Thorns
We got our piano tuned at home. It's much nicer now - actually playable. I asked the tuner if it's worth restoring, and he basically said "buy a better piano." I'm going to wait until we have reliable HVAC before doing that though. In the meantime, I've really been enjoying playing on my own, no audience, no other musicians, just me.
God has really been impressing upon me the importance of worship. I heard an interesting thing a few weeks ago: "If someone only spent 30 min a week watching TV, would you say he worships TV?" Well, I have been thinking I worship God, but in reality only a paltry portion of my time is spent in worship. So I'm looking to rectify that.
In light of this, I have actually sat down and just worshipped. Just me and the piano and God. On a semi-regular basis. Then something amazing happened. God met me. I was playing a song, and midway through I just started free worship. It was very liberating. I can definitely say that we were made to worship. I felt such a complete... "filling"... I can't really describe it. I got to hang out with the creator of the universe, and try to put into words how beautiful He is.
How amazing, that God takes any enjoyment at all from our feeble attempts to tell Him how beautiful He is. It's like a kid coming home and giving his parents a "portrait" of themselves. If Mom & Dad really looked like that, we'd be seeking medical help from Dr. 90210. But the parents take that drawing and stick it in the most trafficked area of the house. How much more does God take pride in our portraits of Himself? Yes, they are woefully inadequate, but they touch His heart nonetheless.
In an effort to get healthier, I have been taking steps to improve my bodily situation. I have been lifting weights to build my muscles, doing some regular cardiovascular work to improve my heart & lungs, and I've been (mostly just thinking about!) reducing my caloric intake/eating better foods to help lose weight. Yes, I could just do one of these things, and that would be good. But to get the best benefit for my body, I should do all these things in concert.
Similarly, there are a number of things I can do to strengthen my spiritual man, that relationship I have with Jesus. Among these things are praying, fasting, worship and giving. I'm not going to say that prayer = weightlifting and worship = eating right, or anything like that. There may be analogies in there, but I haven't studied it enough and I don't want to go there now. Anyway, each of these things has certain benefits simply by themselves.
The parable of the sower in Mark 4 talks about the seed sown among thorns. The thorns represent 3 things: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. These thorns choke out the word in our hearts, and it becomes unfruitful. Not a good situation. Fortunately, there are three things that combat the thorns:PrayerThis combats the cares of this world. By praying, we are in effect turning everything over to the one who made us. This is where we get strength to face the trials placed before us, where we refill our tanks. Luke 22:39 says Jesus was accustomed to going to the Mt. of Olives to pray. Prayer needs to be a habit, a custom. I would also put worship into this category. If prayer is talking to God, worship is just prayer set to music.FastingJesus told His disciples, "when you fast, don't do it like the pharisees..." Notice he said when not if. Fasting will combat the desires for other things. It's basically denying the single strongest physical desire we as humans have: food. This allows us to literally feed our spiritual man by denying our physical man. I'm not saying we should become anorexic, but fasting will essentially put our body in its place, under the dominion of Christ.GivingWhen we no longer view our physical possessions (read: money) as ours, but instead see them as God's, something begins to change. Riches begin to lose their appeal. Nothing wrong with being rich, as long as we don't fall prey to the deceitfulness that lies therein, that riches are an ends to themselves. Nothing is further from the truth. Don't put your heart in things that will corrupt, get stolen, and be burned up in the chaff. The absolute best way to do this is by tithing. As soon as you get your paycheck, write a check for 10% and give it away. After you do this for a while, increase the percentage. Give 11%. Then 12%. Then one month start giving 14%. You'll find that if you do this as God leads you, riches will no longer seem so appealing. At least, not enough to make you stop gazing at Christ to go pursue that new shiny object that really is worthless.Ok. There you have it. Once the thorns are defeated, the word will grow in your heart and bear fruit. Some will see 30x increase, some 60x increase, and some 100x increase. This is a whole new topic, but I think the difference between these three increases has to do with the mix of the first three things. Get all the thorns out of your heart and see what God will do. God is not mocked: whatever you sow, that's what you will reap [Gal 6:7-8].
