Acts 22:6-10 "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! why do you persecute me?'
"'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. 'I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting,' he replied. My companions saw the light, but the did not understand the voice of Him who was speaking to me.
"'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do'"
Recently I asked a couple of military friends who are very informed on what is going on in the middle east how we should be praying about the whole ISIS situation. I was hoping to get direction that was highly strategic and tactical in nature where God shuts down their supply lines and makes their IEDs blow up in their own faces but what I got instead was even more powerful.
Both of my friends to some degree or another basically said that there are not enough bullets and bombs to end this. These radicalized Muslims will continue to come in wave after wave after wave and there is no military strategy that can stop it...if the hearts of these radical muslims are not changed, the terror will never end because they truly believe that they are justified in what they are doing. There are definitely hordes of thugs jumping on the ISIS killing bandwagon, but those who are spearheading this wave of violence are religiously sincere men and women who actually believe that they are doing the right thing.
In processing this information, I began to realize there is a part of ISIS story that sounds strangely familiar. Saul, before his conversion and becoming the apostle Paul, was doing what he sincerely thought to be the right thing when he was ordering the execution by stoning of Christians. He was one of the most feared enemies of early christianity until Jesus came to him and confronted him with His love and glory. This encounter was intense that it left Saul temporarily blinded and called by his new name Paul. The proof of this radical conversion is found throughout the rest of the New Testament because God took the religious zeal of the old Saul and turned it into an unstoppable passion to spread the Gospel throughout the same regions that ISIS is trying to exterminate Christianity from.
So in 2015, this is what I'm going to be praying for ISIS. First, I'm praying that God will protect those who are being persecuted and that He would give our government leaders wisdom and direction on how to intervene. I do believe it is right for our military to put boots on the ground between ISIS and the Christians who are being forced to flee....Genocide is genocide and it will always be right for government and military to stand in between the hate and the helpless. We should have done this in Rwanda and even if it was Christians murdering Muslims, I would (after first publicly disassociating from them as being actual Christians) support military intervention.
Ultimately though, military action isn't going to change the long term picture. So I am praying that Jesus will begin to show himself to these men and women in dreams and visions just like He did with Paul. I am praying that He will show His love and grace through the brave lives and deaths of the saints that ISIS is martyring so that members of ISIS will see a peace and courage that stirs them to want what these precious men, women, and children have. I'm praying that the Gospel will infiltrate the ranks of ISIS from the inside out to the point that we might even see a global awakening that is birthed out of former members of ISIS who have run headlong into the beautiful grace of Jesus.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
REDEEMED: STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS
Redeemed - Big Daddy Weave
When Mike Weaver and I got on Skype to write a song, we had no idea that God would step into those three hours and allow us to be a part of a song like Redeemed. In fact, in the moment, we just thought we were writing a song that ministered to the both of us and to our churches...
Typically, a songwriting session starts with a conversation. Mike was sharing about a holy encounter he had recently. At that time, Mike had been a part of a weight loss campaign where he had very successfully lost all but 6 of 90 pounds. He had lost 84 pounds. But Mike, like all of us tend to do, saw the success of so much weight lots as a failure because of the 6 pounds he didn't lose. So in his basement one night, as Mike was deep in a battle with self hatred, God met him in that moment and said "Mike, why don't you let me tell you what I think about you...I like the way you smile...I love your heart for people and I even like your silly sense of humor because I put all of that in you...and you're mine, not because of your track record or your ability or inability to do anything..it's based solely on what I have already done for you with the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for your life...you are mine is because of my track record...".
As I heard him share his story, I realized that we were in a very similar place with different circumstances. I was getting to the point where I (in my own words) was wondering "is there ever going to be a day where I don't wake up and struggle with stupid all day long..". What I meant was would there ever be a day that I didn't struggle with my sin. You know, that one sin that we find ourselves falling into again after we said we'd never go there again. But prior to Mike and I's conversation, I had begun to find breakthrough because I realized that I had to move from "I don't want to ever want to go back to that sin again" to " I CAN'T go back to that sin again because that's just not who I am anymore. That sin is an old coat that, by the grace of God, I've grown out...it just doesn't fit anymore." In other words, I really started believing what God said about me in His word especially in Romans 8 (just read the whole chapter).
I don't remember where in our conversation he shared it, but at one point Mike shared the chorus of Redeemed that he had already started. As soon as I heard it I was all in (first of all because it had a 6/8 blues vibe) because I also knew he had brought something very special and it was just a matter of building around that chorus and filling in the blanks with our stories. I didn't know where and how far the song would go, but I did know that what we had written would would be a good prayer to put on the lips of the people in our churches and that was good enough.
It's been almost 3 years since Mike and I wrote that song. More than the recognition and awards that have come with that song, the stories are still the biggest reward. I've heard so many stories from inmates, recovering addicts, grieving families, and stay at home moms of how God used that song in their lives at the right time. Those stories never get old especially knowing that Mike and I were just sharing truth with each other that day and God chose to step in and take our little 6/8 blues song and use it to tell His story of restoration and redemption in so many other lives.
Typically, a songwriting session starts with a conversation. Mike was sharing about a holy encounter he had recently. At that time, Mike had been a part of a weight loss campaign where he had very successfully lost all but 6 of 90 pounds. He had lost 84 pounds. But Mike, like all of us tend to do, saw the success of so much weight lots as a failure because of the 6 pounds he didn't lose. So in his basement one night, as Mike was deep in a battle with self hatred, God met him in that moment and said "Mike, why don't you let me tell you what I think about you...I like the way you smile...I love your heart for people and I even like your silly sense of humor because I put all of that in you...and you're mine, not because of your track record or your ability or inability to do anything..it's based solely on what I have already done for you with the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for your life...you are mine is because of my track record...".
As I heard him share his story, I realized that we were in a very similar place with different circumstances. I was getting to the point where I (in my own words) was wondering "is there ever going to be a day where I don't wake up and struggle with stupid all day long..". What I meant was would there ever be a day that I didn't struggle with my sin. You know, that one sin that we find ourselves falling into again after we said we'd never go there again. But prior to Mike and I's conversation, I had begun to find breakthrough because I realized that I had to move from "I don't want to ever want to go back to that sin again" to " I CAN'T go back to that sin again because that's just not who I am anymore. That sin is an old coat that, by the grace of God, I've grown out...it just doesn't fit anymore." In other words, I really started believing what God said about me in His word especially in Romans 8 (just read the whole chapter).
I don't remember where in our conversation he shared it, but at one point Mike shared the chorus of Redeemed that he had already started. As soon as I heard it I was all in (first of all because it had a 6/8 blues vibe) because I also knew he had brought something very special and it was just a matter of building around that chorus and filling in the blanks with our stories. I didn't know where and how far the song would go, but I did know that what we had written would would be a good prayer to put on the lips of the people in our churches and that was good enough.
It's been almost 3 years since Mike and I wrote that song. More than the recognition and awards that have come with that song, the stories are still the biggest reward. I've heard so many stories from inmates, recovering addicts, grieving families, and stay at home moms of how God used that song in their lives at the right time. Those stories never get old especially knowing that Mike and I were just sharing truth with each other that day and God chose to step in and take our little 6/8 blues song and use it to tell His story of restoration and redemption in so many other lives.
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