Archive for December, 2008

For some reason I never really have been a “crazy nut” about Christmas music.  I mean it is cool for it’s time and all but I never have been one to listen to any other time of the year and even during Christmas I would just sing it in church or listen to it while opening gifts etc.  But for some reason this year (maybe because my worship leader started using it in our services in July, OK maybe not July but it was early ha ha ha) I began listening to it early and have found a new joy in it.   Ironically the best song I have heard this year is off a cd that I have owned for 3 or 4 years but have never really listened to.  I also haven’t ever heard this song on the radio before so that I guess lets you know how much I never really paid it much attention.  But this song has touched me this year to tears at times because of it’s point of view.  The song is “Joseph’s Lullaby” from MercyMe’s Christmas album “The Christmas Sessions”.   It was written  from Joseph’s perspective and he was singing to Jesus after His birth and does a wonderful job of showing Joseph’s understanding of the purpose of His birth but also shows his father’s love for his child.   It shows his understanding that this baby is not an ordinary baby.  But I guess the most wonderful part of the song to me and the part that touches me the most is the lyrics that I have included below:

I believe the glory of Heaven
Is lying in my arms tonight
Lord, I ask that He for just this moment
Simply be my child

Go to sleep, my son
Baby, close your eyes
Soon enough you’ll save the day
But for now, dear child of mine
Oh my Jesus, sleep tight

It shows that Joseph understood Jesus was the Son of God but yet it shows his love for this child regardless of the fact he was not the biological father.  He knew that Jesus was the “Glory of Heaven” but he (joseph) just wanted to share this moment with the child that he was going to raise.  As a father that has 4 wonderful children and have been priviledged enough to hold them right after their birth it is an experience that I can not describe.  It is such a glorious experience in fact I am saddened by the fact that I wont ever do it again.  So yes I am a big tough guy but yet I am also a puddle of goo when it comes to my kids and my love for them.  I am so blessed to have been given the gifts from God that I was.  And I am sure that Joseph felt a similiar joy and love for this new baby boy, the Savior of the world but for that one moment he was simply Joseph’s little boy!

God Bless ~ Tyler

Well since I have been gone so long from my blog I figured I would share something with you this morning that is strange and obscure.  If you are not familiar with the song from the title of this blog then go here.  This song has a great childhood memory for me as I can remember my father playing this on his house stereo.  My dad being the guy that he was had an awesome stereo and great big pioneer woofers to match, we he played music it would just fill the whole house.  Now at times that became a little crazy as he loves the “Ray Conniff Singers”.  If your from my generation or later then you have no idea who I am refering to probably but check out the link and you can listen to a few of their songs.  Now some of the music is actually very well written and performed, however outside of the Christmas albums I lose interest very quickly.  This is really not the point of this blog but I needed to get you to a certain place so here we are.  My dad would get this song (back to Space odyssey) out and play it on the stereo and just crank it up and do this thing arm thing that we at the family get togethers regularly make  fun of.  It is a combination of air guitar and the Tiger Woods just sank a putt arm swing.  Now again all of this to get you to a place, and I think we are finally here.  (remember I did all that in my head this morning real quick.)

I heard this song this morning and it was as usual in a scene of a new car coming out of a tunnel for the first time.  As with every other time the song is used it is always during a sunrise, or the still frame photography of watching a plant grow out of the soil, or as in the case of the movie a new frontier into space, etc..  So you get the point and I am sure that you probably (if your familiar with the song) have a few examples of your own.

So by now your asking “How does this apply to your blog Tyler???  Well this is how,  as Christians we need to rejoice in the new birth of a child of God and I believe that we do this quite well.  However what we as Christians don’t do well is love our own and take care of our own.  We sometimes are so focused on the new births that we forget the “other children”.  I have been grieved as of late of the number of friends that I have that are Christians and are getting seperated and divorced.  I have talked with all of them and I start by asking them questions about their quiet time and their walk and then I ask about their church life.  I am grieved by the answers that I hear from these individuals that I know because one of the questions that I ask them among others is have you talked with your pastor, and time after time I get a “No”.  And these individuals are not back row Christians they are active and invested into their church and they have now stumbled and no one stopped to help pick them up.  So to my fellow pastors/ministry leaders I urge you to remember the children.  Now let me handle one response that I have heard before when discussing this topic with other pastors, “Well I am only one person and I couldn’t get there.”.  And let me tell you my response, We are not talking about someone in the hospital one night and you couldnt get there.  I am talking about families that over a year have started to fade and eventually end up seperated.  Our job as pastors is to guide and protect the flock.  Lets remember one of our primary focuses and purposes right out of Acts 20

28“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

So lets look to the other side what happens when we don’t do this, let me share with you scripture out of Jeremiah:

1“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.

2Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the LORD.

3“Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4“I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.

I guess that as a pastor I am struck with the importance to help people see the hope in Christ, the reward in Christ, the safety in Christ, and the rest in Christ.  We need to make sure that we hear the theme music not only when one walks the aisle for salvation but also when they walk that aisle for help.

God Bless ~ Tyler