But what about when YOU feel broken?  Maybe even shattered and all dried up?

It’s not fun to feel broken, but I can’t help but observe the presence of brokenness in many singer’s voices and find it encouraging.  No I’m not a cruel sadist who revels in other people’s pain.  I just like knowing that I’m not alone navigating through life’s twists and turns.   It’s comforting to know that there are kindred spirits out there, sharing in life’s not-so-fun moments.  Let me clarify, it’s not their voices that are broken.  But their hearts are or have been broken and they unashamedly show it in their singing.

Someone I really admire who displays this brokenness is Adele.  Yes her amazing depth of vocal tone and extensive range impresses me.  Yes, the songs she writes move me.  But it’s that emotional rawness that captures me most about her singing.  She sings from her heart.  She exposes herself.  She shows the world her brokenness.  And in the midst of this vulnerable display of brokenness, inexplicable beauty shines through

It’s obvious that we all need a degree of rest in order to function properly.  We need to rest well after a long work day – it’s called sleep.  We need to rest well at the end of a week – it’s called the Weekend.  (Though some who are super-human have the capacity to work 7 days a week, most of us need to have at least one day of rest in the work week). We need to rest well at the end of a year – it’s called Holidays.  Some even take pit stops during the year – incredibly wise people in my books.  I believe we all know that it is a good thing to do – this REST thing.  In fact we may even agree that it’s not only good but it’s very wise.  But do we understand that rest is not only good and wise, but absolutely CRUCIAL?

Rest results in a string of inspiring “R” words.  When I have adequately Rested, I feel;  Renewed, Refreshed, Revived and Ready for the next challenge ahead.

When I don’t, I feel exhausted, frustrated, grumpy and I dread what’s ahead.  Trust me I know, because I’ve tried very hard and failed at getting this REST thing right a ka-zillion times.

What’s REST got to do with singing I hear some of you asking?

The answer is EVERYTHING!

Singing is a physical activity.  Our bodies are our instruments.  Singing is also a highly emotional, mental and spiritual activity.  When we sing, we engage our minds, hearts and souls in interpreting and the executing a song.  Do you love to sing and want to sing for a long time?  Then it not only makes good sense but it is absolutely CRUCIAL that you adequately REST your bodies, minds, hearts and souls to Renew, Refresh, Revive and Ready yourselves for a lifetime of amazing singing.

Are you getting enough REST lately?

Ordained.  When I think of the word ordained I think of a formal and public recognition of someone.  Like when a minister is ordained.  In front of several public witnesses, there is a special ceremony or ritual that takes place to “crown” this person as a minister.  It is almost regal.  It is definitely a big deal.

And here Jesus says that God “ordained” praise from the lips of children.  God has formally and publicly recognized the praise of children and infants.  It’s almost like the praise of children and infants in the highest form of praise.  It is recognised, anointed and favoured by God.  The praise from the lips of children and infants is so pleasing to God that He has “crowned” it as ordained.

I can’t help but ask why?

The first thing that comes to my mind is that children a pure.  They say what they think and they are what you see.  They don’t lie (at least not until they learn to from the adults around them).  Their praise is real with no strings attached.  And that is pleasing to God.

The Pharisees were complaining to Jesus, criticising the kids for shouting out “Hosanna to the Son of David” in the temple courts.  They, in their self-righteousness and with their superiority complexes, saw the children’s shouts as maybe annoying, meaningless and inferior.  Like the kids praises were “not good enough” or truly spiritual.  They saw themselves as the only ones “worthy” to shout praise to God.  They were also angry at the fact that the children or anyone for that matter was declaring that Jesus was God.

It’s funny that even though the Pharisees thought they were spiritually superior and the only ones who were worthy to come near to God, didn’t recognise God right in front of their eyes.   Yet the kids, in all their innocence and purity recognised Jesus right away and could not help but express their praise.

And that’s the kind of praise God ordains.

Praise from a pure heart that recognises Him as God above all.  A pure heart doesn’t have layers and layers of religiousity or self righteousness over it.  There are no hindrances and boundaries.  A heart like that has direct access to God as there is nothing in the way.

