Hello, friends. We have been working to transition our worship blog over to a new platform that is directly found on Beaverton Foursquare's website. Here at this new site, the Weekly Worship blog can be located directly under the "Connect" tab on the home page.
We'll be back to sharing our weekly worship songs in case you were wondering, what was that song we sang yesterday? Be sure to join Spotify (it's free!) so you can listen to our community worship songs throughout the week. As worship leaders, we'll continue to share our hearts and thoughts from our own lives as well.
We love that you have been following along and joining in on the conversations. Let's continue over at our new weekly worship blog --> Living Worship.
WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM? by lane greenleaf-perez
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16
On social media, I follow several large worship movements like Bethel Music, Hillsong, Elevation Worship, to name a few. I was inspired and encouraged at two separate events I was able to witness from afar through the gift of technology.
The first was a video that Hillsong posted on the night of their latest album release. Brooke Ligertwood (Fraser) was giving a shout out to Bethel music for sending a dozen boxes of cupcakes for the team to have backstage. Brooke thanked the worship leaders at Bethel for the support and commented on the incredible unity in the body of Christ.
The second was a video of Phil Wickham. He was talking about his newest song that just blew up worldwide called “Living Hope”. He publicly acknowledged that he co-wrote the song with Brian Johnson from Bethel Music.
The reason why these videos struck me and encouraged me is because these groups represent a diversity of expressions of Christianity literally around the globe. If you placed three theologians in a room, one from each of these expressions, there would likely be much that could divide them.
Something that I’ve been wrestling with lately is this idea that when it comes to following Jesus, belief is fluid, and belief is different than faith—although they can often occur at the same time. A professor of mine explained it like this: Belief is assuming that this chair will support my weight, but faith is the act of actually sitting on it. We see throughout the gospels that the disciples gave up everything to follow Jesus even thought they didn’t fully understand who he was. Their faith came before their belief.
The reason this passage seems to be at the forefront of my thoughts is that I have a good friend who has made a life decision that, in my mind, contradicts what I know to be true of Christian values. But I know that she deeply loves Jesus. I haven’t been able to arrive at a place where I feel I can support the choice of my friend, but I have always been in a place where I can support his relationship to Jesus. However, I would be lying if I said it didn’t cause sadness in my heart.
This situation has raised so many questions in me and also shown me where my trust in Jesus is lacking.
Some Christians believe that women and men need to serve different roles in marriages and in leadership. In the complementation view of scripture, women are to submit to male authority both in church governance and in marriage relationships, equal value but separate roles. In the egalitarian view, Christians believe that women are to be held in equal standards of leadership alongside men both in church governance and in marriage.
Some Christians believe that violence of any kind is plainly prohibited by the teachings of the new testament; that any form of killing, even that of self defense, is murder. We call this Christian-Pacifism. Other Christians believe that although violence should be avoided when possible, sometimes it becomes a necessary evil in a fallen world. These Christians uphold a view called “Just War”.
Some Christians believe that divorce is given specific allowance under the teaching of Jesus for reasons of infidelity. Others hold that all divorce is sin, and yet still others believe that more clauses for divorce are founded in biblical truth.
Some Christians believe that consuming alcohol at any time for any reason is sin, while others believe that only drunkenness is the sin—not solely the consumption of alcohol.
We could take the rest of the blog to talk about the variety of beliefs that happen within Christianity. The point is, these issues are not simply black and white. What I think is incredible about the body of Christ is its ability to be united in Jesus through the Holy Spirit, even in the midst of such apparent disagreement over important issues.
Worship is truly the thing that unites the diversity of Christians around the world. When a person acknowledges that Jesus Is Lord, it binds them in the family of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Belief is important, but is always working itself out amongst the body of Christ. Faith in Jesus, however, is necessary. What is important is that we unite in faith and trust Jesus to make all things new, to set the world to rights.
I need to trust that if my friend is truly following Jesus, that God will have his way with him. I also need to have the humility to believe that the same is true about me.
When we sing together in a church setting, remember that we are joining in with the passion of Christians all over the globe with a diversity of unique cultural understandings of what it means to follow Jesus.
What is important at that moment is not what makes us different but rather what unites us: love and devotion to Jesus.
Thanks for reading,
Lane
WITH LOOSE HANDS by brent mills
We celebrated Easter last weekend at the church, and I tend to be a little nostalgic when Resurrection Sunday comes around each year. This was the 14th year I’ve had the privilege to be involved in Easter services at Beaverton Foursquare, and most of them have involved something special in how we’ve planned the music and worship. Over the years, we have invited special musical guests, conducted a full orchestra, and explored numerous creative ways to present the Gospel message in sight and sound.
