Where can we go from God’s presence?

At one point or another, most people contemplate whether God exists. Have you ever considered where God is? For many, the first option is in ‘heaven’ – you know – just above the clouds on an overcast day and, well, perhaps higher again on a sunny day?! It’s easy to believe God lives in heaven, because if that is the case, both heaven and God become low impact, intangible beliefs. But what if God dwells on earth? Suddenly, the ‘belief’ is much closer to us, much more relevant. The Bible is very clear, ‘I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.’ Lev 26:11,12. This is God’s foremost desire for humankind. And indeed, the question of ‘salvation’ and ‘eternal life’ are thrust upon us here and now, not reserved for after we pass away.

God’s life is here on earth, made available through Jesus. Accepting this, perhaps the second option for where God lives is in churches. Speaking of the ‘church’ in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago, Jesus said, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands’. Mar 14:58. The apostle Paul wrote in the Bible about the ‘new and living way’ Jesus opened when He was crucified. Heb 10:20. This is the new way in which we find the life of God. God is not contained in a building. We could say, for example, if a church building was destroyed, there would be no impact on the presence of God! The temple Jesus built without hands, is the temple of His body – the body of Christians who turn to Him as their Saviour. Hence, ‘church’ is really the grouping of Christians who meet in a building to hear His word proclaimed, sing praise to Him, and receive His life. So Paul reminded the Christians in Corinth, ‘We are the temple of the living God’. 2 Co 6:16. God is alive – alive in those who are following Jesus unto eternal paradise. And His believers are growing!

To the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord asked the rhetoric questions, ‘Am I a God who is near, and not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ Jer 23:23,24. Realising God is here, now, not just waiting for us after we die, can cause some people to run or try to hide from Him. An overwhelming sense of condemnation, a fear of unfulfilled aspirations, a desire to be a ‘self-made man’ – there are many reasons. But Jesus loves you and is moved with compassion for you. He has come as the Great Shepherd, to gather the lost ones. Indeed, like the psalmist, we all must profess, ‘Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.’ Ps 139:7-10.

Think God Just Lives in Church Buildings? That’s so ‘Noughties’

When we are sharing the word message at our weekly Sunday service, The Chapel Hour, we write a brief blurb introducing the ministry of the morning. This is given out as a an A5 supplement with our weekly church notices. This Sunday I’m speaking on those great verses out of Psalm 139, ‘Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?’ Indeed God is everywhere. The thought struck me in preparing for the day – many people have contemplated God’s existence, but not many have resolved where He exists. Perhaps for the young child hearing about ‘God’ for the first, they would think tangibly and want to know where He is. Naturally the first guess is ‘in heaven.’ And this suits many unbelievers because if God is in heaven, He’s not on earth. This means they can ‘do their own thing’ in life now, and worry about salvation and God when they meet Him in heaven. But the Bible is clear – the Lord declares ‘do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ Jer 23:24.

I’ve been encouraged and blessed in considering God’s presence. He is always near to us. As a church, we’re really focusing our energy on evangelism. We’re considering with renewed zeal, how to witness and share the gospel and testimony of Jesus. I’m really enthused that God’s life is so abundantly available to all people, in all places, and all the time. I’m really believing many are going to abandon their cliche traditional view of musty old buildings equalling God’s presence. And turn to the Lord in multitudes over the years ahead (hence the convoluted blog title!) If you’re in Toowoomba or nearby this Sunday, and have been wondering about church and religion, please feel welcome to come along! I’ll post the abovementioned introductory blurb too!

Tags: Bible, evangelism, gospel, salvation, testimony, The Chapel Hour

Don’t Sit Down, The Music Hasn’t Stopped

Happy New Year to all. What a busy season it’s been since my last post! After the release of Songs From The Chapel Volume I, and a full year all round, Melanie and I took some time away over Christmas. At the time of drafting this post, I was on a 767 bound for Melbourne. Destination? Our annual Restorations Fellowships International southern Youth Summit. Our northern Youth Summit was held in Brisbane from 7th – 9th January. And from 13th – 16th January I was privileged and blessed to travel to Nonga, Papua New Guinea, for our Youth Summit there. What a rich experience! Our Christian Fellowships in Papua New Guinea now meet in over 60 locations ranging from small groups of families within remote villages to gatherings of hundreds. These are not ‘missionary’ conquests, but rather the establishing of lifelong connections and friendships in the Lord. One growing, enduring fellowship of saints, properly connected in relationship, so indeed ‘every joint supplies’. Eph 4:16.

