Tag Archive: jesus


Beloved

Filed Under: Devotional by benwardmusic — 1 Comment
November 5, 2009

Olivia and I have been reading through Daniel the last couple of weeks and have been moved by his life and what God did through him and for him.  One thing that struck me was when the angels of the Lord came to him, they called him “greatly beloved” or “highly esteemed (NIV).”

To have Gabriel or Michael say this about you, to you, is mind and spirit blowing.

To hear that this is common knowledge in the heavenlies is beyond anything I could even write.

Daniel 9:23
“At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision…”
Daniel 10:11
And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling.
Daniel 10:19
And he said, “O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!” So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

This word “beloved” has begun to really impact me.  I was listening to a teaching yesterday and the speaker called the listeners “beloved” several times.  How amazing it is that the Church is Jesus’ beloved (Ephesians 5:25).  His desire and whole heart of love is for the Church.  For the Church of which I am a part.

I am His beloved.

Song of Solomon 2:16
My beloved is mine, and I am his.

You and I are the beloved of God…this is so undeserved, so extravagant, that all we can do is turn to Him and praise Him, fall on our faces and worship Him.

Play, sing, worship like someone who is the beloved of the Creator of the Universe!!

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Crying Out

Filed Under: Worship by benwardmusic — 2 Comments
October 16, 2009

worshipWhy are there so few opportunities to worship the Lord together?  It’s so wonderful, so amazing and makes us (hopefully) more like Jesus.  As we praise we are filled with more of the Holy Spirit.  He baptizes us anew.  We see more of His fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.  Who wouldn’t want more of that (especially those who live with us:)?

When I was in Illinois, there were two fellow staff members and a few others at the church that loved to get together informally and worship.  Usually around the piano and sometimes with a guitar we would just begin to sing and proclaim Scripture.  There were prayers for each other and various needs we were aware of.  We would cry out for God to move in the upcoming services.  Sometimes it could be dry and just us singing a few songs before we went about our day, but often it was so much more.

Many times we would sing, “I’m falling on my knees” from the song “Hungry” and everyone would be on their knees.  It wasn’t uncommon to glance over and see someone on their face, prostrate before the Lord.  We all looked for times when we could slip away and worship…it was such a delight to get in God’s presence and focus on Him.

So many amazing things were happening at the time in the church body and I believe this was a key to that.  People crying out to God for Him to make His presence known.

Sunday morning meetings are wonderful and I’ve known the presence of the Spirit in powerful ways during these times.  But there are so many other items that must be attended to (announcements, etc.).

I miss the fellowship and power of those intimate times with a few – two or three – singing and declaring the goodness of God.

With the current change in seasons I have a renewed longing for those times.  I long for the expectancy they produced.  Anything could happen – Jesus could do anything and He was doing it.

Lord, may it be so again in greater measure.

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Like a Little Kid

Filed Under: Just My Opinion by benwardmusic — Leave a comment
September 16, 2009

There are some 300,000 churches in America, and I could have picked any one to attend on Easter morning, but I liked being in this one. Especially the kids. They didn’t need Reverend Henderson’s prayer techniques, or the high-tech mantras of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Their prayers weren’t Rabbi Gellman’s suburban Jewish prayers of Thanks! offered to whom it may concern. They didn’t pray to de-center their egos or find transcendence or to set off on a lifelong therapeutic spiritual journey. They prayed to a God with whom they were on a first-name basis, and they believed their prayers gave them power, which they used on behalf of their asthmatic sisters and infirm grandparents and a kid they knew with burns on his body. Sitting in church on Easter morning, I realized that I was probably never going to become a praying man. But if, by some miracle, I ever do, I hope my prayers will be like the prayers of the kids I met at the Love church in Berkeley Springs. Straight-up Gimme! on behalf of people who really need the help. -ZEV CHAFETS in the New York Times Magazine

This is quite an interesting article about prayer (and long if you know the Times magazine).  This last paragraph was so powerful to me.  The author is an agnostic and goes to all kinds of Churches, Synagogues, therapists, etc. to find out about prayer.

In the end the most powerful expression came just as Jesus said it would: like a child.

I want to come to God like that.  So often when I pray I’m concerned with “squeezing it in” or getting to everyone on my list rather than just coming to Jesus with my heart open to the possibility that He can do anything.  Anything for me.  Anything for those I love and care about.  All I have to do is believe.

So, this week, I’m going to lay my heart open before the Lord and be like a child.  Imperfect and full of anticipation.

Just like a little kid.