This year, Easter marked the deadline for the completion of a major remodel project in our church sanctuary. We started the design process nearly a year ago, and the construction work was underway at the beginning of 2018. We had a great team working to improve our space and our technology, move our baptism tank to the front of the platform, and replace our tired and worn flooring and seating. As with most remodel projects, there was a “mad dash to the finish line”, and our construction team worked nearly 24 hours a day the last couple weeks to get everything done. Needless, to say, it was a great joy to see the room filled with people worshiping and celebrating Jesus on Easter weekend.
I’ve had annual tradition these past 14 years at Easter. The day before have our music rehearsals and put the finishing touches on the service, I find a few quiet moments in the sanctuary when no one is around, and I have a private conversation with God. I get down on my knees, and I “resign” my job. No one else hears, but I’ve always felt there is something sacred about these moments each year when I let the Lord know I’m willing to step aside from my role if He needs to move in a new direction..
My conversation usually sounds something like, “Lord, thank you for the opportunity to serve you and be part of what You are doing in this community and this church. I love this place. I recognize this is Your work, and if this Easter service is the last thing I get to be part of, I will be ok with that. If you want me to keep serving, then I’m all in. I will go wherever You send me.”
For me, it’s easy to wrap my heart and emotions around something I’ve put a lot of effort into. This Easter was particularly demanding, as the remodel project was my primary focus the past 4 months. Personally, I was proud of the project, and I know myself well enough to know I could easily become proud because of the project. It wasn’t easy for me to kneel before God backstage and release my grip. I was hopeful the Lord wasn’t going to accept my “resignation” (He hasn’t yet in 14 years), but I wanted words of surrender to come out of my mouth. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making an idol out of a space, especially when the space was built to facilitate worship of God.
The item I needed to hold loosely this Easter was a room in a church, but I’ve had to release many things over the years. It’s very easy to find ourselves holding too tightly to a number of different things … projects we’ve poured time and energy into, people we love very much, even places of serving or ministry. I never want to get so wrapped up in these things that I lose focus on Who and Why I am serving. I also want to make sure I’m not an obstacle to God doing something new in the opportunities, relationships, and resources He has put in my path.
One day, God will accept my prayer of resignation, and when He does, I sincerely hope I’ll have the faith to move forward with joyful trust in whatever He has for me in the next season.
Thanks for joining the worship journey,
Brent
bmills@b4church.org
THE AROMA OF HEAVEN by lane greenleaf-perez
Unashamedly and without hesitation, my wife uses essential oils. To support herself, me, our home, and our one-year-old child. (We can debate the benefits, or lack there of, around using essential oils at another time.) To our benefit, my wife has given our family the gift of aroma in our home. It’s actually quite pleasant and peaceful. In fact, while I was talking to one of the people who volunteers in the nursery, she told me that she knew when my son was being dropped off because she could smell the aroma of essential oils.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the influence of incense. We see the scriptures refer to our prayers being like sweet incense to the nostrils of God. We see the use of incense in the tabernacle and the temple in the old testament. Everything in the temple was designed to be beautiful and to remind God’s people of what life was like before the fall of human beings, to remind them of how beautiful God’s creation was in Eden. It was decorated with fruit trees, gold, and statues of angels, and it had burning incense.
When Jesus came and dwelt among us, he embodied the presence of God, because he was God. He took the presence of God outside of the temple and he “tabernacled” among his people. Jesus went about proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. The true king of Israel had arrived in the messiah, Jesus, and he was enacting the will of God in the world. Jesus was the first one to pray and live out the words, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." This would become one of the greatest prayers of the future church.
Wherever Jesus walked, he connected the dimensions of Heaven and Earth. He left an imprint of heaven everywhere he went, the power of God's Kingdom lingering among all who had been near him.
As the Holy Spirit dwells in us, he mysteriously gifts us with the presence of God. As people who follow Jesus, we have the responsibility to embody the kingdom of God, to carry the aroma of Heaven with us wherever we go. We should emit the distinct smell of Heaven in our day-to-day lives. Wherever there is sin, injustice, hate, fear, or anything that contradicts the nature of God’s kingdom — the nature of Eden — we are to enact the will of God. We are to embody justice, goodness, forgiveness, joy, and love.
“Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”
To worship God in a temple is not enough. We are called to worship in spirit and in truth, to be temple in our world. That means that we are to worship through our actions. We are to worship through the way we embody the kingdom of God here on earth. The sweet incense of worship to God is not solely a matter of preaching good words and singing good songs (both of which I love to do), it is a matter of enacting faith, hope, and love to a world that is yet to be aware of the Lordship of Jesus.
Wherever we go, we should carry with us the sweet aroma of Heaven, drawing others nearer to Jesus. The aroma, though already an amazing gift, is just a prelude to the fullness of his Kingdom to come.
Where we go, the Spirit goes also.
