A fine greeting to all reading this!! :)
Ok, so in this post i want to look at how and why we should hunger for God's presence. It has become a thirst and desire for many churches worldwide, and through the presence of God he is doing amazing things! Stories of healing, and miracles left right and centre, truly amazing to see what God can do!!
- Who is the Holy Spirit?
Well, looking biblically, the word talks about the Holy Spirit as being God. There is the trinity; The Father, The Son and the Spirit, three-in-one all powerful creator God. This in itself is hard to get our heads around! Imagining how God can be three beings in one being. For me, anything like this which makes my mind want to explode is actually a CAUSE for worship, and not a stumbling block. If we could perceive how God works, and who he is... he would not be God!
- Why should we seek the Holy Spirit?
The anointing of God comes from the Holy Spirit, and this is what breeds a fruitful ministry. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says this:
'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law'
Notice, these are the fruits 'of the Spirit'. The word fruitful is by definition 'causing or assisting in prolific growth' I love that word prolific, it's a powerful word! If we want to see our friends and family and cities turning to God's throne of grace then we need to seek the spirit so we can bear this fruit, so that God's goodness will shine from us. Not in our strength, but in our weakness his strength is made perfect.
- How do we welcome the presence of God?
Quite simply, ask for it, and seek it! God is so ready to pour out the fullness of his love and affection upon us, and he rejoices when we seek him whole heartedly. Take the words from Matthew 7: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. The word always speaks of God's promises, this is a promise and if we ask he will fulfil this promise. God also promises us 'where 2 or more are gathered, there my presence will be also' So gather together to seek after God's spirit together.
- What if i'm afraid?
My honest answer is that having a fear of God's presence is natural, and actually a right thing to fear. God in all his perfection, glory and righteousness makes us aware of how sinful and shameful our lives are. However, from this state of conviction and awareness of our wrongdoing we realise what is cost the Father to give his one and only, sinless, perfect son to take our punishment. Think of Isaiah who was so overwhelmed in God's presence that he cried "Here i am! Send Me!" This wasn't a British.. well..... go on then.. It was a cry from deep in his heart. When we encounter the presence of God we are left with the same reaction of utmost devotion and love for our saviour, and it is this which promotes fruitful mission.
Hope this has been helpful!
Any questions please send me an email at:
r i c h . k . w a r d @ g m a i l . c o m
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Monday, 23 January 2012
Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!
Happy new year to everyone reading this!! :)
Ok, so in the summer at Mobilise and Newday, we learned a song written by Simon Brading named Christus Victor. Personally, i loved it! Took me a couple of times through to start understanding why we were singing what we were singing (which will be explained later), but on the whole i thought it was excellent. What i am about to write is in reference with the pre-chorus which goes like this:
"Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
O, death, where's your sting?
Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
You're not singing anymore!"
The song is effectively about the victory of Christ on the cross, hence the name 'Christus Victor' which is latin for Christ is victorious. The verses state some amazing truth about what Jesus achieved on the cross, talking about the victory he won for us. The chorus speaks of our God being unstoppable, and undefeated.
I have had conversations with people about this song and they have been very varied, and very interesting. Trying to canvas a 'common' opinion seems hard as everyone has their say, so it is in light of these discussions i am wishing to write this post. I have hard people saying that the difficulty with this is that it feels like we are corporately 'mocking' Satan, telling him he is not singing anymore, and there are a couple of comments i would like to add with regards to this
- First of all, this is a take on the popular football chant, which to be honest is overused and sang in every football stadium around the country, but i'm not here to talk about that!! So when Simon introduced it at Mobilise he talked about this, and actually said this was like a victory cry for God's people as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus has won the day in a similar (but more important, more meaningful, and more impressive) way to when our football team are beating their opponent.
- The most important thing of weighing up whether to use a song in a time of worship or not is obviously its foundation on biblical truth. One of the things that people have said to me as previously mentioned is that this could be dangerous as it can come across that we are mocking Satan. Biblically, we have every reason to be careful where this is concerned, if i can draw your attention to Jude 1:9 it says this:
'But when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said "The Lord rebuke you!"'
The first thing that we notice here is that Michael is an archangel, a being of God's creation and perfection, a creature of eternity and God's dwelling. Then see how he 'did not himself dare' to bring a taunt towards the devil, i believe that since this was the attitude of an angel we should adhere to that and leave the rebuking up to Jesus himself! But by all means we can ask for it and believe it in his name.
