Hey Soul Sista
So tonight I am reading a book to my sweet Hannah at bed-time. The sound that erupted from the bathroom mid-story caught my ear and I had to go and see what this fantastic concoction of soul, swagger, and vibrato was all about… this is what I heard as my lil man Aden was taking his bath. The background noise is Hannah who was highly upset that her story time was upstaged 
Click the audio player and share in our hilarity! Fatherhood rocks…
Every Tribe
I am honored to be blogging from the 5th floor of a downtown Jerusalem building just a few blocks away from the place where worship ascended continually in the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount. As the sun sets in Jerusalem, Shabbat (Sabbath) ends, and the once quiet and desolate streets explode into life as the many who observe this holy day of rest rejoin the rest of this beautifully blended* people, and are together in the Holy City again.
We joined the get-together as we walked towards Ben Yehuda Street in search of a late dinner, perhaps some shawarma or pizza – but not both of course, as it would not be Kosher to mix a meal of meat and dairy! We heard the sound of singing as we neared the corner of the street, which is not unusual in downtown Jerusalem. This week alone on our trip we have seen many street performers and buskers: a violinist, vocalists, drummers, guitarists, and even a lady on the harp! But this sound was distinctly different. It was the sound of many voices, and it captivated me and called me to come closer.
As I walked up on this outdoor concert of voices, the familiar strum of guitar strings became clear within the chorus of voices. Up on a raised pavilion were about 15 – 20 Asian men and women, singing beautifully, with hands and heads raised towards heaven. In front of them were 4 guitarists, all young men, who led them and sang along, erupting with ad-libs and harmonies as they felt led. Behind the guitarists was a dark-skinned young man who looked to be Arab perhaps, and he danced mightily and joyously to the sounds of God’s praise. His curly black afro bounced freely as he skipped and spinned and stomped and gave God a generous offering of His best moves.
Although they sang in Korean and I could not at first understand their words, my heart sensed that they were worshiping Jesus. And as they began to sing words like, ”Halleluiah” and “Yeshua” (the Hebrew word for Jesus) I was overcome with joy. Scott and Ashley, who live here and have opened their home to us, ( TODA SCOTT AND ASH!) explained to Leigh Ann and I that there is a Korean Ministry here that comes downtown to Ben Yehuda Street after Shabbat to worship Jesus.
And we weren’t the only ones amazed to see such pure and passionate praise out in the main street. Tons of people stopped to watch. Orthodox Jews, Tourists, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and I’m sure many others were gathered around this spectacle of song and many were watching, taking pictures, and commenting on these Asian worshipers. The circle of observers around the worshipers was making it difficult for passersby to get through the street on either side without slowing their pace to weave around the human traffic jam. A select few worshiped with them by raising their hands and dancing and singing in their own language. Scott and I were among the few non-Asians who joined in. I sang my own words of praise, some in English and some in the Spirit.
I stopped singing a few times to just look around and behold how powerfully obvious it was that this worship event was having an impact. I thought about all God’s children who were gathered there. I thought of the word, “Halleluiah” again and thought to myself, ” I would love to hear what it would sound like to hear ALL these people sing this word together.” It would be a word to cross many of the language barriers present. And yet it would clearly express what the true reason for all this hoopla in the streets was about. It was about our Wonderful Maker, who had deposited in each of us a reflection of Himself. And each of us carried a uniqueness that belonged to Him, and we owed it to Him to shine that light back onto Him who made us. I leaned over to Scott and mentioned to him how fitting a song like “Halleluiah” by Hillsong United would be to bring more voices into the mix and get us unified in worship… and then the next song this Korean worshipers went into was exactly what I had prayed for.
