AFTER THE FIREWORKS

We’re about a month into the new year, and I would say my conversations with most of my friends thus far pretty much fall into one of two categories: 1. Crushing it, or 2. Being crushed...

If you’re crushing it this year, I’m honestly really happy for you. We all are. You’ve officially taken 2017 by the proverbial bull horns and managed to reign it in, somehow. It’s awesome, it’s impressive, and by no means do I want to thwart your momentum towards greatness. But, to all my people out there who have already lost sight of their new year’s resolution, lost track, messed up, screwed up, and officially fallen flat on your face, this blog is for YOU.

Below are 3 things to keep in mind that have helped me along the way through thousands of failed attempts, unmet goals, and undesired results despite my best efforts.

1. IT'S WORSE THAN YOU THINK

Your sin is actually worse than you think it is. I know this sounds harsh, but it’s the truth, and the truth sometimes hurts. Jesus didn’t die on the cross because you didn’t uphold your own new years resolutions. He died for you because you are utterly helpless to accomplish anything of eternal significance in your own strength.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” In other words, your heart has a proclivity not only towards decline, but death itself. 1 John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer.” Jesus Himself says in Matthew 5:28 “Anyone who looks at another lustfully has already committed adultery with him/her in his/her heart.” So theologically you not only failed to eat healthier, be a better person, refrain from pornography, spend less money, and/or start that new project, but you managed to become a murderer, a liar, and a cheat. That's not to hit you while you're down, it's just to say your spiritual condition is actually so much worse than than your un-met home-improvements. The Bible says your heart isn't a merely house undergoing remodel, but a home completely wiped out by natural disaster, devastated and leveled to the ground. Your heart, despite your best self-help efforts, is desperately wicked, unimaginatively deceitful, and worse than you could know.

2. BUT, you’re a new creation

The Good News is that in and through Christ Jesus, your life is being made entirely brand new (2 Corinthians 5:17). You're a new creation! The old is gone, and the new has come. No matter what you’ve done or failed to do today or for decades to come - God has wiped your slate clean through Jesus’ own blood. You’re forgiven. You’re made right with God because of His once-and-for-all sacrifice, and unconditional love for you. Romans 8:1 reminds us, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” In other words, even if you are crushing this year, living out the law beautifully, which is in and of itself is debatable and at the very least unlikely (see 1. above), it’s still only in Jesus do we have real victory stepping into 2017 anyways. Plus we know that nothing can separate us from His love. (Romans 8:31) That's a resolution worth holding on to.

3. So keep going!

Don’t give up, don't look back, and don’t listen to that old voice of the enemy! Ever heard this familiar whisper in your head, “Oooh, you’ve screwed up so bad this time - I don’t think God can use you anymore..” or “Wow, amazing, you’re doing so well - you don't need any help anymore - you got this!”? Well, I have too, and I'm telling you, that voice only leads towards more self-destruction. The voice of Truth; the voice of God says, "Keep going! Keep running! When you fall, I'll pick you back up!" If by chance you’re still reading this than that means this next part is specifically for YOU for 2017: Hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speak to you through the real and raw confession of the Apostle Paul, Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

So if the fireworks have faded, and you feel like you’re already being crushed by 2017, just remember:

1. It's worse than you think (Jer 17:9)
2. But cheer up, you're a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
3. KEEP GOING! (Phil 3:12-14)

And listen to my friend, Ignacio

A CALL TO LOVE

In the chaos You see the glory
From the wreckage, light is shining through
So open up these weary eyes
All around me color's changing
Though I'm broken, hope is breaking through
As You open up these weary eyes

I wanna see what You see
Come and rearrange me
Let Your love be my kaleidoscope
Change me from the inside
Show me what it looks like
Let Your love be my kaleidoscope

You fill my world with childlike wonder
Every face, reflections of your heart
As You open these weary eyes
Weary eyes

Heaven's eyes, heaven's sight
Fill my heart, fill my life

- Kaleidoscope

Worship has never just been about singing, but rather living out a life filled with compassion, justice, and praise. It’s not enough to shout anthems of God's love, and as a worship leader, this is perhaps the most difficult thing for me to admit. There’s nothing I love more than music; making melody and singing to God. I’ve dedicated my entire life to providing a soundtrack for the next generation to spiritually connect with Him in the most authentic way I know how. However, the minute I lose sight of the people around me, I lose vision of Jesus himself, who says,

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

— Matthew 25:40

Biblical Christian worship is less like opening up one of those singing holiday Hallmark-cards, and more like peering through a kaleidoscope. When you look through a kaleidoscope, everything changes. Colors and shapes rearrange. When we see the world through heaven's eyes, we can't help but show compassion for the world that God so loves. When we look at people through the lens of the cross, we can't help but lay down our own lives for the very people Jesus bled and died for. It’s not enough to just sing about HOW He loves. We were created to care, serve, and even sacrificially love WHO He loves.  Jesus paid too great a price for us on the cross for us to merely gloss over the oppressed, the marginalized, and the hurting. In fact, the prophet Amos declares that worship, when not accompanied with justice is just noise…

“I hate, I despise your religious festivals;

your assemblies are a stench to me.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,

I will not accept them.

Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,

I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs!

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

— Amos 5:21-24

I’m afraid we're living in a time when the Church is more worried about how we sound then who we serve. The early Church used to be a counter-cultural, non-violent, unified movement under the leadership of its radical leader, Jesus. I want to be a part of that Church. I want to join the early disciples who chose to love not only their neighbors, but even their enemies in the face of empire.