It is interesting that over the last few days I’ve found Jesus referring to children as like the greatest thing since sliced bread!  Jesus  regards kids as “The Greatest in the kingdom” and said that unless we all become like children we can’t even enter the kingdom!  Jesus also said that the kingdom of heaven “belongs” to the children and now he says that God ordains the praise that comes from a kids lips!

Well I’ve gotta say that I want to be like a kid again!  I want to have that purity of heart that has no outer layers.  The layers of pride, knowledge, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, worldly worries or sin.  I want to have the praise that God ordains.  I want to please God with my praise.

I need to ask the Holy Spirit to strip away at all those subtel “stuff” thats produced layers over my heart and hindered my pure praise to Him.  Like my need for approval from others, my tendency to want to always “over-achieve”, my sense of insecurity, my need to be in control, my self-sufficiency, my pride, my lack of transparency, my need to appear confident and strong etc…the list goes on.

I know that God is doing a work of transformation in me even right now as I write this and as I dig deeper into discovering the things that can hinder me from God unknowingly.  I am humbled by this revelation.  And I desperately want to be like a kid again.

O: This is how Joshua chapter 6 closes.  God had commanded Joshua to lead the Israelites in marching around the city of Jericho with trumpet blasts and shouts.  Joshua did exactly as God has commanded and 2 things happened:

1)  The fall of Jericho:  the walls collapsed and the Israelites took possession of Jericho as their own, conquering their enemies

2)  Joshua’s fame spread

So simply put again:

1)  Joshua obeyed God.  Without compromise.

2)  God gave him and the people he lead inheritance of the land and victory over their enemies

3)  God gave Joshua fame

A: Fame can have negative connotations in christian circles.  We’re taught all our lives to be humble and to never seek any glory for ourselves. Which is of course is right teaching – IF practiced in context.  But is there such thing as a godly thirst for fame and glory? It is evident in this story that God has no problem giving His children fame.  He anointed Joshua with it.  And the fame that He anointed Joshua with SPREAD.  God not only didn’t have a problem with Joshua having fame, He didn’t have a problem with giving Joshua GREAT FAME.

Why?

Because when Joshua had great fame, given by God himself, Joshua also had great influence.  He could influence not only the nation of Israel, but the surrounding nations for God’s glory.  God gave Joshua fame so that Joshua could transform the nations for God.  He gave him fame to turn the nations towards God Himself.

God chose to give Joshua this great fame because Joshua was first, completely and utterly OBEDIENT.

In turn, God is looking all over creation for His faithful ones who are completely and utterly obedient to Him like Joshua, to give them “fame” or influence over all creation for His glory.

My obedience leads to:

1)  A big inheritance and victory over my enemies not only for me but for the people I lead/influence

2)  God given fame and influence.

For His glory, that the world would KNOW and WORSHIP Him!

P: Lord, help me to first be completely and utterly obedient to You.  Then and only then can you use me to be of influence to the people You have entrusted me to reach for Your glory.  AMEN.

Ask yourself:  If you are someone who longs to influence others towards God, are you first willing to be completely and utterly obedient to Him?

O: This is part of John the Baptist’s reply to the Pharisees who hassle him about who he is.  John adamantly tells them that he is not the Christ, not Elijah, not  anyone “special.”  He sees himself as someone who is to prepare the way for Jesus and in the verse above gives a compelling reason for why he does what he does.  “so that everyone in Israel would see Him.” Him being Jesus of course.

A: So that everyone in Israel would see Him.

Wow!

That is a worthy reason to do something!

THIS is exactly what my role in life is as a child of God.

Why do I lead worship?  So that the congregation would see Jesus

Why do I lead the ministry I lead?  So that the people I serve would see Jesus

Why do I spend time mentoring people?  So that they would see Jesus

Why do I strive to be the best singer/musician I was created to be?  So that the audience would see Jesus.

Why do I strive to be a good wife, daughter, friend, sister?  So that my husband, parents, sibling and friends would see Jesus.

Everything I am and do.  Why?  So that everyone would see Jesus.

