Does God Hate Vegetables? A post for Worship Leaders.

Have you ever wondered why in Genesis, God rejected Cain's offering?

Genesis 4 says this:

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Seems to me like an honest attempt. What's wrong with offering the fruit of your labor to God? Does God hate vegetables as much as I do? Maybe God just really prefers the smell of a good steak to grilled veggies which makes sense. Have you ever accidentally burned an onion? Disgusting.

No doubt Cain and his brother Abel had grown up hearing the story of how their parents had been evicted from the garden in Eden. Adam and Eve sinned and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. God said "Let me cover you with garments of skin." They tried to do it on their own and God said "let me do it for you."

That is a picture of the grace of God; God doing for us what we could never do, even when it's our fault.

So back to Cain. Knowing full well that he was required to offer a blood sacrifice, he offered vegetation. He came to God with an offering that he knew was an insult to His grace, and God rejected it. Cain in essence was declaring that he would do things his own way and in his own power, outside of the plan and the requirement God had put in place; that he could atone for his sins by the sweat of his brow and the fruit of his fields. Cain was spitting on the grace of God so God rejected his offering.

As worship leaders, it can be tempting to bring our offering to God with the attitude that we have done all the work in practice and in preparation. We put in the hours learning chords and scales, we picked out the songs, we spent the time figuring out smooth transitions. We can fall into the trap of thinking that outside of the grace of God, we can do anything. God's grace is that He has given us the gifts and the talents and the anointing to bring worship to Him. When we think that we can do it on our own, we spit on that grace.

So how do we avoid that? By acknowledging His grace to us and not trying to do things in our own power. Instead of making our offering the focus of our worship, make God the focus of our offering. He has graced us with everything we need to bring an acceptable offering to Him.

A Marathon but with Words

I just finished reading Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. It is by far the best book for worship leaders I have ever come across. I would highly recommend it as it also has a chapter for Lead Pastors on how to relate to/support worship leaders.

I am currently in the middle of a 4 book marathon. The other books are:

Worship By The Book by D.A. Carson
I Am Not But I Know I AM by Louie Giglio
Engaging With God by David Peterson

I really want to challenge my paradigm of worship and what it means to be a worshiper and never get stuck thinking that I know everything there is to know about worship and music.

I had a very unique opportunity last weekend; I got to fly in a float plane up to a mountain lake and camp/hike/fish. I have been to Lake Isabel 3 previous times and all three involved a good 4 wheel drive and a brutal hike. The trip always takes at least 5 to 6 hours of driving up Hwy 2, taking the Reiter Rd, driving across a creek, taking your rig as far as you can and then and hiking. This time, we started from Lake Washington and after a 30 minute flight over Bellevue, Carnation, and Gold Bar, we were on the water.

The last time I was there was 3 years ago while I was in the worst season of my life. Working at a job I hated for a guy I couldn't stand, wondering why there were no ministry doors open. I think I literally spent the entire trip complaining about my boss. I was emotionally unhealthy to say the least. I will spare you the details, but that trip really started the chain of events that lead me where I am today.

This time around, I think I spent the whole trip in amazement at the fact that I get to do what I love for a living at a church that blows me away. What a difference.

So Tim and I got up to the lake on Thursday afternoon and got our gear to the shore. After the plane left it was unbelievably quiet. It was pretty peaceful except for the biting flies but they calmed down after some liberal doses of bug spray. Once the sun went behind the mountain and shade hit the water, the fish started surfacing. I put on a little black dry fly and caught a couple beautiful brook trout. Brookies are the most beautiful trout I've ever seen. I will believe that until I catch a Golden trout. None of them were very big, 9" was the largest but they were fun on a fly rod. We camped on the beach that night and got up in the morning. Did a little fishing, did a little exploring and in the afternoon, the plane came and picked us up. We flew back to the Renton airport and went home. It was a beautiful trip and a great getaway.

Worship Fast

I started a "Worship Fast" a couple days ago. For the month of August I have decided to cut out any music that isn't what you would traditionally call "worship" music.

I understand that this can be a touchy subject and sound real religious and I can hear your mind beginning to get all worked up already so relax, and let me explain:

I am not saying that all secular music is bad.
I am not saying that some secular music can't be worship.
I am not saying that Christian music is bad.
I am not saying that Christians should never listen to secular music.

What I am saying is that I am taking a month to feed my spirit only music that is focused on bringing honor and glory to God. If you are what you eat, then as a worship leader, I want to be full of worship. In Matthew 12:34 Jesus says that "...out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (NIV) I want my heart to overflow with worship so that when I stand in front of New Life Church, I am not drawing from a dry well.

