One More Reason to Listen to Worship Music

I never set out to memorize worship songs. It was just the natural byproduct of growing up in a Christian family. Everywhere our family went, there was worship music playing. At Sunday morning services; at Sunday evening services; at youth group; at Bible Camp; in the car. There was no escaping it, and at some point, my brain just started to retain all of the different melodies and lyrics.

I didn’t ever give much thought to the benefit of knowing so many worship songs. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I began to recognize what a great privilege it was. It started with my first son being born.

He was the first baby I had ever had anything to do with. From day one I felt lost as to how to interact with him. I didn’t know how to talk to him. I didn’t have too many ideas about how to comfort him. But I knew how to sing (though not well), so I did that. Night after night I would sit in a lazy boy and sing to him until he fell asleep. It didn’t feel right to sing Blink 182 songs to him, or Linkin Park’s greatest hits, so I sang songs from that worship catalogue stored away in the back of my mind.

As he turned from baby to a toddler, he eventually started asking me to sing certain worship songs again. He had his favourites. Then as he went from a toddler to a little boy, he started memorizing the songs himself and singing them back to me. I will be honest, I am not sure that there have been any greater moments for me as a dad, than hearing my four-year-old son sing about the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the wonder of the cross.

These days he regularly asks me to sing to him new songs. So, I have become far more intentional about listening to more worship music and worshipping along with it. The result is that I am worshipping God in private more than I ever have and I am being to bring more Christ-centred songs to my son for him to learn.

I have never been more thankful to have had a childhood that was saturated with worship music. Those songs, and all of the new ones getting stored, are gospel treasures in my mind that I can grab at any point, for any occasion, even for bedtime routines.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16).

Book Review: “The Church: A Guide to the People of God"

“The Church: A Guide to the People of God"

Published by Lexham Press, 2024.

On page 1, Brad East lays out the aim of the book. He writes, “The Bible tells the story of God and His people. This book is a very small window into that story. By the time you finish it, I want you to know this story inside and out.”

An ambitious plan, especially for only 156 pages worth of space. And yet, as I reflect back after completing the book, I have got to say, I really think East accomplishes what he sets out to do. Whether people “know the story inside and out” after their reading is out of East’s hands. But the part that is his, the laying out of the story of God and His people, he does, and he does with excellence.

In tracing the story of God’s people through the Bible, East lets Scripture itself define the Church, the marks of the Church, the mission and ministry of the Church, the unity of the church and so much more. He does not include many if any illustrations or quotations. He just lets Scripture speak. The result is a feeling of being saturated with God’s Word, and a clear realization of just how fiery and incandescently God loves His church.

For anyone unfamiliar with or needing a refresher on the central place of the Church in God’s redemptive story, this is an essential book. And not surprisingly, since it is apart of the Christian Essentials series.

With ascetically pleasing packaging, as well as and more importantly, biblically rich content that is easy enough to follow for even the newest believer, I am sure this will be a book that I hand out again and again.

Be Nice to ChatGPT

I think that it matters how we talk to AI.

In 1997 there was a Friends episode that featured Ben Stiller playing Rachel’s new boyfriend, Tommy. From the first time he is introduced, Tommy is a big hit with everyone in the group; everyone except for Ross. While the other five find Tommy to be hilarious, outgoing and extremely kind, Ross has a couple of private interactions with Tommy that make him think otherwise.

In the first situation the gang of friends plus Tommy head to the theatre. Before the show starts everyone but Ross and Tommy go to the bathrooms. While they are all occupied Ross watches Tommy berate an elderly couple for sitting in the wrong seats, calling them idiots and morons and chasing them out of the aisle. As the watching audience, we get our first glimpse, along with Ross, of what Tommy is really like.

In the next situation Ross and Tommy are outside of the coffee shop, while the other five are inside enjoying themselves. Ross turns around quickly with a hot cup of coffee, almost spilling it on Tommy’s shirt, which leads Tommy to another angry outburst. He yells at Ross, “You idiot! You gonna spill hot coffee all over me, huh?!”

