February 5th, 2008

This was a day that I will never forget, as long as I am living. I had just moved into my dorm just days before. It was the first couple of class days at Union University in Jackson, TN. Some people had said that there was a possibility of storm but no one really took those warnings very seriously. About 5:00pm, thats when the clouds started to roll in and yet students still didnt think much of a storm. Around 7:00pm, winds started to pick up and all students were ordered into their dorms.

The next 10 minutes and the hours that followed would be the most intense moments in my entire life. Here are some of the images so you can get an idea of what we went through.

The next day, I got to go home and obviously was still in shock from what I had just been through. So the first night back at my home in Lexington, Kentucky. I jotted down some words, my thoughts, my prayer, my message to the other students at Union who went through the same event I went through and what I hoped they would take away from that night. Here are those words:

That Day in Our Maze
By Drew Head

This day’s events and shadowed ends
Have left me wondering where it begins
Shirts were wet from tears now dry
All these images flash in my eye
This week’s events remind me how
There is a God to whom I bow
Stranger helps stranger in loving care
Now students return with hope in the air

What a memory it was that Tuesday night
And going into Wednesday, what a sight!
It was like a maze, stepping over this and over that
God’s maze to proclaim his glory, to be very exact.
The mess of that day was overwhelming to witness
But the lives that were spared, now that’s a witness.
See God was there in the mess. He was with you and me.
He said he would be there. Read Pslam 23.

Oh what a time and what a thought that day
Brings a sigh to my lips without a word to say
A shock it is that no lives were lost
It is a time like this we look to the cross
That is our courage and strength to stand
Next to our peers, hand in hand
And shout to the devil that you have not won
For victory is ours, because of what Jesus has done.

See my life will be forgotten to time
My actions will not even be worth a dime.
It is the cause of Christ that I long to spread
Without a moment to lose until I am dead.
God protected us that night 2.5.08
And will the result of our suffering be great?
Will we take our pain and turn it to joy?
Or will we just let it pass by and play with our new toys?

The words of Christ echo in my heart.
He says “come as you are.” Its never too late to start.
Do not take what happened that night as luck.
Because God was with us even when we were stuck.
In the midst of the shadows of death he was there,
To hold our hands and to keep us aware.
Now, he wants us to go spread the word.
For Jesus saves. Who cares if they think its absurd?

Please take my words, heartfelt as they are
That days events have definitely left a scar
Much more pain could have come from that night
But it was God and his protection that calmed my fright
The cross and its power has become reality to me.
For in that nights horror, I still saw a cross made from a tree.
Where a man died for my sins and for yours
To save us all from the pain we might endure.

So, here is my anthem, my call, my plea
Let your mind think upon what you see,
Is the war like atmosphere stuck in your brain?
You see it now? Let it soak. Let it stain,
Into your heart and stay there forever.
For God’s hand of protection on us will never be severed.
That day’s events will stay with me always.
That was the day God came down and walked in our maze.

————————————————————————————-

God is good. All the Time.

2 Corinthians 4:15-17 says, “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 says, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Isaiah 40:28-31 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Keep checking the blog. I got 2 more coming on here real soon.

Until then

Keep Living John 3:30

Repetitious Chanting vs Meaningful Declaration

“Send Me, I’ll go”

These words were chanted by roughly 1500 college students, adults, and kids in the Union University chapel, Friday night (11.6.09) in Jackson, TN. The place was going crazy as, popular Christian rapper, Lecrae was on stage performing. However, this performance was much more than a one-night concert where people were sweaty from jumping around.

Lecrae’s song, “Send Me” is off his album After the Music Stops. It has to do with the calling that Isaiah has in Isaiah 6:6-8, “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ “

Lecrae starts this song and all the students start singing the words back. Soon after this, Lecrae stops the music. He then challenges us to think about what we are saying. He said, “We as Christians have gotten into a habit of repeating whatever someone says on the stage, during the music time, without really understanding what we are truly saying.” He went on to tell us that this song is more than words that go well with a certain beat, but that these words are a declaration to God, to your church, and to yourself that you will be willing to go wherever God leads you.

This got me thinking. How many of us (and check yourself and your church on this one) sing along with the music leader on Sunday mornings on Wednesday nights, but truly don’t know what we are singing or offer the words up as empty promises? Taking it a step further. It doesn’t even have to be  in a regular church service. It could be in the car on the way to work Thursday morning where you sing on song, but don’t really take time to think about what it is you are saying. It could be in the shower in the mornings where you sing along with a Chris Tomlin song or any other worship song either on the radio, CD, or in your head. It’s a dangerous thing to make a promise and declaration without fully understanding what you are saying.

For the longest time my Dad used to say that the church song “I Surrender All” was the most dangerous song sung in the church today. If you dont remember the song, here are a couple of the lyrics. “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give…All to thee my blessed savior, I surrender all.” Do you truly understand what you are saying when you sing that? You surrender, I surrender, ALL. Everything I own, I surrender just so God can make much of himself through us. I surrender my extra shoes? sure. I surrender my fancy computer? a little harder but ok. I surrender my family? my future wife? my future children? Well, God I really didnt want to surrender that much. It doesnt work like that, since God is the one who gave us everything we have in the first place (possessions, health, family) then it should be up to God when we dont need it anymore.

Look at what Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 says, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fools voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has not pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the works of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.”

I think that, that sums it up pretty well. Watch what you say and to be completely cliché, say what you mean and mean what you say. It works in life but it also works in our relationship with God. When we say something, when we proclaim something in a song, then we should mean what we say because you never know when God will hold us accountable for the promises that we make to him.

One final word, there is another Lecrae song (one of my favorites!) called “Go Hard” off of his album Rebel. This song is strictly talking about going all out for God, not half way, not being lukewarm, but being totally consumed with living out the Great Commission and telling the world of how glorious knowing God truly is. The thing that I like about this song is how passionate it is. The first line of the song is another one of those lines that you dont say unless you truly mean it. I didnt understand that at first, but now I do. The first line of that song says, “Lord, KILL me if I don’t preach the gospel, still in my twenties but I’ll die, if I got to.” That isn’t something most people go around town shouting in the streets, Lord please Kill me if I dont preach the gospel. How raw, how inspiring is the passion that this man has the Lord? Whether you like rap or not, you have to appreciate his strong faith, his heavy impact on the city of Memphis for Christ, and his ability to take strong theological phrases and ideas (that some would only want mentioned in seminary classes) and he puts them in to song where people are singing along but they are also learning meaningful things about the God that we serve. Also the fact that there is not one song that Lecrae performs where there isnt any scripture in the song. He points to scripture everywhere, the name of his group is 116 Clique (based off of Romans 1:16).

This man is passionate. This man is Godly. This man reminded me that the words that I say are not just things coming out of my mouth, but every song that I sing is a declaration to my God and so according to that and according to the scripture we saw in Ecclesiastes, I am going to choose my words a little more carefully. I pray that you do the same.

Keep Living John 3:30

Matt Chandler at Southern Seminary

Matt Chandler spoke in chapel at Southern Seminary today. Please watch and listen to this short sermon and may it impact you the same way it impacted me.

more about “Matt Chandler at Southern Seminary“, posted with vodpod

http://www.sbts.edu/resources/chapel/chapel-fall-2009/hebrews-11/