So here is the long awaited golden gem. My project for the Essentials * blue  worship course. 

CARRIED ME   –  James Blackmon

come and be close to my heart,

Let your beautiful warmth surround me

come and please hold me close

as the cold winds blow around me

come and be close to my heart

as the song of your praise surround me

com and please hold me close

this is not where I’m supposed to be

I’m holding on with a clouded head to the warmth in your hands

I lift my eyes and hands of scars to the moon and the stars

your love has always carried me 

your love has always carried me 

come in and change my life

let the sins of my past fall beside me

pick me up and carry me home

to the place where I’m meant to be

pick me up and carry me home

pick me up and carry me home

this is not where I’m supposed to be

pick me up and carry me home

I’m holding on with a clouded head to the warmth in your hands

I lift my eyes and hands of scars to the moon and the stars

your love has always carried me 

your love has always carried me

Here I am in the fourth week of the Essentials * Blue course

I have enjoyed watching Dan’s videos and reading the material in the IW Master all. The more I read articles of listen to recording of NT Wright, the more I love and respect him as a teacher. I think I now want to meet him. 

One thing I really liked in the Dan Wilt Video was how we as worship  leaders create spaces to worship. With the color we choose, wether we light candles, chooses song of celebration or lament, the things we use as visuals or backdrops, we have a responsibility to use these spaces we create to aid in the corporate worship that takes place.

He also talked about a trip he took to Jamaica. And while he stayed at a church in the this country, he saw that people were dancing and celebrating together. It was a great time. Then a lady approached him and told him that the only problem with the people in this church is that their worship was for the most part a corporate celebration. And they had lost a part of the intimacy that we have with God. Where I live, and in the church I go to, I experience the exact opposite. We treat God as a very intimate God, and on a sunday it can be very hard to get people out of there seats and celebrate Gods love for us. To celebrate that he is a part of our family and he loves to laugh and rejoice with us.

This is one of the many things that I and my fellow worship leading friends have been trying to bring back to life in our church.

“I am a child of God. Created in his image. God the creator, the trinity, created mankind in his image to live with him and a perfect relationship. But along the line, in the Garden of Eden, we decided that we wanted to be just as powerful as God, and left our creator in order to obtain our own means of righteousness without the dependency of our creator.

As we left Gods circle of love and ventured out into the darkness where we could hear a voice calling, saying that we could be just as divine as the one who created us, God followed us into the night and still pursues us to this day. He is a loving king and a father who even sent his own son, Jesus to de for us. Being “wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities” (1) so we can be one again through the holy spirit, a spirit that was left for us as a place where heaven and earth overlap and Gods kingdom meets our world. 

Thorough the holy spirit we now live in the kingdom of God that has not yet come. It is here, as God is here with us in spirit, but he has not yet come back to set his children free. Satan knows he is doomed, but he has not yet been destroyed. God has re-captured our hearts, and we are in the midst of the journey back to the We. (2) to “Rediscover the trinitarian nature of worship” (3)

(1) isaiah 53:5 
(2) Dan Wilt, The I, the We, and the Child 
(3) Robert Webber

Here I am in my third week of the Essentials Blue online worship studies course and this I learned a little more  aboute what it means to be human. A human created in the image of God.

This week has put a new spin on that good old saying ” I’m only human” That common saying that we use when we make a mistake. “I’m only human, give me a break”

Well this week I learned that the more we come closer to God, and the more we follow in his image, the more HUMAN we actually become. We as humans were created in God’s image, living with God and sharing with him and the rest of mankind the love of God, living together free from sin and torment. it was only after the fall of mankind with the temptation in the garden of eden that lead to Eve taking a bite from the fruit that to be human meant to be flawed, and doomed to fail. But in truth, to be human means to model Gods image. 

Its been a good week and I have now come to the end if the book SIMPLY CHRISTIAN by N.T. Wright, and the book is a must read. I have filled the pages with high liter and the book is almost more green than white now.

Will Bernard;

Part A: How has your understanding of the theological phrase, the “Kingdom of God” been challenged/shaped by this section of Simply Christian?

Part B: What particular theological idea (within one of the four theological ideas on the Nature of God presented in Dan’s material) do you believe has the most importance for the next 10-20 years of worship leadership? Why?

