In response to Paul’s post: “I connect to God best through P&W, so I’m a lukewarm Christian.”

First post of 2010… controversial blog title, got your attention, keep reading!

This post is in response to Paul's blog which polled the question:
Best Connection with God through ...
o Scripture
o Praise and Worship
o Devotions
o Quiet time
o Youth Group
o I don't believe in God
(ok, I'm assuming most of Paul's inner network of friends are Christians hence the last option doesn't get represented).

As of December 1, 2009, 3:00pm. 45% have chosen P&W as there best connection with God. Not a surprising result, it is well expected most people can "feel" and "connect" with God through music.
Let’s throw this into the mix: "Majority of Christians are "lukewarm", do not actively seek God, do not have growth in their faith"

Is there a connection? Time to investigate and do some soul searching.
What I'm trying to get at is I have some causal relationship that many who "connect" best with God with music and only music do not actively seek God and grow their faith.

As Paul said: we want to be fed like babies:
"Oh song is so good.. MmmmM"
"OH this tastes so good... mmmmM"
"This feels so nice ... mMmMm"

Observation: Those who are easily emotionally moved by music are NOT strong Christians. Those who connect best with God through reading Scripture, devotions are the strongest... Intellectual Christians. Those who connect best with God through P&W are weak Christians... Emo Christians.

I see worship songs as simple carbs (sweet candy, chocolate). Good, yummy, gives you that sugar rush... but definitely not filling.
I lead "worship" with music and songs at church and I enjoy doing it. It was at a youth rally and it was during worship where I "felt" God, my first 'high', and that's was when I personally gave my life to Christ, signing up for a contract of commitment, sacrifice, and love. Since age 13-18, that was my way of connecting with God; with praise & worship.

Since then, I've never had that same high... always wanting more, more intense worship, more rallies, more concerts. Of course all were great and amazing, but it never compared to that first night I "experienced" God. And leading worship 2-3 times a month... eventually the whole "experience" becomes a habit and honestly, doing this for the last 3-4 years... today it's quite bland compared to the "”first time”.

OH! WHat?! The guy in-charge of the worship team at church thinks praise & worship is bland?!?! To clarify, Why do I still do it?
a) It’s still a great way to worship,
b) seeing there’s a need for people to worship with music.

In the year of 2009, I really got into the Bible and WOW. Each time I read, I get blown away by the truths laid out by God and how powerful and deep each verse is. Currently, I’m going the Psalms and it’s really amazing to read through and recognize the psalms that have inspired some of the greatest worship songs ever written (that will be another blog post).

How do I connect to God the best? It was a tough choice between Scripture, PW, Quiet time,Youth Group, and Devotions for they are all pretty close. Since the poll only allowed one choice, I picked “Quiet Time”.

On a closing note, connecting to God with one method is bound to have your faith unstable, shaky, and weak whereas connecting to God with Scriptures, PW, Quiet time,Youth Group, and Devotions will allow you stabilize and strengthen your faith in Christ.

Redefining 'church'

Started on a new devotion book "4Life - God's values for Living".
It's a book meant for a mentor and mentee, guiding the mentee from the embryonic stages of their faith and guiding them to the mature stages.

Though I would consider myself a long-time, mature Christian... there are still MANY MANY things to learn. Let's say, I'm on chapter 3, and I've already been challenged and already chewing on some concepts.

As the title of this post says: "Redefining church".
Just finished Chapter 3 "A new family". There's the cliche; "the church is the 'gathering of people', not the building."

But cutting to the chase, the book asked a simple question and provided some answers you can check off...

What's your experience of church?
o A friendly club
o A distant organization
o A committed family
o A bunch of hypocrites
o Other:

I chose; a friendly club, committed family, and a bunch of hypocrites.

After choosing the last one... I paused for a moment to churn over what I selected and questioned my reasoning behind the choices. This is what I came up with...

My own personal experience of the the church is the people are friendly and are a committed family. But Kevin Chong always looks at both sides of the picture. I am well aware of what the people outside the church think of the church... and one is: hypocrites.

Don't Christians get labeled as that? Say this, do another. Judge this and that, but does this and that. This is what the Bible says about that:

"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor."
- Matthew 7:1-5 (The Message)

My honest belief: Hypocritical "christians" do more damage to the Church than the any intelligent atheists or whateverists could ever do.

Something to ponder, how does this even relate to 'church'? Until next time... until next time.