- One more thing to add is that the pre-chorus actually has the reference to a verse from 1 Corinthians 15:55 which reads
'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
So the lyrics definitely have biblical credibility. So! i hear you ask...... who are we singing to?
Well, the obvious answer would be death. Looking at the whole passage in 1 Corinthians, we can deduce that the particular comment was a mocking taunt to the power of death. My personal view on what the bible means by 'fear of death' is that actually that is what drives all of our fear, fear which we need no longer suffer under as Jesus took all of our burdens, fear, shame, guilt, heaviness upon himself; so that we could live a life of fullness and freedom by his spirit. Thinking of Paul's famous words in Romans 8:36 onwards, he talks about how we shall no longer fear death as nothing can tear us from the love of Christ.
I believe it is in rebuking our fears and failures that we should be singing those words 'Who are you?' with the attitude of 'you have no right to oppose me as i am a child of the King!' As we declare them to be singing against our struggles, to be singing against uncertainty, and against fear that holds us back from God's fullness.
Hope this has been helpful
Rich
Ok, so in the summer at Mobilise and Newday, we learned a song written by Simon Brading named Christus Victor. Personally, i loved it! Took me a couple of times through to start understanding why we were singing what we were singing (which will be explained later), but on the whole i thought it was excellent. What i am about to write is in reference with the pre-chorus which goes like this:
"Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
O, death, where's your sting?
Who are ya?! Who are ya?!
You're not singing anymore!"
The song is effectively about the victory of Christ on the cross, hence the name 'Christus Victor' which is latin for Christ is victorious. The verses state some amazing truth about what Jesus achieved on the cross, talking about the victory he won for us. The chorus speaks of our God being unstoppable, and undefeated.
I have had conversations with people about this song and they have been very varied, and very interesting. Trying to canvas a 'common' opinion seems hard as everyone has their say, so it is in light of these discussions i am wishing to write this post. I have hard people saying that the difficulty with this is that it feels like we are corporately 'mocking' Satan, telling him he is not singing anymore, and there are a couple of comments i would like to add with regards to this
- First of all, this is a take on the popular football chant, which to be honest is overused and sang in every football stadium around the country, but i'm not here to talk about that!! So when Simon introduced it at Mobilise he talked about this, and actually said this was like a victory cry for God's people as our Lord and Saviour, Jesus has won the day in a similar (but more important, more meaningful, and more impressive) way to when our football team are beating their opponent.
- The most important thing of weighing up whether to use a song in a time of worship or not is obviously its foundation on biblical truth. One of the things that people have said to me as previously mentioned is that this could be dangerous as it can come across that we are mocking Satan. Biblically, we have every reason to be careful where this is concerned, if i can draw your attention to Jude 1:9 it says this:
'But when the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said "The Lord rebuke you!"'
The first thing that we notice here is that Michael is an archangel, a being of God's creation and perfection, a creature of eternity and God's dwelling. Then see how he 'did not himself dare' to bring a taunt towards the devil, i believe that since this was the attitude of an angel we should adhere to that and leave the rebuking up to Jesus himself! But by all means we can ask for it and believe it in his name.
- One more thing to add is that the pre-chorus actually has the reference to a verse from 1 Corinthians 15:55 which reads
'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'
So the lyrics definitely have biblical credibility. So! i hear you ask...... who are we singing to?
Well, the obvious answer would be death. Looking at the whole passage in 1 Corinthians, we can deduce that the particular comment was a mocking taunt to the power of death. My personal view on what the bible means by 'fear of death' is that actually that is what drives all of our fear, fear which we need no longer suffer under as Jesus took all of our burdens, fear, shame, guilt, heaviness upon himself; so that we could live a life of fullness and freedom by his spirit. Thinking of Paul's famous words in Romans 8:36 onwards, he talks about how we shall no longer fear death as nothing can tear us from the love of Christ.
I believe it is in rebuking our fears and failures that we should be singing those words 'Who are you?' with the attitude of 'you have no right to oppose me as i am a child of the King!' As we declare them to be singing against our struggles, to be singing against uncertainty, and against fear that holds us back from God's fullness.
Hope this has been helpful
Rich
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Glorifying God
One of the main things that i have felt God really put on my heart over the last few weeks and months is simply this:
"When we gather together to worship, we are there to give glory to God'
Sounds simple yes, is that not obvious?
In an ideal, perfect church this would always be the case, but could there be the potential that there are occasionally ulterior motives when we gather to sing, none of which are particularly dangerous, but most definitely aren't helpful.
