A couple weeks ago I was introduced to a new-to-me song during the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.  It wasn’t one that I recognized or can honestly say I had really ever heard before, but apparently it has really gotten around.  The song Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen was first released in 1984 and has been covered many many times since then.  In the past couple weeks I have listened to a bunch of these covers, but I have to say that this Video Of The Week version by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris is by far my favorite.  Maybe because these guys are just insanely talented or maybe because it’s just a really good version.

The song’s meaning as Cohen has been quoted is that “it explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”  I love that.  Hallelujah in Hebrew – ???????????? - means to boast in God.  How often do we struggle to boast in God when the times get tough?  It is really easy to say when everything is going great, but when the world comes crashing down on us, it gets difficult to boast in God who is in control.  And many times, it is difficult to boast in God in the good times because we forget that He is the reason for everything going on.  It isn’t because of the things that I have accomplished but solely through Him.  This week as you go about your life, in the good times and the bad times, remember to boast in God.  Hallelujah.

As the weeks fly by this year, I realize more and more that my baby girl is almost here!  That’s pretty crazy!  I think we are looking at another great week!  Here’s what I’m expecting this week.

• Well, the contractions have started!  Very few and far between, but that means we are getting closer.  I bet we have a few more of those this week.
• We are doing some crowd favorites for our setlist on Sunday.  I’m expecting God to take over!
• This week my wife and I will be starting the third week of our YouVersion Daily Reading through the Gospels.  It’s been great so far.  So many things I am learning through it and I expect God to continue to reveal more and more through it!
• I have a consultation with an oral surgeon on Monday.  I expect to not be excited about getting my wisdom teeth removed.
• Thursday night will be another Thursday Night @ The HUB.  The first two have been great and I expect God to do more great things through it.

I hope you are expecting God to do more than expected!

Being a Music Pastor with a wife that enjoys music nearly as much as I do, our iTunes is PACKED full of music.  It ranges from Ace Of Base to Hillsong United to Metallica with sprinkles of *NSYNC and Tupac.  But the other day I as I was jamming a song that I haven’t heard in a very long time came on.  It’s a Shane & Shane cover of a Steven Curtis Chapman song called Remember Your Chains.  Since it has been so long since I last thought about this song and that my wife is pregnant so my memory is just gone (that’s how it works right?), I started thinking about the words.  They are huge!

Remember your chains
Remember the prison that once  held you
Before the love of God broke through
Remember the place you were without grace
When you see where you are now
Remember your chains
Remember your chains are gone

Imagine what your life would be
If Jesus had not set you free

Many times we want to forget the past.  It reminds us of when we were awkward or immature or without salvation.  We even teach ourselves to put the past behind us, move on and forget things ever happened.  I am no therapist or psychologist so I am not going to say that this is always a good thing, but there are times that we need to remember the past.

We need to remember where we came from.

…what we have been through…

…how we got to “here”.

We need to remember our chains.  No matter when you came to Christ, you lived a life prior to Him that was destined for death.  But through Him we have been scooped out of the pit of death and given life!  Some have more battle scars than others, but the fact still remains that we were all trapped in a prison and chained to our sins.  And now we have been set free from the life of an inmate on death row and given a whole new identity in Someone much bigger and stronger than we can ever be!  Maybe you feel those chains right now.  If so, know that there is a way to freedom.  Whether you have been freed before or not, there is freedom in Christ.  He wants to give it to you!  Just ask for it!

As painful as it may be…

As humbling as it may be…

Remember your chains.  Remember a life without hope, mercy or grace.

But more than that, remember that you are set free from it all in Jesus Christ!

As I have been reading through my YouVersion daily reading plan of the Gospels with my wife, I have been reminded of so many things.  Jesus really was amazing.  He was revolutionary.  Crowds followed Him everywhere.  12 guys got backstage passes.  Really cool stuff.  But the one thing that has been hitting me the most this week is that those 12 disciples who were chosen by Jesus Christ Himself to be the early leaders of the church were NOT perfect.  Really, a lot of the time they were quite ridiculous.

• They freaked out when someone else was preaching in Jesus name.  (Is that ok, Jesus?  Are you sure?  Because I’m pretty sure they were Methodists.)

• They had the Savior of the world on their boat and almost completely fell apart because they thought they were gonna die.  (Ummm…Jesus?  You might wanna wake up because the waves are really big.  What?  No!  It’s not time for surfing!  We are drowning!)

• They saw miracle after miracle, but as soon as He told them to gather up food for the 5,o00+ they doubted again.  (Seriously?  They don’t want Long John Silvers.  No one really eats that.)

But I think my favorite so far has been from Luke 9.