Lane
lanegp@b4church.org
PERSPECTIVE by brent mills
This story from Luke 1 is usually read as the preamble to the Christmas story. I don’t often read this chapter the rest of the year, but in the Bible reading plan I’m going through this year, my daily devotions landed in Luke 1 a couple days ago. The story is familiar to many of us as we read about the priest Zechariah, his inability to accept the angel’s prophecy about John the Baptist, and his subsequent loss of the ability to speak until John was born.
In past readings, I’ve often focused on Zechariah’s response, trying to find ways to avoid the same doubt-filled response when God chooses to intervene in my life. I find threads of my own story in this narrative … I’ve prayed regularly for God to use his power to change circumstances in my life that are beyond my control. Although He’s never responded by dispatching an angel to communicate His answer to me directly, I have definitely struggled to find the faith to believe He is in control during the difficult seasons of my life. As I re-read this passage again, I found myself fixated on the angel’s first comment:
“Zechariah! God has heard your prayer.”
Clearly, this couple had prayed earnestly for years, even decades, as they struggled with infertility. Now, after all the years of prayer, God decided to miraculously answer their request, long after Zechariah and Elizabeth had probably stopped praying about it. They likely asked God for a child throughout their younger years, but I imagine they probably figured God wasn’t going to provide a baby, since Elizabeth was well past child-bearing age. However, God had heard those prayers, and He was planning to act. He just acted in a way they did not expect, and had a much larger plan than they ever imagined.
What Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed to hopefully complete their family, God intended to use to prepare the way for His Son Jesus to enter the world.
I find myself identifying with Zechariah in this situation, and it scares me to think I could easily have a similar response. The external evidence points to a man who should have been an expert in listening to the voice of God and responding in faith. Not only was he a priest, a religious leader in Israel, but his encounter with the angel took place while he was actively worshiping God in the Temple. What could have been a better environment to hear the voice of God? I may be projecting a bit into the text and guessing at motives here, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to surmise Zechariah fell prey to a similar line of thinking we are all susceptible to in our lives…At some point in his prayers, even in his worship, Zechariah’s prayers became “smaller,” and he stopped inviting God’s way, in God's own timing.
My own circumstances, especially the difficult and painful seasons, often influence me to limit my requests of God to short-sighted and self-focused prayers. These prayers are not wrong, and God wants to know the desires of our hearts. (1 Peter 5:7) However, I believe there is also great benefit for us to arrive at a place of surrender, worship, and prayer that invites the powerful work of God into our lives—even if He takes a different direction than we originally planned.
Thankfully for Zechariah, his detour lasted only 9 months, and he still had the privilege of welcoming a son, one who would have a great impact in God’s Kingdom. (In my home, I’m not even sure my wife would see Zechariah’s detour as a negative…there are quite a few days she would be completely OK with me losing my ability to speak!)
Maybe his story can challenge you, as it has for me, to try and open our eyes to the larger perspective God may be working in our lives. I may not get a personal visit from an angel, but I want to continually shape my worship and prayer life so I’m praying in accordance with His Word, His sovereign plans, and His loving will for me and those around me.
Brent
TIME TO PLAY by debrianna cabitac
Just when it seemed like weeks were rapidly passing by at
work, I received an email that the offices were closing because of the weather
conditions. Being born and raised from California, I have never experienced
anything like this before! My life has never been stopped or altered by an
external circumstance. Like many things in my life right now, this was yet
another “first”.
The day started with a bunch of admin work that needed to
get done and I was ready to take the whole day to do them. Within the next
couple hours, the work was done. I didn’t have a thing left to catch up on,
couldn’t go into the office, so I just started thinking. I had not had a moment
in the middle of my week to just sit and process in a long time so I was quite
honestly grateful for the space.
Being a Perfectionist (a number 1 on the Enneagram), I am
constantly looking for an area of improvement because I cannot stand things
being unfinished or subpar. I’m rarely content in the present, and I am always
looking to the future. I am very much a doer and I have a lot of issues just
simply being. I found myself quickly filled with anxiety as I looked at the
present imperfections and the unknown that lied ahead.
Questioning my purpose,
significance, and life trajectory were of course the things that immediately
came to mind and there I was, completely and utterly cornered by the fear of
the future once again.
The day went on and I carried my heaviness with me. And then
I looked outside as I was driving home from dinner with a friend and the snow
was falling heavier and heavier. We got back to the house and there were yards
and yards of untouched snow. Everything in me immediately new it was time to play.
How often do we get completely bogged down by life’s
heaviness? Sure, most of the time there is a reason we think through those
things. But honestly, it seems like a lot of the things we worry about stem
from the need to know and the need to be in control of our lives. When we were
kids we ran to play, and now that we are adults, we run to worry. We miss the
present moment that is full of God because we are caught up in the daily
mundane tasks, the heavy storm we are experiencing, and the anxieties of what lies ahead.