P: Lord please help me to follow in John’s example.  He lived solely to reveal You.  May I do the same.  Please show me what this would look like in my everyday life.  AMEN.

Ask yourself: Why do you do what you do?

O: This chapter signifies are really sad time in the history of Israel.  It tells of how after Joshua and his generation died, the generation after that “neither knew the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.”  v.10 And so they were disobedient and did evil in God’s eyes.  They worshipped other gods and forsook the One true God.  This of course angered God and so “whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them”  v15. This put the Israelites under great distress.

How did God respond to their distress?

He raised up judges to save them from their enemies.

It’s not like they didn’t deserve to be punished with defeat from their enemies.  But God after seeing them in their distress “had compassion on them.”

This says a lot about the kind of God we serve.

Often we mistakenly see the God of the Old Testament as different to the God of the New Testament.  We see the God of the Old Testament as a God who is harsh and judge like.  Who sits high in the heavenly realms and points the finger at people and destroys them when they sin.  A God who is distant and un-feeling.  Unfortunately this is how many people still see God as today.

But this story really shows that God is the same God yesterday, today and forever.  Yes, He is a holy, perfect and righteous God who was angered by His people’s disobedience and punished them for it.  Rightly so.  But He is also evidently a loving and compassionate God, a God who longs for His people to return to Him and will go to great extents to have His people return.

However, sadly, the Israelites continued in their disobedience and became even more corrupt than before.

A: Two main things come to me as important after reading this passage:

1)  God’s character of compassion

God cares so much for His people and will do anything to save them.  He longs for His people to come back to Him even after they have desserted Him and caused Him great heartache.  He is indeed the God of the second chance, abundantly gracious towards His children

2)  Our required response to His great compassion:  apart from our own obedience to God, we must pass on and teach the next generation to do the same

I’m not sure why the generation after Joshua did not know God and what He had done for Israel.  And I am not here to pass judgment on them as to their inability to pass on to the next generation.  I wasn’t there so I know nothing of the circumstances.  However it does convict me to not let that happen while I can still make a difference in the next generation while I am still alive and kicking.

In light of God’s great love for mankind and His longing that all shall know Him, I must invest my heart and time into people of the next generation.  Influencing, modelling, teaching, them to live a life obedient to God.

This means being willing to invest in the lives of younger ones.  Spending quality time mentoring others.  Building meaningful relationships.  Being there for them.  Praying for and supporting them.  Listening.  Showing not just telling them what it means to be obedient to God by modelling that lifestyle of worship.  Caring and loving them as God cares and loves me.

Is there a younger person in my life: at church,in my family or other social circle that I should be investing more time in?

P: Dear Lord, please show me how to influence and teach the people in the next generation that you have entrusted into my care how to live in obedience to You.  Lord I cannot affect everyone, but I can affect one person at a time.  Please help me to care enough to take the time to do that.  Thank you for your compassion and love towards me.  Amen.

Ask yourself:  What would happen if I didn’t pass on and teach the next generation to be obedient to God?

O: Puffs up versus builds up.

Very interesting use of words by Paul here.

Puffs up is about the self.  Building up yourself, but at the expense of the putting down of others.  It comes from a place of pride about all I know and results in false elevation of self and a judgmental attitude of others because it is perceived that they know less.

Builds up is about others.  Building others up.  It comes from a place of love and humility and believing in the potential of others.

Then Paul goes on to say that if you think you know something, you actually don’t.  But his next sentence really intrigues me.  He talks about being known by God.  This is what the person who loves God is.  Known by God.  Is he saying that being known by God is of greater value than to possess great knowledge?

Food for thought…

A: Do I ever use what I know to make others feel inferior?  Am I proud of having the knowledge I have?  Or do I build people up in love?

In my life, God has given me a passion to teach people all that I know.  I love to see people learn and grow and reach their full potential.  It gives me great joy.  But the authority that God has graciously given me to teach others as a mentor, leader and teacher, is not a free license to “lord it over” people by “puffing myself up”.  I must teach out of love for God and others and therefore build up.

I must also teach with humility, knowing that I actually don’t know everything and am still learning and growing as everyone else is.  And at the end of the day my most highest calling in life is to love God and be known by Him.

To love God.  To be known by God.  My highest calling in life.

This is infinitely more valuable than any amount of knowledge this world can offer.  And in the age of internet, there is literally information and knowledge oozing out of every nook and cranny on every subject you could ever imagine.  But all that means nothing if I am not known by God.

Notice that Paul emphasizes that it is God who KNOWS US.  He doesn’t encourage us here to try to KNOW GOD.  But only to LOVE GOD.  Why?  Because in this context where he is talking about knowledge puffing up, he is careful to say that of highest importance is to love God, because if we try to gain more KNOWLEDGE about God, this would puff us up too.  Like it did the Pharisees.

So as I pursue loving God as my highest calling, I will never puff up, but continually build up because I’ll know full well that I’m just a sinner saved by grace – made perfect and holy only by the precious blood of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  If I truly understand this I will never boast and be prideful of what I know but I’ll boast only in Jesus Christ.

P: Lord, thank you for the powerful reminder of why I do what I do.  You haven’t given me authority as a leader to “lord it over” people by puffing myself up.  But You’ve given me the responsbility to build others up in love by passing on what I know and encouraging them towards their full potential. Help me to be Your faithful and humble servant.  AMEN.

Ask yourself: Is loving God my greatest pursuit in life?

O: The above passage is a quote from Caleb.  It awakened me to what an amazing man of God Caleb is.

On first reading, it could sound a little patronising, like he was saying “Everyone else was unfaithful to God, BUT I was so faithful…”bla bla

But really, if you understand the story and delve a little further, it’s just the humble words of great man of faith.

You see Caleb here was talking to Joshua, asking for the land of Hebron as his inheritance as was promised by God to give him awhile back.  When Moses was still alive and leading Israel, Moses had sent Caleb and some other men to spy out the land before they sent the whole nation in.  When they returned, the other men were so afraid because they saw the land was inhabited by giants – and they consequently spread the fear amongst the Israelites.  Caleb’s reaction however was different.  He knew that God had promised this land to the Israelites, so although there were giants, he was confident that God would drive them out and Israel would defeat them simply because God had said so.  Because of this, God promised to give Caleb and his people the land of Hebron.

The reason why I know the words of Caleb are not patronising and arrogant are because it takes a lot to act as Caleb did.  He trusted in God’s character.  Therefore didn’t let the presence of giants seize him with fear.  He knew His God.  He knew His God was faithful and true to His Word.

Caleb saw God BIGGER than the giants.

Caleb saw God.

A: Caleb had faith – a hope in the things unseen.  But more than anything, I believe he had this faith because He KNEW God.  Because this kind of faith doesn’t just appear.

You don’t just decide to have great faith.

He had great faith because He understood God’s character.  Because he understood God’s character, he could trust God full well.

You don’t trust people you just met.

So that shows me Caleb truly KNEW His God- intimately.   KNOWING GOD  gave him the faith and strength to defeat giants.

The only way I can hope to follow in Caleb’s example is to really KNOW my God.  I’ve gotta draw near to Him daily.  Read His Word.  Cultivate and nurture my relationship with Him.  The more I do that, the more I KNOW my God intimately.  The more I know Him intimately, the more I will understand His character.  The more I understand His character, the more I will learn to trust Him.  The more I trust Him, the more I can step out in faith.

Step out?

Caleb didn’t just say with his mouth that he trusted God.  He actually put his trust in God into action by actually going to the land and walking over it – while the giants were there.

Caleb show s me that Faith is developed with 2 things:

1)  Truly KNOWING God

2)  Stepping out and facing the very thing we’re afraid of

I need to do the same thing.

1)  Everyday, invest in and guard my relationship with God with my life

2)  Do the very thing I am afraid of (that He is calling me to do) – trusting in Him and not leaning on my own understanding

This is the recipe to unshakable faith

KNOW and DO.

P: Lord, thank you for showing me the amazing example in Caleb – such a man of faith.  Help me Lord to be faithful in cultivating my relationship with You – without which it would be impossible to have faith, and then to step out and face my giants knowing that you will never let me down.  AMEN.

