IHOP in Your Room

The wild folks at IHOP in Kansas City have a brand new high-quality webstream live from their 24-7 prayer room. I remember them setting up for this massive-thing when I was at One Thing. I've had their Noon to 2pm set on the speakers as they've been meditating on and singing through Jesus' words in the Beatitudes, and David's in the Psalms. The music is really nice. This is very good for my heart.

I spent some time at IHOP in September and January. I'm amazed by their passion and intensity and joy. And by the way they train young people to use their musicianship with excellence while still leaving such room for the spontaneous song. So much of their worship is unrehearsed, and yet still aesthetically-pleasing to both the ears and spirit. This is rare.

If you have a decent connection, check it out.

(Thanks for the reminder that the webcast is now up, Beth.)

Gospel Choir 101

I think I need more gospel choirs in my life. Today for our Easter celebration we were led in worship by a small gospel choir from folks in our congregation. It was so lovely and quite celebratory. As much as I love acoustic guitars and earth instruments in worship, there's something about clapping aloud and feeling a part of the big choir. Gospel music sort of insists that you sway and move. And sweat a little while you're singing. I like that sort of worship.

I often overlook the fact that South Potomac Church has such a blend of races worshipping within her. I am grateful to have this short season of my life back in this hometown church.

Shangri-la! This is my 101st post. Happy Day. Jesus lives.

(Choir HT: Dogseat on Flickr and the Stop-Shopping Church Choir!!)

To Recreate Us

I often have trouble feeling particularly contemplative on the Holy Days. I think it's this rebellious strain in me that wants to find all the days holy. (And, just my rebellious pride, probably.) Today while I was running I decided that a simple song by Sufjan Stevens would be my Good Friday praise refrain. It's called Chicago. It makes me think of my black heart and how happy I am that Jesus still fights for it.

if I was crying
in the van, with my friend
it was for freedom
from myself and from the land
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes

you came to take us
(all things go, all things go)
to recreate us
(all things grow, all things grow)
we had our mindset
(all things know, all things know)
you had to find it
(all things go, all things go)

You can listen to the song here. (Or get the whole record: Come on, Feel the Illinoise!)

[Extra]Ordinary Stairs

I have a great deal to report, especially after a weekend of 24-7 prayer with the teens/pre-teens at my church. Tomorrow I will try to post some pictures from our wild little adolescent prayer room. But for now I'd like to turn to Zechariah, and to a vivid dream I had yesterday about stairs, worship, and community.

I've been itching to study the minor prophets for the last few years. They seem so underrated and mysterious and glossed over. (Those are my favorite kinds of anything, incidentally.) Well, I'm finally at a season in my life where I can sit down with a few commentaries and really study these minor keys. I'm starting with Zech.

Zechariah had 8 profound visions in one night. Taken as one, they all concerned the role of Jerusalem before the Messiah would reign forever and make all things new. The prophetic words greatly encouraged Israel at the time, because they'd recently returned from captivity, and were desperate for God's blessing once again. But Zechariah's words weren't fulfilled in his time. They spoke of a time to come.

All of this study about visions and dreams has me thinking about loads of things. But today, for one, I can't get out of my mind a dream I had yesterday. I was resting in the afternoon, after a nice drive back from Baltimore and lunching with Wanda and Renee. I fell into quite a deep sleep for just taking a nap, and I dreamt of stairs.

I was with two younger women, climbing ordinary-looking, unfinished wooden stairs that seemed to go miles high. As we started walking together up the stairs, I said, "These stairs will take us deeper into God's presence. I won't let you fall behind me." The young women nodded, and we climbed.

As we neared the top, the two panicked. They remembered another young woman was far below, still on the ground. She'd never started climbing. They looked at each other, and then at me, and shouted frantically:

"Vicky! We have to go back down to get Vicky. She needs us to help her up these stairs."

And so they made the long journey down, and helped Vicky begin making the climb up the wooden stairs. She was visibly reluctant, at first. But they managed the way upwards through their persistence as they walked alongside of her.

Now, I'm no Zech, and no, I haven't been listening to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." But I do think there is loads in that dream that speaks of our profound need for each other, and of our deepest need to "come up higher" into God's presence.
There is much to be said about worship in the dream.
The stairs were so ordinary! They were unfinished and rough, but sturdy. There were no hand-rails! How risky the way up really was. I only knew that I was safe climbing upward with a few others beside me.

