So “why Catalyst,” you ask?

Posted by Rod Hamilton

There are plenty of things I could have called this blog, and some would be quite clever. But I have found over the last 7-8 years that if I could categorize “worship” as anything other than worship, I would call it a catalyst for change. Worshiping God is serious stuff, and to do so demands a lot from us in our lives. It demands a life truly set apart. It demands daily walking with our God. It demands a level of forgiveness that the world cannot understand. It demands a sincere level of humility that doesn’t take credit for any of the good things that we do, but bears the burden of accountability for our words and deeds.

One definition of the word “catalyst” is: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change. Speaking from life experience, aside from the initial giving of myself to Christ, nothing else precipitated change in my life like the act of worship has and continues to do. In fact, through the Worship Ministry at Valley View, I have seen many lives changed by the simple act of a person’s giving his/her time and talent back to the One Who gave it in the first place. This is the stuff that precipitates radical change.

I encourage you to check in from time to time at this blog and see what’s going on at Valley View. I also encourage you to visit our church if you aren’t currently plugged in somewhere else. If you are a Valley View person and know that God has gifted you in worship, I encourage you to get involved in the worship ministry and I challenge you to view your involvement not as a new activity, but as a link to God in a way that will change your life.

Recount God’s wondrous deeds.

Posted by Rod Hamilton on May 14, 2009

Psalm 75:1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds.

As I read Psalm 75 this morning it struck me that a key to keeping a right relationship with God is constantly recognizing not only what He’s doing, but also what he has done in my life. We all go through seasons of abundance and, frankly, dryness. As 75:1 says, “God is near.” Even when it seems like He’s doing nothing, He’s doing everything. I love 1 Samuel 7 when God delivers the Israelites from the Philistines and Samuel “took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.” This “Ebenezer (literally “stone of help) was to serve as a reminder to the Israelites of God’s wondrous deeds to this point.

The stone wasn’t there to say what God was going to do for the Israelites, and part of the reason that Samuel might have set this stone up to recognize that God had brought Samuel and his people to this point, and to not mention the next thing that God was going to do, was that, as a prophet, Samuel knew well that the sins of the Israelites frequently kept them from the next great thing that God called His people to. To claim anything in advance when it was historically obvious that the Israelites would likely mess up the perfect plan would seem foolish, and a real prophet prophecies the truth only. Samuel could not have soft-stroked the future of the Israelites, but he did well in setting up this monument to God’s faithfulness “till now.”

I don’t know that I have many physical Ebenezers in my life - most are memories - but the ones I do have are precious to me. God is faithful and his plan cannot fail, though I can surely fail at his plan for my life. But He has brought me this far, and for that, I give him all the thanks, all the glory, all the honor and all the praise!

Maybe the next billboard should tell the truth.

Posted by Rod Hamilton on May 06, 2009

Abortion is a sin - it’s murder, and the Bible is clear about murder and sin.

That being said, I have had it up to here (note: my leveled hand is at my chin as I type) with these billboards around town that twist and contort God’s word. On my drive in today I noticed on Dixie Highway a billboard that said “Weep not for me...but for your children.” Luke 23:28 I hope that you are the kind of discerning Christian reader that never accepts sentences that contain ... ( I know there has to be a mechanical term for “...” but I haven’t a clue) without thinking about what the complete thought might be. In fact, whether in politics or religion, the “...” causes a whole lot or problems. Misquotes run amok when we accept a “...” without discernment. So it is with that billboard and so many others.

What’s the big deal, Rod? The big deal is that Luke 23:28 actually says “But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children...” and continues on into verse 29 to say “For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.” (KJV) Essentially, what’s happening here is that Jesus, at this point a beaten, battered and bruised bloody mess, was being lead to Calvary. As a “great multitude” was following Him, weeping and wailing, He assured them of the the tribulation that was soon to come. What he was telling them is that the women who weren’t able to have children would feel blessed that theirs did not have to go through such a horrible time.

So what does the scripture reference on the billboard have to do with abortion? Absolutely nothing. Which gets me thinking: when “the church” twists and contorts scripture to make a righteous point, such as what God does say about murder, what separates it from the church that twists and contorts scripture to make a doctrinal shift away from the traditional understanding of God’s word? The answer, in my opinion, is nothing. God can and does make His point well known, with authority and with power. It’s up to God’s people to read the bible with perpiscuity (a dollar word that refers to the clarity of scripture.) And God’s word is clear that any and all who seek to understand His word will understand His word. If we accept even the slightest bit of twisting then we are priming the pump to gradually accept any doctrine that suits us, and that’s where it gets dangerous.

Itching ears, anyone?

Of Jesus, Spurgeon and Worship.

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 29, 2009

“If religion be false, it is the basest imposition under heaven; but if the religion of Christ be true, it is the most solemn truth that ever was known!” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Here’s the thing: as much anyone who ever lived, Charles Spurgeon knew that he knew that he knew that “the religion of Christ is true.” I wonder, as a worship leader, how horrible it would be to “worship” a God in Whom I could not fully believe? If we are to worship in “spirit and in truth” as Jesus described true worshipers do, we have to believe “in our hearts” what it is we sing about our great God. To believe in our hearts is more than to not doubt: The Truth is so embedded and ingrained in us that though we may struggle with doubt about God doing this or that, we don’t struggle with God being God, being real, being active and being sovereign.

