The Sun Will Rise...

The Sun Will Rise - the blog of Joshua Hawkins

Eating a banana for the glory of God

In this age where sin has deeply rent the human heart from its created purpose to make much of God's glory, there are heightened moments our lives when the Holy Spirit engenders faith to believe in a restoration of that purpose. Several months ago I had one of those moments - not while in prayer, worship, or study, but simply standing in my kitchen eating a banana.

In order to explain I have to start sometime late last year when I listened to this teaching by Stephen Venable entitled Sovereignty and Prayer. Stephen's goal in this teaching was to remind us what the scriptures say about God's rulership and governance over His creation. We live in an age where "Mother Nature" and "natural laws" have taken the place of the LORD as the sustainer and ruler over all that He has made. Scripture emphatically declares that the LORD gives life and breath to all things actively (Psalms 104:27-30; Daniel 5:23; Job 12:10; Isaiah 42:5), causes plants to grow, gives rain, and gives food actively (Job 5:10; Job 37:6-13; Psalms 65:7-11; Psalms 104:7-13; Psalms 147:8; Psalms 147:15-18), and presides over the lives of men actively (Job 34:14-15; Acts 17:24-25; 1 Samuel 2:6).

I had been meditating on some of those scriptures, particularly Psalms 145:16 and Psalms 65:7-11 and how the LORD is the one who sends rain for the earth's crops to grow. I was asking Jesus to shake me from my naturalistic perspective, that His word would renew my mind and take root in my heart, and that awe and gratitude would be my response to His glory as the creator and sustainer of all. I didn't really "feel" much during this time, but continued to ask in faith knowing that He heard my prayer.

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Worthy of it All

(If the video above does not display, click here to view it)

My worship team at IHOP has been playing this song by David Brymer a lot lately. As one called to vocational ministry to the LORD as an intercessory missionary, I'm grateful for this simple song of devotion to Jesus.

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Passion Week Summary

During Passion Week last week, I tweeted a harmony of the chronology as recorded by the four gospels, based on The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim.

In the Twitter sphere where humanity gets wrapped up in movies, bashing political figures, debating social justice issues, and showing off what they ate for lunch today, I wanted to bring to remembrance perhaps the most neglected One on Twitter - God in the flesh Himself. The very real memories He has of Passion Week must be the substance of our friendship with Him, as I briefly wrote about before starting last week.

My chronology is by no means comprehensive, but hopefully is a good representation of the events of Jesus' final week leading up to His death on the cross. In order to make the scriptures clickable, I did edit these tweets from their original form on my Twitter account by expanding "Jn" to "John", "Mt" to "Matthew", etc. Besides those edits, the lines below are exactly what I tweeted in order last week.

I hope this summary serves to encourage you and strengthen your friendship with Jesus.

Sunday

  • Beginning today through next Sunday, I'll be tweeting a chronological narration of the events of Jesus' passion. Stay tuned! #passionweek
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Passion Week on Twitter

For over 2000 years, Christian clergy, laymen, scholars, and poets alike have often reflected on Passion Week, the holy days leading up to the most precious moments of all of Jesus' years on the earth - the days of our Lord's death and resurrection.

Lent, Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday are commonly known terms to many in and out of the church of Jesus, but the actual events of Passion Week are at best very fuzzy in the minds of many believers. Often more able to recall fine details of scenes while quoting myriads of lines from their favorite movies, many modern believers have neglected meditation on the life of Jesus during these days.

If He is our Lord and we say we treasure Him above all else, shouldn't we be able to tell others with clarity about what He said and did during the most important week of His recorded ministry? And if a friendship is based on relational knowledge, shouldn't these words and deeds be so vivid to us and be the very substance of our intimacy with Him?

I'm burdened by this myself - so beginning today, I'll be narrating the chronological sequence of Passion Week on my Twitter account. Every day I will tweet several times about the details of the corresponding day in our Lord's life. I hope it helps you to remember Him and know Him more deeply in His passion.

If they are encouraging to you, share this tweet or post on your own social network (or anything similar):

I'm following @joshprays for a chronological overview of Jesus' last week before His death on the cross. You should too! #passionweek

If you tweet about Passion Week yourself, use the hash tag #passionweek so that others can glean from your meditation as well.

May the Lord grant us nearness to Him this week as we remember Him!

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Sojourning and suffering

From about age 9 until my early teen years I remember looking forward to camping in the woods of New England with my church's youth group. We would pack our provisions and drive several hours to set up our camp with the basics - shelter, food, and fire. We learned essential wilderness survival skills, knots, safe food storage, and water purification. The older ones taught the younger ones, and everyone learned and grew together. We were far from the comforts of running water, furnaces, air conditioning, and home cooking. We were in the wilderness.

Yet all of us knew that in just a few days we would be back in our comfortable beds with an easily accessible refrigerator and microwave oven. In other words, we knew that our setup at camp was just transient and temporary. We did not use brick and mortar to build our shelters, we patched holes in our tents and tarps with duct tape. We did not construct the fire pit to last for years of harsh winters. We did not bring enough food and water for more than a week. Though we were extremely grateful that we had protection from the rain, food for our bellies, and soap to clean our hands, we did not seek to overhaul our camp into our permanent home. As we camped, we let our small "delicacies" remind us of home cooking. We let our lawn chair remind us of our dad's plush lounge chair and blanket back home. Even just a day or two into our trip, we would all be longing for the comforts of home again.

