Trust God and Be Joyful May 26, 2009
Posted by jonas in insights, random.Tags: insights
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“those who trust the Lord will be joyful.” – Proverbs 16:20
Life is full of ups and downs. One day life is perfect and the next the bottom falls out and you feel completely lost. I see so many times, and even in myself, I let my attitude and joy be determined by the ups and downs. Whatever is currently happening to us or around us drives our attitude.
There is a problem with that and it’s that we don’t trust God! I know that may seem harsh but think about it. If you trust that God is who he says he is and that he’s sovereign, why would you ever worry or have a bad attitude about your circumstances? You wouldn’t! No matter how big or bad your situation is, TRUST GOD AND BE JOYFUL!
J
Worship Myths #1 – Our worship expression is not about unbelievers May 4, 2009
Posted by jonas in insights, worship.Tags: insights, jonas esguerra, worship, worship leading
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Worship Myths is a series on my blog that is designed to dispel myths we Christians have about our worship expression in our churches each weekend. The conversation sometimes is a bit controversial, but it would not be worthy if it wasn’t.
MYTH: “Our worship expression is not about unbelievers”
It seems very clear that the purpose of a worship service is for the gathering of believers and the scripture warns us about not regularly gathering as believers. Hebrews 10:24-25 exhort us that meeting together is what stirs us to live how we should as Christians. But, what about the unbeliever?
I think the unbeliever is included in some very important ways in scripture in public worship both in the Old Testament and New Testament. We miss the heart of God when we come to a worship gathering and do not think outward as well as upward.
Here are three examples:
BUILDINGS: Worship services should provide, plan and invite a space for those on the “outside” of our faith.
Even with God’s chosen people, the idea of following after God to those not even born into being a Jew was that you could join. The Old Testament temple had a Gentile court where “foreigners” (1 Kings 8:41-43 OT) “God-fearers” (Acts 13:26 NT) could be near the worship of God.
PROGRAMMING: Worship services need to recognize that there is a process to following Jesus–not all are at the same point on their journey.
Jesus had people following Him as He taught that were at all levels of engagement–from the very committed twelve to the entertained masses. The Sermon on The Mount included a wide-spread audience. So, our church services to some degree are “public” and speak to both the believers and those on their way just like Jesus did in his public ministry.
LANGUAGE: Worship services planned for the believer need to be intelligible to the unbeliever.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:23 mentions clearly the fact that “unbelievers” are present or may be in worship gatherings. So, the word there instructs us to order or plan worship with the unbeliever in mind. At my church we often mention the use of “insider language” being a bad thing. Nothing is watered down, we simply packaged things to be “intelligible” to the person new to Christianity or the unbeliever investigating Christianity.
Ultimately, we are evangelize by inviting people to worship or follow Jesus. So, it makes sense that in our public expressions, we would not just allow them to come but design buildings, programming and language with the unchurched and unbeliever in mind.
Habakkuk 1:when God seems unfair August 18, 2008
Posted by jonas in insights.Tags: insights, mind dump, study
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“2How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? 3Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.”
–Habakkuk 1:2-3
Lets do another version of this verse:
“Why is it that evil people, they prosper but the good people plenty of bad things happen to them? We try not cheat but our valedictorian is one of the greatest cheater at school! How come I tithe but there are some people not even giving and they are prospered. What’s up with that? How come someone else prays, when they pray you seemed like you answer it right away? WHY?”
As we study the book of Habakkuk you may say that maybe he is not a deep believer or something. Actually he is incredibly in love with God. He is very faithful. But like other people he crashed into a faith wall, the things that he saw didn’t make sense on what he believes.
Overview: Habakkuk was a prophet of God during the reign of Jehoiakim, a wicked king, around 607 B.C. The Babylonian empire was rising in strength and the southern two tribes of Israel, called Judah were surrounded by this powerful and wicked empire. The nation of Judah, under Johoiakim’s reign was following the ways of the world and was drifting from serving God.
He was troubled by what he saw and asked God to judge the nation of Judah for their sin. God’s response utterly shocked him as he couldn’t understand why God would respond in the way that God was planning.
“3Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
There are times that questioning God could become a significant part of your faith journey.
“Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
I got saved 4 years ago,my cousin shared me the gospel and I received Christ as my Lord and savior. I’m “high” for God. I am very active in the ministry,going to to Rizal High School for campus ministry after class, very passionate in teaching them the good news. Sharing the Gospel to my classmates and they received,prayed for my former choir mates at “church” and all them got saved and now serving in the different victory churches in the Philippines. Two years ago my parents told me that they cannot support me anymore and felt like devastated because my dream of becoming a chemical engineer started to disappear,helping my family with the finances. I ask God “Why is this happening to me?” I am faithful to you! why?! But I remained faithful, and indeed he answered my prayer after praying and believing for the provision for my school. I got a job at the missions department as an administrative assistant and it helped me finance my everyday needs. Real Life Foundation had given me scholarship for my school! September 2007, our department head told us that they will dissolved our degree because of lack of funds and students. Sad. If we are going to transfer university, they will admit us but we will be back to 2nd year! (I’m 5th year irregular). Lord you remained faithful. So i wait and researched for school and Yeah! after months of waiting and prayer a got in a school! God is really faithful! God has strengthen my beliefs and the power of His word. He has made my foundation stronger because of the shaking he has done.
A Deeply Committed believer can express simultaneous questions in Faith.
You embraced Him! You hold On! Never let go. He will never let go of you.
