This week’s post is by Brandon Adent, a deacon at Redeemer Church. He likes music, words, and words about music.

Easter morning I showed up for rehearsal feeling less than stellar, and left feeling even less so.

Exhausted, I lay on the couch, and hardly got up for a week.

I don’t get sick easily; it’d been probably seven years since I’d had the flu, and probably three since I’d had to take multiple days off from work. Maybe both of those numbers are normal, maybe they’re high, maybe they’re low. No matter, when Tuesday showed up, they both reset to zero, and the timing felt absolutely the worst.

Really, anytime is the worst, but this was bad. There wasn’t really anything of utmost importance I would miss, nothing that couldn’t be rescheduled, anyway.

But after several months of stalemate, I was at long last beginning to see progress in a couple of different areas, finally starting to feel productive, to see progress, to get back into a rhythm. I was exhausted from spinning my wheels in the sand, but at least I was moving again.

Yeah, no more. For the next week, I did nothing but toss and turn, whimper and puke. In all honestly, I didn’t probably have it that bad. But it felt bad. I felt bad.

And as I sat there wanting nothing but the Second Coming of Christ, I couldn’t help but ask God what I had done to deserve this.

Lay Down, Little Sheepy

Some time ago, someone pointed out to me the particular phrasing of the first couple verses of the well known Psalm 23:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul

He makes me lie down.

At least for my soul, that sounds a lot like this:

Okay, little sheepy, this is a good spot. Take a minute and lay down. No… stop here, don’t keep going. Stop. Okay, c’mon bud, get down. No, all the way… all the way; no, I said DOWN, not up.

LITTLE BUDDY: LAY. DOWN.

DOWN. NOW.

*sickness or injury ensue*

At first glance, this sort of thing seems a bit vindictive or something, but it's actually the opposite.

While Psalm 23 may or may not be a direct reference to the biblical concept of Sabbath rest, I can’t help but see the parallels.

Needing Rest

We need rest; it’s hardwired into creation; even before the Fall, there was rest. In fact, God Himself rested and set that day apart (Gen 2.1-3), not because He needed it, but because He knew we needed it.

Our bodies need to physically recover from the things that we do, but rest is more than sleep or lying around. It’s also allowing oneself the time to just “be”, to reflect on God’s greatness and be astounded that He somehow is mindful of us (Psalm 8).

Rest reminds us who we are, that we can’t do it all. It gives us a chance to unwind and charge up for the week or the day or the hour ahead, mindful of God’s power and our weakness apart from Him.

As Christians, we can take a break from our labor in the full knowledge that Jesus has worked tirelessly and rested perfectly, died and risen so that we can rest in His record and not our own.

Hating Rest

Regardless of any benefit, we don’t like rest. At least I don’t. When I go hiking, I am all about how much ground we cover, how many miles we need to make in a day, how far to the next camp. Don’t stop for water or take pictures in the middle of a hill, keep up the momentum. Actually, my tendency is to speed up while ascending.

I’ll rest when I’m dead, thank you very much. Right now, I’ve got somewhere to be.

I mean, I like the idea of taking a second to look around. But it takes much more effort than it should to just pick my head up for a quick breather; I really like the idea that I don’t need it.

That somehow God made me wrong, that I know what I’m capable of more than He does. I’d rather spend the night nauseous than admit I can’t do it, and it’s happened often enough.

Just Lay Down

There’s a lot of different ways to rest, or "sabbath", and the best way to rest varies so much from person-to-person.

The Sabbath was a day of rest, built into the week. God Himself “sabbathed” after He populated the earth, and written into the Ten Commandments was a weekly “rest day”, which was to be spent differently than the other days of the week, to spend time with God and His people, do good and rest from the labors of the week. Keeping the Sabbath was a big deal, and with the Jewish people today, it still is.

There’s a million ways to take a Sabbath. Take a nap, take a walk, hang out with friends, take your family to the park, play an instrument, work on a project, read a book (or three...), write a letter to your grandmother, and so on and so forth. Just take time to reflect on what God has done for you in Christ and enjoy all the good gifts He’s given you. Take some time to just “be”.

Maybe it’s just me. But I’ve found that when I am not obedient in regular rest, I get made to lay down.

Thankfully, whether we’re smart enough to see it or not, wherever we’re laid down is green pasture where, whether we want Him to or not, He restores our soul.

Brace yourselves for a strong statement.

And be prepared to just accept it, because we're not gonna fight about it.

...

Baseball is the most beautiful sport ever to be invented, period!

Now, I know some of you out there think baseball is one of the most boring sports ever. I have heard some people even say that they would rather watch paint dry than watch a baseball game.

