"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead."
-Philippians 3:13
As this year is coming to a close, I thought I would talk a bit about looking back. I have mentioned a couple times on this blog that it is important to reflect on the things that we do and how they are helping achieve our purpose. Instead of repeating myself over again, I am going to share my reflection of 2012 which I wrote during a retreat a couple days ago (tweaked a bit). Hopefully this will be encouraging and will show you how to view past events.
The year of 2012 was very similar to other years of my life. There were some successes and many failures and disappointments. This year, as every other year, is a reminder that I am nothing without the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Every day I have fallen short of God's standards, but every day I was covered in His grace. I tried very hard to fight against sin, but I have lost that battle many times. The past year was a painful reminder that I'm nothing but a sinner that is saved by the blood of Jesus.
As 2011 was coming to a close, I decided that I wanted 2012 to be a time of growth. I wanted to read the bible and pray consistently. One of my new year resolutions was to read the old testament in 2012, but I didn't come even close to reaching that goal. Despite having good intentions and a desire to read the Bible, my love of distractions and my lack of discipline held me back.
I wanted a renewed purpose in 2012, so I chose a key verse that was very purpose oriented. I read Philippians 3, and I chose verse 10 to be my 2012 key verse. Philippians 3:10 reads "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." This verse made it clear that my purpose is to know Christ by experiencing Him. I have to experience His suffering and death. His suffering and His death were both because of sin, so I also had to suffer and die to sin. I was still trapped in my sin, and I could not deny myself and die to my sins. I could not experience the resurrection power of Christ because of that.
My key verse was not completely useless though. I really thought about the purpose of my life and what I am doing to reach it. I tried to analyze myself without any bias, and I found out that I was trying to achieve happiness. It seemed that everything I did was to make myself happier. Later in the year I began to read "Desiring God" by John Piper, which gave me hope. He says that everyone is trying to be happy, but we all try to be happy in different ways. No one can find true happiness in themselves or in anything of this world, but only in God. I realized that I was seeking pleasure in the things of this world rather than in God. I knew that I had to experience God to find true happiness.
In 2012 I had a lot to thank God for. I graduated from high school with good grades, and I was accepted into the University of Maryland. I also finished my first semester of college without many problems. I had good health, I made new friends, and I learned a lot. Most of all, I am thankful for's God amazing grace for us.
-Smart
Receiving
"For if, by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."
-Romans 5:17
This is the day of the year that many people have been looking forward to; Christmas. The joy of seeing family and friends, getting gifts and food, really makes Christmas a special time of year. The one aspect of Christmas that many people like the most is getting gifts. Last year I talked about giving gifts, and why that is important to showing appreciation and improving character. This year I want to talk about something that is the opposite. While giving is probably a better way to show appreciation, receiving is another way. What do I mean by this?
A couple years ago I read a book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. The book was pretty good, but for some reason only one part sticks in my mind, even after reading it years ago. While Don Piper is in the hospital after his car crash, he is helpless and can't do anything he wants to. He can't even roll over to change his position on the hospital bed. It would be terrible to be on your back for weeks on end. He can't get up to walk around, can't get up to use the bathroom, can't get up to eat, get a magazine, nothing. During this time in his life, his friends did what you might expect good friends to do in this situation. They constantly visited him, and they would ask him if he needed anything; a book, magazine, food, water, anything. He never asked for anything at this time, so people would just leave him.
After a while of this, a friend of Piper approached him. This friend noticed that Piper never let his visitors help him. The friend talked to Piper and told him that he was being selfish. Piper was confused, and said that he is actually helping people by not making them do stuff for him. The friend said that these people love Piper so much and would do anything to ease his pain in this time. However, Piper wasn't letting people love him, because he wouldn't let them help him. Even though getting a magazine or food is not a big act of love, it was something that people could do to love him. Reluctantly, Piper agreed to let the next person give him something. Even after the confrontation, Piper still struggled to say yes to the people's offers. Finally, as one person asked him if he wanted something, Piper said he wanted a magazine. The person's face burst with happiness and he rushed to grab a magazine, bringing the entire stack to Piper.