Whats So Funny

The hilarious part of the episode is not jut watching Ben Stiller losing his cool and Ross awkwardly observing it; it is also watching Ross try to tell the other five what Tommy is really like and no one believing him. They all just chalk Ross’ dislike of Tommy up to jealously. That is, until the end when they all walk in on Tommy shouting at Joey and Chandler’s beloved duck. Finally, everyone sees behind the curtain and they see Tommy for what he really is: a hot-tempered lunatic.

Its funny how everyone who watches that episode makes the same conclusion. No one thinks that Tommy is really a nice guy, and the yelling is just a facade. Instead, we all conclude that Tommy is a really mean guy, and the kindness is the facade. We all understand the same thing, that who you are in private is who you really are, because its the private moments that most powerfully reveal your heart.

The true character of your heart comes out when you don’t think anyone is looking, when there is no one around to impress. And the heart is all that matters, because everything flows from that, whether good or bad. As Jesus says in Luke 6.45, "The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

The question that we should be asking ourselves often then is what kind of things are flowing from our hearts? Or to say it another way, what are we like in private? Are we a bunch of ‘Tommys’?

AI Bullies

The more and more I use ChatGPT, the more and more I realize how “Tommy-like” I am when I speak to ChatGPT. It’s not a real person so I don’t talk to it like I would talk to a real person. I talk to it knowing no one else is watching, at that ChatGPT isn’t telling. When it fails to give me the information I want, I tend to get angry with it and giving it a taste of my anger. At times I become of a bit of a bully to ChatGPT.

You might say that there is no problem with calling a computer program a moron. It is just like calling a soccer ball a moron. An inanimate object. No harm, no foul. But I don’t think that’s true. Whether it’s a soccer ball or ChatGPT, those interactions are revealing something that exists in my heart. They are revealing, even just to a small degree, what I am like in private, and therefore what kind of treasure is living deep down in me.

I don’t want to be a Tommy. I want don’t want to have a façade. I want my life in public to flow out of a genuinely transformed heart. I want the fruit of the Spirit to cascade out of my private life into all of my public interactions. But in order for that to happen, I believe that I need to be intentional about allowing God to cultivate my heart in the times when no ones looking. That means it matters what I do in private, how I act in private, and how I speak in private.

So, it even matters how I talk to GPT when no ones looking.

What Fly-Fishing Unhooks Me From

I fish on a weekly a basis, sometimes on a daily basis. I fly-fish to be specific. If you don’t know what fly-fishing is, just think “A River Runs Through It” with Robert Redford. And if you haven’t seen “A River Runs Through It” with Robert Redford, than please do me a favour and go watch that marvellous movie.

I love fly-fishing so much. I love everything about it. Being in/on a river, being away from buildings and traffic, hearing only the noise of water rushing past the boulders, and the beautiful sight of that fly dancing in the air above me and then coming to gently lay down on the water’s surface.

Truth be told though, according to my fish-record, I am a terrible fly-fisherman (don’t tell my four-year-old son). I have the patience for fly-fishing as well the love for it. After many years of casting, I have acquired the skill for it too. But I rarely land a fish on the shore, and I mean rarely.

Getting unhooked

You know what my problem is? I just don’t care enough about the fish. If I really cared about catching them, I would spend more time thinking about the layout of the river. I would start checking the insides of the few fish that I do catch to see what the other fish are eating. I would widen my catalogue of flies to choose from, and I would put far more care into my presentation of the fly to the fish. But I just don’t care.

At the end of the day, I don’t go fly-fishing for the fish. I never have. Even though it is an incomparable rush when I finally get one hooked. No, I go fly fishing because of what fly-fishing unhooks me from.

It is impossible for me to fly-fish and hold my phone, and that is the beauty of it for me. The modern world seems to be making it harder and harder for a person to find solitude; to find space to be alone with the Lord in prayer. What fly-fishing offers me is a glorious landscape, and an activity that keeps my mind free and my hands busy.

