Namibia here we come!

More than likely there will not be anymore posts here on Before the Throne until the end of July. I'm off to Namibia Africa, my home away from home, on a missions trip to do whatever God gives us to do. At this point it looks like my team (Team Vertroue) will be doing a combination of painting, helping preschools teachers, letting kids climb all over us wherever we go, sitting in on and possibly teaching bible studies, loving whoever we come in contact with, and getting to know the people on our team better, all in the name of Jesus, the hope of Africa...the hope of all of creation. Visit the Namibia Travel Blog and share in the adventure with us. Be blessed!

-Jesse

Bayete

Given that this weekend's service at Christ's Church will include a commissioning for those traveling to Namibia next week, we're going to sing an African worship song that we learned back in 2006 called "Bayete." The phrase in this song "Bayete 'Nkosi" is Zulu (language from Zambia actually, not Namibia) and it means "Exalted King." This is apparently the highest form of respect given, a royal salute. This of course is the title given Jesus.   Check out this choir from Zambia singing to the King of Kings.   Surprise people on Sunday when you already know this one before I teach it to the rest of the congregation :)

Who can match Your greatness
Who can know Your power
Who can search Your riches
Who can deny You are crowned Lord of All

You are crowned King of Africa
You are crowned Lord of all
You are crowned King of Africa
Who can deny You are crowned Lord of All

Bayete, Bayete `Nkosi
Bayete King of Kings
Bayete, Bayete `Nkosi
Bayete `Nkosi, King
King of Kings

World Food Crisis

I invite you to join me and many others this Wednesday June 25th (or any day) in praying and fasting with Compassion International regarding the world food crisis.  The price for rice, beans, corn and other food staples has risen exponentially in recent months, creating extreme hardship and suffering. Families earning less than $2 a day cannot afford to keep up with these rising prices. There is just no margin.  The impact is truly devastating.  The issue goes far deeper than money though.  Check out this video above, its very eye opening. You can also click here for more detailed info. from Compassion.  We have to turn to our God for His mighty hand to bring relief, He is the creator and sustainer of all things.  The book of James says that "the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."  Don't underestimate what God can do, and also seriously consider things in your lifestyle that could be changed to be a part of the solution instead of the problem.  I think that when it comes to our participation in God's Kingdom and the restoration it does, there is a strong call on us to act on a spiritual level and a physical/tangible level, they are totally interconnected.  Read the book of James, that's all I can say, it totally challenges and convicts.      

Apocalypse Now

I came across an article on ABC news' website that discusses the crazy disasters we've had over the last several years, particularly the slew of storms and disasters all over the world lately and that many people are talking about whether this is the wrath of God or simple science.  Read here if you get a chance.

There was a comment that someone left on the bottom which made me smile (since I just posted about the same thing), reminding us about God's restoration of the earth.

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord

I've been mulling a little bit on the idea that God has reversed the human situation with His own two hands, through the work of the Son and the Holy Spirit.  God has reconciled the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18-19) and we have the expectation of a restored world (Romans 8:20-23) without the darkness and evils we so often see and experience in the world around us.

But do we really live in that promise, can we?  Too often we as Christians become as hopeless and defeated as the world we're supposed to be ambassadors of hope to (2 Cor. 5:20). I think this sometimes happens because we build our expectations and goals from a worldly perspective and rely on ourselves and other things of man.  We also forget God's promises or never knew them to begin with, and instead believe the lie that we have nothing to combat evil with and this darkness in the world is never going away.

 Romans 8:15-25  has a great explanation of the truth of our situation if we are in Christ, and the perspective that we can have.  To live in this hope is easier said than done, but a key to all this is waiting.  "For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it.  But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently." (Romans 8:24-25, NLT)

"But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31, NIV).

This word "wait" from Isaiah in the Hebrew apparently means to twist and bind, like the material that makes up a rope. We need to let God wrap us up in His story and His strength instead of clinging to our own, otherwise when the suffering comes we will be torn apart. Perhaps one way to help get wrapped up in His story and the hope of restoration is to bring it into our worship. Let's sing about this hope, remind one another about God's promises described in the Word, pray for God to reveal how He is restoring right now and how we can be a part of that work.

Defining worship by what it is not

A couple of months ago I was doing a little study with a particular question in mind, What is worship?  I found that a lot of the words that are translated into "worship" come from greek and hebrew words that often mean to bow down, which was catching my attention especially at the time because of the book "Facedown."  

However, I also found that in the Torah (also called the Pentatuch, the first five books of the bible) God seems to talk a lot about how not worship or who not to worship, in order to establish how His people should worship Him and Him alone.  I encourage you to go onto biblegateway.com and type in worship for a search.  You'll see what I'm talking about within the first two pages of results.  There's quite a few facedown type examples as well.

These passages about idolatry bring to mind the fact that we were made to worship, so if we don't worship the One who made us, the One who saves us, then we will worship someone or something lesser.  It is very easy for us humans to fall into giving our worship to something other than our true Creator, no matter what culture we're from.  However, it seems a lot of American culture commits idolatry in such a way that we don't recognize it as idolatry.  

I remember an American missionary to Nigeria saying how when he first got there he saw a lot of the people in the village burning fires at night up in the hills and performing ancestral worship, witchcraft, etc. during the week.  Then he saw a lot of these same people coming to church on Sundays to worship God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And He thought to himself what hypocrisy, and what a mess this was and it needed to be dealt with.  Then on a visit back to the U.S. he realized the same thing happens here with many Christians, but it just doesn't look as obvious as the African's idolatry, which somehow I think might make it harder to break free from.  Then many of the same people that worship those lesser American idols  during the rest of the week show up to church on Sunday to pay a little bit of homage to the One who says "You shall have no other gods before Me."

What idols do we bow down to, give our hearts to, our minds to, raise our hands in praise for, offer our bodies to, give our time to, depend on for our provision?  What needs to happen for this to change (boy that's a loaded question, but it needs to be addressed)?