Remember: Your post is due by midnight on Wednesday. Please keep your total word count between 250-500 (total for Part A + Part B). Then on Thursday or Friday please post your response to the class discussion (1 sentence to 250 words).Part A

Yomps’ reply

“The more I learn, the less I really know”.

This is a phrase that I remember hearing time and time again in my youth. I heard it in classes such as science and history, I have even heard it in a song or two and until now this saying has been the reason, or better yet, the excuse for my lack of biblical knowledge and understanding of the scriptures. This phrase has also been my ” get out of the hot seat” card when someone (usually an individual who is not a believer in christ) approaches me with questions regarding matters of faith and the unseen. 

the phrase “the more I learn the less I really know” has also been the reoccurring thought that has always managed to slip into my mind and work its way down to my lips, eventually being muttered from under my breath when I learn something new regarding the kingdom of God.

My reading eventually brought me to the example that N. T. Wright used

“It is easy to think you have mastered Shakespeare’s plays if all you have on the shelf is the comedies. When someone brings you all the other plays as well – the tragedies and the history plays, plus a volume or two of the great man’s poetry for good measure – you will complain that things are now getting confused and highly complexed. But you are actually closer to understanding Shakespeare, not further away.”
(N.T. Wright’s “Simply Christian” Pg. 63)

It was this paragraph that changed my way of thinking and made me realize that the more I learn, the more I really do know. That I do have a better understanding of the kingdom of God than I may think, and understanding God’s nature does not have a completion date. It is a journey, and a wonderful one at that.

Heaven and earth; overlapping and interlocking.

When Wright talks about heaven and earth overlapping and interlocking, my thoughts went straight to places considered “hot spots”. Places where, for one reason or another, Gods presence is so “thick” you feel as if the very ground you are walking on is breathing as though it were alive. I have heard of a cave in Scotland where upon entering, you feel as though you have actually left the earth and you are simply standing in the presence of God and everything around you feels numb and surreal. (just something that came to mind, does anybody else have anything to add)

I also loved reading about the temple being a place built for God to dwell, and this being one of the first places where heaven and earth overlap. Another being Jesus himself, “the place where God’s space and our space interlock” Pg. 94

The last thing the stood out to me and shaped my understanding of the kingdom of God came from the writings of Paul. ” if you are guided and energized by the spirit, you will no longer do the things which the law forbids;” which is one of the places heaven and earth meet.

part B

I believe the most important theological idea that will carry us through the next 10-20 years is “God as King”

A man once told me that the worship explosion that went through the church in the late 80s to late 90s was much like sticking your finger in a an electrical socket.

This man was Gregg Mitchel, and popular speaker from Vancouver BC. 

He was making reference to things like” kingdom ministry, the father’s heart, The third Wave, MC510″, the charismatic teachings of John Wimber and the style of Vineyard (but not limited to) in the early 90s. 

*** (I will add here that I was a youth/young teenager growing up in the Langley Vineyard in the 90s and my memory of church at the time consists of many random clips and snippets pasted together, so correct me if you must)

*** I will also add that this speaker I am about to tell you about, Gregg Mitchel was in no way bashing or discrediting the vineyard, or any other church.

“the vineyard in the 90′s was like sticking your finger in a electical socket. This source of new energy had been discovered. And after finding this new source of power people would go out and bring more people up to the wall to try it out. And eventually people would line up around the block to stick their finger in the socket and experience first hand this new feeling that just takes over your whole body and sometimes ” leaves you lying on the floor”

But later on they realized that there was much more to this than simply the feeling that came from being consumed by this power. 

This power is the Holy Spirit, and it has a purpose. 

and in the next 20 years it is important that we realize that God is more than a good feeling. Indeed to sure feels good toe be saved, healed, restored, prayed for and blessed, but we need to get our hands dirty. 

It is time to start feeding the poor, loving our neighbor, caring for the widow spreading Gods love to others.

“Its time to plug a toaster into the socket in the wall and make toast.”