I tell this story because it is a reminder that while it is very important for us to love others, it is important to let them love us. One of the five love languages is gifts. All of the love languages are different ways for people to receive love, but also to give it. For some people, giving gifts is a way that they love other people. Don't deprive them of that gift. Just receive their love and appreciate their love for you. Christmas has been so commercialized to the point where people only focus on small and unimportant gifts. Christmas is the time of year where we are supposed to celebrate Christ. The gift of Jesus is far more important than any other gift we can get. Jesus is also the most important gift that we have to receive.
-Smart
-Romans 5:17
This is the day of the year that many people have been looking forward to; Christmas. The joy of seeing family and friends, getting gifts and food, really makes Christmas a special time of year. The one aspect of Christmas that many people like the most is getting gifts. Last year I talked about giving gifts, and why that is important to showing appreciation and improving character. This year I want to talk about something that is the opposite. While giving is probably a better way to show appreciation, receiving is another way. What do I mean by this?
A couple years ago I read a book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. The book was pretty good, but for some reason only one part sticks in my mind, even after reading it years ago. While Don Piper is in the hospital after his car crash, he is helpless and can't do anything he wants to. He can't even roll over to change his position on the hospital bed. It would be terrible to be on your back for weeks on end. He can't get up to walk around, can't get up to use the bathroom, can't get up to eat, get a magazine, nothing. During this time in his life, his friends did what you might expect good friends to do in this situation. They constantly visited him, and they would ask him if he needed anything; a book, magazine, food, water, anything. He never asked for anything at this time, so people would just leave him.
After a while of this, a friend of Piper approached him. This friend noticed that Piper never let his visitors help him. The friend talked to Piper and told him that he was being selfish. Piper was confused, and said that he is actually helping people by not making them do stuff for him. The friend said that these people love Piper so much and would do anything to ease his pain in this time. However, Piper wasn't letting people love him, because he wouldn't let them help him. Even though getting a magazine or food is not a big act of love, it was something that people could do to love him. Reluctantly, Piper agreed to let the next person give him something. Even after the confrontation, Piper still struggled to say yes to the people's offers. Finally, as one person asked him if he wanted something, Piper said he wanted a magazine. The person's face burst with happiness and he rushed to grab a magazine, bringing the entire stack to Piper.
I tell this story because it is a reminder that while it is very important for us to love others, it is important to let them love us. One of the five love languages is gifts. All of the love languages are different ways for people to receive love, but also to give it. For some people, giving gifts is a way that they love other people. Don't deprive them of that gift. Just receive their love and appreciate their love for you. Christmas has been so commercialized to the point where people only focus on small and unimportant gifts. Christmas is the time of year where we are supposed to celebrate Christ. The gift of Jesus is far more important than any other gift we can get. Jesus is also the most important gift that we have to receive.
-Smart
Connecticut Tragedy
"Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Now we know that if the earth tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
-Barrack Obama quoting 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1
Recently there has been a shooting in Connecticut. This shocked people all over the U.S. and has dominated the headlines in the news for days. A man went into a school and shot 26 people, and then eventually himself. This was obviously very shocking news, especially because 20 of the people killed in the incident were elementary school students. Parents of these children were greatly hurt and will no longer get to see their children. It's wrong for a parent to have to attend the funeral of their child, it should be the other way around.
The shooting has brought up many different arguments, regarding gun control laws and whatnot, but that's not what I thought about after this incident. The first thing that came to my mind is what drove the man to do such a terrible act. The answer to the question may never be found, because the man took his own life. The next thing I thought about was how corrupt the world has become. Events like this are becoming more frequent, but I see something good in this event. People still know what is right and what is wrong. People care about the families that lost someone, and people want to do something to prevent this kind of thing happening again.
