N.O.W. '06 LIVE CD

IT IS FINISHED!!!!! It has been a wonderful learning experience. Well...I'm not sure that I can really say wonderful, but I did learn a lot. I can honestly say, as hard as its been, it has been well worth it! Multi-tracking is definitely the way to go. So anyway, there you have it. Click on the CD below to commence downloading.

PULSE #6 - Romance

"Worship in its truest form is all about relationship"
-Matt Redman

Do you remember your first date? Was it awkward, or maybe just flat out weird expressing yourself? I remember the first time I asked my wife Lisa out on a date. She didn't believe me! Up to that point in our friendship I had given her no indication that I was a liar. If God could be surprised, do you think he would ever be taken back at the idea that we want to spend time with him? Think about that. Since the first time you asked Christ into your heart (your first date), have you continued dating or has the newness worn off?

Using the example of our earthly romantic relationships we explore a little deeper this idea of expressing our love to each other. In our relationship with God, there are many different ways in which He expresses himself to us...life, peace, death (His for us), eternity...just to name a few. Before I get ahead of myself, what are some ways in which we can express ourselves to our significant other. Okay, I'll start...smiling, hugging, holding hands, kissing, etc...etc... Lamar put it well:

"Just like a man and a woman on a romantic date should be themselves and let their feelings of love motivate their actions, so you must also let your inner love for God direct your worship."

One thing I want to make clear before we enter this realm of biblical expressions of worship. Just as in our earthly relationships, their are some expressions that should be expressed in private. As someone put it last night, an extreme example of this is sex. This is a beautiful gift of God to be expressed with our spouses at the right time and in the right place. I think we would all agree that this should not be a public act. I believe the same rule applies to some of the biblical forms of expression. Remember, our God is an incredibly creative God. He is also a God of order. Check out 1 Corinthians 14:12,26,40. Once again, I defer to Lamar:

"The dynamics of public worship are drastically different than the dynamics of private worship. There are some expressions that are great for your own private worship to God but that can potentially be distracting in public."

So, what are some of these different expressions? Well, just to name a few, the Bible commands us to sing, clap, bow, stomp, dance, jump, lift hands, prostrate ourselves, pray, meditate, cry, shout, kneel, give gifts, be silent (yes SILENT) and much, much more. WOW! What would your worship of God be like if you added just one of these to your mix? Just thinking about it, makes my heart jump! Of course, I have a heart murmur...I digress. Think about it though. How did you feel when you took your sweethearts hand for the first time? Even better than that, your first kiss? Can you imagine the intimacy with our creator that is just waiting for us to be bold enough to lean in. Once again, WOW!

As I'm writing this, I'm suddenly very aware of the lie that is lurking just around the corner. You know the one. It's the one that says that he or she must be closer to the Lord, because of their outward expressions. Or, a twist on that, they must be one of those emotional types that easily gets worked into a frenzy. Or, why aren't they expressing themselves. Whatever variation this lie takes, see it as just that...A LIE! Unfortunately, I think that Sunday mornings can be one of the most judgemental moments in our week. PLEASE FIGHT AGAINST THIS! Remember, "worship isn't driven by your visible performance or actions; worship should emanate from your relationship with the Father."

Luke 10:27 commands:

"You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind."

I think the key word here is ALL. Are you holding back? What new expression is God nudging you towards?

BE BOLD!

LEAN IN!

PULSE #5 - Temple

On the road again! C'mon everyone, sing it with me...I just can't wait to get on the road again! The fam & I are fast on the road back to Clarksvegas even as I type. Of course, by the time you get this post, we'll be home. Oh well. We're going to take one more stop by Robbers cave & do a little hiking. All in all, it has been a great mini-vacation. I'll be blogging a bit later about our experience at church yesterday. We were going to go to Gateway church in Fort Worth, but decided at the last minute to go with Lisa's parents to their h church, Grace Temple Baptist. To sum it up shortly, God is up to something AMAZING within that body. Like I said, I'll blog about it later.

For now, on to this week's (last week's) PULSE.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
-1 Corinthians 3:16

Well...do you? If you're a believer in Christ, do you truly believe that your body is the temple in which God's spirit dwells? Are you living in such a way that He would want to enter in? Are you hospitable? WOW, these are some meaty questions, but if you really call yourself HIS, then the Word is clear.

Let me put it another way. If someone were to ask you where you go to church, what would you say? As a follower of Christ, I would be completely right in saying...you know, according to God's word, I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I'm really at church all the time. As Lamar put it in the text, I'm a “Winnebago of Worship”. I LOVE THAT!

Several of you have heard the woman at the well story. I challenge you to read it again. Read the whole thing at John 4: 1-42. Let it soak in & then read it again. What is God trying to teach us in this text? Is worship a place? Or, is it an attitude? Man, am I full of questions today! I just think this is something that's worth wrestling with for a while. I mean, if we miss this, then our whole view of worship is going to be skewed. As true worshipers WE HAVE TO GET THIS!

Alright, it's time to rustle some feathers. Read this very closely...”THERE ARE NO WORSHIP WARS AMONG TRUE WORSHIPPERS!” That's right, if you're heart & motives are in the right place, then it won't matter what place or method you are using to worship. I'm very thankful to be serving in a body that has gotten past all this junk! Sure, we worship in different ways, but ultimately, we see God's hand in all of it.

