We had a man named Ray Hughes speak this weekend. Imagine an incredibly smart teacher who knows all kinds of means and etymologies of words and history and people you have never heard of, and he sounds like Jeff Foxworthy and has the ability to pull out one-liners like “Don’t worry about the mule going blind, just load the wagon!” His focus this weekend was on worship and the Tabernacle of David. Some thoughts and notes from the weekend:
I know this is definitely true in how I grew up – People preach their personal convictions as if it is from the Holy Spirit and they are held in bondage to things that are not actually of God. This is usually true of when it comes to the issue of music. There are many ideas about creativity and music. Redemption and restoration comes when a new song bursts forth. Creativity is a process and it is a partnership. God is not into usury — He is into partnering with us because we reflect and carry His glory!
Remember the old catechism?
Q— What is the chief purpose of man?
A — The chief purpose of man is to reflect the glory of God.
The new song / sound that is spoken about in the Bible will renew, repair, and restore. You were created to worship. At our base level, that is our primary purpose. Glorification of God. If we do not worship, essentially we forfeit the reason for our existence. Worship means to “put your head to the ground. To bow. This puts your head below your heart. Interesting. This is not an intelligent posture, because it is not about intellectualism! It’s an outward sign of an inward attitude that recognizes that we return to why we were created…out of dust. I remember I am but dust (Gen. 18:27). It’s a getting down to earth posture (Gen. 2:7) as this is from whence we were fashioned.
God has an acute sensitivity and awareness of our worship. There’s a quickening and a spontaneity and then in a moment, a grace to partner with God! God is so magnificent, so holy, so awesome, so… a million other attributes and words to attempt to describe an indescribable being. The problem is that often our current worship model and expressions actually constrain the atmosphere and imagination. It shuts down the possibility of us seeing Him. It protects the politeness of the service and prevents us from seeing him. Basically, our theology needs to expand. It’s time for a new environment.
Imagination is more powerful than knowledge. — Einstein
God is not coming to tiptoe through the tithers; through the systems of religion we have established. We have to start with who we are as worshippers. In Zephaniah 3:17 the word rejoice means to spin wildly like a top. This is the beginning of creativity. Do you know that everything God created was created to be creative? Creativity occurs every time God reveals one more facet of His nature. We have constrained ourselves to this realm but we need a revelation of the heavenly realm – the presence of God revealed – the habitation – the experience.
Science never disagrees with scriptures. Only scientists do.
Music is the soundtrack that God designed to resonate in this generation. It is translated into an experience for those who will hear it.
When God said “Let” (Gen 1) matter and mystery gave way to light and life.
Moses didn’t have to have faith to part the sea…just enough to raise the stick.
Music is powerful. The reality is that we have an arsenal. We have weaponry. And God is going to raise up a people who understand their authority and release a new sound that will change the expression of the earth. You know why this is? Because lawgivers don’t shape the culture. The song writers, poets, artists, architects and creative people do. They capture beauty , the give definition to life. For example, we are all taught to keep our elbows off the table. Anyone know why? Here’s why. An artist painted a famous picture on a wall of the Last Supper. It showed all the disciples around the table and guess who had his elbows on the table? Judas. So they tradition was formed that so you would not identify with Judas, the betrayer, you would never put your elbows on the table. And so an artist named DaVinci shaped culture for hundred of years to come.
Or what about this poem: “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings all hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nichols soon would be there…” This poem because popular and helped change people’s thoughts about a guy in a red suit climbing down chimneys and leaving gifts. And today and entire culture is based around December 25 complete flying raindeer, milk and cookies.
In our culture today, there is a famine of the hearing of the word of the Lord. Why else do we live in a world of empty churches and full theatres? (Amos 8:11)
The song of deliverance was a song to remember the mighty acts of God When the enemies of God would come to take the harvest, to take the land, to steal destiny, essentially, they would release a shout, a sound that would turn the enemies away. How crazy is that? Sound is powerful. Low frequencies affect our circulatory system and high frequencies affect our nervous system (which is why nails on a chalkboard drive us nuts!). But when you take away a people’s music, you also take away their passion and ultimately their destiny.
When musicians are singing songs of death and the church is agreeing with them, they are just lulling a generation to death. We are living in days of darkness. We are struggling. We are in turmoil. God is about to release a sound in the midst of this generation who is in such need. It is so important for God’s people to get rightly connected to the beauty of creation again.