While in PNG, I was thinking of that verse in the book of Revelation, ‘They sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation”.’ Rev 5:9. The spirit of this verse rested on my heart as we met so many faithful, zealous youth and leaders. While I struggled with understanding Pidgin, I was refreshed and reinvigorated seeing the gospel truly uniting nations in one body of Christ. And indeed the song of the Lord was alive and irresistibly contagious! ‘Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth [and I did!] and sing for joy and sing praises.’ Psa 98:4.

I took time to ponder the attitude towards singing in Papua New Guinean society, compared to our Australian culture. And I remembered my father, who grew up in Australia during the 1940′s and 50′s, describing evening ‘entertainment’ as gathering around a piano and singing with one another. When television was introduced (1956), the piano industry saw a huge decline in business. It would seem, (and sadly), we’ve lost the inclination to gather together and sing. Apart from the last birthday party you went to, when was the last time you sang with others? And if you’re of the generation interested in blogs, the concept of hanging out to have a sing-along would be an alien thought! Often when I’m leading worship at The Chapel, Toowoomba, I note many people visiting our services are at odds with participating in singing. It’s a challenge to ‘go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving’. Psa 42:4. And yet we’re directed always to ‘enter His gates with thanksgiving and praise’. Psa 100:4. One of our church’s goals in 2011 is to further exhort our congregation, and those visiting The Chapel, to fully participate in singing praise to the Lord. We are continually challenged to grow in our understanding of the song of the Lord. And we know this is the mode by which Christians are to make their pilgrimage through life. ‘So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting [singing] to Zion.’ Isa 51:11. In this way, the Lord counts us part of the ‘multitude keeping the festival’. Psa 42:4. If you’re in Toowoomba or nearby, please feel welcome to visit The Chapel Hour. Or if you have comments on the song of the Lord, I’d love to hear from you.

Tags: Christian, Pilgrimage, Restoration Fellowships International, thanksgiving and praise, worship

Welcome to Songs from The Chapel!

Never thought I’d see the day I was blogging. Having said that, for years I’ve wondered when we’d see the launch of songsfromthechapel.info. King Solomon was right in saying the dream comes through much effort! Can I firstly thank the team who went above and beyond this week to get the site live and the CD ready. “Songs from The Chapel VOLUME I” is our first effort at a CD release of original songs, recorded live each week at church. What a process! Mixing, artwork designs, disc printing and burning, right through to cover printing, cutting, stapling and inserting (lucky we have a printers in house – thanks Vision One). But they’re ready! Boxed up and headed for The Chapel bookshop (available for free!)

The Chapel is in Toowoomba, Australia, and home to Toowoomba Christian Fellowship. Together with my wife, we are part of the youth leadership team and worship team. We love the Lord and we love the Lord’s song. We have both learnt and studied music for the majority of our lives and between us play piano, saxophone, clarinet and bass guitar. I’m hoping to add drums to that list next! This double CD has 34 songs written, presented and recorded exclusively by TCF. This is a landmark occasion for us and everyone involved is excited and thrilled to be sowing the Lord’s word through song. We have had a media player at our homepage thechapel.org.au for some time, but no download capacity. Our heart for songsfromthechapel.info is to make the songs we feel so blessed to share with one another, available to all. Please visit often and check out the weekly updates. Also, regular devotional thoughts will be uploaded on the site for anyone wondering what our theological tenets underpinning our music are. We would greatly appreciate your feedback and comments about the site. And if you have any questions about the songs, either musical or devotional, please blog them too.

For the last few month’s I’ve been reflecting on a verse in the first book of Chronicles. ‘Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful.’ 1 Ch 15:22. Of particular interest to me is the word ‘skillful’. It comes from a Hebrew word more often translated ‘understanding’. Hence Chenaniah (who probably had a good voice!) was really in charge because he understood. This is our constant challenge. Not to be in charge of course, but to understand the Lord’s word to us, His instruction for our lives, and the true substance of His songs. What do you understand to be Christian music? What do you understand to be your part in Christian music? We’ve put several short articles on the site, particularly contemplating this understanding of the Lord’s song. I hope you enjoy them while you listen and download the first Songs from The Chapel album, and I look forward to your responses.