All this being said, tragically, week after week there are people in Christendom who sing and clap along with the “worship music” who don’t for a minute believe what they’re singing. They worship what “they don’t know,” as Jesus told the Samaritan woman about the Samaritans, or they “worship something as unknown,” as Paul recognized before the men of Athens in Acts 17. There could be nothing more hollow or futile than singing praises to a God we don’t know or boasting in song about His deeds in which we don’t believe.

Our God is a “consuming fire.” He demands our attention and commands our sincere worship. The fact of the matter is that, sooner or later, “every knee will bow” and “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” whether we believed it here or not. 

Watch your step, it’s slippey out there!

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 18, 2009

“Their foot shall fall in due time” Deuteronomy 32:35

I remember the first year I lived in Louisville, KY in the winter time, 1992. Up til then I was always either a SoCal guy (I say that only to sound cool) or a Dirty South guy (I say that too to sound cool) and lived, aside from those places, for a far too fleeting moment in Hawaii.(<== that is cool, but I was only 1). Suffice to say, I didn’t know too much about walking on icy patches, but you learn quickly, and usually by negative reinforcement.

I was walking one cold, frozen February day in Louisville through some ice and snow. The ice and snow became one in a few spots, making walking pretty treacherous, or at least for those who already knew the perils of walking on such terrain. I, with my hands in my coat pockets and donning my leather soled shoes, did not recognize such danger and walked on. The first hard lesson I learned on that snowy day is one of physics and statistics. If a person, dressed as I was and postured as I was, were to step on a big ‘ol hunk of ice, the rate at which he falls makes it statistically impossible for him to remove his hands from his pockets to relieve the severity of the landing.

You get my point, don’t you? Whether I’m aware of the danger or not, it’s still a real danger. Whether I was prepared or not, the slip still happened and the resulting plummet and crash were no better or worse than if I had known it was coming and did nothing about it.

So what did I really learn?
1) When I’m walking into a slippery situation, whether literally or figuratively, I should be prepared to brace myself. Hands in pockets is way low on the list of ways to do that.
2) There are both signs of danger and people all around who have been there and done that. Wise counsel from experienced slippers is a good idea!

So all of this “slipperiness” reminds me of a classic sermon from Johnathan Edwards called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Chances are, if you’re in a Bible teaching, Bible believing church, you’ve heard of this sermon. Well, here’s your chance to read it. It’s well worth your time, and you can read it online here: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

What a find! Monergism.com

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 17, 2009

This morning, after my study time, or maybe during, but at the end, I went online to do a little additional research on a couple of interesting topics. I stumbled upon the website Monergism.com - Classic Articles and Resources of the Historic Christian Faith. This is an excellent site full of study materials, including many downloadable MP3 sermons/teaching.

I highly recommend this site as something you ought to add to your favorites!

Sin is a painted pony and a bonk on the head.

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 14, 2009

Today, as I had lunch with a friend in downtown Louisville, there stood outside the window of the Bistro 301 a tall, multi-colored statue of a racehorse. Oddly enough, over the course of an hour, no fewer than three people walked right into the thing, the third person (a man) who hit his head so hard on the steel horses head that we actually heard it above the noise in the busy restaurant.

At a table nearby, four ladies were remarking laughing at the third guy, but amazed that anybody could possibly walk into this statue to begin with. After all, it doesn’t blend in with anything (see pic). One lady said “do you think they should put a warning sign up about the horse?” To which I responded “What are you gonna put on the sign” ‘ Watch out for the 6’ 1” tall, multi-colored horse directly in front of you’”? That might work, but where do you hang it? On the horse? Apparently that wouldn’t do any good. Do you put it on the ground in hopes that they’re looking at the ground as they walk? (which has to be the case) Or, do you put the sign on the ground all along the sidewalk and tell people to please walk with their heads up so as not to run into anything at all that may be standing in the way of pedestrians?

John MacArthur - The Truth War

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 08, 2009

OK, so I finished “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” and decided to pull John MacArthur’s “The Truth War” off the shelf. It’s not necessarily light reading, but it is necessary reading in this slippery-slope age of reason and “truth.” If you know me, you know that I’m not a fan of “post-modern” anything, especially when far too often churches who, bent on catering to the “post modernists,” cater themselves completely out of the truth of the Gospel and the boldness with which it must be preached. Post modernity exists largely because the Church Universal has lost it’s zeal for the truth and its passion for the Great Commission.

If you get some time, you might want to check into this book, “The Truth War - Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception.”

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire - a book you should read.

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Apr 04, 2009

About a year or so ago, a friend gave me (maybe loaned me, I forget) a book called “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Pastor Jim Cymbala of The Brooklyn Tabernacle.

In short, this is an amazing book. It’s a quick read, just like I like them, and never does a page turn without a profound thought or statement about the Church, the Body of Christ or about how we’re lacking in the area of prayer and spiritual expectations.

If you get a chance, give this book a read; it will definitely be time well spent.

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire