It’s a cloudy, dreary, rainy day here. Not one of the best days to live near a beach. During a prayer, our (great) Children’s Director was praying and she said:

“Lord. Thank You for the rain. Help us to see what the rain brings. Help us to see the results, not just the dreariness and darkness.”

I thought about all the past and present storms in my life. If only I could take that perspective to “look past the rain” and see the results that it is going to bring. It is so easy to focus on the now circumstance and no further.

Father help me today to see past the storm and find the growth and beauty that Your rain is bringing in my life.

Here’s the last installment on Psalm 138. I’ll have a blog up early next week about something family/worship oriented. Please feel free to leave some comments on your thoughts on Psalm 138.

“Though the Lord is on high, He looks upon the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar. Though I walk through the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out Your hand against the anger of my foes, with Your right hand You save me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your love, O Lord, endures forever-do not abandon the works of Your Hand.”~~Psalm 138:6-9

So, the worshiper moves from a personal choice to worship, to a cry for justice, to a personal prayer. He first acknowledges the Lord’s elevated state and then articulates one of the great mysteries of Diety. That God “looks upon the lowly”. Isn’t it amazing that God takes time to look on us? I find great comfort in this. Knowing that He walks with me in trouble, preserves my life and reproofs the anger of my enemies. What an amazing God.

One interesting warning here is that while God looks on the lowly He “knows the proud from afar”. The psalmist was again looking back to Solomon’s wisdom. This time in Proverbs 3:34:

“The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Sidebar-This is an important point for worship leaders in particular. As musical people we are more naturally inclined to egotism and should be doubly on guard for this. God not only “sees the proud from afar”, but the scripture further teaches that He is in opposition to those that are filled with pride. That’s why Peter preceded his quote of this proverb with “Clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because…” (1 Peter 5:5) God forbid us from walking in the “I’m better than they are” mentality and competitiveness in worship that actively blocks the Lord’s favor and presence.–Sidebar End

Verse seven is one of my favorites in this passage. This exiled and belittled worshiper realizes that God is not finished! He will accomplish His purpose. The psalmist recognizes, and relishes, God’s authoritative plan and reason for this season of his walk. That the love of God endures forever regardless of what present circumstances would seem to say.

This worshiper sets the tone for those of us who find ourselves suffering under the hands of the unjust. First we choose to worship, then we pray for those causing the trouble, prophesy over them and find our conclusive peace in the fact that God has not forgotten us.

As I’ve studied this passage I am very grateful that they left the last line in. “Do not abandon the work of Your hands.” After this empowering worship time, the worshiper is still checking to make sure that God is still there. I love to see the humanity of the writers of the Psalms. One moment he is prophesying the release from exile and a few verses later reminding God not to forget about him. That makes me feel a little more normal.

Here’s an interesting audio blog from Pastor Steven Furtick at Elevation Church. It’s about how worship leaders can serve the vision of the Senior Pastor of the church. Check it out if you’re a worship leader or a pastor.

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/audio-blogs/me-and-my-worship-leaders/

In our staff meeting this week, I felt like we should talk about how to deal with inter-personal conflict. I came up with 4 guidelines for dealing with conflict. This is by no means an all-inclusive list, just some of my thoughts.

1.Always Look Inwardly before addressing faults in others.-Jesus said that we shouldn’t try and remove sawdust from someone else’s eye before removing the plank in our own. (Matthew 7:3-5) Everyone knows that the eye is a sensitive area to be poking around. As a guy who has contacts, I know what the pain of missing the contact and hitting the eye is all about. I wouldn’t want to do that to anyone else. Refusing to look inwardly before dealing with inter-personal conflict can cloud our vision and make us do more harm than good for those we serve with.

2.Confront Directly-While it is acceptable, and sometimes admirable, to seek advice from other trusted leaders, if anything is going to be solved you have to address the person directly. Matthew 18:15 says that “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” Another passage says that love covers a multitude of sins.(1 Peter 4:8) As leaders, I believe we should cover those that serve around, with and over us. We should not, however, ignore attitudes or actions that are detrimental to our team environments. We should confront head on and in love.

3.Find the Deeper Issue- So many times, the issue, or conflict, is indicative of a deeper issue. We should Ask the Holy Spirit to help us overlook their actions and give us discernment to find the “heart of the matter”. We can spend our time diagnosing symptoms, or we can find out what is truly happening in the heart of the other person, and ourselves, and ask God for deep, inner healing of our relationships.

4.Seek to be Reconciled over being right- Relationships are always more important than issues. That doesn’t mean that we can’t, or shouldn’t provide discipline or correction, but it means that when hit with an impasse, that we should lead the way in humility and reconciliation. 1 Corinthians 5:18-19 says; “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” I’m personally thankful that God isn’t counting my sins against me. I want desperately to be like Him in that regard. That doesn’t mean that there’s is never a time to part ways or ask volunteers to step down, but I believe it does mean that regardless of how relationships shake out there is always room for forgiveness.

I had the chance to baptize my son a couple of weeks ago. What a blessing! Check it out! Peace…adam