Tags: Christian Music, Church, Double CD, Lachlan Perrin, Songs, TCF, The Chapel, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Christian Fellowship

They will see and rejoice

How many musical artists in your knowledge bank do you attribute to your parents? Often friends within a given generation have completely differing recognition of music from earlier generations because of their parents’ taste. These are the songs we grow up listening to as children. Jesus used the term ‘little ones’ to describe children and also those young in their Christian faith. This music lesson teaches how the song of the Lord in our heart, can inspire the faith of little ones.

Unrestrained lips

For many people, it would be a daunting thought to sing in front of an audience. We all know the momentary awkward hesitation before a group sings ‘happy birthday’. Nobody wants to sing first! Instead everyone ‘restrains their lips’ momentarily. The psalmist wrote, ‘I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not restrain my lip.’ Psa 40:9. Of course, singing happy birthday and proclaiming the Lord’s praise couldn’t be more different. Moreover, the confidence we place in our solo voice is relevant for only one. ‘They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed.’ Ps 34:5. When we attend church, the ‘great congregation’, we have to sing as if no one else is present. We have to sing to the Lord because it is becoming. Ps 147:1. Our attitude of singing to the Lord should be one of unrestrained lips, because in so doing we proclaim His righteousness.

The calves of our lips

In the book of Hebrews, the apostle Paul wrote ‘let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips…’ Heb 13:5. At first glance, we could perceive the ‘fruit of our lips’ to be our songs of praise. If we limited our thinking to this, we would miss the true depth of Paul’s words. He was referring to an entire order of worship established by King David in the Old Testament.

Early in the Old Testament God would meet with His people, the nation of Israel, in the tabernacle of Moses. At the tabernacle His people would present a diverse range of offerings to God. The first and foremost was called a burnt offering. ‘If his offering is a burnt offering… he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.’ Lev 1:3,4. The Israelites were accepted by God, through the sacrificing of a young bullock or calf as representative of themselves.

Hands for worship

If we pursue everything God wants us to be, not only do we lead meaningful lives, the very journey and all our endeavors can become worship. You might think Christians use their hands on Sundays to worship. It is fulfilling to know that what we apply our hands to is acknowledging the worth-ship of God’s plan for our life. Strangely, as many of us lift these same hands in praise and worship on Sunday mornings, we do so based on misconceptions. An unaccountable ‘surrender’ to God does not equal the expression of our faith and desire to attribute worth to God. Nor does lifting up our hands hoping for a music-created, other-worldly physical experience or sensation. So why do Christians raise their hands at church? And what is worship?

Ascending praise

In the gospel of John, there is an account of Jesus meeting a Samarian woman drawing water from a well. Perceiving Jesus to be a religious man she says, ‘Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.’ John 4:20. This woman summarized in beautiful simplicity, the foundational motivation for attending church. We are to ‘come before Him with joyful singing.’ Ps 100:2. Whether committed Christians or complete non-attendees, nearly all people believe Church is about acknowledging God. The place where we hear from God and respectfully show our thanks to Him, or as the bible says, ‘praise’ Him.

The springs of song

Have you ever listened to a song and been captivated more by the effect of the music than the meaning of the lyrics. Perhaps at times you’ve even wondered if there’s any rhyme or reason to the lyrics, but enjoyed the effectiveness of the music as it compensates. On the contrary, often songs express deep, or personal motives and emotions of the writer. Where do these motives spring from? With music becoming a powerful component of contemporary church services we regularly review our motives. Indeed, accusations questioning the use of music in modern churches are regularly publicized. At The Chapel we too can digitally alter sounds or add effects to our songs. But we’re always mindful not to use effects to affect people! This music lesson is about the substance of the Lord’s holy city Zion being the spring of inspiration for Christian music. ‘Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say, “All my springs of joy are in you.” Ps 87:7. The ‘you’ in this psalm is referring to Zion. And the psalmist isn’t nominating some inspiration, rather all inspiration.