Lastly I though about a hypothetical situation. I am certain that if I went to one of the parents of the children who were killed, and I asked them if they would take the place of their child, they would all say yes. Most, if not all, parents would much rather die then have their children die. What allows a parent to say this honestly? Some might say a parent has lived a long enough life, and a child hasn't even lived very long. While this is true, I'm pretty sure that's not what is going through a person's head when they are asked this question. A parent is able to say this because they love their children. They would do anything for their well-being.
Sadly, even though a parent would be willing to die for their child, they can't. As much as they want to, they cannot change what has happened. This is truly unfortunate, but that's just how life is. However, I'm not going to end like that. I have good news. There is one parent who has given his life for all His children. This parent has the power to do so. This person is God. He gave His life in order that us, His children, could have life eternal. All we have to do is accept it. So I have a challenge for us all; let us fix our eyes on what is unseen.
-Smart
-Barrack Obama quoting 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1
Recently there has been a shooting in Connecticut. This shocked people all over the U.S. and has dominated the headlines in the news for days. A man went into a school and shot 26 people, and then eventually himself. This was obviously very shocking news, especially because 20 of the people killed in the incident were elementary school students. Parents of these children were greatly hurt and will no longer get to see their children. It's wrong for a parent to have to attend the funeral of their child, it should be the other way around.
The shooting has brought up many different arguments, regarding gun control laws and whatnot, but that's not what I thought about after this incident. The first thing that came to my mind is what drove the man to do such a terrible act. The answer to the question may never be found, because the man took his own life. The next thing I thought about was how corrupt the world has become. Events like this are becoming more frequent, but I see something good in this event. People still know what is right and what is wrong. People care about the families that lost someone, and people want to do something to prevent this kind of thing happening again.
Lastly I though about a hypothetical situation. I am certain that if I went to one of the parents of the children who were killed, and I asked them if they would take the place of their child, they would all say yes. Most, if not all, parents would much rather die then have their children die. What allows a parent to say this honestly? Some might say a parent has lived a long enough life, and a child hasn't even lived very long. While this is true, I'm pretty sure that's not what is going through a person's head when they are asked this question. A parent is able to say this because they love their children. They would do anything for their well-being.
Sadly, even though a parent would be willing to die for their child, they can't. As much as they want to, they cannot change what has happened. This is truly unfortunate, but that's just how life is. However, I'm not going to end like that. I have good news. There is one parent who has given his life for all His children. This parent has the power to do so. This person is God. He gave His life in order that us, His children, could have life eternal. All we have to do is accept it. So I have a challenge for us all; let us fix our eyes on what is unseen.
-Smart
Worship (Part 2)
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
-Psalm 103:1
At first I was going to only make one post on worship, but the story I told last time was much longer than I had expected. This post is going to be more like what I normally do, but I will definitely try to tell more stories in my blog because of the positive feedback last time. Last time I mentioned that worship is revering and honoring something. Worship is a word normally reserved for God, but it is definitely possible to worship something other than God. What do I mean by this?
When most people hear the word "worship", they will think of people singing hymns or other songs to God. While this is definitely the most obvious form of worship, it is not the only one. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes "whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God". Paul is saying that we can worship God in whatever we do, as long as we do it to the glory of God. People normally don't think about eating or drinking as a form of worship, because it is just a bodily need. Even in the simplest tasks that we do, we can worship and honor God.
It should start to make sense how we can worship things other than God. While we are not singing songs or bowing down before money, we can definitely worship it. If you always are looking to get more money, or if you find that you always want more money, you can start to worship it. We have to very careful when we look at what we want and do. What you worship reflects what you believe. If I worship God, I believe that He exists and that He is worthy of my worship. If I worship money, I believe that money can solve my problems and is worthy of my thoughts and effort.
When we worship God in song, it can be empty worship. I started to notice that I had this problem when I was in praise team in youth group. Instead of focusing on worshiping God, I was worried about how the worship team sounded. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because a praise team should sound good, that shouldn't have been consuming my thoughts. What I should have been concerned with is whether I was truly worshiping God with all my heart, and whether the worship team was leading others to true worship.