When my fly rod is in hand, my phone is not. Most often it is nowhere near me, because there is no use for it on the river and no room for it in my hands. Fly-fishing forces my phone out of the picture, and it creates space for me to talk to my heavenly Father without any noise or distraction except for the rare and sudden splash of a rainbow leaping out of the water with my hook in its mouth.

Its Never Been About the Fish

I am a terrible fly-fisherman and I always will be. I know I will never win a trophy for fly-fishing, but I also know that I will never stop doing it, because frankly it’s never been about the fish for me. It’s always been about Jesus.

As Wendell Berry once wrote, “He [God] goes fishing every day in the Kentucky River. I see Him often.”

So, what is your fly-fishing?

Thinking About Bruce Willis and Jesus

Yesterday, the algorithm got the best of me.

Every time I opened up my phone’s web browser, the same article was sitting there staring back. I say ‘article’ loosely, because it wasn’t much of an article. It was a collection of pictures of celebrities and their families celebrating American thanksgiving. From morning to night, it kept showing up, until finally as the evening approached and all my self-control over ad clicking had been spent, I clicked.

For the next few minutes, I clicked my way through thirty-four pictures of celebrities posing with turkeys. You don’t have to remind me of what a complete waste of time this was. I will the wear the disappointment in myself over that initial click for the rest of the weekend. That being said, there was one picture that caught my attention and gave me a lot to think about. It was the one with Bruce Willis and his family, sitting on a couch in their casual thanksgiving clothes.

John Mclane

I don’t know if you have kept up with Bruce Willis’ life over the past while, but it has changed a lot since the Die Hard days. Willis was diagnosed in 2023 with frontotemporal dementia. As a result, he has faced rapid cognitive decline, to the point that he is no longer even capable of speaking.

To see John McClane (Die Hard reference in case you missed it) sitting and smiling with his family was a beautiful thing. It was the most beautiful picture in the set of thirty-four. At the same time, it was to me a staunch reminder of how fast our abilities can disappear.

We often talk as Christians about the suddenness of death. We talk to unbelievers about how important it is to not put off a decision for Jesus until later, because what if death comes calling when you don’t expect it. I wonder though have often we talk about or think about for ourselves, the suddenness of debilitation or disablement; how fast we can go from a fully functioning person, to our arms not working, our legs not working, our kidneys not working or even our mind not working.

In the same way that unbelievers can put off following Jesus, thinking that they have lots of time to make the decision, believers can put off radically following Jesus, believing that they also have lots of time to make that kind of commitment. Think about this for a second, because maybe it is you. You are a Christian and yet each day you justify why you’re not going to start really committing to Jesus until next week, or until after the new year. When that time comes, then you will pick up a serious bible reading plan; then you will shut off the TV and spend more time in prayer; then you will start putting resources to global missions; then you will make these changes to put Jesus first and finish your life with a legacy of seeking first His kingdom.

All I have is today

Listen, I am not preaching to you, I am preaching to myself, because I do this. I have an idea of how surrendered and devoted to Christ I want to be, and there is always a valid reason for it starting tomorrow. But as a I stared yesterday at Bruce Willis and his family, I could not help but think that maybe tomorrow won’t come, or at least not come in the same way that today came. I might not die tomorrow, but I might lose the ability to follow Jesus as radically as I am able to right now.

Limitations can arrive and will arrive just as fast as death. All we can really know is that we have whatever ability we have in this moment. So then why not capitalize on this moment, to seek first the Kingdom of God with everything we have, before we have less of an ability to do so? Jesus deserves that much and more; He deserves our prime years as well as everything that follows.

S0…

Today, I woke up with the full function of my mind and body. Tomorrow might be different. So, let me use all the ability that He has given me today for His glory, before I no longer have it. Let me take the risks today, because I have today, and because He is worthy of my complete devotion now and not just in the future.

I hope I don’t click on another set of celebrity photos, but I am thankful for the reminder that came through yesterday’s lack of self-control.