Our Feat...to be at His

To be at His feet...what a place. Right there where He can easily, without obstruction touch me. This is the place of vulnerability. The place of humility. The place of need. This is the place we fight against in our self-sufficient flesh. But why?

Lord, help me be OK at Your feet. Don't let me fret about what You might want me to do or what I might not understand or what might be hard. Give me faith to trust You to be true to who You are. I worship You...at Your feet. In Jesus Name, Amen.

~Jon
Enjoy this article from Ron about humility.

Our Feat… to be at His
by Ron Bergthold

How does a violinist change a light bulb? (Answer: She just holds on and the world revolves around her.)

Auditions: those necessary but slightly malevolent judgments used to determine who will become part of a group. Or who will sit which chair or lead the section. Many of us are glad audition days are over, but we still make our own informal judgments of our and others’ abilities. Our emotions and self-worth can be buoyed when we compare favorably, but just as likely can sink in despair when we don’t feel we measure up.

The best receive so much praise and even worship that pride creeps in and tries to take up permanent residence alongside the talent. This can become a life-long battle. The rest of us, while working hard to avoid the other pitfalls of envy and jealousy when measuring our own meager skills, still like to be praised periodically. And when praise does come to us, even a small dose can quickly awaken our own pride. Are talent and humility then mutually incompatible?

Jesus, the greatest talent ever on earth, humbled Himself from the glory of heaven to the point of dying on a lowly cross. His humility did not tone down His talent, but accentuated it. Being humble actually means to make oneself low, so the biblically obedient among us may aim toward a self-debasing attitude and try to consider ourselves worthless. But that does not describe Jesus’ actions!

Jesus became low by first glorifying and obeying His Father and then lifting up, encouraging, and helping those around Him. This humility compelled Him to serve men in ways ranging from the lowly (washing His disciples’ feet) to the amazingly talented (raising the dead!). James reflected on Jesus’ earthly work and summed it up in verse 4:10 of the book he penned by saying, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” James had noticed how many people appeared before our Lord with a sincere need and how Jesus famously served the need through talent granted by His Father.

We do not need a church of people who continually put themselves (or others!) down. We need people who are constantly looking up to God and seeing Him as more important than anyone or anything else. We must live at His feet. Only this upward perspective can transform each of our God-given talents into truly useful service to others that pleases Him.

For the TRBC Orchestra on January 14, 2009

Praise Him

Here is a new post from Ron Bergthold. Our God is worthy of all our praise and confidence! Give us eyes to see Your worth and hearts to desire You above all earthly things. ~Jon

Praise Him!
by Ron Bergthold

What do you call someone who hangs around musicians? (Answer: A drummer.)

Voices and Instruments of Praise. Praise is the focal point of our name. The acronym VIP, normally meaning “Very Important Person”, still fits very well with Who we should be praising. But how exactly are we supposed to praise? If this is truly our reason for being, we ought to understand this term well.

One of two primary Hebrew words for praise is Halal. Yes, that is where we get the word Halleluia or Hallelu-Yah (Yah is short for Yahweh, or Lord), so this term is translated “Let us praise the Lord”. The root word for Halal means to boast. Boasting is normally considered a slightly evil act that is associated with being prideful and therefore not usually encouraged in everyday life. But Webster dutifully explains that boasting can be proper and justifiable if the claims are true. Boasting about God’s attributes is certainly justified, since these attributes literally define truth!

What can you boast about God? And do you personally believe it to be true? If nothing immediately comes to mind, turn to Psalms, which uses the word Halal over eighty times. The book of Psalms could have more accurately been named Praises, given its numerous references to specific traits of God and what about Him is praiseworthy. In fact, turn to the last seven Psalms (144-150) and there is nothing but praise, culminating with Psalm 150, which, by the way, we instrumentalists can claim as our very own!

It is certainly worthwhile to dwell upon Who God is. Just a few of the elements lifted up in Psalms include King, Rock, Victory, Provider, Rescuer, Lover, Guide, Teacher, Blesser, Builder, Satisfier, Righteousness, Hope, Fulfiller, Revealer, Maker, Healer, and Sustainer. There are many more that describe in further detail Who He is and why He is so worthy of our boasting at this moment.

Another Hebrew word for praise is Yadah (not to be confused with Seinfeld’s “Yada Yada”, which means “empty talk” and is the complete opposite of Yadah). Stemming from "the extended hand” or “to throw out the hand", Yadah means “to give thanks”. Though sometimes a symbol of Yadah is physically raising your hands up in thanks to God during worship, the meaning goes much deeper. This is the corporate and personal intake, impact and reflection of Who God is in us. He is Teacher, but what has He taught you lately? He is the Builder, but what has He done through you to build something that would Yadah Him?

We can Yadah God in as many ways as He is. One of the most obvious ways is listed in Deut 8:10, “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.” All we have that is good comes from Him and it is a natural response to thank Him for such things. However, a less obvious Yadah is challenged in 1 Peter 1:7, “These (trials) have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold….may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” So is your praise Yadah, or just Yada Yada??

For the TRBC Orchestra on January 7, 2009

The Transition Continues...

This season of transition continues to stretch us and reveal more of who our Father is. I hate it and I love it. Do I sound crazy?

Anyway, I just wanted to share the passage that the Lord has me memorizing currently.

Seeking the New that the Lord has waiting in His time,

~Jon

"My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful (devious) mouth, And put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil." - Proverbs 4:20-27 (NKJ)

Wisdom in 2009

As we roll into a new year, God renews faith. For many, He places a fresh emphasis on their heart. A kind of preview of what He intends to reveal during the coming year. For me, He has led me to Proverbs. I must admit that I come into this book kicking and screaming. Here's why...

Many of the conversations and sermons I personally have been a part of, or have heard, based on Solomon's book, sound like excerpts from advice columns, not the Holy Scriptures. I think this is because for many, wisdom and common sense are virtually the same. When we read the Bible, we recognize they are not! The scriptures (Proverbs included) teach that God's revelation results in wisdom and man's intellect many times contradicts what God reveals. This in no way is a put down to God. Quite the contrary, it reminds us that we are not as smart as we think we are. I say all this to simply say, I am embarking on a journey to encounter God in the Proverbs in 2009. He has already met me there in these first few days and chapters. I am confident He has much to reveal of Himself and much to change in me this year.

Seeking the God of All Wisdom in 2009,
~Jon

"'On earth as it is in heaven' is Jesus' prayer. 'Wisdom' is the biblical term for this on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven everyday living....

Wisdom has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace. Threaded through all these items is the insistence that the way we think of and respond to God is the most practical thing we do. In matters of everyday practicality, nothing, absolutely nothing, takes precedent over God." - Eugene Peterson from his introduction to Proverbs in The Message