If you are in a worship team, I encourage you to read this next section carefully and think it over. Even if you are not, you should still read anyway. I believe that the first job of a worship team is to worship God. While this sounds incredibly obvious, I know from experience that it is very easy to become preoccupied with music rather than with worshiping God. The second priority of a worship team is to lead others to worship. This means making sure the music sounds good and isn't too flashy where it will distract people from worship. The best way to do this however, is to worship God yourself. If people see that you are not worshiping God, they probably won't either. Don't take this to mean that you have to lift your hands or close your eyes or sway back and forth. While these are great expressions of worship, they can be meaningless also. Just worship God to the best of your ability, and people will follow. If people don't follow, it shouldn't matter, because the only thing on your mind at that time is worshiping God.
Be careful what you worship and how you worship. If you find that you are consumed by something; money, a hobby, a person, or anything but God, ask yourself if you value that more than God. God is the only person worth all your effort and praise. He is the only one who has saved you and sacrificed everything just so He could be with you. Also ask yourself if you are worshiping God with all that is within you. Pray that your worship would be pleasing to God, and make every effort to worship God everyday.
-Smart
-Psalm 103:1
At first I was going to only make one post on worship, but the story I told last time was much longer than I had expected. This post is going to be more like what I normally do, but I will definitely try to tell more stories in my blog because of the positive feedback last time. Last time I mentioned that worship is revering and honoring something. Worship is a word normally reserved for God, but it is definitely possible to worship something other than God. What do I mean by this?
When most people hear the word "worship", they will think of people singing hymns or other songs to God. While this is definitely the most obvious form of worship, it is not the only one. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes "whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God". Paul is saying that we can worship God in whatever we do, as long as we do it to the glory of God. People normally don't think about eating or drinking as a form of worship, because it is just a bodily need. Even in the simplest tasks that we do, we can worship and honor God.
It should start to make sense how we can worship things other than God. While we are not singing songs or bowing down before money, we can definitely worship it. If you always are looking to get more money, or if you find that you always want more money, you can start to worship it. We have to very careful when we look at what we want and do. What you worship reflects what you believe. If I worship God, I believe that He exists and that He is worthy of my worship. If I worship money, I believe that money can solve my problems and is worthy of my thoughts and effort.
When we worship God in song, it can be empty worship. I started to notice that I had this problem when I was in praise team in youth group. Instead of focusing on worshiping God, I was worried about how the worship team sounded. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because a praise team should sound good, that shouldn't have been consuming my thoughts. What I should have been concerned with is whether I was truly worshiping God with all my heart, and whether the worship team was leading others to true worship.
If you are in a worship team, I encourage you to read this next section carefully and think it over. Even if you are not, you should still read anyway. I believe that the first job of a worship team is to worship God. While this sounds incredibly obvious, I know from experience that it is very easy to become preoccupied with music rather than with worshiping God. The second priority of a worship team is to lead others to worship. This means making sure the music sounds good and isn't too flashy where it will distract people from worship. The best way to do this however, is to worship God yourself. If people see that you are not worshiping God, they probably won't either. Don't take this to mean that you have to lift your hands or close your eyes or sway back and forth. While these are great expressions of worship, they can be meaningless also. Just worship God to the best of your ability, and people will follow. If people don't follow, it shouldn't matter, because the only thing on your mind at that time is worshiping God.
Be careful what you worship and how you worship. If you find that you are consumed by something; money, a hobby, a person, or anything but God, ask yourself if you value that more than God. God is the only person worth all your effort and praise. He is the only one who has saved you and sacrificed everything just so He could be with you. Also ask yourself if you are worshiping God with all that is within you. Pray that your worship would be pleasing to God, and make every effort to worship God everyday.
-Smart
Worship (Part 1)
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."
-Psalm 103:1
I'm going to do something I don't do too often on this blog, but since it is a blog I should probably do it more often. Today I'm going to talk about my experiences and hopefully it will be interesting and informative. More specifically, I'm going to talk about my experiences with worship. First though, what is worship? Worship is giving honor and revering something, normally a god. For this case I am going to talk about worshiping God, who is really the only person worth our worship and praise. God is glorious, powerful, holy, awesome, great, almighty, omnipresent, and the list goes on and on.
