Guitar: Found in You

I'm a student of Japanese. And I love worship songs. So, imagine my elation at finding a pretty cool worship song that happens to have some sections in Japanese!

I asked a friend to tell me which key it's it; the friend said C or C#. I picked C spent a little time coming up with chords for it. If it is to be played so, I think picking would go along better with it than strumming, but I'm not that good at picking yet, so I haven't been able to come up with good picking tabs. But you can download the pdf file here. Happy playing!

If you have any suggestions as to how to improve or to some picking parts to add, please let me know! Here's a vid I made to help with learning the song:

Passover: At the Foot of the Cross

I love the Passover. It’s simply the most amazing time of the year.

Yeah... I bet that sounds weird. Most people look forward to Christmas that way, I guess. Or people of my faith would look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles as the most awesome time of the year. But for me, that best time is that short period in spring.

Why? Well, it’s because of what it means. To put it simply, Passover means to me the sacrifice of my Jesus Christ for me (Matt 26:2; 1 Cor 5:7). Passover is just one day: the 14th of Abib. Yet, it is the first of the annual Holy Times and all others follow from it. Without it there would be nothing else. Without Passover, even the weekly Sabbath, which existed since creation, would have no meaning for us.

I think it’s very telling how God revealed his holy times to a pagan-Egypt-immersed Israel. The Passover was the final straw that brought redemption from slavery to Pharaoh (Exo 12), the symbol of freedom through a miraculous act of sparing Israel’s firstborn. The second time the Ten Commandments are listed in the Bible, God connects this freedom with the Sabbath command:

Deu 5:15 – “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
[NKJV]

He said keep the Sabbath because of that freedom? Weird, isn’t it because He blessed it? (Gen 2:3; Ex 20:11) Yes. For both reasons. There’s something to notice about the order of (recorded) revelation of Holy Times and their observance. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are first (Ex 12) and then, the Sabbath (Ex 16), then the rest.

I believe there’s something significant in what God was saying here. In Egypt, Israel was in slavery. I find it hard to imagine that they would be allowed by the Egyptians to take that random vacation every seven days. They were not free to worship. The blessing of the Sabbath would not be open to them.

Same with us; through the Passover Lamb’s redeeming blood, we’re free. Through that blood, we live. It is the first step. Without that first step, we would not even be able to honour God as Creator, as pictured by the Sabbath day. It would have no meaning for us. Why? Well, we’d be dead. (Rom 6:23)

The Cross is the central expression of God’s person for us: the greatest sign of His love, the power of salvation and the means of reconciliation. (Eph 2: 3-4; Col 1:19-20; Heb 12:2; Rom 5:8) The God who was willing to give up divinity and live as a human and to die for those who don’t deserve it is celebrated in the Passover. (Phil 2:5-8; Heb 2:14-18; 4:15)

There can be no time like the anniversary of my Lord’s death to kneel at the foot of the Cross and praise Him for what He’s done. Worthy is the Lamb of God of all power, glory, worship and praise. Forever.

Pride, the source of shame

...pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote for shame.

General Iroh, from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Sin is really dangerous for Christians. Well, of course, it's dangerous for everyone, but I meant that in a specific context.

Christians have a lot to lose from sin. If we're found out, we lose our position in church, we're seen in the secular society as just another hypocritical believer, or as proof of the idea that Christianity just doesn't work.

So, what do we do? We hide it.

Come on, you know it's true. Do you go around every day telling people, "I lied to my mother today," "I blasphemed God today," "I cheated on my wife last night"? But one thing I also noticed is that people also try very hard to hide from God, too.

Earlier this year, I realized something. For a long time, I would pray to Yahweh and say to Him, "Why did You die for me? I don't deserve it!" I went so far as to even instruct Him to take salvation from me. Doesn't that just sound crazy?

It took me some time, but eventually I saw (I believe God showed me) something that got me thinking, "Wow, I couldn't see this before?!" Yes, my sins are horrible; yes, they hurt Him, yes, they anger Him. Yes, all my best attempts at righteousness are pathetic (Isaiah 64:6).

But, guess what: as huge as my sins are, God's much bigger. I realized that within me was a kind of pride. It's not the same pride as the Pharisee who bragged of his "righteousness" compared to the tax-collector's (Luke 18:9-14). Instead, it's the pride of Judas Iscariot.

Judas could have been forgiven for His actions. All he had to do was accept the grace that He, through His sin, was instrumental in bringing to the world. But, instead, he allowed His guilt to drive a wedge between him and God to the point that he killed himself.

I was separating myself from God, too. Along with telling Him to abandon me (really, that is completely twisited!), there were times that I could not go to Him in prayer or singing all because of my shame.

Our pride refuses to accept our sin. Our pride refuses to accept that God is willing to overlook our guilt. And so, we feel shame. We think that grace only applies to pre-conversion sins.

I realized that... my imperfection is a given! God knows! But that's not an easy reality to accept. We want to be perfect so that we feel "worthy" of His grace.

Humility allows us to say to God that we know we're filthy, we know we're weak. And it allows us to accept that it's His strength that strengthens and His blood that purifies (1 Cor 12:9; Rev 1:5).

We should never hide from God. He is life and without Him, we're only 'breathing to death', and walk Judas' path. Shame in this sense has no place in the life of a Christian. Shame born out of pride does nothing but separate us from God. Is there any wonder that Jesus spent so much time showing us that we need to be humble servants?

Only humility can accept the grace of God, even in light of our own sins. He can transform the heart, mind and soul. But He can't do that if we keep building barriers against Him.

We need to humbly bow, and give all of ourselves to Him. We need to surrender.

Sabbath: For by grace...

…for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
Exodus 31:13, NKJV

God tends not to give any gift or command without some sort commentary, even if it’s perhaps not as complete as we’d want. In giving the people of Israel the Sabbath command, He said it was a sign that He sanctifies them.

I’ve heard people say that the Sabbath existed as a sign of their sanctification back then, but was replaced by the Holy Spirit for Christians as the sign of sanctification.

But, personally, I think this isn’t what God meant at all. And that’s not what God wanted to tell them and us through the gift and command of the Sabbath. It’s a lot more beautiful than that.

As cliché as it is (because just about all Sabbath-related studies refer to the Creation), we’re going back to what God said about when He instituted the Sabbath. He’d just created everything on earth in six days, showing the awesomeness of His power, and His love: because it was then, that He created mankind, and gave us the gift of the earth and of fellowship with Him.

I think it is very significant that the concept of time-sacredness is associated with creative power. It presents His authority to name something holy. It was He who “blessed and sanctified” the Sabbath because He had finished creating (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11). He shows that He could do that because He could create the entire world and all that’s in it.

So, regardless of what we do, we can’t really make the Sabbath holy. We can only “keep” it holy; that is, to accept that it is holy, regardless of what we do. No matter what, God still has the authority to name something holy; we either choose to accept His authority and power, or we choose to profane it.

To me… God’s words in Exodus 31:13 remind me of another passage:

Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Ephesians 2: 9 – not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

It’s a wonderful lesson God wants to give us. Paul says that we can’t save ourselves: it’s all God, it’s all His strength, His grace. But, Paul doesn’t end there. He said we’re created for good works in Christ Jesus. So, even though nothing we do can save us – even though, all our righteousness is like filthy rags before the pure and beautiful God (Isaiah 64:6) – we still show the acceptance of this grace by what we do.

James 2:17-18 is hard for a lot of us to understand, but it’s very applicable here. He wrote that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” and brings to us the idea of “show[ing our] faith by what [we] do.”

And there is the relation to what God said about the meaning of the Sabbath. The same God who had the power to create the world, to create mankind, has the power to make us holy just as He did with the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is a sign that He alone is “mighty to save” (Zephaniah 3:17), that it is His action, His grace that sanctifies us, sets us apart for salvation. It’s God that’s saved us.This brings us to the “for we were created for good works” part of Exodus 31: “You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore.” God presents Sabbath-keeping here the same way He does “good works” in Paul’s letter. The way to accept His power to sanctify as typified in the Sabbath is to honour the Sabbath’s sacredness; that is, to honour the sacredness that God gave it. In doing so, we accept God’s power to sanctify us.

Of course, I don’t think that’s irrelevant to New Covenant believers in this God. It’s so reminiscent of the messages of the rites that just about everyone who says “Jesus” practise. The Passover lives on representing the accepting of Jesus’ body and blood as bread and wine (Luke 22:15-20) and baptism represents the believers’ accepting of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (Romans 6:3-7). None of these three rites sanctify those people who embrace what they represent. Each of them highlight a different aspect of His gift of salvation.
(You may know it as the Lord’s Supper or Communion. Nothing’s wrong with calling it that; but Jesus called it Passover.)

