Hello All,
I had the opportunity to play drums last night at Seabreeze church in Huntington Beach with my brother-in-law Nathan. We had a great night of worship. It's always funny to me that in each church, the scenario is essentially the same. The worship personnel arrives a few hours before the service, runs through the tunes and then gets some time to hang out in the back. Every place I've been, the story is virtually the same, as the musicians spend the next period of time sharing stories, resources and most importantly, laughs.
On this particular occasion, the worship team was filled with Laker fans. And, on this day, the Lakers had vanquished the Celtics. It had been a closely contested game, but the end result was victory for us and humiliating defeat for them, which put all of us in a much more jovial mood. (I wonder what the evening services in Boston were like! "Ah, those Lakuhs! Go pahk the cah!") As we discussed the game, we were rather open about our feelings about the Celtics. Frankly, we all confessed openly just how much we hated the Celtics and why. We all had our reasons. Mine include, but are certainly not limited to, Kevin McHale's clothesline on Kurt Rambis (Ironically, Rambis now works under him!), M.L. Carr's towel waving, the big mouth of Cornbread Maxwell, and of course, the pasting that we received just two years ago in the finals. We were getting all worked up about games and players from the 80's as well as the current Celtic roster.
In the midst of these moments, someone said, we should pray. Now, I thought that it was funny, because here we are HATING on the Celtics, and at the same time, calling on God to show His love for His people through the music we are about to present!! "God, we love you and want you to be glorified through our lips..." It brought these verses to mind:
"But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."
Of course, this is not the meaning of these verses. This refers to people in your life, not a franchise of hated green men! Now, if I said that I would refuse to lead Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to salvation, THEN I might have a problem! (Would I? I can't answer that right now!! :-)
The point that James makes is that our mouth should be an accurate reflection of our hearts and that our words should always be consistent with what we believe. At the same time, our mouths provide an accurate measurement of what is in our hearts. If there is cursing along with blessing with regard to people in our lives, we need to be concerned and rectify that with the Lord. I might also say that this might have reference to what we call "speaking out of both sides of our mouth." That is to say, in front of a person, we may speak in flattering tones, but then, as their back is turned, our speech turns in another direction. This is an area that we all need to be exhorted in.
However, when it comes to professional basketball teams, it seems to be wide open! I think that I am clear on all accounts: I ONLY curse the Celtics! There is no double speech here! Whew! I feel so relieved! :-)
Now, I am sure that the bigger sin would be pride...but I'm gonna show THE moment from the game anyway!! Hopefully, this won't come before the fall right!?
I had the opportunity to play drums last night at Seabreeze church in Huntington Beach with my brother-in-law Nathan. We had a great night of worship. It's always funny to me that in each church, the scenario is essentially the same. The worship personnel arrives a few hours before the service, runs through the tunes and then gets some time to hang out in the back. Every place I've been, the story is virtually the same, as the musicians spend the next period of time sharing stories, resources and most importantly, laughs.
On this particular occasion, the worship team was filled with Laker fans. And, on this day, the Lakers had vanquished the Celtics. It had been a closely contested game, but the end result was victory for us and humiliating defeat for them, which put all of us in a much more jovial mood. (I wonder what the evening services in Boston were like! "Ah, those Lakuhs! Go pahk the cah!") As we discussed the game, we were rather open about our feelings about the Celtics. Frankly, we all confessed openly just how much we hated the Celtics and why. We all had our reasons. Mine include, but are certainly not limited to, Kevin McHale's clothesline on Kurt Rambis (Ironically, Rambis now works under him!), M.L. Carr's towel waving, the big mouth of Cornbread Maxwell, and of course, the pasting that we received just two years ago in the finals. We were getting all worked up about games and players from the 80's as well as the current Celtic roster.
In the midst of these moments, someone said, we should pray. Now, I thought that it was funny, because here we are HATING on the Celtics, and at the same time, calling on God to show His love for His people through the music we are about to present!! "God, we love you and want you to be glorified through our lips..." It brought these verses to mind:
"But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so."
James 3:8-10
Of course, this is not the meaning of these verses. This refers to people in your life, not a franchise of hated green men! Now, if I said that I would refuse to lead Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce to salvation, THEN I might have a problem! (Would I? I can't answer that right now!! :-)
The point that James makes is that our mouth should be an accurate reflection of our hearts and that our words should always be consistent with what we believe. At the same time, our mouths provide an accurate measurement of what is in our hearts. If there is cursing along with blessing with regard to people in our lives, we need to be concerned and rectify that with the Lord. I might also say that this might have reference to what we call "speaking out of both sides of our mouth." That is to say, in front of a person, we may speak in flattering tones, but then, as their back is turned, our speech turns in another direction. This is an area that we all need to be exhorted in.
However, when it comes to professional basketball teams, it seems to be wide open! I think that I am clear on all accounts: I ONLY curse the Celtics! There is no double speech here! Whew! I feel so relieved! :-)
Now, I am sure that the bigger sin would be pride...but I'm gonna show THE moment from the game anyway!! Hopefully, this won't come before the fall right!?
Now, if we can just do this 4 out of 7 times in June...
Blessings...To Our Friends,
Frank Sanchez
2 comments:
Thanks, Frank, for being part of the team that lead us in an awesome worship experience last night! The Lord was so present in our worship time... can it be that he's a Lakers fan too? ;-)
I can't imagine Him rooting for any other team, can you!?
Thanks for commenting and it was a great night last night. Obviously, my brother in law is amazing, but the rest of the cast is superb as well. It was a privilege to worship there with that worship team. Super talented!
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