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.

So today it occurred to me…..

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Jul 08, 2009

Today it occurred to me that though fully trusting God is never easy, trusting God when it’s just God and me is easier than trusting God through somebody else. The greatest part of that revelation? I ask somebody everyday to trust God through me. That’s a lot to ask, I think.

And the two shall become one, uh, flesh?

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Jun 03, 2009

So what does it take to please your god? My God is pleased with me because I have faith in Him. Other gods, not so much. Here’s a story from Bangladesh about some Hindus who have some interesting ways to petition their false god. (one of millions of gods they recognize, by the way). Frog Wedding

So, what exactly would a frog wedding look like? What about the vows? What sort of gifts do you give frogs? “Mr and Mrs. Frog, on behalf of the people of our village and in honor of your marriage, we would like to bestow upon you this bag of house flies.” What kind of scene is that anyway? Can you imagine 250 people gathering for the wedding ceremony. Do you dress up for that occasion? What do the bride and groom wear? Is dancing allowed at a frog wedding reception because it isn’t at a Baptist one, you know. I find the whole scenario ribbitting....riveting.

So many questions I have about this thing. Can you imagine how busy you would be trying to petition as many as 300 million gods for this or that as the Hindus do. I’m grateful that my faith pleases my God and that without faith it is impossible to please Him.

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!

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. 

It’s no secret, YOU are charismatic!

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Jan 09, 2009

Are you charismatic, really? I am, and I’m going to say that you are too. “What? I’m a died in the wool Southern Baptist. I am not a charismatic” you might say to yourself. There is a difference between being charismatic and being ”a” charismatic, however.

When you read the New Testament, particularly in Paul’s epistles, nearly every time you read the word “gift” as it applies to the spiritual gifts, the Greek word from which gift is translated is the word charisma. Each one of us has been given at least one spiritual gift (Ephesians 4:7), therefore each one of us, being gifted, are charismatic.

Yeah, but are we all “spirit filled?” You betcha! Each of us, if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, are filled with the Holly Spirit; the Bible is very clear about this.

So maybe you never thought of yourself this way, but today you are a Spirit filled charismatic believer in Christ! Enjoy the distinction, it was given to you by God!

HO HO HO! Where will you go?

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Dec 16, 2008

“He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice...he’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice! If Santa used the Ten Commandments for his standards, how would you do? Let’s find out,

Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen anything? (no matter the value.) Ever used God’s name in vain? Ever hated anybody? The Bible says “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer.”

If you are guilty of these things, it shows that in your heart, you are a lying, blasphemous, murderer-at-heart. Many people don’t know that God will use the Ten Commandments to judge the world. Forget about Santa and “naughty” and “nice.” How will you do on Judgment Day? If you are found guilty you will be sentenced to an eternity in Hell.

2,000 years ago, God sent Jesus to the earth to pay for your sins. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment that you deserve for breaking His Law, the Ten Commandments. God’s wrath came down on Jesus instead of you. The Bible says “God commands all men everywhere to repent, because God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.”

Remember: if you try to get to Heaven on your own, you must keep every commandment in thought, word and deed! Jesus paid the penalty for your sins on the cross. Then He defeated the power of sin and death when He rose from the dead. Repent (turn away) from your sins. Place your faith in Jesus Christ alone to save you. God will grant you eternal life. Read your bible daily and obey what you read.”

This is a tract from Ray Comfort @ The Way of the Master. Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron offer some excellent training on how to effectively witness to the lost in the one way that convicts, the Law.

Many attributes of the life of a believer - deliverance, joy, peace - may seem to be reasons for another to accept Jesus Christ, but the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross was to save our mortal souls from the eternal death we deserved, not to make us comfortable. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are the fruit of the Spirit of a person truly transformed. These things ought to attract the unbeliever to the believer, but are not reasons to accept Christ on their own. The fruit of the Spirit, a Spirit filled life, a life transformed; these are all bi-products of a redeemed soul, once bound for Hell but now set apart for God, to do His work and to live out His will and to retire from this place to eternity in Heaven with the Almighty. If our abiding thanks to God is not first for what He has done for our eternal souls, our worship is out of line.

The Law shows even the unbeliever that he is sinful and worthy of eternal death. In Romans 7:7 the Apostle Paul said “...I would not have known what sin was except through the Law.” In Galatians 3:24 (KJV), Paul refers to the Law as “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”

Jesus is our Redeemer, our King and our Lord. This Christmas the best thing we can offer the unbelieving world is the true message of salvation through Jesus Christ. It starts with the Law and ends with His grace.

The Greatest Link Of All Time!

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Oct 04, 2008

What defines our worship?

Posted by Rod Hamilton on Sep 30, 2008