In Psalm 103 it begins with this "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise his holy name'
The entirety of this Psalm is one fantastic cry of worship from a man who was transfixed by God, and was always seeking new ways of wording his journey as a worshipper. We do see though, certain lyrical themes that will appear throughout the Psalms, 'Glory to God' 'Sing Praise to God' 'He is exalted over the nations' i could go on.. my point being that although David came up with new ways for describing how he was feeling in many of the Psalms, he never strayed far from these simple truths that take place in so many of our modern day worship songs. Truths which (here comes the admission) I have heard songs full of, and yet have thought "Thats an amazingly average song, we have used all those lines before!" and we can sometimes be too quick to go for the nearest 'Jesus is my girlfriend' instead, songs which i believe do have a place, but should not replace glorifying God for who he is.
So, to bring this back to my main point, i believe that sometimes many people approach a time of worship with a slightly skewed approach, as listed below:
1. PURELY to feel the spirit - The modern day charismatic church is seeing an amazing movement of the spirit's power, which symbolises that God is blessing us massively, and its very exciting to be a part of! However, there can be a wrong expectation, or wrong attitude where this is concerned with worship. Please don't hear what i'm not saying, i love being in God's presence, and i believe it's their that our Father really does business with our hearts, we are renewed in his presence, and find strength there. BUT, if we come into a time of congregational worship purely based on our need or desire to 'experience' God, this can be unhelpful. We, as human beings are created as instruments of worship, our every breath is as a work of Glory that God made, he doesn't need our worship to survive, but he created us for such a purpose. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 aid us with this. The Holy Spirit is a gift, an amazing gift, which he blesses us with, and boy should we be expectant! Just make sure it isn't our purpose!
2. That worship IS the church's purpose - This one is less of a minor issue, and more of a massive theological flaw. In Matthew 28:16 onwards, Jesus' told the disciples of their mission. Our mission is such as this, to make disciples of all nations, it would have been quite cosy if our mission was 'Gather on a sunday morning and sing songs' We need to make sure that our times of praising the goodness of God are the fuel for God's mission.
3. Its all about the songs we sing! - In spite of the opening paragraph, talking about songs, lyrics, appropriate songs choices etc... Worship is not about the songs we sing, its about the heart thats singing them. God isn't interested in your beautiful voice, or luscious melodies and haunting harmonies (although these are nice!) But he wants the heart to be crying out in pure adoration. I can't remember who first said this but it has always been one of my favourite phrases, "in the scriptures it says make a joyful noise, not a tuneful noise"
Lets give God everything, he is forever worthy, eternally steadfast, amazingly powerful, indescribably awesome and perfectly holy, how could our hearts sing any other name?!
Richard
"When we gather together to worship, we are there to give glory to God'
Sounds simple yes, is that not obvious?
In an ideal, perfect church this would always be the case, but could there be the potential that there are occasionally ulterior motives when we gather to sing, none of which are particularly dangerous, but most definitely aren't helpful.
In Psalm 103 it begins with this "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being praise his holy name'
The entirety of this Psalm is one fantastic cry of worship from a man who was transfixed by God, and was always seeking new ways of wording his journey as a worshipper. We do see though, certain lyrical themes that will appear throughout the Psalms, 'Glory to God' 'Sing Praise to God' 'He is exalted over the nations' i could go on.. my point being that although David came up with new ways for describing how he was feeling in many of the Psalms, he never strayed far from these simple truths that take place in so many of our modern day worship songs. Truths which (here comes the admission) I have heard songs full of, and yet have thought "Thats an amazingly average song, we have used all those lines before!" and we can sometimes be too quick to go for the nearest 'Jesus is my girlfriend' instead, songs which i believe do have a place, but should not replace glorifying God for who he is.
So, to bring this back to my main point, i believe that sometimes many people approach a time of worship with a slightly skewed approach, as listed below:
1. PURELY to feel the spirit - The modern day charismatic church is seeing an amazing movement of the spirit's power, which symbolises that God is blessing us massively, and its very exciting to be a part of! However, there can be a wrong expectation, or wrong attitude where this is concerned with worship. Please don't hear what i'm not saying, i love being in God's presence, and i believe it's their that our Father really does business with our hearts, we are renewed in his presence, and find strength there. BUT, if we come into a time of congregational worship purely based on our need or desire to 'experience' God, this can be unhelpful. We, as human beings are created as instruments of worship, our every breath is as a work of Glory that God made, he doesn't need our worship to survive, but he created us for such a purpose. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 aid us with this. The Holy Spirit is a gift, an amazing gift, which he blesses us with, and boy should we be expectant! Just make sure it isn't our purpose!