Question: What giants are you facing today?

O: Paul is very upset!  Why?  Because the Christians at Corinth are filing lawsuits against one another!

He adamantly tells them that if there are issues that arise between them, they should resolve it from within, by appointing someone, perhaps a leader to judge.

There are TWO main reasons why Paul is so adamantly against Christians taking their issues outside the church and attempting to resolve them through lawsuits:

1)  It hurts their Christian witness of the gospel of grace

Just as unity among Christians is one of the most powerful witnesses to Christ’s love for the world, DISUNITY will just as powerfully send people running the other way

2)  When they take it to this extent, they are already “defeated”.

They’ve totally missed the point about the gospel of love and grace.  Their desire to be “right” has taken over, no longer are they living out the message Jesus Christ so perfectly embodied.

So in short, when Christians act like this, TWO types of people lose out:

1)  Unbelievers:  they don’t get to see the gospel of love in action and get repelled therefore not accept Christ as their Lord

2)  Believers:  they don’t live the gospel of love in action and have totally missed the point

So you see that really, it is a LOSE-LOSE situation.  EVERYONE gets hurt when Christians go against each other like that.

A: In a practical sense this passage teaches me how to deal with issues that may arise between myself and someone else in the church. Obviously to solve from within is the key, not to take it outside where everyone will get hurt and lose, and most importantly it hurts my witness of Christ.

In the above passage, Paul is essentially saying that it’s better to be “wronged” or “cheated” than to be “right”.

Jesus is the best example of this.  He suffered on the cross – a humilating, excruciating punishment.  This was neither “fair” or “right”.  It is clear that in this situation, Jesus was in the “right” – he never sinned!  Yet the Son of God, the only Perfect being, died for the sins of us all.  He didn’t kick up a fuss about being “wronged” or “cheated” which he clearly was.

Instead:

He humbly died and;

Conquered sin and death;

Bringing life to US all.

If we would:

Humbly die to our desire to be “right”;

We would gain victory in Christ:  conquering sin and death

And be a powerful witness of Christ’s love:  bringing life to the WORLD

P: Jesus, thank you for being the ultimate Servant King.  Please help me to want more than my own “rightness”.  Help me to desire that Your name be honoured and glorified.  May my relationship with other believers be a powerful witness to unbelievers of Your love, grace and mercy.  AMEN.

Ask yourself: Are my relationships with other believers a testimony of God’s love to the world?

O: Wow!  God listening to a man, that sounds like a crazy thought!

While the Israelites are fighting some of the surrounding regions Kings and men, Joshua asked the sun and moon to stand still.  And it did!  The sun actually delayed setting for about a full day until Israel had avenged itself on it’s enemies.

So God granted Joshua’s request.

Or did He?

If you look back over the Old Testament, from the time Joshua is mentioned in the Bible, He has always demonstrated himself as completely obedient to God.   It is suffice to say that Joshua desired what God desired.  His heart was aligned with God heart.  Therefore when Joshua asked for something, it was ultimately for God’s glory anyway.  So in granting Joshua’s request, God is granting His own request – to be glorified on all the earth.

A: Come to think of it now, it’s not so surprising to hear about God listening to a man.  Because this is not listening in terms of God “obeying” a man.  This is in the context of a dynamic and intimate relationship between a person and God.  And because the person and God are so intimately linked, the person begins to desire exactly what God desires.  So whatever they ask for is in line with what God wants, so therefore God “listens” to them and grants their request.

The point here is that life is all about God’s glory.

I want to be like Joshua.  Uncompromising in his obedience to God.  His utter devotion and desire for God’s glory is so apparent.  I want to have a dynamic and intimate relationship with my Creator as Joshua did.  Where my heart desires what God desires, therefore everything I ask for is actually what God wants anyway.  And this results in God drawing His people, the whole of creation closer to Himself.

P: Lord, may I be obedient like Joshua and have such an intimate relationship with you that Your desires become my desires so that whatever I ask for is ultimately for Your glory.  AMEN.

Ask yourself: Are my heart’s desires in line with God’s heart for the world?