“DEAR FRIENDS, LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER, FOR LOVE COMES FROM GOD. EVERYONE WHO LOVES HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD AND KNOWS GOD. WHOEVER DOES NOT LOVE DOES NOT KNOW GOD, BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE. THIS IS HOW GOD SHOWED HIS LOVE AMONG US: HE SENT HIS ONE AND ONLY SON INTO THE WORLD THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM. THIS IS LOVE: NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON AS AN ATONING SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS. DEAR FRIENDS, SINCE GOD SO LOVED US, WE ALSO OUGHT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN GOD; BUT IF WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER, GOD LIVES IN US AND HIS LOVE IS MADE COMPLETE IN US.”

— 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)

A CALL TO MOURN

To the broken one

To the pain untold

To the empty hand

To the thirsty soul

Where the tears run dry

And the joy is scarce

To the shattered heart

We will find You there

 - Wild Heart

This year has been absolutely amazing. We kicked things off in January opening for Hillsong United in Hawaii, toured the US and UK for several months with Rend Collective, our first label-released album, Wild Heart, reached #1 on the iTunes Christian charts in both the US and UK, we toured the US again this summer with Kari Jobe, Elevation Worship, and Hillsong Worship, joined with 10,000 people at the Honda Center in Southern California, made our first television appearance, and released two singles to radio. 

But in the face of so much joy, there’s a quiet pain that remains unspoken.

This has been a year of heartache for my family, my church, and millions of black lives around the world. I’ve felt a growing disparity between justice and praise - people who confess Jesus with their lips, but remain action-less. It’s becoming more difficult for me to hear the praise songs of God’s unconditional, unrelenting, unwavering love, when I continue to witness the lack of love within the local Church as we fail to respond to these horrendous events. I believe the first healthy step of action is to enter into a time of lament and mourning.

“LOVE MUST BE SINCERE. HATE WHAT IS EVIL; CLING TO WHAT IS GOOD. BE DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE. HONOR ONE ANOTHER ABOVE YOURSELVES. NEVER BE LACKING IN ZEAL, BUT KEEP YOUR SPIRITUAL FERVOR, SERVING THE LORD. BE JOYFUL IN HOPE, PATIENT IN AFFLICTION, FAITHFUL IN PRAYER. SHARE WITH THE LORD’S PEOPLE WHO ARE IN NEED. PRACTICE HOSPITALITY. BLESS THOSE WHO PERSECUTE YOU; BLESS AND DO NOT CURSE. REJOICE WITH THOSE WHO REJOICE; MOURN WITH THOSE WHO MOURN.
”

— ROMANS 12:10-14 (NIV)

Recently an unarmed black man was shot in cold blood by officers down the street from my house. Our church pastors rallied together outside his home to mourn and pray with the man’s wife and children. However instead of showing the family compassion, people walked by parading around like monkeys, mocking my pastor and the others gathered around those who were mourning. I’m tempted to keep my voice quiet and my personal convictions tamed, however as a follower of Jesus and leader in the Church, I can’t remain silent. 

Mourning is the lost art of worship. We love to party. We love to celebrate. We're constantly attracted towards big, bright, sparkly worship. And that’s a good thing! The Psalms are filled with anthems of bright colorful celebrations and praises. In fact, of the 150 Psalms, over 60% are about praise and celebration, rejoicing for all the incredible things God has done. Still, 40% of the Psalms are about lament or mourning. In our worshipping, preaching, singing, teaching, talking, community-living as Christians we tend to ignore or just utterly cut-out one of the most significant disciplines of worship found in the Bible, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

Earlier this year our Church in Los Angeles got together for night of lament. We turned down the voices of Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and listened to the voices of the slain - the husbands, the wives, the daughters, the sons, the sisters, and the brothers of the lives whose breath was snatched far too early this year. We wept. We prayed. We spoke their names out-loud. We repented. We mourned. It was uncomfortable. It was costly. It was counter-cultural. It was exactly how sacrificial, biblically-informed worship should feel.

The danger of living under the popular platitude of “All Lives Matter” is that it doesn’t require anything of us; doesn’t require action, or really any ounce of compassion at all. It allows us to continue to go on about our lives while ignoring the specific names, families, and faces of those lives who are suffering. But like a surgeon, I believe the Holy Spirit wants do repair on the heart of His Church. If our hearts don’t break with Black Lives, we’ve missed it. If our hearts don’t break with Blue Lives, we’ve missed it. If our hearts don't break with Latino Lives, we've missed it. If our hearts don’t break with LGBTQ Lives, we’ve missed it. The list goes on and on. However, I suppose the point is that if our heart, as the Church, breaks for one people group more than another, we've still missed it. If we as the Church do not rise up and take an active unified stand against the systematic means of oppression around us, we will cease to be the original Church Jesus’ formed. But let it begin with compassion. Let it begin with mourning. 

“THIS IS HOW WE KNOW WHAT LOVE IS: JESUS CHRIST LAID DOWN HIS LIFE FOR US. AND WE OUGHT TO LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS. . . DEAR CHILDREN, LET US NOT LOVE WITH WORDS OR SPEECH BUT WITH ACTIONS AND IN TRUTH.
”

— 1 JOHN 3:16-18 (NIV)