2. That worship IS the church's purpose - This one is less of a minor issue, and more of a massive theological flaw. In Matthew 28:16 onwards, Jesus' told the disciples of their mission. Our mission is such as this, to make disciples of all nations, it would have been quite cosy if our mission was 'Gather on a sunday morning and sing songs' We need to make sure that our times of praising the goodness of God are the fuel for God's mission.
3. Its all about the songs we sing! - In spite of the opening paragraph, talking about songs, lyrics, appropriate songs choices etc... Worship is not about the songs we sing, its about the heart thats singing them. God isn't interested in your beautiful voice, or luscious melodies and haunting harmonies (although these are nice!) But he wants the heart to be crying out in pure adoration. I can't remember who first said this but it has always been one of my favourite phrases, "in the scriptures it says make a joyful noise, not a tuneful noise"
Lets give God everything, he is forever worthy, eternally steadfast, amazingly powerful, indescribably awesome and perfectly holy, how could our hearts sing any other name?!
Richard
Friday, 15 October 2010
Simplicity in Worship
One thing thats been flitting around my thoughts recently is how easy it is to over complicate so many things on our sunday mornings... for a start we have to cope with PA, musicians, people wanting to talk about various things completely unconnected with what we are doing, such as which song we want the kids work to go out after! so why not just make our songs of worship simple?
look at some of the 'greatest' worship songs of all time.. 'Happy Day', 'In Christ Alone', 'Jesus, Lover of my Soul', 'Amazing Grace'
they are just easy songs, people can pick them up quickly, they are singable, catchy and they achieve all this whilst been written to glorify Jesus. Is this not what we should be aiming for? As songwriters it is our prerogative to write these songs, i'm not saying we aren't achieving this, but with all the songs that are being written it becomes harder to come up with something fresh, something exciting, something which draws people to a new level of intimacy with christ.
so what happens when the words run out? what do we do? how can i write without fresh words?
well, for me songwriting comes out of a place of personal revelation, i believe it to be a particular gift, such as leadership, prophecy or tongues, a gift which is freely available. When you run out of words seek God, songs of worship will naturally flow out of relationship... want to keep it fresh? indulge yourself in his word and delight in his presence, its there your ideas come from :)
Richard
look at some of the 'greatest' worship songs of all time.. 'Happy Day', 'In Christ Alone', 'Jesus, Lover of my Soul', 'Amazing Grace'
they are just easy songs, people can pick them up quickly, they are singable, catchy and they achieve all this whilst been written to glorify Jesus. Is this not what we should be aiming for? As songwriters it is our prerogative to write these songs, i'm not saying we aren't achieving this, but with all the songs that are being written it becomes harder to come up with something fresh, something exciting, something which draws people to a new level of intimacy with christ.
so what happens when the words run out? what do we do? how can i write without fresh words?
well, for me songwriting comes out of a place of personal revelation, i believe it to be a particular gift, such as leadership, prophecy or tongues, a gift which is freely available. When you run out of words seek God, songs of worship will naturally flow out of relationship... want to keep it fresh? indulge yourself in his word and delight in his presence, its there your ideas come from :)
Richard
Friday, 20 August 2010
Newday
Hey guys!
So i just got back from Newday which is a newfrontiers conference for 11's-19's and i went as youth leader with my church and just had a terrific time in the presence of God, praising him and learning songs, it was awesome! :)
just a few main points i wanted to share from the week so i thought i would make a post..
one thing God was speaking to me personally about during the week was raising a generation of passionate worshippers, something which has been on my heart for quite a while now. i can remember one moment where i was on my knees praying and i just suddenly very clearly heard 7000 young people singing out
"and if our God is for us, then who can ever stop us
and if our God is with us, then what can stand against"
and i just heard the passion this was being declared with, and the excitement grew in me about just what 7000 passionate young believers could do for this country! imagine if every 1 of them chooses just 5 friends to reach out to?! with the power of the gospel of Jesus to change lives could be so impacting for our local schools and colleges. i know i can't speak for every youth group but i know certainly in our group not 1 person didn't get closer to God, we saw 9 people commit or recommit their lives to christ! and give themselves in worship. A few of our guys were also called to the nations and are very excited about this :) it was truly incredible to be a part of what God is doing amongst young people.
