A New Book...

Well, after hearing much said about the book over the past year from one of our elders, Jeff Thomas, I was recently convicted that I needed to take some serious steps in cultivating my relationship with my wife. Now, like most men, I would be the first to say that I don't think I am a bad guy. I don't beat my wife or anything crazy like that, but I have come to realize that I am not the husband that I need to be. So, I recently went out and bought this book and started reading it.



I have to say, I am very convicted already. The emphasis of the book is really about being Christlike. His point is based off of the scripture in Ephesians that talks about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church. Like I said, I felt like I was ok at that, but as your read this book, it becomes evident real quick that I have not been Christlike, but rather very selfish in this relationship and in the way I viewed and treated Karen. I am about a third of the way through, and am already being very convicted in how I view my wife, and the way in which I interact with her on a regular basis.



One thing that really stood out was a passage about Christ hearing your prayers (or not hearing them) in relation to the quality of your relationship with your wife (I don't have the book in front of me, but I will quote the passage later). I have been in a season of seeking God, and yet this part of the book really caught my attention in that I still don't live in a great understanding of her and her heart. That is the goal. I want to not only discover my wife, but discover what it means to truly love my wife and be connected to her.



She is a gift, one that I have often overlooked or under appreciated, but that is something I am committed to changing. I hope others will see the value of it as well and do the same!

Complete worship leader notes

I came across another passage of the book that I wanted to include. The author, Kevin Navarro, is talking about redemption and scripture, and the need to know the scriptures and their story and to celebrate it. Taken from page 43:

If faith is absent in our church, it is because ignorance of the Scriptures is escalating. Missionaries are laboring to translate the Word of God in new languages. Yet in our country where translations abound, the word is habitually neglected. This is a great tragedy in the modern church. As a result, we are producing people who lack faith because they don't know the word of God.



If you want to be a complete worship leader, fall in love with the Scriptures and the author of the Scriptures. Pray and sing over the Scriptures. Get the Word of God deep in your soul. Then articulate with clarity the hope that is within you. This is what it means to worship the Lord with accuracy.

I find my heart resonating with this, that even in ministry it is easy to become complacent about scriptures, to think more of the tune rather than the Word of God presented and celebrated in worship. It does seem true though that people in countries die for and tiniest bit of scripture and where we have it in abundance, it holds little value. How sad.

I bought this book a long time ago and read quite a bit of it, but I decided recently to read it again as I have been wrestling with my call to be a worship leader. This is a great book with a lot of deep and weighty information for worship leaders and pastors who oversee them to read and understand. One quote in particular jumped out at me that I want to share.

Repentance is fundamental to worship. Graham Kendrick has put it this way: "The genuineness of our worshiop can not be measured in decibels of sound, and although it is vital that we express our love for God vocally, he looks to see the evidence in our lives. We do not always think of repentance as worship, but i can be much easier to sing a rousing hymn than to turn away from our favorite sin. A sinful act involves worship of the wrong kind, submitting ourselves at the moment to serve the appetites of our pride or lust, and so repentance is literally a transfer of our worship back to the One who rightfully owns it."

I found this to be very convicting and stirring. Much to meditate on here.