The first time I ever encountered worship was probably from the day I was old enough to go to church. My parents brought me to church every Sunday, which I thought was normal for kids. Every Sunday the children's service would start with a time of worship. When I say worship I mean someone playing guitar and singing songs, with everyone singing along. I'm sure the worship leader knew that it would take a lot of time for little kids like me to learn how to truly worship God, but they wanted us to start learning early, which is good.
Most services I have ever attended, even at other churches, start with a time of worship. This was the case in my youth group. However, this time there was something different, I wanted to join the praise team. I had just started playing drums for a year or so, and since there was no current drummer I wanted to join. I thought it would be simple; just attend a practice or two and I would be playing drums for Sundays (and Saturdays). What I didn't know and didn't foresee was that I wouldn't be playing drums for a very long time. I had to wait until my freshman or sophomore year in high school to start playing. I wanted to join since I was in the seventh grade.
It's not like I was a bad drummer or anything, just that the youth group leaders wanted me to learn the true heart of worship. As a praise team we would clean the bathrooms at church every Saturday, and I had to do it without even being able to play yet. I went to those practices every week for two or three years, and at times it was very frustrating. I wanted to know why they wouldn't just let me play. I waited longer than anyone had ever had to wait to join praise team, and I seriously doubted that they wanted me to join at all. It's not like me to quit easily though, and I kept pushing through, and eventually I got to play.
When I started playing drums, it was rough. I thought I was good, but looking back, I really wasn't that good. I even made a sort of motto because of how bad I was; a drummer's primary and most important job is to keep time, no matter what. If the drummer starts to speed up or slow down, it is very hard for the band to correct that. If the band slows down or speeds up, it is the drummer's job to get the tempo back. I was terrible at keeping steady tempos, which really hurt the team. Whenever I have an opportunity to teach drums or just "coach" a praise team, I will tell the drummer to keep it simple and control the tempo.
Then another change happened; people left praise team and other joined. Now I was one of the oldest and I felt that I had to help lead the team. One of the new members played drums, so sometimes I would play piano. Now this was a very, very rough new praise team. I started to notice that the drummer was making the same mistakes I did, the guitarist sometimes didn't know what he was doing, and the singer didn't seem confident. I soon realized that I had to step up and do something about this, because it seemed other people didn't want to.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like we didn't have talent. The problem was just that no one really took a step to lead the team and that caused long practices and awkward worship times on Sundays. So, much to my dismay, I started singing while playing piano. I am a terrible singer, so this was a very difficult choice to make, but I realized that somebody had to do something. Having a mic made it much easier to direct the team and also lead songs into new sections without serious miscommunication. Now this definitely didn't make us perfect, but it definitely helped the flow of worship times.
Unfortunately, sometimes when people step up into a position of leadership, it gets to their head. That happened to me. Once I started "directing" the praise team, I often would get visibly frustrated and I would question why we couldn't be better. I seriously questioned how the youth group leaders let people on the praise team play, especially since they made me wait so long. I would say things like "come on, have you never heard this song before?", and, you get the point. I hope that I didn't seriously hurt anyone's feelings, and I'm very glad that I didn't say everything that came to my mind at that time.
I am currently on the church's praise team, after graduating from high school. I sometimes still get frustrated, but this praise team has been playing together for some time, the leadership is already there, so I don't go as crazy. I pray that I don't do the things I did before and that I would be a blessing to the worship team. I am playing drums again, so I want to stick by my motto; my most important job is to keep the tempo. Nothing is more important than that, except that I have to worship God through my talents and with all my heart. (Sorry this was so long, but if you like this style of blog just comment below and I'll try to do more).