We are beginning a series on worship on August 16th and I would invite you to join me on this fast during those 2 weeks and finish the fast with the first Simply Worship of the fall on September 2.

Passion Problem

Have you ever met someone who was more passionate about something than you are? Chances are you have. Passion is an amazing driving force that makes our world what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. Now, have you ever met someone who was more passionate about something than you and actually looked down on you because of it? I have, in fact, I was that guy. As I've aged and mellowed a bit, I came to the realization that everyone doesn't and won't share my passion. I have been created and uniquely designed to be passionate about certain things. This seems to be a problem in the church world. You hear people say, if not directly, "If you aren't actively reaching out to the homeless, you aren't doing God's will", or "If you aren't sharing your faith with everyone you see, you're lukewarm."
Romans 12:4-8 describes us as the Body, made up of many different parts and many different gifts. My gift is music, I don't look down on people who aren't passionate about music, I think they are weird, but I don't look down on them. Can you imagine saying "If you don't do the songs we do at our church then you are doing it wrong"?
Everyone doesn't have the gift of an evangelist, and everyone can't be a public speaker, and everyone can't be a Pastor. Find your gift and be passionate about it and be the best whatever you are that you can be.

Maybe later

I don't really feel like blogging right now.

LMP

I once again, have the honor of being featured on Spirit 105.3's Local Music Project. It used to be on the radio every day at around 5pm but now they have it online 24/7. Swing by and give a listen. http://www.spirit1053.com/content.php?contentID=30. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and the player is there.

I Need Your Help.

So this was pretty random, but I was nominated for an ITM Live Charity Music Award in the category "Best Male Vocalist". I'm not sure how I got nominated but it's pretty cool. You can help me out by clicking here and voting for me. Polls close June 30th. Thanks!

Sunday High

You know you are at a great place in life when you start to feel bad for talking about how good things are going. I was talking with a new friend who is also a worship pastor and I was describing our situation at New Life Church and I felt like I should shut up so I didn't make him feel bad. I wasn't bragging, just expressing my excitement.
I feel like I am drinking from the Holy Grail of ministry and I fear that I might become too familiar with this for my own good. Like someone who climbs Mt. Everest and then says, "Now where do I go from here?" I have to remember that mininstry isn't about doing the newest and greatest thing or having the best musicians, it's about people. If I become focused on the "Sunday High", I will lose sight of that and become bored. If I filter everything I do through our purpose; "Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ", I will continue to enjoy every step of the journey.

Another Great Day

We had another great day at New Life Church yesterday celebrating Mothers' Day. We have been doing a song called Reign in Us by the band Starfield and it's really catching on. I've been trying to get my mind prepared for youth convention even though it's not until October. I have been polishing up some new songs and will be trying to record them soon. I came up with a cool melody hook for one of them this morning, that was encouraging. I'm going to try to have a new CD available by Youth Convention.

It's all Math's fault

It has been a very busy last couple months. It's been a good busy though. I've done a few conferences, done a lot of church, and when you throw an 8 week old baby in the mix, things can be hectic. So much so that I have allowed myself to resume some very bad eating habits. When you add that to the fact that I've come up with some very convincing excuses to avoid the gym, the end result is me getting out of shape. That is really starting to sound like a math problem. [(conferences3+church) x (baby+food) x (tired+back pain) = sloppy]

Anyways, I dragged myself to the gym last night for the second time in about 2 months. It felt pretty good even though I didn't quite have the stamina I previously had. I'm sure it will return. I'm starting another cleanse soon and those always are miserable but worth it.

Twit

Hey, I'm on Twitter, blah, blah, blah. www.twitter.com/samleyde.

Good Times

At New Life Church, we have been in a crazy season of blessing. Giving is up, attendance is up, things seem to be firing on all cylinders. We took a special offering this past Sunday for Convoy of Hope and raised enough money to feed 30,000 people for a day. On top of that we started moving dirt on the property! I am making a conscious effort to enjoy this time and not take it for granted.

Torn.