All of this lead me to finish a song i had been writing, i had a chorus written down which said
"All your saints cry Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord"
rather simple but very singable and it was really on my heart for all of the people God has called to be saints cry out in response to everything God is :) its a real passion of mine to see people giving their all to Jesus during worship as that is where we get filled up to be sent out!
God Bless guys
Rich
So i just got back from Newday which is a newfrontiers conference for 11's-19's and i went as youth leader with my church and just had a terrific time in the presence of God, praising him and learning songs, it was awesome! :)
just a few main points i wanted to share from the week so i thought i would make a post..
one thing God was speaking to me personally about during the week was raising a generation of passionate worshippers, something which has been on my heart for quite a while now. i can remember one moment where i was on my knees praying and i just suddenly very clearly heard 7000 young people singing out
"and if our God is for us, then who can ever stop us
and if our God is with us, then what can stand against"
and i just heard the passion this was being declared with, and the excitement grew in me about just what 7000 passionate young believers could do for this country! imagine if every 1 of them chooses just 5 friends to reach out to?! with the power of the gospel of Jesus to change lives could be so impacting for our local schools and colleges. i know i can't speak for every youth group but i know certainly in our group not 1 person didn't get closer to God, we saw 9 people commit or recommit their lives to christ! and give themselves in worship. A few of our guys were also called to the nations and are very excited about this :) it was truly incredible to be a part of what God is doing amongst young people.
All of this lead me to finish a song i had been writing, i had a chorus written down which said
"All your saints cry Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord"
rather simple but very singable and it was really on my heart for all of the people God has called to be saints cry out in response to everything God is :) its a real passion of mine to see people giving their all to Jesus during worship as that is where we get filled up to be sent out!
God Bless guys
Rich
Thursday, 15 July 2010
In the Wilderness!
So tonight i am off bivvying (or camping without a tent!)and am very excited about this, not just cause i'm a guy and we like to be adventurous but i also see this kind of activity as being similar to following Jesus.. not because we are in the wilderness! because we are safe in his arms and his love. More because its sort of a faith leap, having faith in the weather, having faith in your safety, in not needing the toilet too much! I can relate this back to my walk with God because we are called to step out in faith, to follow Jesus is a step of faith,placing our dreams and hopes and our life in his hands. so I am excited! i always get great lyrical ideas spending time in the middle of God's marvellous creation! :D
see ya guys!
see ya guys!
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
New Song - What is this Love?
So this song again has been around for a while...
I came home from small group one night after a particularly amazing time of worship and remember being overwhelmed by the grace of God, I sat down with my guitar and quietly wrote this as it was late and didn't want to wake anyone up! but i remember getting this idea for 'What is this Love that i am chosen?' and went from there to write about when we are down, and at our lowest we can realise that God has loved us and poured out his love on us and we can come into his presence...
MP3 Link:
http://www.box.net/shared/8nsb7te231
Lyrics:
When shame surrounds my soul, and i feel like letting go, there you are
When all this life can hold has faded into nothing, there you are
You remain faithful, through it all faithful
Here is my rock
What is this love, that i am chosen?
You love a heart thats broken
What is this grace, that you have freed me?
now with your spirit lead me
to that place where i draw near to your face
My dark has turned to light, your righteousness made mine, my life in your hands
In wonder i will sing, hear my cry my humble king and come to me
once again if anyone wants chords just email me :)
ciao!
I came home from small group one night after a particularly amazing time of worship and remember being overwhelmed by the grace of God, I sat down with my guitar and quietly wrote this as it was late and didn't want to wake anyone up! but i remember getting this idea for 'What is this Love that i am chosen?' and went from there to write about when we are down, and at our lowest we can realise that God has loved us and poured out his love on us and we can come into his presence...
MP3 Link:
http://www.box.net/shared/8nsb7te231
Lyrics:
When shame surrounds my soul, and i feel like letting go, there you are
When all this life can hold has faded into nothing, there you are
You remain faithful, through it all faithful
Here is my rock
What is this love, that i am chosen?
You love a heart thats broken
What is this grace, that you have freed me?
now with your spirit lead me
to that place where i draw near to your face
My dark has turned to light, your righteousness made mine, my life in your hands
In wonder i will sing, hear my cry my humble king and come to me
once again if anyone wants chords just email me :)
ciao!
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