They began to sing a chorus of “Halleuiahs” in a slow, melodic, and reverent tone. Wow! The Lord was speaking to my heart and I heard it! It was totally affirming to hear them singing these words! The sound of many voices grew ever louder as other voices around me joined in. Despite the thoughts of fear running through my mind about what could possibly happen to me if I closed my eyes and raised my song and hands to Jesus in downtown Jerusalem, I could not contain my praise. The song of heaven had touched Earth and it deserved to be echoed back to Him from whence it came. My lungs expanded and exhaled praise, and my soul was stirred and washed anew in the power of the presence of His Spirit as He dwelt among our praise. It was the sweetest of surprises. I could begin to glimpse a bit of what heaven will be like. There will be no more division. Every tribe and every tongue will lift up ONE NAME. There will be no Jew. No Gentile. Just Jesus and the ones who are called by His name. We will be united beneath the banner of that name, and our halleluiahs will fill the skies forever as we arrange ourselves around the throne of our Glorious Saviour King.
Pilgrimage
So I’m embarking on a trip to Israel. I’m gonna look up at the same sky that made David sing of God’s handiwork. I’m gonna walk in the steps of the Savior. I’m gonna stand on the Mt. of Olives and close my eyes and pray for His soon return. I’m goin’ to the Holy Land. A pilgrimage, simply put, is a journey to a sacred place. I want the sacred place of intimacy with Him to overwhelm me so much more than the buildings and valleys and landmarks. I think God is up to something huge in me and my wife’s hearts in this journey. And I can’t wait to share it with you who are reading this. I’ll be blogging about our trip so stay tuned. Shalom!
Something That Actually Works
Time for a new approach.
There’s no way I can consistently put together a digital sermon on this blog week to week. You and I both know that less is more… okay, so maybe you knew that… but I’m still learning it. Simplicity is elusive. But it’s necessary. So I’m trading sesquepidalianism for brevity.
Here goes….
James 5:16 is so overlooked. We strive and we plan and we tackle trouble with mind and method. When things are tough or just not the way we know they can be, why do we not rather rest, release the burden over to our caring and compassionate God, and pray? Not pray perfectly… but purposefully and powerfully. The publican outclassed the perfectionist when he spilled his soul out to the Lord. He didn’t wait for someone to teach him that his prayers needed to start and end a certain way. He sought the Lord right in the middle of his mess.
These past couple weeks, my wife and I have been talking to God a lot about our messes. Why didn’t I think of that sooner? We have thrown up a bunch of unpretty, unpracticed, and unpredictable prayers lately. The essence of prayer is simply ongoing conversation with God. Ask. Seek. Knock. It is not by your might, your genius, or your manufactured fortitude that you win… it is by HIS SPIRIT. So get in the Spirit and pray. Someone once said, “Pray like it all depends on God, and act like it all depends on you.”
And while you’re at it, why not post a comment about something or someone you’re praying for. Read the comments, and feel free to pray for one another. I’ll be praying too. Let’s put our faith to flight.
App Anon
No, it’s not the new group therapy session for addicted iphone and ipad users who can’t seem to break away from their apps and gadgets, (but no doubt this may be a valid remedial treatment in the near future)…
I’m talking about APPROVAL ADDICTION.
And I’m coming clean. I’m gonna be a bit more real then I’m comfortable with being and say that I am a recovering approval addict. If this “drug” called Approval could be snorted, shot, smoked, rolled, swallowed, or eaten, I’d be in a painful detox right about now. I’ve never tried drugs. I never will by the grace of God. But that doesn’t make me any better than the junkie under the bridge whose arms are streaked by his overwhelming desire to fill some hole in his heart, because if I am trying to fill my hole with anything but Truth and Love, I’m dead wrong. Everything else aside from Jesus is just a broken cistern ( see Jeremiah 1). And for this addiction, the trackmarks and symptoms aren’t as easily spotted. This is especially true for the addict himself.
I’m tempted to pretend I’m not a mess because, after all, that could possibly damage my “approval rating”, but I have a suspicion that I’m not the only one who deals with this brokenness of asking mortal men to quench the soul’s thirst for a need that only a holy and loving God Himself can satisfy.
God loves the sinner and hates the sin, and for that I praise Him, because it means He can be honest and direct with me about this sin of idolatry and, all the while, hold me in His approving arms of love to walk me out of the dark and into the light. I am actually grateful right now for my critics. Because they have sent me running to the mercy seat to re-discover that HE ALONE can satisfy in me my desire to be admired. And it is the same for you.
So whether you’re an all out approval addict, or perhaps , like the “casual user”, you only slip once in a while, be encouraged today by these next 2 sentences:
If you are In Christ, not only are you ”good enough“, but you are the delight of God’s heart, the apple of His eye, the beloved son/daughter in whom He is well pleased (because he sees His beloved Son IN YOU), the object of his affection, His “good-work-in-progress“, His beloved, His Mona Lisa, and His very own special, royal, and chosen people. God is for you, and if God is for you, then seriously… WHO can be against you?!
Here’s a verse to chew on from John 12:42-43 in the Message translation…
“On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn’t come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory.”
If it’s time to go to rehab, then don’t be like Amy Winehouse … get in the Word and go, go, go…
… and a song for your detox process… “Invention” by Capstone
My Soul Sings
Arid. Parched. Fiery. Sweltering. Waterless. Words that describe my throat the past 5 days as I am recovering from the 1,2 Punch of Tonsilitis and a Sinus Infection. It’s been one of the roughest weeks ever… and with bleeding sinuses I definitely got my chance to make “bleed worship” more than just a fancy blog title. King David knew how to encourage himself in the Lord in his hard times, and I did my best to echo that in my soul as my flesh was engaged in a mucosal melee. I could have done better… but there were a few shining moments of fight in me that would have made Chuck Norris proud.
Today the tide turned. Unable to do that which comes easily most days, I was forced to sing my praises to the Saviour of my soul without a voice; I had 4 services to sing and lead worship for this weekend. David Hughes, a friend and fellow worship leader, came to my rescue and volunteered to take my place as I stepped back and supported him and our team by being his “chief musician”. I was admittedly bummed about not being able to sing along as we hymned our Maker with songs like, “Yes and Amen” by Matt Redman and “All Creatures of Our God and King”, but I discovered a new way to make lemonade today in the middle of the 8:30 service.
The voice that vibrates from within my soul echoes further than the one within my chest…
It’s amazing what we can sing when we close our mouths. There I was, in God’s Holy and Radiant presence, with no melody but the one He has placed in my heart. I found myself interceding for the people in my church like never before. I found that my playing took a backseat to my praying. I was hanging on every lyric and note and finding new life in lines I’d sung a hundred times before.
So I am taking this lesson to heart, so help me God. There’s always something to be learned in the parched and seemingly fruitless desert of our weakness. God is still with us. And He just might be able to show us something in those dry places that will water us in such a revitalizing way. Don’t get me wrong… God didn’t send me to that sickly desert, but He showed up in that desolate place and hand delivered the spiritual equivalent of an ice-cold bottle of Fiji artesian water to my soul. I was no longer disappointed by my non-ability to vocalize. He eclipsed my lack in His abundance.
So whether you possess the vocal cords to sing skillfully or not, and no matter what kind of difficult place you find yourself in, nothing can silence the melody of your heart, and there is no place where you cannot gaze at the One who loves you and let your soul sing.
God Songs
As a Worship Leader (or “Lead Worshiper” if you prefer) I am always on the lookout for the “God Song”. You know what song I’m talking about… that one song that, when those first few notes enter your ears, it hits a switch in your soul that says, “God is here.” Tree 63′s “Sacrifice” is one of those songs for me. So is “Facedown” by Matt Redman, or Joel Houston’s “With Everything”, or the devastatingly romantic “How He Loves” written by John Mark McMillan to name a few (especially when Kim Walker is powering that melody out with blazing, prayerful power).
And then there was “A Little Longer” by Jenn Johnson… this song took me out of my office space and into that holy place of God’s calming and reassuring love. As a recovering workaholic, this song just slayed me the first time I heard it. As it came pouring out of those little desktop speakers, it reminded me once again that it’s ok sometimes to just “be” instead of focusing so much on what I “do”. I’m admittedly a lot more like Martha than Mary and I’m working on the whole “sit-down-and-listen-’cause-I-have-a-whole-lotta-worship-leaders-but-only-one-Chris” thing.
