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~ Marriage stuff we've learned so far.

Life With You

Category Archives: Worship

My Wife is a Minister of the Word

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by noelwalker in Faithfulness, Gospel, Grace, life, Vocation, Worship

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

gender, Gospel, Ministry, Vocation, Worship

My wife is a minister of the Word.  What I mean by that is that she is a proclaimer of the Gospel.  She works part-time as a labour and delivery nurse at West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, but it is more than a job for her, it is a vocation.

julieAtWork - CopyA vocation is a calling. It is a holy appointment with God. A job is something you do for money, but a vocation is a job with a biblical imagination.

Julie is a proclaimer of the Gospel. She speaks a word of hope to Moms in the making, who sometimes doubt if they are going to have what it takes.  She proclaims a gospel word to Dad’s who sometimes feel a little disconnected from the miracle that is happening right in front of them. She says, in one way or another, sometimes without a word,“You are enough.  You don’t need to bathe your new little one EVERY day. You don’t need to feed every two hours, at EXACTLY two hours.  I know you have read lots of scary stuff on the Internet, just breathe, take it one day at a time.  God is good.  You are going to be OK.”

Sometimes, when assisting a delivery, Julie is the first human being, besides Mom, to touch a brand new human.  She is humanity’s welcoming committee. She has performed funerals (too many) and has shared tears with heartbroken parents who must suddenly struggle with the hardest questions humans have ever asked.

I am disappointed when Christians spend time debating if women can preach or teach during a congregational assembly while they ignore what we all do the other 166 hours in a week.  Why do we care so much about what happens in two hours on a Sunday morning and care so little about the rest of the week?

Nowhere in Scripture, nowhere, are we instructed or commanded to gather on Sunday morning for a one hour oratory exegesis of the Scriptures.  On the other hand, we have examples of brothers and sisters gathering in houses, on outdoor steps, by the river at dawn, and in gardens.  We read in the Bible about men and women sharing a meal together and loving each other in the name of Jesus.  Some did it poorly (like in Corinth) while others did it better (like in Phillipi) but they all loved Jesus and they sought to live like Jesus, 24 / 7 and they talked about it when they gathered together.  They cared WAY more about the rest of the week then about a one or a two hour gathering on Sunday.  Maybe we should too.

How many preachers does your church have? (Here’s a hint: the answer is way, way more than one)

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How to Write a Worship Song

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by noelwalker in Random, Worship, Youth

≈ Leave a comment

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Blimey Cow, Music, Praise Band, Worship, Worship Music

The guys at Blimey Cow have this for all the future songwriters out there.

video

Jesus: Head and Foot

03 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by noelwalker in Bible Study, Biblical Interpretation, Faith, Jesus, Jesus' Nature, Mercy, Worship

≈ 2 Comments

Jesus saving a prostitute 2

This past Sunday’s sermon I skated over a remarkable story from John 12.  Jesus is invited to a banquet in his honour following the miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead.  It would be hard to exaggerate how strange a gathering this would have been: kind-of like a reverse wake! The height of the awkwardness however was definitely when Lazarus’ sister Mary came and anointed Jesus’ feet, or was it his head?  Matt 26:6-13 records a very similar story where an unnamed woman (is it Mary?) anoints Jesus head in the house of a man with the misfortune of being named Simon the Leper.  This story is likely based on text borrowed from Mark 14:3-9.  How do you reconcile the differences in these stories?

When reading Bible stories it is very important to remember that each writer is writing for a purpose.  Modern western readers put a high value on chronological factual accuracy and are always wishing extraneous details had been included in the stories. A cynic might read these stories and conclude that there are mistakes in the Biblical text: inaccuracies which prove that the Bible cannot be trusted.  A  simple explanation will usually clear this Continue reading →

Joy and Purpose

09 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by noelwalker in God, Hope, Joy, life, Worship

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George Bernard Shaw, Glory, John Piper, Joy, Purpose

Three thoughts on Joy and Purpose:

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purposed recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy (Penguin Books, 1974), 32.