They came to a Samaritan village to make arrangements for his hospitality. But when the Samaritans learned that his destination was Jerusalem, they refused hospitality. When the disciples James and John learned of it, they said, “Master, do you want us to call a bolt of lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?” Jesus turned on them: “Of course not!”

Luke 9:52-55 (emphasis added)

Ha!  I image that Jesus giggled a little to Himself there.  Probably one of those wow-you-are-an-idiot-but-I-don’t-want-to-laugh-in-your-face-so-I-will-cough-and-clear-my-throat type giggles (or guttoral utterances if you prefer the more rugged manly version of Jesus).  Seriously?  Have you not caught on to what He is doing?  You love those that need love.  No bolts of lightning, James and John.  No chopping off ears, Peter.

They weren’t perfect.  I love that!  Because I’m not perfect.  And still they were used to change the course of history!  How amazing is it to know that the God that thought you up and loves you more than you can EVER know can use you even with all our faults, failures, immaturities, and lack of faith?!  So rest in the fact that God has a plan for you.  And even though you have screwed up and will again, He still loves you and wants to use you.

Yes, even despite that time you were pregnant and in a fit of road rage tried to summon a bolt of lightning down to incinerate the car next to you that probably really didn’t do much to you.

There is a popular bumper sticker that reads “NOTW” or not of this world.  For those of us with a relationship with Christ, this is true!  We are no longer of this world!  He has made us something else.  But it seems like a lot of the time I forget that we are still in this world.  I am a firm believer that we are called to be not of this world BUT still affect it while we are still in this world.  That is a difficult thing to do when we don’t get outside of our little church bubble.

I am as guilty as any.  I like to be selfish with my time and spend it with my family or doing things I like.  It is far too easy to cruise through life doing the safe thing.  For me the safe thing is basketball with my church friends, TV with the wife, date nights, blogging, church, etc.  Recently I have found myself caught up in this world and doing nothing for the rest of my community at all!  Ouch. That’s a tough thing to realize.  I like to justify it and say that it’s just hard to make friends you don’t spend time with.

Many times as Christians we are just like me.  We find it easy and safe to never leave the “walls of our church” to affect our surroundings at all.  We don’t make time to still be in the world.  Jesus did this!  He made time. He gave time for the Hookers and Robbers.  He did it so much that it pissed off the religious people around Him.

The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?” Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.

Luke 5:30-32

When was the last time you invited over for dinner someone you know doesn’t know Christ or at least are unsure if they do?  It’s been way too long for me.  We are called to live our lives different.  The safe, comfortable life isn’t it!  That is why Christ came.  And I’m pretty sure He didn’t take the easy way.

He came for the hookers and thieves…

…the Enron bigwigs and the Wall Street suits…

…the Buddhists and the Relativists…

…the Democrats and Republicans…

…Communists and Socialists…

…you…

…me.

Last week I had something on my mind and wrote a post called I Work Out Therefore I Am.  I don’t know why, but God brought up the issue of image and what others think.  Living in Orange County, people think that they are different than the rest of the world.  We aren’t any different here than anywhere else.  We still have issues. We still have money problems.  We still don’t understand the concept of using credit in our favor (and how that doesn’t mean to go buy a Lotus because the bank upped the limit).  But one of the biggest issues that I continue to see here is that of image.

I have seen in all over the place.  There is a constant need to be prettier or better dressed or have nicer stuff or write better, speak better, sing better, surf better than the next person.  But then as God put this on my heart last week, I came across a couple verses in my YouVersion reading plan that to me really nail it down.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

Matthew 6:27-30

“There’s trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them.

Luke 6:26

I love it.  Has fussing in the mirror ever made you taller?  No!  If He gives so much attention to some random flowers that no one ever sees, how much pride and love and thought did He pour into you?!  Be you!  That’s who you were made to be!  And for those of us that only live and breathe and do because we want the approval of others, we have a rough road ahead.  If those don’t smack you across the face either you either don’t have any issues with this at all or you didn’t read it!

Recently I was reading some blogs and I came across this post from a friend’s blog, ScottRodgers.tv.  He brings up a great point of view and big things to think about for those of us in church leadership to keep in mind.  Thanks for being my guest blogger, Scott!

Dear Unbeliever,

I’m sorry if your recent trip to church met your expectations.

I’m sorry if we assumed you already believed in God.  I’m sorry if the message was only for those who believe and excluded those who aren’t sure.  I’m sorry if your worldview was rejected before it was respected.  I’m sorry if all you heard was what Christians are against.  I’m sorry for inhaling God’s love and grace then exhaling self righteousness sprinkled with politics and ethics.

I’m sorry if we make Jesus look like someone He probably is not.  He is so much more.  He is the author and giver of life, the Son of God.  He is the fulfillment of grace, the completion of forgiveness.  He is our Savior and wants to be your Lord – the center of everything in your life.  He loves you.  I hope that someday you consider surrendering your life to him.  He will not let you down.   And, for distorting the message and image of Christ, I’m sorry.

