So I was thinking about the name of my blog in comparison to the content and realized that rather than commenting on the Church the Bible and the emerging culture, I want to talk about Jesus. Not that those comments and discussions aren’t welcome, they certainly are, I just wanted to give this little corner of the world wide web a new focus. So here’s why I went with Jacob’s Well.

It’s taken from John chapter 4 where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. This has long been my favorite passage of scripture, only because it’s the first example of cross-cultural ministry in the new testament (which is pretty cool), but also because I believe gives insight into our condition as humans.

You see Jesus calls this woman out as having had five husbands and now living with a man who is not her husband. In asking her for a drink she is shocked that He would even talk to her a “half-breed” and asks Him if he is greater than Jacob who’s well this is (hence the name).

Jesus’ response is to tell her that if she knew who He was she would ask Him for water and that she would never be thirsty.

So what does this have to do with the name change?

Well, Jesus doesn’t tell her that it’s wrong for her to want love (presumably why she runs to guys) he tells her that she’s drinking from the wrong well.

We are all tempted and have desires and wants and needs. The problem is when we run to things that won’t satisfy to fill them. Counterfeits (and there are many in my life) prevent us from walking with and seeing Jesus as the source of all joy and satisfaction. So if my blog is about anything, it’s about trying to see Jesus for who He really is.

Ahh! Now that’s refreshing.

There’s nothing I like more than a cheesy Christian shirt, and since I think Jesus is pretty cool, this week’s shirt is right on.

Well, after nearly 10 months of searching and praying and wondering if the Lord wanted Jenn and I to pursue this crazy worship thing, I have found the perfect job in an unlikely place.

Clovis Hills Community Church in Clovis, Ca (the neighboring town of Fresno, where I grew up) has offered me the job of music director, which I am very excited about. It is amazing to me how the Lord provides. Over the last few weeks I was realizing more and more that I probably just need seasoning at a small church and maybe need to work part time for a little while, but God has taken care of me. This job is full time, an opportunity to work with a great staff who cares about helping me grow and developing me more as a leader. It means working with a tremendous group of volunteer musicians ( I was blown away by their band) and it’s a situation where I’ll be able to grow as a musician and worship leader, without the pressure of leading worship every week.

I will be in charge of the music department, rehearsing bands, auditioning people and working on the creative arts team which has a couple of stellar people already on it.

I start in September and the more I think about it, the more blown away I am that the infinte God of the universe who is so vast and big is at the same time passionately concerned with me and my wife and desires that we are in a great situation. And that He would take us through this process of finding the perfect fit, which I believe this is.

I confess though that I am a little overwhelmed at the size of this thing and self-doubt begins to creep in more and more. It is however, an opportunity to lean wholly on Jesus and trust Him with everything, which is a great place to be.

Well, after nearly 10 months of searching and praying and wondering if the Lord wanted Jenn and I to pursue this crazy worship thing, I have found the perfect job in an unlikely place.

Clovis Hills Community Church in Clovis, Ca (the neighboring town of Fresno, where I grew up) has offered me the job of music director, which I am very excited about. It is amazing to me how the Lord provides. Over the last few weeks I was realizing more and more that I probably just need seasoning at a small church and maybe need to work part time for a little while, but God has taken care of me. This job is full time, an opportunity to work with a great staff who cares about helping me grow and developing me more as a leader. It means working with a tremendous group of volunteer musicians ( I was blown away by their band) and it’s a situation where I’ll be able to grow as a musician and worship leader, without the pressure of leading worship every week.

I will be in charge of the music department, rehearsing bands, auditioning people and working on the creative arts team which has a couple of stellar people already on it.

I start in September and the more I think about it, the more blown away I am that the infinte God of the universe who is so vast and big is at the same time passionately concerned with me and my wife and desires that we are in a great situation. And that He would take us through this process of finding the perfect fit, which I believe this is.

I confess though that I am a little overwhelmed at the size of this thing and self-doubt begins to creep in more and more. It is however, an opportunity to lean wholly on Jesus and trust Him with everything, which is a great place to be.

I’ve recently started (again) the book Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. It’s a book on the attributes of God and written in response to what Tozer calls

the lose of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind.

