day I was strumming my guitar as I sat on the grass in Parkside waiting to practice with Rachel for some worship we'd be playing together when I saw one of the maintenance guys walking towards me. "Great" I thought to myself. "They're probably wanting to mow the grass or water or something and need me to move. The guy and I made that awkward early eye contact too where we both knew we saw each other but were still kinda too far away.

When he got close enough, he asked me a simple question: Is this yours? He was holding a (different but similarly functioning) capo in his hands! 

I told him that it wasn't mine, but he gave it to me anyways! Without having to do anything for myself, God totally provided a new capo for me! I sat there kinda stunned-i had NOT expected anything of the sort to happen and so it was a neat moment where all I could really do in response was shoot up a prayer of thanksgiving.

Sometimes I think we can fall into the trap of taking spiritual promises from the Bible to mean that there will be physical blessings, expecting things on this side of eternity that we shouldn't. BUT...sometimes we don't take them literally enough!

Thank You, God, that you care enough to orchestrate the provision of something as simple and small as a capo for my guitar. May I trust you in the bigger things (finances, family, health) also!

"And my God will supply every need of Yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:19

Redesign

Recently Starbucks changed their logo. And by recently, I mean within the past few months. Forgive me for not commenting on this sooner, but I really haven't had much reason to comment on it until now.

My day to day interaction with Starbucks didn't change much as a result of this change. I still have a gold card, still get my coffee the same ways at the same times, and still spend way to much money there. Seriously, how does that even happen?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that, while the wrapping changed, the product stayed the same. Starbucks doesn't sell CUPS-they sell COFFEE. (Well, they sell tumblers and mugs and stuff, but that's not the point.)

I've changed the way the blog looks and the way you can leave comments and interact with the content I put here. Unfortunately the blog won't display the comments that people have left on the last few months worth of comments, but switching now ensures that comments will henceforth be saved!

A couple of months ago I saw John Mark McMillan in concert, and as he was introducing a new song he said something that I'm still chewing on today:

Truth doesn't change, but language evolves.

The blog might look a bit different, but I'm still doing the same stuff, writing the same way, and serving the same God! :)

Conference Setlist 10/28-10/30

This past week we had our Regional Conference for the Navigators: 370 students from around 14 different campuses (in Hawaii, California, Arizona, and Utah!) gathered in Pine Valley, CA (near San Diego) for three days to pursue God intentionally and corporately. This is an annual event but this was by far the largest amount of people that we'd ever had come! We maxed out the facilities at the camp we were at and were scrambling to find places for everyone to lay their head down at night! Praise God for an amazing problem to have to deal with: TOO MANY STUDENTS! :)

I was honored to be asked to lead worship throughout the weekend, an opportunity I jumped at! God has blessed me with this passion and our ministry at Long Beach with an overabundance of talented musicians! So I assembled a six piece band (including me: two acoustic guitarists, one electric, piano/keyboard player, bass player, and drummer) and we set to practicing and preparing.

I could go on and on about how the weekend went, but to keep it short and simple: it surpassed all my expectations! The band really came together well and I think we found that balance between not being so BAD that you're distracting but also not being so GOOD that you're distracting (i.e. making it a performance). The feedback that I got over the course of the weekend was nothing but encouraging and I'll never forget specific moments from the weekend like the first song, the various times everyone sang a-cappella ("How Great Thou Art" being the most obvious), and the ways I saw God moving and answering prayers during the extended time of worship Saturday night.

Normally when I lead worship I share the songs and link to youtube videos of the songs, but this time there's just too many! We played close to thirty different songs and repeated a few of them, so if I were to do that...well, it'd just take FOREVER. I have a compromise, however, with two aspects.

First, I've still included the list but only linked to songs that are newer or people asked me about. If you have questions about any of them, however, PLEASE let me know and I'll do my best to accommodate you!

Second, if you have Spotify you can go to my profile (click here!!) and I've put all these songs in a playlist! If you DON'T have Spotify...well, you should lol. Anyways, I hope one of these two ways will be beneficial to you!

I've organized the songs into a list that's arranged by the them of each talk they were with, since that's how I chose the songs in the first place. Again, let me know if you have any questions or anything!

Jesus
1. "Your Love Never Fails" by Chris McClarney [Jesus Culture] (Bb)
2. "In Christ Alone"by Stuart Townend (D->E)
3. "Hosanna" by Hillsong United (E)

4. "Lead Me to the Cross" by Hillsong United (D)
5. "Jesus Paid it All" modern arrangement by Alex Nifong (B)
6. "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (C)

7. "Center" by Charlie Hall and Matt Redman (E)


The Nations
8. "The Highest and the Greatest" by Tim Hughes (Bb)
9. "Saviour of the World" by Ben Cantelon (Bb)
10. "Mighty to Save" by Reuben Morgan [Hillsong] (Bb)
11. "Be Thou My Vision" (E)


Laborers
12. "Here I am to Worship" by Tim Hughes (D)
13. "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman (A)
14. "Consuming Fire" by Tim Hughes (G)
15. "I Lift My Eyes Up (Psalm 121)" by Brian Doerksen (C)

16. "Living For Your Glory"

Extended Night of Worship 

17. "Cannons" by Phil Wickham (G)
18. "You Alone" by David Crowder (C)
19. "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan (C)
20. "Nothing Is Impossible" by Planetshakers (C)
21. "Our God" by Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman (G)
22. "Your Love Never Fails" **
23. "At Your Name" by Phil Wickham and Tim Hughes (A)
24. "One Thing Remains"by Brian Johnson and Jeremy Riddle [Bethel Church] (A)
25. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle (C)
26. "The Lost are Found" by Sam Knock and Ben Fielding [Hillsong] (A)


The Lost
27. "I've Found a Love" by Ben Cantelon (A)
28. "At Your Name" **/"How Great is Our God"/"How Great Thou Art" (A)

29. "Rescue" by Desperation Band (C)
30. "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall (B)
31. "The Lost are Found" **

32. "Be Thou My Vision" **
33. "Our God" **
34. "Forever Reign" **

**=repeats



What song(s) were most impactful for you? Which ones had you not heard before or in a long time? Favorites?