God has really been impressing upon me the importance of worship. I heard an interesting thing a few weeks ago: "If someone only spent 30 min a week watching TV, would you say he worships TV?" Well, I have been thinking I worship God, but in reality only a paltry portion of my time is spent in worship. So I'm looking to rectify that.
In light of this, I have actually sat down and just worshipped. Just me and the piano and God. On a semi-regular basis. Then something amazing happened. God met me. I was playing a song, and midway through I just started free worship. It was very liberating. I can definitely say that we were made to worship. I felt such a complete... "filling"... I can't really describe it. I got to hang out with the creator of the universe, and try to put into words how beautiful He is.
How amazing, that God takes any enjoyment at all from our feeble attempts to tell Him how beautiful He is. It's like a kid coming home and giving his parents a "portrait" of themselves. If Mom & Dad really looked like that, we'd be seeking medical help from Dr. 90210. But the parents take that drawing and stick it in the most trafficked area of the house. How much more does God take pride in our portraits of Himself? Yes, they are woefully inadequate, but they touch His heart nonetheless.
In an effort to get healthier, I have been taking steps to improve my bodily situation. I have been lifting weights to build my muscles, doing some regular cardiovascular work to improve my heart & lungs, and I've been (mostly just thinking about!) reducing my caloric intake/eating better foods to help lose weight. Yes, I could just do one of these things, and that would be good. But to get the best benefit for my body, I should do all these things in concert.
Similarly, there are a number of things I can do to strengthen my spiritual man, that relationship I have with Jesus. Among these things are praying, fasting, worship and giving. I'm not going to say that prayer = weightlifting and worship = eating right, or anything like that. There may be analogies in there, but I haven't studied it enough and I don't want to go there now. Anyway, each of these things has certain benefits simply by themselves.
The parable of the sower in Mark 4 talks about the seed sown among thorns. The thorns represent 3 things: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. These thorns choke out the word in our hearts, and it becomes unfruitful. Not a good situation. Fortunately, there are three things that combat the thorns:PrayerThis combats the cares of this world. By praying, we are in effect turning everything over to the one who made us. This is where we get strength to face the trials placed before us, where we refill our tanks. Luke 22:39 says Jesus was accustomed to going to the Mt. of Olives to pray. Prayer needs to be a habit, a custom. I would also put worship into this category. If prayer is talking to God, worship is just prayer set to music.FastingJesus told His disciples, "when you fast, don't do it like the pharisees..." Notice he said when not if. Fasting will combat the desires for other things. It's basically denying the single strongest physical desire we as humans have: food. This allows us to literally feed our spiritual man by denying our physical man. I'm not saying we should become anorexic, but fasting will essentially put our body in its place, under the dominion of Christ.GivingWhen we no longer view our physical possessions (read: money) as ours, but instead see them as God's, something begins to change. Riches begin to lose their appeal. Nothing wrong with being rich, as long as we don't fall prey to the deceitfulness that lies therein, that riches are an ends to themselves. Nothing is further from the truth. Don't put your heart in things that will corrupt, get stolen, and be burned up in the chaff. The absolute best way to do this is by tithing. As soon as you get your paycheck, write a check for 10% and give it away. After you do this for a while, increase the percentage. Give 11%. Then 12%. Then one month start giving 14%. You'll find that if you do this as God leads you, riches will no longer seem so appealing. At least, not enough to make you stop gazing at Christ to go pursue that new shiny object that really is worthless.Ok. There you have it. Once the thorns are defeated, the word will grow in your heart and bear fruit. Some will see 30x increase, some 60x increase, and some 100x increase. This is a whole new topic, but I think the difference between these three increases has to do with the mix of the first three things. Get all the thorns out of your heart and see what God will do. God is not mocked: whatever you sow, that's what you will reap [Gal 6:7-8].