So anyway, this song has just been used by God in such a huge way over and over again in my life. I pray that I not only find those kinds of songs and share them as I lead worship… I pray often that I can be a vessel to birth those kinds of songs. To tune into the songs of heaven and transmit them to the world around me so that we’re ready for heaven… ready for non-stop “God is here” kinda songs.
My wife was used by God to be an answer to that prayer. She had been praying about some of the struggles we were facing, and as God so often does, He whispered comfort to her heart…
“Be still and know that I am”
“Be still and know that I will”
“be still and know that I have”
She wrote it down and kept it under wraps for a little while. She threatened to show it to me, saying that it might have “God song potential”, but for fear of it being underestimated she kept it to herself on a little piece of paper for a couple weeks.
On a ”Novembery” Sunday afternoon I came home from church, napped, and walked over to my poorly tuned but preciously adored Wellington upright piano and composed a simple chord progression that captured the worshipful tone of my heart and I thought to myself, “This could be another song to write… better record this somewhere so I don’t forget it”. The phone then rang and we got an invite to catch a movie later that evening so I played with the kids and then scrambled for a babysitter to no avail.
After we got the kids down to bed I was on my laptop at our dining table, and a small piece of paper was escorted by my wife’s lovely hand to the space in between me and my keyboard. It was the God song! She finally showed me it! And the moment I read those words, “Be still…” I knew it was something that we needed to write together.
Interestingly enough, I never recorded or wrote down what I had been composing a few hours earlier on my piano, but as I read those words I started recalling the chords. I started to sing those simple words God had spoken to my wife in the midst of her prayer time and the melody came almost effortlessly. Since the chorus was really coming from the perspective of God singing to us, I remembered Jenn Johnson’s song and that it was a song that answered her heart cry by having God respond with His heart concerning her plight. So we read Psalm 46 and composed the verses around the theme of what we were dealing with and an hour later this song was birthed through an amazing set of circumstances.
Thank God my wife was praying about her struggles. Thank God she wrote it down. Thank God she stepped out in faith and showed me she thought it was a song. Thank God I didn’t just pass it off as just some cute lyrics. Thank God I napped that day, and thank God I somehow remembered that chord progression. Thank God we missed that movie. And thank GOD I got a chance to do my very favorite thing with my very favorite person this side of heaven.
As much as this song speaks to me and Leigh Ann, and as humbling it has been to hear my friends and church family say that this song has been an encouragement to them, my favorite part about this “God song” is how He birthed it through us. The fact that He has used it not only as a tool to create intimacy between us and HIM, but as a tool to draw me and my bride closer as well is a taste of heaven.
Here is a live recording straight from our console of this song done at my church. It was during a night of worship where the theme was “No Agenda”. The band had no chord charts and no song list and I basically told them, “Just follow me as I attempt to follow Him”. You’ll hear that in the recording. What it lacks in production and professionalism will hopefully be compensated for in the fact that God is speaking His peace and His power into our situations. He is hushing wind and waves. Be still and know that He is God.
“Be Still” (c) Thing Records 2009 by Chris and LeighAnn Johnson
Be Still
I can see that you are fearful
Will you let Me be your Shelter ?
I will cover you with feathers
I will be your sun and shield
I can see that you are needful
Will you let Me be your Provider ?
I will love you like a Father
I have more than enough
Will you let Me?
Will you just be …
Be still and know that I Am
Be still and know that I will
Be still and know that I already have
You will not be moved
I am here with you
So be still… woah-oh be still
I know sometimes it’s painful
Will you let Me be your Healer ?
I have carried all your sorrows
By My stripes you are made whole
Yeah, I know sometimes it’s stressful
Will you let Me be your Peace ?
I can help you learn contentment
I will satisfy your soul
