I Believe I Belong and I Become

These three gifts are a tremendous platform to build our personal lives on. Churches would do well by building these principles into all their plans. This short series of articles will seek to communicate practical ways we can instill these 3 gems into our congregational singing and Arts Ministries.

I Believe = Faith

I Belong = Love

I Become = Hope

These three points will be our foundational points for this Disciples Today series of articles. Believing, belonging and becoming are fully interdependent, and yet can be sequential steps of growth. All our vital to our lives and ministries. And as we know from scripture, the greatest of these is love so a sense of belonging is weightier. This article will focus on I Believe. Faith is an elementary conviction. Here are a few thoughts to reflect on and examine practical ways to instill faith into your life and your ministry.

Part 1 I Believe

Believers. Disciples. Saints. Christians. Ambassadors. These are all descriptions of who we are. To be deemed worthy of these names, the common denominator comes from a simple confession Peter made in Matthew 16. Jesus said that this simple statement would be the rock foundation on which he would build his church. What did Peter say?

"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God"  Matthew 16:16

"I believe" is where our whole spiritual life begins. When we believe, we belong to one another in God's church. And together, we become more and more of what God intended.

How does this influence our Music Ministries? Here are a few thoughts...

A) Without faith our deeds will be vain human achievement  One of the pitfalls of being a talented person, is the ability to do many things. And not only can talented people do many things, they can do them well! There are dozens of warnings in God's word about this.

Jeremiah 10:21

The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

Romans 14:23

-and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

James 4: 15

Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

God cares more about us talking to Him about our plans, then us talking to others about Him and our plans! Obviously, prayer is the practical piece here. Talk to God about your everyday life and all your plans before you act. Otherwise, your faith is in yourself!

It is easy to become anesthetized by busy lives and serving. I always say it is better to wear out than rust out before God! Let me boast in my weakness and share my sin. Last summer, I had a little incident happen to me during one of my serving frenzies. I was cruising in between errands one evening when it was pouring rain. I had my Mozart piano CD cranking so I could hear it. I wanted to spend more time with my boys, so I stopped at home and ran into the house to see if they wanted to go with me to get some shopping done that my wife requested.

One son was doing some homework and the other was into Animal Planet. My daughter already had her pajamas on. My wife then said, It's OK. I'll get the stuff tomorrow.So I spent the evening in with the family and chilled out.

The next morning, after my morning routine. I went outside to a beautiful sunny morning and heard some baby birds squawking and said, "Wow, sounds like baby crows!" As I walke to my car, I heard Mozart piano music and looked at my car. Right then, my windshield wipers cycled over and I heard the baby crows again as the wipers went across a dry windshield! Surprised, I walked anxiously to my car and heard the motor running. I had left my car running all night in my haste to run in, get my kids, and run out! It still had enough gas to make it to the filling station! OUCH! My mental bandwidth was maxed out obviously! Happily for me, I have a pretty laid back phlegmatic temperament and I reeled back from laughter! I didn't tell my wife about though until a couple days later! But I did cry when I began to see my sin.

Busyness. It's a double edged sword, isn't it? For me, and my lack of prayer, it was all on my strength, my talents, my "giving" heart. I am ashamed to reflect how much I was doing my will, my plans and not inquiring of God on his will in my personal life first.

God came to the rescue and helped me in many ways. But let me simply say this, if you are not prayerfully taking your life and all you do before God WITH FAITH TOWARDS HIM AND NOT FAITH IN YOURSELF then all the "good stuff" you do is simply human achievement. You may think you are glorifying God, but without humble faith, it is sin.

PRACTICALS

• Believe and Pray about Specifics Who is singing or playing? How will it impact them and the church? Is this the right song for the circumstances? How much time can we get to prepare? How much do we need? God  -Please be present as we do this and release your Spirit's support.

• Believe and Seek Input from Key Members What do you think about these plans? Any suggestions to make it better? How can we get more people involved? Does this line up with the leadership team's goals? Will it hurt my wife or family, if I take the time to do this? What scriptures pertain to this? Should we postpone this idea for later?

• Believe and Go forth with Humble Confidence God has guided us, shouldn't I be confident this is His will for his glory?

DESIRED RESULTS

I Samuel 10:7

Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

I Chronicles 17:2

Nathan replied to David, "Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you."

I Chronicles 28:20

David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.

Zechariah 8:23

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.' "

I Corinthians 14:25

the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

Next, Part 2 will be "I Belong"

In his service,

Jerry Maday

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