Context

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and the subject of context came up. Through the years well meaning people have basically taught the Bible in error because the same well meaning people build a doctrine or judgment on one verse, or even worse a part of a verse. This seems to be used mostly for trying to use Scripture to prove a point instead of the point being what Scripture was proving.

For instance, go back with me to a very long running TV show..."Touched by an Angel." One of those feel good, everything always works out in the end type of shows. The angels said in many episodes "the truth will set you free." You hear that from many people's mouths....but that is NOT what Scripture says. The actual Scripture says, "If you abide in me, and My words abide in you, THEN you will KNOW the truth, and the truth will set you free." Just because we know a little truth doesn't mean we will walk in freedom. 1 Corinthians 6 talks about several things and I have heard many a sermon that stops before it reaches the good news. Verse 11 says "such WERE some of you." But now.... Hebrews 6 has been used to prove that if you turn away from the Lord after being surrounded with the truth you will go to hell. Verse 9 goes on to say that even though we are talking this way, we have better things concerning you.

So about this time you are saying...get to the point Phil. Okay...here you go. Get into the Word, but when doing so get into the whole Word We need to make sure that we keep things in context to glean the TRUTH. The enemy will use anything to keep us in bondage...anything...even the Word of God.

Think about it!

Love you
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Short and to the point

We use the word "amazing" to describe many things, but there is only One who is truly amazing. His name is Jesus. He is "Everything" and more! How can this be? How can He be more than everything? Because nothing we could ever think of in our finite minds could ever describe how truly amazing He is.

I hope that this week we together experience Him in a new and "amazing" way that takes us to a place of abandonment of our will to be engulfed in His.

Have a great week.

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Burdens

It has been said that God will not put us through more than we can handle. The Scripture that people are taking a stab at to back that up is found in 1st Corinthians 10:13 which says "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." The key word in this passage is "temptation". No where in the passage does it say God will not take you past what you are able to handle. This is specifically in context talking about temptation not circumstances.

When it all comes down, there may and most likely will be times in our lives that God pushes us to the point of utter exhaustion. Why? Simple! So we realize it is He that we live, move, and breathe in. Without mistake, His strength is made perfect in our weakness. We become strong only through His strength.

Ah, but alas, He truly wants to give us that strength to overcome. Let go to hold on to the very strength of God. It is only in letting go that we find He is the Rope that will hold us.

Have a great week.

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O is for Offering

Offering sacrificial praises with our voices and instruments to glorify Jesus (Hebrews 13:15)

As we sang yesterday with the congregation..."on my lips there's a shout of praise". Scripture puts it like this, "that the fruit of my lips offer up a sacrifice of praise."

Sometimes we are so overwhelmed with His love that it is not a huge sacrifice to lift our voices up in energetic praise to our Savior and Lord. There are other times that we would rather not sing a word. Being the extremely deep emotional person that God made me, I have to constantly keep those emotions in check when the negative things of this world hit me. If I let it, my emotions could absolutely shut me down. I know I am not alone in this. There are many of you that feel the same things. But it is those times where the sacrifice of praise comes to our lips. No matter how we feel (or even if we like or dislike the song or style of the song) the sacrifice of praise that is on our lips can be pleasing to God.

It is in these hard times where our trust in the Lord pushes us through and we sing loudly and boldly to the Lord.

Have a great day.

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Our Mission

Wedgworship is committed as a team to EXALT CHRIST and to lead others to EXPERIENCE CHRIST.

Even though the method statement specifically emphasises others, it is inevitable that as we exalt Christ we will experience His presence also. In experiencing Him personally aids in other's experience of Him.

This week I want to focus on "L" of the mission statement. Lifting up Jesus! Scripture says in John 12:32 that if we lift Jesus up from this earth, He would draw all men to Him. Breaking this verse down we see that it is not a particular song, style, advertisement, presentation, or production. It is based on the heart of lifting Him up. The second part of the verse is an interesting phrase. He said that He would draw "all" to Him if He be lifted up. So we have to look and see if that is being done. As Pastor says quite often in so many ways, God does His part, but we must do our part. God is calling Wedgworship to go deeper into our motives of why we do what we do. He is asking us to make sure our heart is focused on Him and Him alone every time we step out on that platform. The great part is that when one puts the whole verse together and in context of John 12, we see a promise that it is God who will grow His kingdom. He is the One responsible for the growth. Our responsibility is to lift.

I hope that this encourages us to do just that.