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The pain of misunderstanding

Have your words or actions ever been misconstrued? Have you ever felt the pain of rejection from close friends or family? Though sin and the curse have made these things a common human experience, God Himself has felt the pain of misunderstanding.

Throughout Jesus' life and ministry, there were several groups of people who interacted frequently with Him:

  • His own family (His mother Mary, His four brothers and His sisters) - Matthew 13:55-56
  • The women who attended to Him and cared for His needs (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna) - Luke 8:2-3
  • His disciples (the "three" - Peter, James, and John and the rest of the Twelve, plus the larger group that followed Him around) - Luke 16:14-16
  • The Pharisees (the gospels often reference those from Jerusalem) - Matthew 9:11, Matthew 12:14, Matthew 15:1, Matthew 19:3, and many passages
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Poetry, friendship, and Jesus

In our day, some parts of the church are experiencing a resurgence of interest in the book of the Song of Solomon. Instead of bearing the stigma of an obscure book about love and marriage from the Old Testament, the book is increasingly being understood as an allegory between Jesus and His bride. Though this was probably not the primary reason for its inclusion in the canon of Scripture, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit is evidently seen in its resurgence as it undergirds the New Testament truths of Jesus as a bridegroom and His body as His bride (Matthew 9:15, Ephesians 5:32, Revelation 19:7).

The Song can be enthralling for some because the short phrases and affectionate language can be mined for meaning. Though there is enormous devotional value in the words of the Song, we must remember to hold it in its rightful place as we grow in friendship with Jesus.

Because friendship is based on relational knowledge, we can never grow in friendship with someone solely by reading an elaborate poem written about them. Once we get to know our friend, poetry may bring to remembrance the words and actions of our friend and help us appreciate them more. But the poem itself is not what made us be their friend initially, nor do the words of the poem come to mean more to us than the words from their own lips. No matter how beautifully expressive the writing is, a poem can never replace the presence of the person when it is a person we actually love.

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Interview with David Whitworth, part 2

Today I'll be continuing my interview with David Whitworth, a drummer at IHOP-KC. If you have not yet read part 1 of David's interview, be sure to read it here.

Josh: Hi David, good to have you back for a few more questions! I know the first round of your answers really encouraged some people. Let's jump right in and hit a somewhat controversial topic for Christian musicians - secular music. Do you have any thoughts on it? What is your personal experience?

whitworth-1.jpgDavid: I remember when I was back in Texas playing drums for my church, I would always find myself in a paradox. I would spend most of my week listening to anything and everything. Then I would come into church to play and my spirit would feel dull. It never occurred to me that I was feeling this way because of what I was listening to. When I came to IHOP I felt the Lord invite me into a season of consecrating my ears. I remember so clearly my "iTunes D-Day" 4 years ago. I deleted all of my secular music from my computer and immediately felt something lift. I felt a nearness from the Lord. From that point on I have experienced so much more of the Lord's heart while playing. I feel so much more clarity and boldness when I play. It has enabled me to prophesy with confidence. I know that the Lord is raising up singers and musicians who are doing the same thing - consecrating their eyes and ears. They are ones that would cultivate their gifts before the Lord, ones that would commune with the Holy Spirit and not get influence from the world but from Heaven.

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Interview with David Whitworth, drummer

It's been several years since I've interviewed some of the other musicians here at IHOP-KC. In the past I've had the privilege of hearing from Jordan Vanderplate, electric guitarist, Cassie Campbell, bassist, Francisco "Paco" Arteaga, drummer, and Gabriel Hancock, also a drummer. Today's interview is with David Whitworth, the drummer for Cory Asbury's worship team at IHOP-KC. I hope David's answers encourage and provoke you musicians and singers!

Josh: Hey David, I really appreciate you sharing with us! Before I jump into some questions, give us a little bit of your story.

whitworth-5.jpgDavid: Hey Josh! Well, a little about myself… I grew up in the small farming town of Bastrop, Texas. It's about 20 minutes from Austin. I was raised in a Christian home. I lived on a farm with goats, cows, dogs, chickens… the whole deal. Drumming for me started at a fairly young age. When I was a little 6 year old I would run around banging on tables, counters, pots, pans, basically anything and everything. My mom got me a small drum kit so I would stop taking the kitchenware. I never took drum lessons growing up, I just started and figured stuff out. I found myself in my room practicing for 4-5 hours a day. I would figure out the drum parts for all the Hillsong United albums. I was so drawn to worship music early in life because I would always encounter the presence of the Lord listening and practicing to those albums. At that point in my life all I wanted to do was play in Hillsong United or be in the NBA! I started playing full time with my church at the age of 12. After high school I went to the University of Texas at San Antonio for two years studying music technology. At the Christmas break in 2006 my friend invited me to a Onething Conference in Kansas City. I had a life changing encounter with God and have been on full-time staff at IHOP for almost 5 years now.

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On boasting only in the cross

In Galatians 6:14, The Apostle Paul boldly asserted that his only boasting should be in the cross of Jesus. In Philippians 3, he proclaimed that everything he had used for his own gain had been counted as loss for the sake of Christ. It does not take much to see that such confessions from a believer have a prerequisite of heart surgery from the Holy Spirit.

In our sin, we use our God-given breath, strength, finance, or wisdom in order to make much of ourselves. But the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a believer is evident when what was once used for selfish gain is now used to make much of Christ and His cross.

Along these lines, I wanted to share a provoking excerpt from the January 22nd entry from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional (my emphases added). May the Holy Spirit help us to see how foolish it is to boast in anything else but the cross of Christ!

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