Flesh it out!

Tonight we are going to have another powerful night at World Revival Church!  We will be all around the world on Daystar television, streaming video and we will have lots of visitors joining us from around the country and possibly from other countries.  If you have not made it yet you need too!  If you get a chance to watch or better yet be here in person you are going to see faith fleshed out.  Faith is not just a belief system but it is action!  I have heard people spiritualize things to death but they never DO anything!  What would it be like if Jesus had spiritualized dying on the cross?  Was it a spiritual act?  Of course!  But he had nails put into his physical hands to accomplish that spiritual act. Tonight we will not let revival just be something we believe in but it will be something we become!

It's a boy!

Here is a quick recap of the morning!  Got up at 6:30am and realized this is the first time I have had to get up for a baby in about 2 years.  Let the games begin!  Got my daughter up and she wondered why we had to schedule this ultrasound before the sun was even awake!  Good question!  We drove through wonderful Kansas City rush hour and I realized how great it is to not have to get on the highway in the morning to get to work.  I am too impatient to handle rush hour and women who drive with their knees so they can text, put make up on and drink their coffee on the way to work.  I am not even sure that they realize they are not in their kitchen anymore. 

Once we go to the hospital it was pretty easy.  We walked in and had a wonderful girl do the ultrasound that actually had a personality and made it a very enjoyable experience.  Not to mention that our kid was very cooperative.  I am hoping it will be the story of his life!  She asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and we said yes.  About 2 seconds after she started the ultra sound she said "oh wow!  It's definitely a boy!"  From the pic it seemed pretty obvious.  As I was thinking about posting the picture my daughter begged me not too and said it was an invasion of his privacy. LOL!  Politically correct at the age of 8!  She seemed a little disappointed that the baby was not going to be a girl but she handled it pretty well.  She loves Drew so she is pretty sure that she will love this one too.  Everything else looked great and the baby seems to be doing good!  Now I guess I have to start thinking about names and how to do his room.  Maybe we should just open this up for suggestions and then we will vote on the name and the room when we get closer! 

A boy or a girl?????????

Tomorrow morning my wife and I get to find out if we are going to be having a boy or a girl in July.  Finally, my daughter and son can see who has had their prayers answered.  My daughter has desperately pleaded to God for a girl and my son keeps butting into her prayers by yelling "boy' every time she prays for a girl.  LOL!  I love it! My wife is ready to find out so I will finally talk about doing a room and picking out a name.  This time I have gone with the attitude that it is silly to discuss colors and names when half of my work will be for nothing once we find out.  OK! so maybe I am being a baby pooper but I will be happy with a boy or a girl.  Both come with their many blessings and both come with their share of craziness!!!  Luckily my daughter is only 8 so I have not gotten to the emotional teen years where I am sure I would be crying with my son for another boy!  :)

Through all of the "fun" of having a pregnant wife and being around several other pregnant women in our church I have noticed that having a baby is a lot of work and a lot of it is pretty much out of your control,  from the bigger belly, to the cravings, to the feeling of having a soccer player inside of you that thinks each organ is a ball to be played with, and not to mention the amount of time that little soccer player stays in there.  While you can take some measures to get him/her out early if needed it is important for the baby to stay in until it is fully developed.  It is funny sometimes listening to someone that is 7 or 8 months pregnant.  When they first became pregnant they were so excited and wanted to know when it was the size of a pea, then an orange, then a coconut. Now they  realize it is the size of a small planet (and growing) and they begin to say things like, "please get this thing out of me"and "I can't believe you did this to me"!!!  Not that I have ever heard this from my wonderful, beautiful and always in control of her pregnancy emotions wife :) but my friends have told me it does happen.

As a pregnancy typically lasts 9 months or the pregnancy is deemed premature, I believe sometimes God places dreams and desires deep inside of us that sometimes take time to develop and nurture. Sometimes immaturity causes us to try to rush things and get things done in our own timing and in our own natural ways.  Unfortunately a lot of people don't care if they birth something of God prematurely as long as they birth it.  Realize, that as the dream of God grows in you it may not get easier and right before something is birthed it is usually the hardest part.  Right now in the church I think we are seeing a lot of ministers and ministries that were born prematurely and it is one of the reasons they are struggling and on life support.  If you want to read a good story of someone who tried to birth something before it was ready check out Moses when he kills the Egyptian.  His motives were not really wrong but the way he handled it was.  It caused him to go into hiding for forty years.  Later he was led back to Egypt to finish what he had started 40 years earlier but this time it was done God's way.  Don't try to birth something prematurely.  Let it happen God's way and in God's timing!

Speak Life!

I heard someone say the other day that they felt like they were standing among the valley of dry bones when they were at church.  This is not the first time I have heard this but it really stood out to me this particular time. I think the reason it stood out to me was because when I read the story of Ezekiel standing in the midst of the dry bones something happens!  We use this scripture a lot to talk about the church and it as a dead sack of bones but remember that when it is told in Ezekiel, the bones come to life!  Not only that but Ezekiel is the one that is used to prophesy life back into them. 