Love you,
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Confession

Good morning,

I hope this finds you doing well. I have a confession to make. I had such a great time this past week living in basically a fantasy world. It was a world of being waited on hand and foot, pampered beyond anything normal, and entertained beyond my wildest imagination. Who would not want to live in that world? Who would not want to live a life of ease and relaxation without demands of life?

But reality set in the moment I got back to Texas.

Wait though! Isn't that what we are called too? Aren't we told that in this life we would have these things...but oh yeah..."Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world." What a great promise. We are overcomers in this life...not just the life when we reach heaven's doors.

So reality? Yeah it is filled with struggles. It is filled with stepping up to the plate even if we don't want too. It is filled with "doing the right thing" because it is the "right thing." It involves in pushing through to victory time and time and time again. It comes down to one word... "trust" in our heavenly Father that says He will never leave us or forsake us.

He is the love of life that gives us victory in the "real world."

Love you,

pb

The Vision, Mission, and Methods of Wedgworship

Exalt Christ…Experience Christ

Our Vision

The Wedgworship team exists to EXALT CHRIST and to EXPERIENCE CHRIST.


Our Mission
Wedgworship is committed as a team to EXALT CHRIST and to lead others to EXPERIENCE CHRIST by:
• Lifting up Jesus from this earth so all will be drawn to Him (John 12:32)
• Offering sacrificial praises with our voices and instruments to glorify Jesus (Hebrews 13:15)
• Vertically singing to the Lord rather than just singing about Him (Psalm 33:3)
• Engaging both the believer and unbeliever in authentic, relevant worship (Philippians 4:8)


Our Methods
The Wedgworship team method of leading others to EXALT CHRIST and to EXPERIENCE CHRIST by:
• Thanksgiving and Prayer
Wedgworship will spend time thanking God and praying every time we gather together
• Excellence of Leadership and Heart
Wedgworship will continually set goals to be leaders that strive for excellence in communication of the gospel through music and a heart after God’s heart.
• Accountability
Wedgworship will not be a silo of its own, but will strive to be accountable to each other and the other areas of ministry in the local church.
• Modeling in our walk
Wedgworship commits to being a leader in our relationship with Christ, and in so doing, aid in equipping others to be fully devoted followers of Christ.

Example

I will end the “EX” series with the word example. The definition of example is “one that serves as a pattern to be imitated.” I really think that is a great definition. Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:17 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” As Wedgworship, we are to be that to the body of Christ, to our co-workers that are lost, to the store clerks, and even to the server at the restaurant when it comes down to the tip we leave. We are to be the example of Christ’s love.

Obviously that is not always easy to do. But that is why we press on toward the goal. I know for myself that I offend people when something catches me off guard and I sarcastically answer back. (I am working on that!!!! Please forgive me if you have been the receiver of this.)
So as we exalt in, exult in, experience Him, the challenge to all of us is to be a shining example of Christ.

Have a great week.
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Excuses

In my 29 years of full time vocational ministry, I have heard my share of excuses, and unfortunately given my share also. When I was on the road, youth ministers, worship pastors, senior pastors, and administrative assistants would out right lie to me of why a Phil Beck concert was not going to happen at their church rather than to tell me they just didn’t want to do the concert. My favorite all time lie was from a youth minister’s administrative assistant. I was calling a youth minister at a rather well known church in Oklahoma. She said, and I quote. “hold on, he is walking across the room to his office and he will be with you in a moment.” I waited about two minutes and she came back on the line, and again I quote, “oh, he is not here today. Can I take a message and he will call you back tomorrow”? (Tomorrow was Saturday…thus the second lie) Guess what! I never heard from him.

Excuses can be lies wrapped up in a softer package, but they are still lies. When we look at why we give excuses, we have to go back to last week’s “ex” word…examine. Scripture says “out of the heart, the mouth speaks.” OUCH! So my heart’s words are fueling those excuses….those are just down right hard words, but honest. When we start analyzing our heart is when we find out the truth.

I challenge us all to be truthful, honest, people. Examine before we offer an excuse. Think about it.

Love you,
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Examine

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about "EX" words. Our vision statement is to EXALT CHRIST....EXPERIENCE CHRIST. The word I want to concentrate on this week is "examine". Lamentations 3:40 says "let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord". 2 Corinthians 13:5 says "test yourself to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourself!..." By definition the word "examine" means "to test by questioning in order to determine progress, fitness, or knowledge." Keeping in the context of Wedgworship's vision statement, how are we doing? When we stop to examine our walk with Jesus, how are we doing? Is the self-examination results one that we know makes the Lord proud.