The Church

I love that going into each new week God provides so many new things that we can expect from Him.  Every Sunday is another opportunity to reach out to the community around us and give them the truth.  Here are a few of the things I’m looking forward to this week.

• We recently did the song Revelation Song for the first time at a worship night.  It went over very well and God did some great things.  Today we are doing it for the first time on a Sunday.  If I am the only person that is caught up in the words of this song, I would be surprised.
• We are continuing in John this week and expecting great things out of this book.
• Today, my wife and I are continuing our babymoon/anniversary getaway.  Today’s getaway is Palm Springs.  I’m excited to see what that’s all about.
• Monday is a day off!  Woo!
• Monday is also the launch of something new here at brookjames.com!

What are you expecting this week?  Do you expect Him to do great things?

Every time I come to a place where the future is unknown I tend to think to myself, I wish I knew what God had in store for me.  If He would just give me a map to follow or a list of places or whatever.  I don’t know how many times I have thought that.  I wish I knew where He wanted us to live.  I wish I knew when He would give us babies.  I wish I knew where He wanted me to work.  If only I knew I would feel safe.  I wouldn’t feel vulnerable.  I would know what was ahead.  I could prepare for it.  But that’s not how life is.  The more I think about this, the more I realize that there is reason for us to not know what is coming up.

If we had this roadmap or knew what was coming ahead, we wouldn’t have to rely on God.  He might be orchestrating things in the background but we wouldn’t realize how in need of Him we are.  We have to trust Him.  We have to trust that He is our Jehovah-Jireh or our Provider.  We have to trust that He is our Jehovah-Nissi or our Protector.  If we knew what was coming up next, how would we ever be able to focus on what God is teaching us now?  I know that if I had known what was coming in many occasions in my life, I would never have been able to learn what it was that God was teaching me by going through the situation I was so desperately looking past.

For those of you going through one of those times when it seems like all you pray for is to move on to the next season or you just can’t stop looking to what is next, trust Him.  Trust that what it says in Jeremiah is true.

I know what I’m doing.
I have it all planned out—
plans to take care of you, not abandon you,
plans to give you the future you hope for.

- Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG)

Know that in these times, the people that love you are there with you, but more than that, you have a God who is ALWAYS there with you.  Sometimes we just need to be reminded of that.  Put your trust in Him and stop looking for the “TV Guide channel of life” to find out what is coming up next!  He already knows.  Learn from your current situation.  He won’t let you down.

Bad attitudes are very easy to get and often very difficult to change.  If you aren’t careful a tough situation can easily help your attitude change to fit it.  It could be a rough workplace, a neighbor who gets on your nerves, dysfunctional family, a speeding ticket, the DMV, a cancelled flight or so many other things.  So many times we want to sit in the corner by ourselves and just pout, but regardless of what the situation is there is a decision to be made.  Will I have a positive attitude about _____, or will I allow the crappiness of the situation to make my attitude crappy, too? Many times this decision isn’t an easy one.  It is much easier to let the crappy situation affect you negatively.

It doesn’t help that the world around you even expects you to have a bad attitude when bad things happen.  When you go to pay a ticket, the people at the counter seem to expect you to hate them.  When your work environment is rough for you, your friends may not see anything wrong with having a negative attitude toward it all.  When your family is nuts they expect to fight.  But as Christ followers we know better.  Job had a pretty rough life for a long time, but he didn’t let his circumstances get the best of him and stay positive trusting God the whole time.  Paul was beat, imprisoned, hated, shipwrecked and more and he kept his attitude pointing toward God.  Noah had to build an ark in a place it had never rained before.  Moses hiked through a desert for 40 years.  Abraham lived next to Sin City.  Jesus was headed for the cross!

Our lives are filled with opportunities to prove the world right and cut someone off because they cut you off first.  We should be mean to the DMV worker because we had to wait in line for forever, right?  We should desperately work to make the decision to stay positive.  This doesn’t mean that we can’t pray and ask God to change our situation or work things out.  By all means pray on!  Jesus did!  But while you are praying about your rough spot, keep your head up and focus on what you can learn from your current place.

Unfortunately life isn’t always easy and perfect as we all know.  These time are when we are presented with the best opportunities.  Think of the platform that you will have to share Christ with the world around you when you build it up with a good attitude about your hard times!  Why would your neighbor want to live like you in your walk with Christ if all you do is complain?  But if you have a peace that doesn’t make sense, that is something totally different!

Keep your head up.
Be patient.
Pray for strength!
Learn to learn!

What is the Lord trying to teach you while you are here?