But even if you are in that spot, hang with me. Because just like baseball or any sport, skill or pursuit for that matter, becoming a better disciple of Jesus takes a lot of determination, persistence, and practice.

Dreaming Big

When I was a kid I remember watching and listening to baseball with great curiosity. I used to daydream about being in the big leagues, pitching in the World Series, putting my team on my shoulders and leading them to victory.

I wanted to pitch professionally; that was my dream. But as with all dreams there comes a great reality that we all have to face: a dream is really just a precursor to an awful lot of work. For musicians, athletes, professionals, students, whomever, you have to practice to be able to accomplish a dream you might have. 

Now for those who know me, you are probably aware that I didn't make it as a professional baseball player. I've got awful eyesight, my reflexes are terrible, and I'm always looking up to others, literally. There was really no amount of practice that was going to overcome some of these physical limitations.

Once I considered this, I knew my dream was dead. But when I became a Christian years later, I realized baseball gave me such a wonderful understanding to what Christian discipleship should look like.

Baseball Discipleship

Yes, to the untrained eye baseball seems to be to simple. Boiled down to the simplest form, there is a ball that someone needs to hit and run around the bases to try and score before the defense tags you. But there is much more that goes into baseball than meets the eye. 

There's a specific way to hit the ball based on where you want it to go.

To develop arm strength needed to throw that runner out at third, you have to throw a lot, since most people aren't born with that kind of strength.

You have to train focus, hand eye coordination, speed, decision making.

You can't do these things without constant practice. And you can't just practice when you feel like it. And you don't know what to practice if you don't know what skills to build or maintain. And you don't know what you need to work on without feedback.

Christian Discipleship

Being a Christian is a lot like training to be a baseball player.

Except that we got drafted by no merit of our own. we did nothing to earn it.

We don't know home from second base. Our arms are weak, our eyesight is poor, and our decision-making needs some work, because we've been making those decisions toward a different goal than the one we were made for.

When Jesus died and rose to save you, and the Holy Spirit called you and changed your heart and mind and affections, and you got drafted, weak arm, bad eyesight, and poor decisions all.

So now, your job as a Christian, drafted to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18ff), is to train and develop the skills necessary to effectively lead people to Jesus.

This is why we do things like pray, knowing that we have not the strength on our own to accomplish the purpose set before us.

Or read our bibles, knowing that in them we can read about the love and wrath and mercy of God for people who did not and do not love God apart from Christ, ready to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ.

Or participate in Christian community, serving alongside family, who can point out where we're strong or weak, and can encourage us in our walk with Jesus.

Getting In The Game

Whether or not you're training to make disciples, you already are, by your thoughts, your words, your actions.

It sounds kind of daunting. We may not even know where to start. We're afraid of the damage we'll do to others in our failing, or we're scared of starting in the wrong place, or just paralyzed by indecision, concerned about going in the wrong direction.

It's in these moments that we need to remember the conditions under which we were drafted to begin with.

Christ performed perfectly, died sacrificially, and rose victoriously.

By His grace we are saved. That's it.

So we can start trying, training, running, falling, getting back up and starting again.

We can set our alarm an hour early only with the intention of reading and praying and meditating only to unconsciously hit snooze for 45 minutes.

We can show up to hang out with a Gospel Community, in which we know no one, and feel really awkward the whole time and leave and say "well, that wasn't a good fit, let's try another next week."

We can take a step toward leadership, only to be confronted with the reality that we can't manage details worth beans. (How many beans? I don't know. I wasn't counting.)

Whatever it is, remember the team you're on and how you were drafted.

And don't be afraid to fail, because where we fail, Jesus has won.

The year was 490 BCE, and the Persian empire was bearing down upon the Athenian army.

Their fate uncertain, a messenger called Pheidippides was sent from marathon to Sparta, another Grecian city-state, in the hopes that they would render aid. This was a distance of about 150 miles each way, and in the famous poem bearing the messenger's name, was described as a "two day and two night" journey.

Sparta, full of mistrust, said they'd think about it, sending Pheidippides back to Marathon with little hope of victory. The messenger was then given a sword, helped to defeat the Persians, and then, as his reward, was given the privilege of running the 21.4 miles to Athens, where he declared victory as his last act

"Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died - the bliss!"

Nineteenth-century poet Robert Browning's account is a composite story, consisting of legend and ancient accounts of what actually happened at the Battle of Marathon. No one quite sure what happened.

I'll leave you to Googling around to find what's closest to actual fact if you're interested.

The point is, the messenger Pheidippides had a story to tell, a victory to declare, in spite of the tremendous hardship he'd been through in a day.

What he had was a gospel, good news of victory. And it was an honor for him to serve in the way that he did.