-Smart
-Psalm 103:1
I'm going to do something I don't do too often on this blog, but since it is a blog I should probably do it more often. Today I'm going to talk about my experiences and hopefully it will be interesting and informative. More specifically, I'm going to talk about my experiences with worship. First though, what is worship? Worship is giving honor and revering something, normally a god. For this case I am going to talk about worshiping God, who is really the only person worth our worship and praise. God is glorious, powerful, holy, awesome, great, almighty, omnipresent, and the list goes on and on.
The first time I ever encountered worship was probably from the day I was old enough to go to church. My parents brought me to church every Sunday, which I thought was normal for kids. Every Sunday the children's service would start with a time of worship. When I say worship I mean someone playing guitar and singing songs, with everyone singing along. I'm sure the worship leader knew that it would take a lot of time for little kids like me to learn how to truly worship God, but they wanted us to start learning early, which is good.
Most services I have ever attended, even at other churches, start with a time of worship. This was the case in my youth group. However, this time there was something different, I wanted to join the praise team. I had just started playing drums for a year or so, and since there was no current drummer I wanted to join. I thought it would be simple; just attend a practice or two and I would be playing drums for Sundays (and Saturdays). What I didn't know and didn't foresee was that I wouldn't be playing drums for a very long time. I had to wait until my freshman or sophomore year in high school to start playing. I wanted to join since I was in the seventh grade.
It's not like I was a bad drummer or anything, just that the youth group leaders wanted me to learn the true heart of worship. As a praise team we would clean the bathrooms at church every Saturday, and I had to do it without even being able to play yet. I went to those practices every week for two or three years, and at times it was very frustrating. I wanted to know why they wouldn't just let me play. I waited longer than anyone had ever had to wait to join praise team, and I seriously doubted that they wanted me to join at all. It's not like me to quit easily though, and I kept pushing through, and eventually I got to play.
When I started playing drums, it was rough. I thought I was good, but looking back, I really wasn't that good. I even made a sort of motto because of how bad I was; a drummer's primary and most important job is to keep time, no matter what. If the drummer starts to speed up or slow down, it is very hard for the band to correct that. If the band slows down or speeds up, it is the drummer's job to get the tempo back. I was terrible at keeping steady tempos, which really hurt the team. Whenever I have an opportunity to teach drums or just "coach" a praise team, I will tell the drummer to keep it simple and control the tempo.
Then another change happened; people left praise team and other joined. Now I was one of the oldest and I felt that I had to help lead the team. One of the new members played drums, so sometimes I would play piano. Now this was a very, very rough new praise team. I started to notice that the drummer was making the same mistakes I did, the guitarist sometimes didn't know what he was doing, and the singer didn't seem confident. I soon realized that I had to step up and do something about this, because it seemed other people didn't want to.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like we didn't have talent. The problem was just that no one really took a step to lead the team and that caused long practices and awkward worship times on Sundays. So, much to my dismay, I started singing while playing piano. I am a terrible singer, so this was a very difficult choice to make, but I realized that somebody had to do something. Having a mic made it much easier to direct the team and also lead songs into new sections without serious miscommunication. Now this definitely didn't make us perfect, but it definitely helped the flow of worship times.
Unfortunately, sometimes when people step up into a position of leadership, it gets to their head. That happened to me. Once I started "directing" the praise team, I often would get visibly frustrated and I would question why we couldn't be better. I seriously questioned how the youth group leaders let people on the praise team play, especially since they made me wait so long. I would say things like "come on, have you never heard this song before?", and, you get the point. I hope that I didn't seriously hurt anyone's feelings, and I'm very glad that I didn't say everything that came to my mind at that time.
I am currently on the church's praise team, after graduating from high school. I sometimes still get frustrated, but this praise team has been playing together for some time, the leadership is already there, so I don't go as crazy. I pray that I don't do the things I did before and that I would be a blessing to the worship team. I am playing drums again, so I want to stick by my motto; my most important job is to keep the tempo. Nothing is more important than that, except that I have to worship God through my talents and with all my heart. (Sorry this was so long, but if you like this style of blog just comment below and I'll try to do more).
-Smart
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