PRESENCE

The word PRESENCE has been weighing down on me ever since Wayne Cadaro spoke truth in my life. He spoke that our prayers regularly seek the blessings of ourself, our church, our families, our friends, more so than our prayer for the presence of God. This past week a great friend of CCV's came to hang and share with us what he and his wife have been doing in South America as missionaries. Jake and his wife were in Chile when the awful earthquakes destroyed a lot of the country.

They were burdened by the fact that he, his wife, and their new baby were fine and that there were families pummeled by the earthquake. Jake got a few friends together, grabbed hammers, insolation materials, and got their trucks to head to the broken. They showed up to village on the coastline and met a few families living there. These people were freezing in their living areas because the earthquake had broken down walls, roofs, and doors. Jake and his team built them what they could, and insolated the living areas. Many hours into the rescue, they were asked by the locals what they were going to eat. Jake replied that he didn't know. They asked where he and his friends were going to stay. Jake replied again, "I don't know, we just came".

the locals fished for Jake and his friends to eat every single day. They gave them blankets to keep them warm at night after they worked all day. The locals told Jake that him and his team were the presence of God in their forsaken moment. They were so thankful for Jake, and so thankful for the people he brought with them.

Jake is a disciple of Christ. He dropped everything in his life and went where there was need. He had no idea where he would stay, what he would eat, how they would live. In their obedience to the call, God provided for them every step of the way.

This is a powerful story about the presence of God with us, and in us. Who are the friends that need you? who is the family member that feels they are without family? Who is the person you don't know very well that you just saw break down? YOU are the presence of God in their forsaken moment.

"Oh Sleeper, Awaken"- new song

I was in big bear last year on a retreat for a college group. I had the opportunity to go on a walk by myself. I'm not a sappy dude, but I looked around and got pretty emotional. I was captivated by creation and praying to God saw my jaw drop. I wrote this song that day. It will be on the new record and I can't wait to record it. Here are the lyrics.....

Oh Sleeper, Awaken

I see skies that you made

I see stars that you take

I see clouds that you break

for me, Revealing Lord

Waterfalls of mercy

Stir the soul within me

And break the heart so lovely

For me, Revealing Lord

I see oceans You part

Reconciled a new start

Your grace is never too far

for me Revealing lord

I see mountains you shake

All for mine and love’s sake

Plains of chances you make

for me Revealing Lord

Beautiful and free, we dwell in your creation

Your glory revealed through earth and sky

The roaring of your thunder, your lighting

Strikes the heart with light

Revealing Lord

Revealing Lord I’ll praise You in Your light

Revealing Lord I’ll praise You in the darkness of the night

Oh sleeper awaken

To the wonders of the earth

Your Father wants to show you

what’s matchless to your beauty and your worth

We had a little bit of light

You're gonna hear me talk about Zimbabwe quite often. It's a place that God revealed things to me that I am now responsible to share. My team and I went into the Marigumura village to help repair a school, love people, and share the gospel.

I found myself today getting frustrated with things at my job and the execution of a service. Specifically, I was pissed at my guitar not working for a part of the service. My worry-some self tells me if my guitar doesn't work, I can't lead. If I cant lead, no one will follow the songs. If we don't sing then Jesus won't show up, if Jesus isn't here, not as many hands are raised. If not as many hands are raised, then I suck at my job.

I realized it all kinda boiled down to me, myself, and Jeremiah. What isn't the main focus went from peripheral to dead center. It became all about the success of a service and the lights going on when they are supposed to. It became about smooth transitions between songs. It became about how many hands were raised, how well I sang, and what people thought about it.

Looking over some pictures today I found a picture of me in Zimbabwe at the village speaking to the African men, women, and children about the book of Daniel. My interpreter Lamick was by my side, my team with kids on their laps were sitting on the ground and benches, the Marigumura choir was behind me, and Jesus was all around us. All we had was a little bit of light, and God moved mountains. We prayed for fathers struggling to take care of their families, for mothers sick with AIDs, and for children that want to know more about Jesus. ALL WE HAD WAS A LITTLE BIT OF LIGHT. We didn't need guitars, sound systems, smooth transitions, offering baskets, communion trays, announcement slides, bulletins, volunteer sign-up booths, or even a coffee shop. Jesus doesn't need these things or even me for that matter in order for Him to show up. Not that these things are bad at all. As i referenced in my last post, things like this are great tools to be used in the church for His glory, but they are NEVER to be held in higher need than the gospel.

I came to realize more importantly that I'm not that important. I'm not fishing for attention here, I mean what I say. I looked at church and said, "Today will only be successful at church if I am awesome and everything goes right to the service that I created". Thats a lot of pride to carry. that's also a lot reliance on effort. Romans 9 is when Paul talks about not relying on our efforts because they will amount to nothing, so we must count on God's grace and mercy. boy do I suck at that. Those 2 things were exactly what I lost sight of. They are things I have to force focus my eyes to see on a daily basis through all the visual noise and chaos of what I have made church to be.

I felt so much shame today seeing this picture. I have once again made church into exactly what it isn't. I have made worship into a small calculated box for God to maneuver in. anyone else done the same? along with shame though, I was quick to be joyful for the Lord reminding me what to rejoice in. I was overwhelmed with peace and God spoke. Not audibly but a still small voice I can somehow sense. A voice telling me to not forget what I showed you in Africa and what I showed you to rejoice in. To rejoice in the lost sheep coming home, to rejoice in the presence of the holy spirit regardless of where you are. To rejoice in being broken with family and friends in the middle of the plains of Africa with the word of the gospel, and only a little bit of light....

Together my beard and his hair make a full red-head

This past Sunday I opened up for Aaron Gillespie. He is a man after God's heart and is using his credibility with the youth to lead them to the cross. I respect him incredibly and he has impacted my life greatly since I was in highschool. We had the opportunity to sit one on one and talk about the beautiful and ugly things about the church today for over an hour. After funny stories of him surfing with Joel Houston and what worship songs are working well at revealing things about the Lord to the congregation, we talked about the hard stuff. He shared with me that the main thing the church is lacking as a whole is integrity and transparency, then how we need to go about fixing it.

He is a worship leader at his church and is actually pursuing worship this coming March with his new album on BEC records. He shared that we as worship leaders need to stop teaching obedience and do it ourselves. His goal in life is to see the common man worship Jesus and that is a beautiful way to put it. But we cannot lead others into worship if we are not first living it. He urged the importance of being honest with your congregation. To not complain, but to be honest with them when you don't feel like worshiping, to tell leaders in your band when you mess up, to not come to them from a fake place, but a transparent heart.

he couldn't urge enough that there is not success in numbers or in hands raised but in THAT 1 lost sheep coming to the Lord. These are the things we need to be rejoicing in. We need to set the bar as the leadership of the church so that that church goer can follow. I questioned myself plenty. Am i honest with my congregation? Am I transparent with my struggles? Am I basing success off numbers? To be honest, I'm guilty as ever. Just the questions alone gave me enough responsibility to change and I hope to do so.

I learned much more from him and these things I learned from Aaron I will take with me for a long time to constantly check myself. We continued to talk about personal struggles and what the Lord is doing in our lives before he had to run. This is what the church needs to be. Not just sermons, not just music, not just buildings with administration, not that this stuff is bad, in fact it is very much needed, but we are called to more. We need to be people loving each other and talking, sharing, praying, being transparent, and holding each other accountable.

I could go on for days but I'll let us chew on this for a while. A lot of the time we were talking he was in a pink and green 80's jumpsuit leaning on a trailer. thought you should know. But don't judge, it was Halloween ;)