Please do not tell me anymore that you are standing in the midst of dry bones (at work, your family, your church) if you are not about to prophesy life into them!  If you are not prophesying life then you are not standing in the midst of death but you are probably dead right along with them.  Notice in this story that God does not just take over and bring the bones back to life.  He actually tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath and after he does it that is when God breathes life back into them. 

If you find yourself in the middle of dry bones, stand up and SPEAK LIFE!

The invisible realm

I teach a sound class here at our School of Ministry and the other day we were talking about sound waves and radio waves.  It is amazing to think that hundreds of radio stations are playing right now where ever you are.  They are not visible waves but you have the ability to tap into them when ever you want to.  All you need is a good receiver.  If you have a good receiver you have the ability to tune in whatever station you want.  It is amazing how easy it is to just move the dial slightly to the right or the left and you will tune out one station and tune in another.

The same can be true when dealing with the Kingdom of God.  We are dealing with an invisible realm that can not be seen but is very active right where you are sitting right now.  You have the ability to tune into what God is saying and even doing but most people never will.  Your problem is not that you are not a receiver but your problem is with your tuning.  You have spent your whole life tuning in to all the other activity happening around you that you have actually tuned God out.  You can only tune into one station at a time!

Power Music

I have been getting a lot of calls and emails asking what computer program I use on the stage in place of sheet music.  The program is called Power Music.  It is easy to use and it is a great way to help keep all of your team on the same page.  Not to mention no more photocopying or 1,000 pound music books.  It is very affordable!  Check it out!  http://www.cambronsoftware.co.uk/products/software/power-music.html

I do not have any affiliation with Power Music and I get no money from promoting so you can be sure I am happy with the product or I would not be telling you what I use.  We also chose to build our own computer system instead of going with a company that provides the equipment with the software.  It was much cheaper.  Basically all you need is a basic PC or laptop, a splitter (to hook all the screens together), and the screens.  We made our own stands from pipe we bought and had threaded at Lowes.  It is not difficult!  If you have more questions email me and I will try to give you more info.

Do what you say!

I was watching some "Christian" tv the other night and they were singing some worship song that is pretty familiar to just about everyone (thank you Time Life!).  The band sounded great and the worship leader was singing his heart out but when they showed a shot of the crowd the response was disappointing.  At some point I will talk about the strength of corporate worship but what got my attention was not that nothing corporately seemed to be happening but that there was no response from the congregation at all.  I guess I  take that back.  There was something corporately happening ~ NOTHING! They were singing songs that talked about shouting, singing, bowing, lifting hands and they were doing none of it!

It reminded me of the scripture in Ezekiel 33:30, 30 "Son of man, your people are whispering behind your back. They talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors, saying, 'Come on, let's have some fun! Let's go hear the prophet tell us what the LORD is saying! 31So they come pretending to be sincere and sit before you listening. But they have no intention of doing what I tell them. They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek only after money. 32 You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don't do it." How many Worship Leaders and Pastors are having this very same thing happen to them every week?  I do not get the feeling that God was happy that they at least "showed up" to church.  He was expecting some response.  He is looking for people who do what they say. 

Our worship songs are full of responses toward God but do we just speak them or do we do them?  Would you be able to get away treating your spouse the same way you treat God?  For example, when you come home from a long day and your spouse comes to hug, do you say, "Honey can you hug me in about twenty minutes?  You can not expect me to be at work all day and then jump right into being with you the minute I walk in the door.  Give me a chance to get acclimated to your presence"?  Do you tell your spouse, "I know you want me to show you I love you outwardly but it is not my personality, just know that even though I don't show it on the outside I am showing I love in my heart"?  Do you tell your spouse, "I can't wait to be with you tonight", and then the whole time you are with them you are looking at your watch wishing you were somewhere else or even worse with someone else?  Real relationships would not survive the abuse most people on their relationship with God.

Remember, GOD IS REAL so worship Him like He is!!!

First Blog

Believe it or not this is my first blog! That is all we need in the world, right?  One more blog!  But after receiving many emails with various questions on worship, songwriting and even set lists, I caved in and decided to join the 21st century with my own blog.  I plan on this blog being an opportunity to share some of our set lists from our services and even some commentary on the services themselves from time to time.  But I also plan on using this as an opportunity to confront some of the new and old dry and dead forms of worship.  The blog itself is entitled Revival Worship but we must make sure to not get the cart before the horse.  For us to have revival worship we must first have a revived people.  Otherwise we are "a people who praise me (Jesus) with their lips but their hearts are far from me."  Revival worship must start at the core, YOUR HEART!  Revival worship can not be broken down just into songs, volume, style, form but it is always an issue of the heart.  I will use this blog to address some of the issues mentioned but your heart is what God is after and if he has that all of these other things will fall into place.  If you have never experienced revival then you need to check out www.worldrevivalchurch.com or you should just come and visit us in Kansas City sometime.