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Even in the Everyday

Filed Under: Just My Opinion by benwardmusic — 6 Comments
September 2, 2009

I read this article recently by indie music entrepreneur Derek Sivers.  It’s about a lecture he went to where the idea of the story – the rise and fall of drama – is illustrated and explained.  He talks about how we love stories because the pendulum swings so wildly from misery to exceeding joy.  Drama is exciting.  The problem, he infers from the lecture, is that everybody wants their lives to be like this.  But, in reality, our lives are mostly mundane and, well, boring.  He gives this as the reason why people start fights and create drama; so we can live more of the stories we love so much.

I disagree with his conclusion.

My father-in-law has been Olivia’s and my pastor since we were married.  One of my favorite things that he says about a life following Jesus is that it is a great adventure (not to quote old school Steven Curtis Chapman or anything).  It’s true.  When the Holy Spirit is in you, you live a life that is not even imaginable without Him.  You do things that make the world (and even many Christians) go, “Huh?”

Scripture says, “His ways are higher than our ways” so sometimes things don’t always seem logical, but you are persuaded to go, to follow.  Jesus tells us that the Spirit is like the wind – you don’t know where it came from or where it’s going.  We are supposed to be like that.

Like I shared last week, sometimes you’re just living everyday life and God drops someone in your way, changing all your plans.

Sometimes He tells you to give someone a call, or a hug, or money.  Sometimes He tells you to move across the country, or the world.  He’s always working in people’s lives.  He’s always orchestrating His plans and He wants to use you.  He wants to use me.

Sign me up.

Because I don’t want a storyless life.  I want to know God and I want to see Him move in amazing, supernatural ways in unbelievable places with fascinating people.

Even in the everyday.

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Football Movies

Filed Under: Just My Opinion, Recommendations by benwardmusic — 2 Comments
August 27, 2009

So, I like football movies…

I only played for a couple years, but I think back on that time with a lot of fondness.  Maybe because the practices was so incredibly grueling.  I know that seems weird…you are sure that you are going to die right there on the field from pure exhaustion…I remember being so thirsty that I would suck on my sweat soaked jersey.  But you don’t die, you get a water break and nasty garden-hose-pvc-pipe water tastes like Evian.  The feeling afterward of having accomplished something is nothing short of exhilarating.

So, back to  football movies…

I watched The Express recently and was reminded of something that I want to be a part of my life now: The head coach in the movie (Dennis Quaid) talks about how they can beat the other teams by being more prepared — by the quality they produce.

In my songwriting I want to keep pushing through until I have a song that is the absolute best it can be.  There is a part of music that is intangible and you can’t control, but the part I have responsibility for, I want to be exceptional.

In my singing and guitar/keys playing I want to play the best parts possible for me.  I don’t want to just play chords…I want to write parts that I have to practice!  (I can’t believe I’m writing this down…)  It doesn’t have to be complicated, just right.  Sometimes the simplest things can be the most beautiful.  But I don’t want to just settle for something because it’s just good enough.

In my  relationship with God I want to press on and experience all that He has for me.  I don’t want to just get by and know that I’m a Christian.  I want to know more of Him.  I want to see and hear things I can’t even imagine.  I want Him to use me to do great things.  What He designates as great — not necessarily what the world thinks is significant.  I want to see Him move and touch people and shower them with grace and mercy like He has throughout history…I want to be a part of great stories that people tell years from now.

So, yeah, I like football movies…how about you?

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You’ve Been Activated

Filed Under: Just My Opinion by benwardmusic — 2 Comments
August 24, 2009

Have you seen the movie Eagle Eye?  Two seemingly random people are thrown together by a mysterious voice that keeps calling them with instructions.  They end up working this wildly elaborate plot in supposed service to their country.  I won’t ruin the ending for you (and it’s not relevant to my point).

The thing that caught my attention is the when the voice calls them for the first time.  She gives them a directive and then says, “You’ve been activated.”

They are unsuspecting, normal people whose services are needed because they are in the right place at the right time.

I think God calls on us in the same way sometimes.  We are going about our daily routines and “bam,” we’re called into service.

“You’ve been activated”

Last week I was heading to work when I got on the subway at the normal time and normal place.  An older gentleman sat down and began to talk to me.  Now, if you are familiar with NYC subways, you realize that no one talks to each other…usually ever…especially in the morning.  The thing about this man is that he wasn’t annoying.  He was 73 and he had chronic pain in his back.  He was on his way to physical therapy in Jersey City where the doctors do not have any other options for him except live with the pain.  He kept saying “I just don’t know what else I can do.”

Almost immediately I knew that God said, “You’ve been activated.”  I thought, “Lord, You don’t want me to pray for this man on the quiet train, do You???”

It got even better when the man explained that he had seen a preacher on TV the night before talking about healing and he had called, but couldn’t decide whether to go…he wanted to know if I believed things like that could happen.  First, I thought about how the Lord has a sense of humor.  I told him I knew God could heal Him and give him a miracle.  I have seen it myself.

I still didn’t know if I should pray for him on the train, but it turned out he just needed someone to tell him he should go to the church.  Sometimes God just needs us to give people a prod.