“The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever”

John Piper’s modification to the Westminster Shorter Catechism in Desiring God (Multnomah Books, 2003), 17

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

1 Cor 10:31

Worship is Beyond Words

05 Thursday May 2011

Posted by noelwalker in Church and Culture, Worship

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Green Day, Redundant, Worship

Worship is a profound topic worthy of deep and humble reflection which is why I am always skeptical of people who have simple answers to contemporary worship issues. Worship is grounded in the profound notion that God is completely other.  He is not in any way part of His own creation nor is he obligated to it and yet He is connected to it at the same time.  He is near enough to hear us, close, and yet so vast He stretches beyond our imagination.

So how do you worship a God like that?  How could you? Whatever worship is, it is certainly facilitated by us and yet oriented toward God.  Our songs couldn’t possibly be beautiful enough, why do we think relevance even enters the equation? I heard a Green Day song yesterday that spoke to the challenge of keeping worship real and yet oriented toward God.

Disclaimer: I do not approve of every Green Day song, nor the socio- political leaning of the group but this song is however appropriate for general public consumption.  My four kids have seen this video  (if that gives you any measure of orthodoxy)

Redundant by Green Day 2005

We’re living in repetition.
Content in the same old shtick again.
Now the routine’s turning to contention,
Like a production line going a over and a over and a over, roller coaster

Now I cannot speak, I lost my voice
Speechless and redundant
‘Cause I love you’s not enough
I’m lost for words.

Choreographed and lack of passion
Prototypes of what we were
Went full circle ’til I’m nauseous
Taken for granted now
I waste it, faked it, ate it, now i hate it

‘Cause I cannot speak, I lost my voice
Speechless and redundant
‘Cause I love you’s not enough
I’m lost for words.

Now I cannot speak, I lost my voice
I’m speechless and redundant
‘Cause I love you’s not enough
I’m lost for words.

It’s likely I am reading a bit too much into this but the words spoke to the contemporary worship wars (at least for me.)  Trying to keep an increasingly diverse church community happy is becoming almost impossible.

First we try routine and conformity to reduce the various individual desires of the church members but now the, “routine’s turning to contention.”   Whether you are “traditional,” or, “contemporary” in your worship preference, the problem is we are often debating personal desires. Most of the time when we are debating what is appropriate for worship what are we unhappy about?

  • This style of music is not right. (I don’t like this style of music.)
  • This song was written 20+ years ago.
  • I can’t stand clapping.
  • Nobody is smiling; there’s no passion here.
  • The order we do things is different every week!
  • The order is the same every week!

No matter what the object of worship is God alone. When I come into the presence of God, I am an infidel, no matter what my worship practice. The only worship posture the Bible demands is often the one we do not use: humility.

Lord I cannot speak, I lost my voice
Speechless and redundant
‘Cause I love you’s not enough
I’m lost for words.

Greenday

Beginnings and New Beginnings

19 Wednesday Jan 2011

Posted by noelwalker in community, Death, Dependence on God, Faith, God, Gospel, life, Suffering, The Gospel, Worship

≈ 8 Comments

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Birth, In Christ Alone, New Beginnings

Guest post by Julie:

I love the song, In Christ Alone. From the time I first heard it at the ACU lectures it has been one of my favourites and I can barely get through it without choking up. The last verse has special meaning for me

No guilt in life, no fear in death-
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from his hand;
Till he returns or calls me home-
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

2072135151_958aee341a_oAwesome!! It’s powerful. In my short career as a nurse I have had the honour of walking through labour with many couples. I’m often the first human touch that a new baby feels. I’ve certainly been present for a number of life’s first cries. It’s an awesome experience every time and to me it never loses it’s closeness to God. I’ve also had the privilege to be at the bedside of a few final breaths. That’s an awesome experience of a different sort. When my mom breathed her last she was surrounded by her family. We saw her out of this world knowing that the next face she would see would be the face of Jesus. Now that’s amazing. She and we will never experience the power of hell because Jesus holds us in His hands. The price was paid and the Continue reading →

Our Weekly Meal Together

07 Sunday Feb 2010

Posted by noelwalker in Church and Culture, Communion, Faith, God, Grace, Jesus, life, Personal, religion, Worship

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Church of Christ, Communion, Lord's Table, Worship

Communion_000This Sunday we are talking about Mark 14: 22-31 where Jesus institutes what we call ‘The Lord’s Supper.’ or the observance of Communion. In my church tradition, we observe this symbolic feast each week.