Tozer says that

The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men.

His belief is that this was not done intentionally but unintentionally and slowly over time, and that her unawareness makes the situation all the more tragic.

Reading this book (which is very short and easy to read by the way) resonates so deeply with my heart as I think about how to help people understand true worship. I’m not only talking about singing songs or coming to church but how do we get to a place where we are struck with the reality of God. What could happen with our lives or our communities if we lived in light of the reality of God?

I think it is here that the problem lies. We know, at least in theory, that to be fully engaged with and in the person of Christ, our lives would be drastically different. I think we know that to get there would, in addition, require surrender; a handing over of our lives and our comforts and our dreams to God.

For some reason though, we are afraid. We are terrified that if we were to give our lives to God and open ourselves up to be changed it would mean the entire world seeing me for who I am and could mean a drastic change in my world.

What if I surrender myself to God and I don’t like what he does with my life?

What if it means being uncomfortable?

Does God know better what I need than I do?

These questions are the crux of Tozer’s book and I believe the reason that we can’t give ourselves over to good in worship. Simply put we don’t trust Him.We don’t believe that God can provide for our futures, so we try and make it happen on our own and pray that He’ll bless our efforts. We don’t come to Church or walk through life with an expectancy of meeting the Lord, because we don’t really believe He’s there, or if we do believe He’s there, we don’t think He can do anything for us.

Tozer says that this innacurate view of God is the reason for all of our theological inaccuracies and morever, the reason for all of our sin. Oh, that we would think rightly about God.

Would we continue to run to T.V., sex, money and any thing else if we understood that God and God alone is the source of infinite satisfaction and Joy? If we understood fully or at least more fully, that God is capable of anything and desires for our good, would we trust Him more with our lives?

Worship, whether through music or interaction with others or any other activity should be the joyful expression of our hearts celebrating the person of God. We should at all times be amazed and overwhelmed at His willingness to be huge yet here and His passionate care for us, His people.

I suspect however, that the definition of worship I just gave is not the one we would all use to describe our lives.

I’ve recently started (again) the book Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. It’s a book on the attributes of God and written in response to what Tozer calls

the lose of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind.

Tozer says that

The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men.

His belief is that this was not done intentionally but unintentionally and slowly over time, and that her unawareness makes the situation all the more tragic.

Reading this book (which is very short and easy to read by the way) resonates so deeply with my heart as I think about how to help people understand true worship. I’m not only talking about singing songs or coming to church but how do we get to a place where we are struck with the reality of God. What could happen with our lives or our communities if we lived in light of the reality of God?

I think it is here that the problem lies. We know, at least in theory, that to be fully engaged with and in the person of Christ, our lives would be drastically different. I think we know that to get there would, in addition, require surrender; a handing over of our lives and our comforts and our dreams to God.

For some reason though, we are afraid. We are terrified that if we were to give our lives to God and open ourselves up to be changed it would mean the entire world seeing me for who I am and could mean a drastic change in my world.

What if I surrender myself to God and I don’t like what he does with my life?

What if it means being uncomfortable?

Does God know better what I need than I do?

These questions are the crux of Tozer’s book and I believe the reason that we can’t give ourselves over to good in worship. Simply put we don’t trust Him.We don’t believe that God can provide for our futures, so we try and make it happen on our own and pray that He’ll bless our efforts. We don’t come to Church or walk through life with an expectancy of meeting the Lord, because we don’t really believe He’s there, or if we do believe He’s there, we don’t think He can do anything for us.

Tozer says that this innacurate view of God is the reason for all of our theological inaccuracies and morever, the reason for all of our sin. Oh, that we would think rightly about God.

Would we continue to run to T.V., sex, money and any thing else if we understood that God and God alone is the source of infinite satisfaction and Joy? If we understood fully or at least more fully, that God is capable of anything and desires for our good, would we trust Him more with our lives?

Worship, whether through music or interaction with others or any other activity should be the joyful expression of our hearts celebrating the person of God. We should at all times be amazed and overwhelmed at His willingness to be huge yet here and His passionate care for us, His people.

I suspect however, that the definition of worship I just gave is not the one we would all use to describe our lives.

Here it is, this week’s funny shirt.