Taylor Hicks has a song on the charts called "Do I Make You Proud?" As you listen to the words he poses the question to his father which I pose to my heavenly Father. Do I make You proud? Is the life that You live through me so You and not me that it brings a smile to Your face?

EXALT...EXPERIENCE...in our examination, our test, do I bring a smile to the face of God?

Think about it.

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Exult

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the word exalt. Sometimes we use the word exalt and exult interchangeably. But they have two distinct meanings. As we said before the word “exalt” means “to elevate by praise or in estimation.” “Exult” on the other hand means “to leap for joy” or “to be very joyful.” Even in our text yesterday in our small group bible study, it used the word “exult” when it talked about hope.

Let me translate to how it relates to Wedgwood and Wedgworship. As we come together, our vision is to EXALT CHRIST…EXPERIENCE CHRIST. Out of elevating Him in praise one of the experiences that it brings is exultation. When the Spirit of the Lord truly inhabits our praises, there is a joy that engulfs us and even a sense of that joy that is in the room that can’t be explained. What I find very odd is that one person can experience this joy while the person standing beside them is looking around the room watching everyone else.

So let me wrap this up by saying a good way to know what our focus is when we come together is to examine our joy. Does our praise bring exultation?

Think about it.

Love you,
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Experience

Last week we talked about the first word in the Wedgworship purpose statement...exalt. This week we discuss the other "EX" word in that statement...Experience. Most are very familiar with Henry Blackaby's "Experiencing God" study. Blackaby points out in many ways in this study that we can talk about the Lord all we want, but until we come to the place of experiencing Him, our understanding of Him is short-sided at best.

Experience by definition means: "something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through." That is quite a definition when it comes to our purpose statement.

I taught a new song to our congregation several months ago. It is called "Encounter." The chorus of the song simply says, "I long to encounter You, I long to encounter You in this place."

So what does this mean in the light of statement? We are to exalt Christ in such a way that moves all that are present to a place of choice. A place of choice? Yes... as much as I would like for everyone in the sound of our voices to be moved to encounter Him, there are those, that for some reason or another, will not be moved to that place. The calling we have as Wedgworship is to exalt Him to that place of experience.

Before I go on to the next "EX" word, I will use next week to give you three basic ways we can exalt Christ to lead others and ourselves to experience Him.

Love you,
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Exalt

Wedgworship exists to: Exalt Christ...Experience Christ. Say that with me. Wedgworship exists to: Exalt Christ...Experience Christ. For the next year or should I say the next chapter in the story of Wedgworship will be purposed under this statement.

For the next many weeks, we will be discussing ways to carry out the purpose of Wedgworship. The first word in this statement is "Exalt." The word exalt is defined as: "to raise in rank, power, or character and to elevate by praise or in estimation...in other words glorify."

1 Corinthians 10:31 simply exhorts us to do all for the "glory" of God. That means that whatever we find ourselves doing the purpose behind what we do or say is to exalt Him.

I have a challenge for us all. Take a few minutes at the end of this day. Look back over all that you said and did today. How many of those things we said or did were motivated to bring glory to the One that loves us unconditionally? This is not to bring condemnation. It is to only bring analyzation. As we analyze where we are in our lives with our words and deeds being motivated to exalt Him, we can move one step closer to "every" deed and word exalting Him.

EXALT the Lord at all times.

Have a great week.

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Junk

There is a songwriting team named Michael and Stormie Omartian. Many will know Stormie from the many books she has authored. Many years ago they wrote a fun song called "Mr Trash Man." Some of the words in the chorus said, "Mr Trash Man, I'm glad You came today. I've got a collection of things I'm throwing away." The Trash Man is the Lord. The things referred to as trash is sin.

I started cleaning out a closet the other day. I sat there in amazement at the junk that I had there...not only junk that I have collected over the past few months I have been at Wedgwood, but pure junk that I have moved from place to place.

The Lord used it to bring to my attention how easily I can stack things that are just pure junk in the out of sight places of my life. I guess that is another reason Paul exhorted us to examine ourselves daily. We are to open the areas of our lives to make sure the things we carry around with us from place to place is not junk but those things we can truly use for the kingdom.

It is great to know that God's cleansing is just a prayer away.

Have a great week.

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