So, let's get back to the root of it all. If we truly are the temple of the Holy Spirit, then we can & should be worshiping Him at all times. Yup, at work, play, even Wal-Mart. The scriptures are full of teachings on “Full-time” worship. Just to name a few:

“Pray without ceasing”
-1 Thessalonians 5:17

“And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long”
-Psalm 35:28

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth”
-Psalm 34:1

“Let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise...”
-Hebrews 13:15

I'll leave you with a statement that I have found to ring true in my life & in time, I pray it will in yours as well. “If you make your private worship a regular habit, you won't feel awkward about worshipping in public.”

Does your temple need a little spring cleaning?

PULSE #5 Postponed

Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay, but today has already proven to have too much to do and not enough time. My family & I are rushing to get ready for a long weekend trip to Dallas. I will try to get the next PULSE post out sometime over the weekend or first of next week.

I'm having to make myself live what I taught last night. Slow down...be still...and know that HE is GOD!!

Talk at ya soon!

-Mark

Pulse #4 - CORE

Have you ever bit into what seemed to be a beautiful shiny new apple, only to quickly spit it out in disgust? What you anticipated to be a refreshing, juicy apple, turned out to be a mushy, gritty mess. What if our worship were like this? Beautiful on the outside, while the inside is falling apart.

Judson Cornwall, an early pioneer of contemporary worship said this:

"Worship is an attitude of the HEART, a reaching toward God, a pouring out of our total self in thanksgiving, praise, adoration and love to God."

So you see, all of our many outward expressions of worship mean nothing if our heart is not aligned with God. I am reminded of a fictional story I once heard about God listening in on a large congregation seemingly worshiping Him with all their might. The 100 voice choir is singing out with hands raised high. The band is playing their instruments with as much energy as could be mustered up. The congregation is dancing, singing, bowing, praying...BUT! In the midst of it all, God could hear only one tiny voice. A young boy on the back row is singing his simple song, in a crackly, child-like manner. Even among hundreds of people going through the motions of worship, this little child was the only one worshiping with his whole heart.

In the Old Testament, the most popular Hebrew word for worship is shachah which means "to bow down or prostrate oneself before another in order to show him reverence." In the New Testament, the Greek word for worship is proskuneo which means "to kiss the hand to (toward) one, in a token of reverence." Isn't it interesting how the shift from the old to the new becomes much more personal & intimate. It moves from an act (to bow) that could be

done at a distance, to an act (to kiss) that must require a bit closer proximity. I LOVE THIS! Through Christ's redemptive blood, we are given the privilege of worshiping Him directly. Did you get that? We now have a direct connection with the Almighty. Bette Midler's song "From a Distance" is no more!! Okay, I may have crossed a line there, but you get the idea.

Here's a few great quotes from Lamar to remember:

"Worship doesn't start externally; it starts internally."

"You don't do worship; you mean worship."

"If it's in your heart, it will be expressed outwardly."
(Don't be afraid when your inward emotions
begin to manifest themselves outwardly.)

Ask yourself this question; what would you say to someone if they asked you what worship is? Is it when you sing a specific song, or maybe when you raise your right hand at just the right time? Or, is it when you connect heart to heart with your creator? Find some time alone with the Lord and truly seek Him to discover the answer of true worship.

Will you be singing the aforementioned song "From a Distance", or will you be singing the song of the little child?

What's at the CORE of your worship?

In this corner...

Apparently, the good people down here in Arkansas go crazy when a little wintry precipitation hits the ground. All of our Wednesday night activities at the church were cancelled last night due to the 1 1/2" of snowfall. I know, I know, it was the safe thing to do. I guess it's because of my childhood years in Wyoming, but going crazy over an inch and a half of snow isn't on my radar. We didn't cancel anything unless you had at least 3 feet of the white stuff. Man am I going to have some great stories for my grand kids. Anyway, enough about that.

Today I received an e-mail from my buddy Shaun. Yes, it was a mass e-mail, but communication nonetheless. As good friends do, I thought I'd join his quest. Here's what it said:

"I¹m a bit competitive I admit.

When the folks in charge at MyFreeMusicFriday.com told me that Amy Grant was
their most downloaded artist ever, well, I kinda said I wanted to see if we
could top that...ok, I said we WOULD top that. And by ³we² I meant you and
me, our big mouths and our collective technological prowess.

********************
TOMORROW, FEBRUARY 2, 2007, my new song ³MISS TEXAS² can be downloaded for
FREE - no strings attached - at MYFREEMUSICFRIDAY.COM.
********************

It¹s on. In this corner, industry veteran and superstar with zillions of
names in a database being zinged emails by a manager or an intern or
children in a factory in Malaysia...you don't know. And in this corner, a
guy with a blog and a Myspace page and you...and your myspace page and your
blog and your address book.

I¹m seriously wondering how close we can come to beating Amy Grant¹s record
setting performance at MyFreeMusicFriday.com.

It¹s an experiment. Wanna play? Just alert your myspace friends about
tomorrow¹s free music giveaway and ask them to do the same. Post about it
on your blog. Send an e-mail or two to the music lovers you know.

If you¹re on the radio, please tell your listeners MyFreeMuscFriday.com is
the place to get new music for free, no strings attached - and radio folks
can also e-mail me for a copy of ³Miss Texas² to play on-air if you¹d like
to let your audience hear what they can download for nothing tomorrow.

Can you and I even get close to competing with Amy Freakin¹ Grant¹s massive
popularity and fanmail list?

The suspense is thick isn¹t it folks?

Thanks for your help."

-Shaun


Can we help him...YES WE CAN! Wow, that sounded CHEESY! Consider it a favor for a friend. You can check out Shaun's blog..."Shlog" on my sidebar. Yes, it's fixed now.

Come on Shaun. Keep moving and watch out for that right hook. I'm sure Vince has taught her a thing or two.

CIAO!