The news we carry with us every day, every where, is the good news of the victory of Jesus over Satan, sin, and death. And that message is absolute good news wherever we are.

Making Disciples of All Nations

At Redeemer, we want everyone, everywhere, everyday to experience the Gospel of Jesus.

Before He ascended, Jesus gave us our mission:

"Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28.18ff)

It sounds kind of overwhelming, right? But there's more:

"Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

In the book of Acts, we read about how Jesus sends the Holy Spirit, empowering His church to worship Him in word and deed, teaching others about Him and proclaiming the Gospel boldly to the ends of the earth, wherever they ended up.

No One's On The Bench

If God has claimed us through His Son, we are ambassadors, taking the news of the One who sends us to whoever needs to hear it.

Some people are called to go places where there is no gospel presence, no church, no Christians.

Some people are called to stay in places like Bellingham.

In either context, ambassadors are what we are. There's no such thing as a bench warmer in God's family.

Again, this sounds really big, right? And it is. But it works out in small ways.

• When we gather on Sundays for corporate worship, we're being missional. We're proclaiming true things about God so that people would know about him, and giving generously as people who have been given so much.
• When we're getting our coffee our tea, mission being nice to the barista, who may or may not be having a great day, so that she can experience the grace of Christ through you in that moment, and creating opportunities for you to tell them about Jesus.
• When we're at home, it's inviting the neighbors over for dinner so that they would be shown hospitality by people who have been welcomed into God's family, creating opportunities to tell them about Jesus.
• When we're at work or school, it's working hard and treating fellow students and colleagues, engaging them with respect, while praying for and creating opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus.

Wherever we are, and in whatever we do or say, we seek to give glory to God and make His name known.

Missionaries for God's Glory

God’s people have a mission. It’s a mission that includes Sunday mornings but extends beyond that window of time and influences all spheres of our ordinary lives.

Our mission is to spread the gospel and make disciples so that more and more people can know and worship Jesus for their joy and for God’s glory. This means that every person in our church is vital to this mission. No one is riding the bench. Every believer is called to care, individually and corporately, for those around us by having an outward, missionary focus in our lives.

At Redeemer, we really love to sing, "teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness" in our hearts to God. (Col 3:16)

This Sunday, July 26, we'll be introducing a new song, titled "Raised To Life",  written by Steven Furtick, Matt Redman, Chris Brown, Mack Brock and recorded by Elevation Worship.

If you get the chance, we'd love it if you'd give it a listen and come ready to sing!

Here's a link to the song in Spotify.

You can also check it out on the Elevation site here.

You can view the full lyrics here.

Because we want to understand the words that we sing together, we thought it would be helpful to post the song and the lyrics ahead of time, and explain a little bit about what they mean.

I've posted the lyric in full below, but I'm going briefly to zoom in on the third verse for just a minute, particularly the following lines:

Death overcome by the Word
That was spoken before it was finished
Jesus saves is our song everlasting
Come let us worship Him

The Gospel of John calls Jesus, the Christ, "The Word", who was in the beginning, who was with God, who was God, and by Whom all things were made. In Him was light, and His light was the light of men (John 1), and that all who trusted in Him would be saved (John 3:16).

In this sense, the Word was "spoken" before Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of the world. He had declared what He came to do, and accomplished what he came for, a victory He won at the cross and declared with the words "It is finished" (John 19:30). Three days later, Jesus rose victorious, overcoming Death and giving new life to all who trust in Him.

Because of the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of Christ, those in Him are literally "new creations" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus put the old "us", condemned because of our sin, to death, and made us totally new. We are raised to life in him!

Hope you enjoy this great song about the victory of Christ!

Full lyrics:

Raised To Life

Precious compassion that pours
From the wounds that have won our salvation
Sin was strong but the Savior is stronger
Come let us worship Him

Great was the debt that we owed
And how high was the price of our healing
Paid in full by the One who is worthy
Come let us worship Him

Chorus:
Raised to life with Christ the Savior
In His name a new creation
Now our song will rise
Adoring Christ the Lord

Death overcome by the Word
That was spoken before it was finished
Jesus saves is our song everlasting
Come let us worship Him

Sin was strong
But Jesus is stronger
Our shame was great
But Jesus you're greater

Jesus Cares About Your Words: Jesus is Lord over all. And as the Cosmic Emperor, he reigns over Neptune, pinwheel galaxies, birds, blades of grass, and our words. Jesus is Lord over our sentences. The Lordship of Christ has no boundaries. There is not an area of our lives that we can rope off and tell Jesus, “Not here, bub.” Jesus cares about our speech.