You just never know when you’ll be activated.  But, rest assured, God has activated others for you and He will use you if you are willing.  If you and me are paying attention.

Do you have an “activation” story?

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Withholding

Filed Under: Just My Opinion by benwardmusic — Leave a comment
July 15, 2009

Have you ever had a falling out with someone in your life?  Have you parted ways with the possibility of never speaking to them or seeing them again?  The fault may be yours, it may be theirs, or (most likely) the blame could be shared.

I have.

And then, later on, I decided I was wrong in so many ways and it was ridiculous that we weren’t friends anymore.  I called to apologize and say what an idiot I had been and could they please forgive me.  But, that wasn’t enough.  They couldn’t forgive.  They weren’t even interested in talking about the situation or the relationship.

This was painful.

Now it has been seven years.  This seems crazy.  We were like best friends!  I sent a little note the other day and got no response.  It’s possible they didn’t get it, but more likely they feel the same way they did years ago.

At what point is it too late?  What constitutes the line that, after you cross, you can never go back?  You see it all the time: husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, mothers and daughters, friends.  Why can’t the offenses be overcome?

Jesus said it’s in my best interest to forgive:

Matthew 6:14-16
14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 18:20-22
21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Why is it so hard?  What’s going through people’s hearts and heads when they withhold forgiveness?  Especially when someone asks for it.

The hardest part of my situation is that I miss the friendship.  I miss the laughter, the crying, the boring, the crazy times.  Maybe they feel this is the price I must pay for my offenses.  But I still hold out hope that the forgiveness I long for won’t be withheld forever.

And, even more urgent: Can I somehow give forgiveness when it’s deserved and even when it’s undeserved?

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So I Have This Theory

Filed Under: Just My Opinion, Recommendations by benwardmusic — 1 Comment
May 19, 2009

So I have this theory.  The simplest way to begin to explain it by using songwriting.  I feel like songs are “in the air.”  I, as a songwriter, reach up into the air, retrieve and assemble them, and voila: you have a song.  That’s not to say it’s easy.  But it is to say that the song is there — waiting to be written. (One of my all-time favorite lines from a song is by Darrell Scott: “A good song never comes to those who chase / it comes to those who listen)

That’s the start of my theory, but it expands to other areas.  Prophetic words, for example.  One line of thinking says that God gives a word to a person to give to another person.  If that person doesn’t deliver it, then the message is not given — at least in that manner.  My feeling (totally mine, I don’t know of Scripture that explains it) is that the word was “in the air” (more specifically “in the Spirit”) around that person.  What it needed was a person with a prophetic bent to pick it out of the air and deliver it.  It may even be possible that more than one person could hear the word.  God may just be looking for someone to hear it and have the guts to deliver it.  I think of Jesus with the woman at the well in the Gospel of John.  He had a word of knowledge about her (she had had five husbands) and it radically changed her life.  I imagine that knowledge, that word was there in the Spirit as a revelation from the Father because he knew it would be a sign to the Samaritan woman.  Jesus heard it in the Spirit and delivered it.

I believe that God, at the appointed time, releases things into the Spirit.  These can be creative (songs, books, dance, art, etc.), spiritual (prophetic words, theological understanding, apologetics, etc.) or scientific (inventions, cures, discoveries, etc.).  Even business and political realms are wide open.

This is just a little idea that God has been sparking in me, but I was quite surprised to come across this article from New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell recently.  He argues that the geniuses we herald so much (Einstein, Bell, Edison, etc.) were actually geniuses at deciphering what was “in the air.”  Almost every major discovery of the modern era was simultaneously made by several people (the telephone, calculus, oxygen).  Gladwell goes into detail about the scientific / cultural / educational reasons for this, but I was struck by the spiritual implications.  This is exactly what I had been sensing!

So, once again, it’s just a theory, but I will be listening like crazy to hear what the Lord is saying.  I want to hear.  I want to discover.  Help me deliver.

Jeremiah 33:3 (New International Version)

3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Proverbs 8:12 (King James Version)

12I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

(I was turned on the Malcolm Gladwell’s writing by Bob Lefsetz.  I read a few New Yorker articles and was hooked.  So I got his first book, The Tipping Point and must say it was great.  He’s written three books and I’m working my way through all of them.

What strikes me the most about Tipping Point is the discussion of teen suicide in Micronesia and how it became the cool thing to do after a particularly charismatic teenager took his own life.  Gladwell argues that there’s a tipping point because the teens that follow suit have been given social permission for the behavior they’ve only fleetingly considered.  I would add a spiritual dimension to it: it’s the Satanic imitation of God.  Satan is releasing evil in the spiritual realm and there are people who are susceptible to that particular influence.  They grabbed it “out of the air” and acted on it.)

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