Some people call baptism a public declaration of our acceptance of God’s sacrifice. So, they tend to have very public baptisms with many people around to witness. But, I disagree. Phillip had not called a large gathering to baptize the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:38). I believe receiving baptism is our declaration to God; we need only two or three witnesses to verify it to other people (Deu 19:15): you and the person who baptizes you.

Same with the Sabbath. Though it involves sacred assembly (Leviticus 23:3), it is very personal. It’s saying to God that you accept His power, His grace. We accept His power to create the earth and to name something (someone) holy, saved.

Isn’t He an awesome God?

All Bible quotations taken from the NKJV.

Shout for Joy

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. - Psalm 100:1

The first annual Sabbath of the autumn season is called in English the Feast of Trumpets. To those of us who know and love Jesus and celebrate this sacred day, its meaning goes forward to the 7 trumpets of Revelation, specifically perhaps the last, the return of Jesus with power, glory and salvation in His hands.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, though, the term doesn't show up. At least not in that exact form.

The day is called two different things in the Law: "a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts" (Lev 23:24) and "day for you to sound the trumpets" (Num 29:1). That is in Hebrew: Zichron Teruah and Yom Teruah respectively.

The NIV and most every English translation uses the word "trumpet", but the word teruah actually has a meaning that goes further than that. Strong's Hebrew dictionary defines it as: "clamo[u]r, i.e. acclamation of joy or a battle-cry; especially clango[u]r of trumpets, as an alarum". It's translated as "shout" numerous times in the Bible, for example Joshua 6:5, referring to the shout that the people if Israel let out at Jericho.

It's cool that the word teruah actually coincides with two sounds that Paul says will accompany Jesus' return:

1 Thess 4:16 - For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Teruah does refer to the trumpet blast, which is manifested in Orthodox Jewish practise of blowing the shofar (ram's horn) on this day. But it also refers to the act of shouting or letting out sounds of praise. We see some examples in these Psalms:

Psalm 47: 1 - Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
Psalm 66:1 - Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
Psalm 150:5 - praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

The first two of these examples contain the verb form, ruah, while the third has the word teruah itself.

So... what does this have to do with the Feast of Trumpets?

Zechariah 9 refers to the coming of Jesus as King and trumpet blast:

Zechariah 9:14 - Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south,

Just a few verses earlier, Zechariah wrote:

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Another prophet, Zephaniah wrote associated with the coming of salvation to Jerusalem, Jesus' coming:

Zephaniah 3:14 - Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem!

The teruah of praise associated with the trump of God. It is my belief that the shout of the archangel and the trumpet of God won't be the only clangour that the world will hear when Jesus returns. The cries of joy, from us, those who receive His gift of salvation, will join with them. And the world will hear.

So, I submit a further way to understand this sacred day: a Day or Memorial of our praises, our response to God's great goodness, faithfulness and salvation. Our proclamation to God and to the world that we love Him for who He is, not what we do or can do. Praise with our voices, with clangour or instruments to His great and holy name.

And we'll continue to praise Him forever and ever. (Psalm 52:9) Amen.

"Shout to the Lord. It's an eternal principle. It works."
Darlene Zschech

God: Pillar and Ground of Truth

¹⁵ but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:15, New King James Version)

Early this year (or late last year) I spent a lot of time meditating on this passage. The reading of I that I was hearing all around is that the church is the "pillar and ground of the truth".

That seemed so strange to me. Jesus defines Himself as the Truth (John 14:6). I find it almost blasphemous to imagine that Jesus stands on our feeble, mercurial shoulders. Yes, we are charged by Him to stand for truth and to declare it. But that's not the same as calling us the pillar of truth. That means that what we say goes.

The history of God's dealing with man has shown that the church can fail at remaining faithful to truth. We can faith; God cannot. We are founded on Jesus (1 Cor 3:11; Eph 2:20); not the other way around.

Granted, I'm no scholar or great teacher, but I submit another possible way to understand Paul's words here: "The church of the living God who is the pillar and ground of the truth."

We are to conduct ourselves differently because God is the source, definition and foundation of all truth; and if we stand on Him, we stand on truth.

Help us stand on Your truth, Lord.

Amen.

~Ken

Do You Know God?

You know, I love listening to the guys at Reach Records and the 116 Clique. I happened upon this video with Trip Lee, an American gospel rap artist, talking to an audience. It's not a music video, it's more like a sermon. He talks about relationship with God; and I think this video is worth sharing. At first, his accent was a bit hard for me to understand, but it was cool the direction he's taking with this message. Listen and draw close to Him.

~Ken