Wednesday, July 05, 2006
this is not only a call to worship.
this is not only a call to sing.
but its a desperate plea for revival.
i guess i've always had a ear for music and lyrics after all. i once told someone that i never ever paid attention to the lyrics of songs, that i judged a song merely by its riffs and progression and musicality. but as much emotions it can surround me with, the soul of the song stems from the words themselves.
i posted about this before, and it just came to me again as a i reflect on emo music, rock music, punk music and christian music. the difference is startling, yet so similar. they each represent a love of a different kind. yet this love is directly at other places, which accounts for their differences.
rock brings out a love for the music itself, where you love to riff, to lick, to solo and to just improvise your heart out - you love your work.
punk inplodes your love, keeping it inside, for you think the world hates you and is against you, and the only one you can trust is yourself.
emo, of which i was once part of, is a river spilling forth undam-ed. the water? love, most of the time unrequited. destination? the open sea where it loses its freshness and is dispersed away, wasted. accept this river will dry up one day. no rain will come for the river will not accept it, choosing to be narrow-minded in its outlook.
haven't we realised that in our worldly music, we have given love to things that cannot love us back? and its ever-consuming, always taking, sucking us dry like a prune, emptying us, and filling that void with incoherent thoughts and a hopeless abandon in life. like the river, we are wasted forever.
but through worship. we realise that we don't start by giving love. it begins when God loved us, so he created us. and filled us with that love so great. having our cup overflowing, we have nothing else to give but to reciprocate. return that love, and worship is borne. many people think worship means sacrifice, and they are not wrong. but they worry about what to give or how much. when God already stated so,
God wants only one word, you. not abit of you, but all three letters of you.
after all, we did come from Him. your parents loved you when they made you, so you love them back, by giving your time, your energy in pleasing them and taking care of them when they took care of you. the same applies to Him. but again people ask, how can we love a God we can't see?
"Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. " John 5:19-20
its obvious to see, God loves us and demonstrates his love to us by blessing us, by lifting us up when we are down, by working miracles in our lives, medical miracles, by introducing people passionate for Christ to us. all this is so that we might see what our Father is doing, and we might emulate as the Son did. After all, we are His children.
God did so much for us, he showed so much to us, and its our turn to be thankful, by doing what He does.
Let God introduce you to other backslided or pre-believers, so that others might be influenced by our fire, our passion in You.
I will always remember Ps. Evan's message on Revival. it doesn't just come like that. we have to pray for it. and i don't just mean pray. we must desperately seek it such that we cry out to him, we "groan", not in pain or delect but in joy that we may be filled in Him.
we fast, in hope, that we may be sanctified. yes. that's it. be sanctified. The lyrics for many of the songs in United we Stand have really hit me, it shows me a process in revival and passion to go out to make disciples. first, there's the praise of His power, and the calling to stand for Him. and then there's the sanctification, that we might know Him from the inside out. to realise that God's always with us, that we might continually seek him, that fire will fall down, and God be lifted high.and then we commission ourselves, to go out boldly, for we want the world to know, this is a revolution, and i'll stand on the Word and bear fruit for you.
i thank God, for he has held me strong in my fast, to quit many things, and to change my outlook. i've stumbled before, but He told me to not stop, to persevere on to that Higher calling. i will learn to love all over again. i will learn to speak all over again. i will learn to help all over again. and i will learn to be a fisher of men, that i might bear fruit.
oh, and He says that he prunes vines that He knows will bear fruit, and i can't wait. i can't wait. for more of it to come and make me stronger.
sanctify me oh Father, Send me!
convicted by Your spirit, led by Your word
4:46 AM