My housemates and I
began to build a snowman, throw snowballs, and eat the snow off the ground.
Minute by minute the heaviness began to fall off of me. I became truly present
to the people around me and saw that the moment right in front of me was
absolutely perfect. As we came back into the house, I retreated away into my bedroom
and was able to revisit all those questions with clarity, kindness and grace.
What if play, pleasure, and lightness is key to understanding the heaviest questions we bare? What if just being with God, enjoying his creation, and loving the people he has placed in our lives is a path that will lead us to carrying the yoke of Jesus?
His yoke is easy
and His burden is light.
There are
obviously seasons that seem heavier than most, but if play is a regular rhythm
of our lives where we enjoy the space God gives us to the fullest, we
might receive a glimpse of his true, unhindered joy. I want to be like little children that
helplessly rely on their mother and father for everything, and trust that all
things will be taken cared of. I strive to be someone that can have hands open
so wide that I can continually empty myself of the things that cause anxiety and
worry.
Where are the areas in your life that you need to set aside
for a couple minutes so that you can breathe and enjoy the present moment?
Be
courageous enough to trust that the Lord has you, and allow yourself to be like
a little kid that is filled with wonder and excitement to see what is right in
front of you. Be brave enough to fill the space of your life with gratitude and
life rather than numbing yourself with worry and death.
Jesus is the God With Us, so
let our eyes be fixed ever on him rather than the things that take us away from
him. Let’s be people that don’t just do
things for God, but people who can be
with God and enjoy him as if he were our closest friend.
Debrianna
dcabitac@b4church.org
EVERY LITTLE THING by jamie robison
God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
Exodus 2:24-26
This scripture in Exodus was a part of our bible study for moms (MotherWise) this last week. As we have been diving into God's relationship with Israel while they were in captivity in Egypt, I took a moment to write down in my journal a simple prayer: God, I want to be open. Would You reveal yourself, your heart to me?
I don't know what I expect, really, when I ask God to reveal Himself to me. Is it in words? Is it a miraculous sign? Is it peace? An amazing mystery about God is that He can pretty much find a way to reveal Himself through anything.
And this last week, He did just that.
In order to share this moment, I have to first step back about 11 years. It was the most difficult time for our family as we grieved the sudden loss of my little brother, who was only 7 years old. He had always loved picking the red balloons at Red Robbin, and so at his memorial service, hundreds of people gathered together, grief paralleling hope, and released a sea of red balloons into the sky as we looked toward the heavens.
Soon after getting my gift, however, it fell over, and the tiny little hand that was smaller than the size of a pea broke off. My mom got me a new one shortly after, and the same exact thing happened again.
At first I tried to hang on to it, promising myself that I would glue it back on. But over five years, four moves and a million packed boxes later, it was lost for good. I tried not to feel guilty about the incompleteness of it; but every time I looked at it, I was disappointed again.
We are still in the process of that fourth move, and disorganized boxes and tubs are still scattered around us as we filter through what we need each day.
As I opened the box of items that had been on my nightstand, I pulled out that little boy holding the hope balloon. Everything else was still in tact, but his tiny hand was still broken, still incomplete. I held him up and sighed. I just really wish I had his hand again, I silently thought to myself.
My thought was fleeting, and I quickly turned around to go about my morning. My one-year-old son, Oliver, had been sitting behind me playing on the floor. When I turned around to pick him up, I saw something small sitting next to him on the floor.
I squinted and got closer. It can't be, I thought.
Over five years, four moves and a million packed boxes later? Having not seen a trace of it after all those years?
It was. The tiny hand was sitting right next to Oliver. And I picked them both up and started laughing. I grabbed the boy figurine and held the hand up where it had been missing. Every tiny groove and edge fit right into place.
You see, I had written a simple prayer with an open heart: that God would reveal his heart to me.
He responded by letting me know that even the smallest of concerns is not too small for Him. In fact, my fleeting thought was an embarrassingly far cry from the desperation of the Israelites in their captivity and oppression. But no concern is too small, no request too big, and everything little thing in between is seen by Him. He already knew my thoughts, and He chose in that moment to let me in on it—with something so impossibly small that would inevitably mean a lot to me.
I'll never know the answers to a lot of extremely difficult and confusing things in my earthly life. It's something that can be unsettling, even causing justifiable doubt or seasons of questioning.
But what I can't deny is my story with Jesus—the way this tragic thread in my life continues to be woven into beautiful moments of art that only my Maker can fully understand.
Slowly and surely, He reveals Himself to me as I ask and have courage enough to open my heart.
So to you, my friends, let this be encouragement:
He has heard you,
He remembers you,
He looks upon you,
And he is concerned about you.
As for me, I need to go find some super glue.
Jamie
jrobison@b4church.org
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