A Gospeled Church: You cannot grow in holiness and holier-than-thou-ness at the same time. So a church that makes its main thing the gospel, and when faced with sin in its ranks doesn’t simply crack the whip of the law but says “remember the gospel,” should gradually be seeing grace coming to bear.

You Must Put Sin To Death: Owen says that Christians—the choicest Christians—hate sin and pursue it to its death. Could there be a conclusion that is farther from the world around us? The world, the flesh, and the devil tell us to pursue our sin, to enjoy our sin, to go deeper and deeper into our sin, to identify ourselves by our sin, to become our sin. God’s Word tells us to identify our sin, to hate our sin, to destroy our sin. And by God’s grace we can do that very thing. He can give us a revulsion toward our sin, and then empower us to kill it. Praise God!

He Must Increase; Our Churches Must Decrease: There is one thing that the churches experiencing historic revival have in common: they seemed overrun with the sense of the glory of God. They preached the gospel and the response was, as some describe, that “glory came down.”

Good News For The Poor: The church has made mistakes in the past by farming out, almost exclusively, social justice-type ministries to parachurch organizations. The church has also been guilty of paternalism and malevolent generosity when it comes to things such as soup kitchens, food pantries, and so forth. We’ve too often confused free handouts with Christian ministry. Instead, we should be evangelizing, discipling, equipping, and sending out people as they minister within local churches.

A Tale Of Two Mars Hills: A drift in doctrine, a drift from the truth, has a devastating impact. There is a massive difference in holding tightly to the “faith delivered once and for all to the saints” and continually questioning, as Satan did in the garden, “Did God really say…?” Putting on trial what the Lord has clearly declared is the antithesis of watching your doctrine. One Mars Hill, and numerous observers, has been adversely impacted by a failure to closely watch life, and one by a failure to watch doctrine.

When You Wonder Who Is Thinking Of You: The trail of tears is thinking of myself and looking for others to give to me. The trail of joy and blessing is thinking of God and others. The fight that so often happens in my heart happens because this isn't a natural response, but it is possible by the Holy Spirit who resides in me.

4 Things God Says To Singles: About 35 percent of adult church members in Britain are single, so clearly the subject of singleness has considerable personal interest to many people in our churches. Each single person will have a different experience. There are age differences. Being single at 20 is very different from being single at 30, 40, or 70. There are circumstantial differences: some have never married, while others are divorcees, widows, or widowers. And there are experiential differences: some have chosen to be single and are basically content; others long to be married and feel frustrated. What does the Bible say to all these people?

Ten Simple Ways Your Church Can Serve Foster Families: Foster care is a Church problem, not a state child welfare problem. It is a Gospel issue first, not a government issue. The Church has both the duty and privilege to speak on behalf of and stand for the sake of those who cannot speak and stand for themselves because that is exactly what God has done for us through Jesus. That's the Gospel.

photo credit: Jonathan Kos-Read via photopin cc

The Practice of Repentance: Most of us don’t naturally enjoy repenting when we’re wrong, but for leaders especially, repentance is a powerful, essential, and liberating practice.

9 Ways To Battle The Darkness: I love Jesus and he loves me. But I have struggled with fear, anxiety, condemnation, and even depression my whole Christian life. I actually struggled so much with these issues that I had to resign from my first pastorate. I wasn’t eating, I couldn’t get out of bed, I was having demonic nightmares, and I was thinking about suicide. I’m not out of the woods yet, but I have learned a few things in going through these struggles about God’s grace despite our failures to trust him. Though each of us faces unique circumstances, here are a few lessons I have learned that I pray will help as you, too, battle depression, condemnation and anxiety.

How Jesus Changes Motherhood: Trying to be the perfect mom can be a crushing weight, and sometimes Mother’s Day only makes it worse. We hope these stories from regular moms relying on Jesus in the midst of failure and imperfection will encourage you.

Offer Advice Very Carefully: Giving advice goes poorly so often, it is worth more careful thought about how we give it. We all need advice. We seek it every day. That is a wise and natural part of being a creature rather than the Creator. But we also know that advice can run from helpful to horrible, and it can bless a relationship or hurt it. 

What Kind of Church Should You Belong To?: Being in a healthy local church is critical to the spiritual health of men. But how do you know if you’re in a healthy church?

Miracles In a Modern Age: Anyone familiar with Jesus knows he spent a lot of time healing people. Those healings seem so foreign to modern disciples, as if from a far away land, the stuff of mythology or fiction. Yet, his healing ministry didn’t stick with him; Jesus spread his power to heal into the lives of his followers. Does this mean that we too, as modern disciples, should practice healing? What should we expect when praying for it? Let’s take a quick look at the 1st century to get our bearings. Then, we can turn to our response in the 21st century.

 "How should the Great Commission affect marriage?" 

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