This wasn’t just any meal that Jesus was eating when he did this but was actually the Passover meal that Orthodox Jews would eat each year. This meal is meticulously described in Deuteronomy 16: 1 – 8, Exodus 12: 1 – 20, and Leviticus 23: 4- 8.

Other traditions became part of the observance of Passover in addition to what God had prescribed in the Torah. One of those new traditions was the Four Cups of Passover. When a family gathered to eat there were four cups that would be shared by everyone at the table.

The first is called a cup of sanctification (setting apart). The word for it literally means, “I will bring out.” The second is a cup of Deliverance, freedom from slavery. The third is called a cup of salvation, or redemption (literally “I will redeem”), and the fourth is called the cup of ‘Hallel’, the Hebrew word for praise.

While sharing this meal Jesus and his disciples would drink the Cup of sanctification as they began the meal. They would share the Cup of Deliverance once the story of the Exodus had been recited to each other. In Mark 14: 24 Jesus takes the third cup, the cup of redemption and says to his disciples after they have shared it, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Jesus then shocks his disciples by adapting the prepared Passover script and says that He will not drink the fourth cup, the cup of praise until the day of the beginning of the new kingdom. The disciples would have been shocked. Not once in their lives would they have missed drinking each of these cups during Passover. This cup was left strangely full on the table as the disciples left to pray on the mountain. Continue reading →

Worship Rant~!

06 Saturday Feb 2010

Posted by noelwalker in Church and Culture, Church of Christ, devotional, Evangelism, God, life, Ministry, Missional Church, Missions, Personal, prayer, Unity, Worship

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Ministry, Missionary work, Worship Wars

rantArrrgh!  I gotta get this off my chest.

There are 260 chapters in the whole New Testament and guess how many have to do with instructions or discussion of orderly worship practices?

Parts of two.

Why is it that there is so much ink spilled about worship and church organization when the New Testament spends so little time talking about it? A sermon I was listening to this week calls the New Testament a Missionary Handbook and we ignore that when we fuss over worship issues.

I’m just sayin.

bangheadhere_XnICH_16959

An Apocalypse According To The Walker Boys

17 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by noelwalker in Bible Prophecy, Bible Study, Church and Culture, Faith, God, Jesus, Personal, Worship

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2012, Apocalypse, Bible Study, End Times, The End of the World

I haven’t been writing much lately.  (hope to put some stuff up this week).  Here is something I did for worship this am.

We were talking about Mark 13 and Jesus’ Apocalypse.  An Apocalypse is an ‘unveiling’ of what you think the world will be like in the end.  It reveals a great deal about what you are afraid of, what you really trust in life.  How you think the world really works. Here is what my boys thought about the end of the world.

Merry Christmas ;)

25 Friday Dec 2009

Posted by noelwalker in Christmas, Church and Culture, devotional, Faith, Jesus, Poverty, prayer, Worship

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Christ, Christmas, Jesus, the reason for the season

Jacob's Christmas

We are told that Christmas has become a delirium of gift making, that people hate its approach and are glad when it is over.

Elmina Atkinson, 1905

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for Christmas. I enjoy giving gifts and watching my four boys sharing in family traditions: some old and some new. Likewise, I am also delighted that our world, even in it’s warped and twisted way, pauses to reflect on the human nature of Jesus Christ at this time of year. Never-the-less I am struck by the cruel irony that our culture celebrates the birth of one who commanded that we give all our possessions to the poor, by gorging ourselves with food and treats. Continue reading →

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