Dan Wilt’s video in The Worship Artisan was a good way to start out the course for me. I didn’t know anything of Dan, and I only had a vague idea of where this course would be going within the context of worship leading. As Dan talked about the worship artisan (* someone who takes knowledge of the past and where worship has come from and combines it with the energy of the present to transport worship into the emerging future) it put a good general idea on what we as worship leaders in the Essentials* blue course are collectively aiming for was we embark on our 5 week journey together. We are building our foundational theology on the past and what where worship has come from and them equipping ourselves and each other for the present times and the contributions we will all make toward the future of worship.

Very exited for what the next five weeks will hold……..

Father almighty; maker of heaven and earth: Set up your kingdom in our midst

Lord Jesus Christ; Son of the living God: Have mercy on me a sinner.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God: Renew me and all the world. 

Tom Wright, The Prayer of the Trinity;  New Tasks For A Renewed Church ( London: Hodder, 1992)

This is the way we are to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their individual roles in the holy trinity.

After reading the Essentials*blue course text and online video of Dan Wilt talking about the nature of God, Trinity, and the dance that God shares with us a a God who is one person, and yet a mutual indwelling of community of person, I was filled with the understanding of Gods pure and passionate love for us, his children, and how he created the Holy Trinity.

When reading the Prose of the dance ( The I, The We, and The Child) I knew I had to read it very carefully. And as I slowly read through the story, allowing time between sentences for a beautiful and vivid picture to form in my mind, I began to deeply understand the beauty and Gods desire for us, why we were created and our role in his kingdom; as the children we are made to share mutual love with the We, with the other children created by the I, but we are not meant to be an I. 

It was a beautiful piece to read and further clarified the trinitarian nature of worship and the love of our creator that we as children are invited to be a part of.

When watching the Second video on Worship Theology by Dan Wilt, “The Nature of God,” he talked about places known as “thin places”. 

When I was reading the sencond section (staring at the sun) of NT Wrights Simply Christian (heaven and earth overlapping, interlocking), I posted that one of the things that came to mind when I was reading what these “hot spots”, or places on earth where it felt like there was a ‘thin veil’ between heaven and earth.  After posting my thoughts it was neat to turn around and watch Dan’s video to find him talking about the thin veil that I had just talked about in my blog post a few days before.   

Very  neat.

The echo of N.T. Wright that resonated most deeply with me as evidence of Gods reality is “the hidden spring” 

I loved it because people, governments, dictators, and oppressors have tried for years to convince the world that God is not real, and these spiritual experiences we have are no more than a simple case of the imagination running wild, and should not be mixed with the day to day reality of life. 

When in truth, one can only pretend God is not real for so long. There are countless stories and testimonies of people being touched my God when they least expect it. One of the most famous being the apostle Paul. 

Songs like “fall on me” by Brian Doerksen
“Come my lord” by Paul Johnston
” Our God reigns” by Martin Smith

are songs that I have chosen because I use them when I am basically crying out to God to break down walls and set people free.

Where as Our God Reigns speaks of how large the problems of the world seem to be, but when God comes in and takes control ( the hidden spring) he is so much bigger than the weight of the world.

(longing for justice)

Also song like 

“long to know you” by Chris Janzen 

speak of the intimacy and the longing to be closer to God and have a relationship with the creator.

Thanks for stopping by to find out a little about me. I am very exited to start the Essentials course. It has become a turning point as things start to unfold in my life as the Lord continues to open doors and provide more ways to serve him than I would have ever imagined as a child.  

        Perhaps I will give you the brief explanation on why people call me what they do. The name Yomps was given to me when I lived in a frat house  of nine rambunctious young men in their early 20′s who would rather dig a hole and bury their dirty dishes instead of learning how to use a dishwasher. It was these guys whom I learned to love like brothers who gave me than name Yomps, derived from my high school nickname Jemps (James being my given name)  

     So Yomps was the name that I went by for the year and a half that I spent sharing sleeping accommodations, late night skinny dips and midnight mini bike rides to Tim Horton’s until these wandering gronks saw me off to be married to my high school sweetheart Hannah. I figured after being married the name Yomps would fade along with my memories of the single care-free life, but here I am today before you two and a half years later and since it is not the name that makes the man, but man to defines the name, I blog as Yomps.

                                                                                        -   the name “Yomps”and it parent affiliates are copyright 2005 Tim Forward