The Militancy of Worship - Part 1

"Spiritual Warfare" has brought with it a great many tags and bags in our day. For most, Hollywood has dictated our viewpoint of the "war" through cinematic exorcisms and demonic games played through pitiful plot lines. The Scriptures speak of a vastly deeper scene: the kingdom of light at war with the kingdom of darkness. And this is a war for all mankind to participate in, knowingly or unknowingly.

Even a casual reader of the gospels would admit that dealing with demons was as central to Jesus' ministry as healing the sick. And yet, his methodology in dealing with the kingdom of darkness seems too simplified for us. Quite simply, Christ spoke, and demons listened. He spoke with otherworldly authority because the posture of Jesus' heart was poised militantly towards his Father's heart.

In this lengthier-than-normal post, I will not highlight all the various manifestations or methods that Christians have used in spiritual warfare. Although I have had many experiences with demons--particularly at night--I don't intend to speak of them here. Instead, I'm interested in highlighting worship as the most militant aspect of spiritual warfare, whether we stand for Christ and his kingdom, or we stand for ourselves.

Christians tend to speak as if worship is something branded by them. Much to the contrary, worship is not limited to the Christian who sits in the Sunday pews. Worship is a condition and posture of the heart. We worship that which we give the greatest attention and allegiance of our hearts. Many would look at the landscape of American Christianity and wonder if we have our attention fixated first on our own comfort and safety, rather than on the rebel Jesus of Nazareth. (But that's a post for another day.)

I would argue that who or what we worship is the only important methodology in spiritual warfare. Indeed, the attention of our hearts is the most significant act of militancy for either one kingdom, or the other. God will not override our wills. The free-response of our will is the most potent thing we have in this life. What we choose to focus our hearts on is a violent act in both the natural and supernatural realm.

King David of Israel is known as being a warrior, poet, and shepherd-boy. I see him as a militant worshiper. Before David ever picked up his sling and faced Goliath, he was militant. And before David ever picked up the harp, he was a worshiper.

1 Samuel 13 records that David was a man after God's own heart. David's will and attention was defiantly positioned towards God. In chapter 16, the Spirit of the Lord is said to "come upon David," as Samuel anoints him as the future king of Israel. Shortly thereafter, young David is called upon by the present-king Saul to, simply, play his harp near, that the music would bring relief to the spiritually tormented Saul. Indeed, the sounds from David's Spirit-anointed fingers drove away the spirit that tormented the evil king.

In the following chapter, we find the young shepherd boy reaching for a few stones and a sling to defeat the Goliath monster. David defeated Goliath, not because he was a great warrior, but because his worship was militant. Like Moses in Exodus 14:14, David knew the great secret: "The battle is the Lord's." And his heart was violently poised towards his Lord.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked passages in spiritual warfare is 1 Samuel 15:22-23, when Samuel rebukes Saul for his negligent obedience to the Lord, though Saul had done a great many "worshipful actions." To Saul, he'd sung the songs all right:

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king.”

Witchcraft? Idolatry? I thought those were things relegated to the neo-pagans! Here we see, most pointedly, the militancy of obedience, and the militancy of disobedience. For Saul, it cost him the kingdom. For us, perhaps it is no different. The allegience of our hearts empowers one kingdom or the other, in militant worship.

I will continue on in this subject in Part II - Worship in Song as the 2nd Most Potentially Militant Expression.

Check out all the many-varied and excellent thoughts on Spiritual Warfare in this Synchro Blog #2:
Phil Wyman - Pagans, Witches, and Spiritual Warfare
John Smulo - Portraits of Spiritual Warfare
Mike Crockett - Sufism: How the
Inner Jihad relates to Christian Spiritual Warfare
Steve Hayes - Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare
Marieke Schwartz - Grace in War
Cindy Harvey - Spiritual Warfare
Mike Bursell - Spiritual Warfare: a liberal looking inwards
David Fisher - Spiritual
Warfare: Does it have to be loud and wacky?
Brian Heasley - Something from Ibiza via Ireland
Webb Kline - Webb Kline's Blog
Sally Coleman - Sally Coleman's Blog
Mike Murrow - Mike Murrow's Blog

(Thanks to Wikipedia for Mel's Militant pose.)