Yesterday was the 4 year anniversary of the day we moved back to our home state. This rainy, cold weather has really been weighing on me lately. I was thinking this morning about a fishing trip I took one time. We lived in Bend, OR at the time so you could actually count on sunny days in the summer. It was the 4th of July and I got up at 4am so I could be on the water before the sun was. It was already warm out and the smell of smoke from recent local forest fires still hung faintly in the air. I decided to fish an area of the Deschutes river that during our time in central Oregon, became my favorite place in the world. This particular spot was just above Benham Falls but below the footbridge. I turned onto the forest service road as the sun was making it's appearance through the Ponderosa pines. Since it was summer, I had the top down on the Jeep and the mixture of pine needles, Juniper pollen and forest fire smoke filled the Deschutes National Forest. I had just received a copy of Jason Upton's album "Faith" and was listening to it while I drove. If you've ever heard the title track from that record, you know the part where he says, "Because I'm learning to trust that it's not you that hurt me, I'm learning to believe that it's not you that deserted me, I believe that you still love me, brokenness and all." When I heard that, something inside of me broke and I began to weep. It was a bit of a spiritual re-awakening for me.
I pulled up and parked, got my waders on, strung up my rod, and began to walk the trail up to the footbridge that at one time had been a railroad grade. I got on the water and found a spot where the reeds were tall and right against the river. I knelt behind them and pulled some line out of the rod tip and gently dropped the fly onto the surface of the slow moving water. Since the reeds were so tall, I couldn't see my fly. After a few drifts and no action, I began to wander mentally. I was admiring the trees, the birds, the sunshine and I was so enthralled by nature that I was startled by the splash of the fish that had come up and crushed my fly. I felt the weight of a bigger-than-my-average fish on the end of my line. I had been so shocked by the disturbance of my quietness that I was not in the state of mind to actually play and land a fish and as suddenly as it had made it's presence known, it was gone. The price of barb-less hooks.
I fished a while longer once my hands stopped shaking from the adrenaline, and about 9:30 am, I called it day, fishless. I drove out the forest service road, onto the highway that connects Bend to Mt. Bachelor and drove home. Even without ever seeing a fish that morning, it had been a great excursion and I knew that I had been changed as a person and that I would remember that morning for the rest of my life.

Picks Down Please.

Yesterday after church we hosted a lead guitarists workshop with the intent of getting all the current and future lead guitarists on the same page. Essentially, the message was, "If you're going to play lead guitar at New Life Church, this is how we want it done." It went really well, Corey presented the technical aspects of technique, theory and tone, while I was there to provide demonstration music.
It was really an "Above and Beyond" kind of event. We have a wealth of quality musicians here and it would be easy to sit back and enjoy that fact but we want to go above and beyond just having quality musicians, to actually developing our musicians into quality worship teams. The hardest part was keeping 9 guitar players quiet long enough to say anything!

If you would like to learn how to play guitar, check out www.coreysublett.com

No Communion Cup Holders?

We purchased a used vehicle yesterday. During the test drive, I tried out the radio and it was set to 106.9 which is a pop station. While I was talking with the salesman, the fact that I work at a church came up. When we drove off the lot, we noticed that the radio had been set to 105.3, the local Christian music station. I thought that was funny. Religious profiling.

What Do You Say?

I just talked with a guy who came in to the church office wanting to talk. He told me his story. Let's just say he had a sordid past. He moved out here from really far away to escape his old life after becoming a Christian. He has been struggling to find work and more importantly, someone to talk to. He has been to a number of churches but found judgmental stares and words. He is contemplating returning to his former life.
So what do you say to someone who has turned to God but found nothing but rejection from people who bear the Name of Christ? Sorry? What do you say to someone who can't find work and is staying in his car? Wow that sucks?
I prayed with him and encouraged him to get connected here at New Life. I hope too much damage hasn't already been done. Say a prayer for this man, let's call him Joe.

What Beats a Black Hole?

I was playing with my 4 year old son the other day and he wanted to play "Rock, Paper, Scissors". We were playing and he kept making a gun and I kept correcting him saying "No you can't use a gun, it's not a rock, paper, or scissors." A few more times through the process and he started waving his arms around in front of him and I said "What is that?" and he immediately replied, "Black hole."
Since I don't know what beats a black hole, I gave up.

The best prison ever.

I have been working on some scripts for some videos we are doing for an upcoming series, "Joesph: The E True Hollywood Story" and while studying for it, I came across a verse in Genesis that made me stop and laugh. In Genesis 40, two of Pharaoh's servants are in the prison with Joseph and they each have dreams that upset them. So Joseph walks in that morning and says "Why do you look so sad today?" (v7)
Why do you look so sad?!! They're sitting in prison! Did they normally sing in the morning? What kind of prison was this that he would notice that they were sad? Wouldn't they have been sad every morning?
Anyway, that made me laugh.

Coffee

I was just thinking about coffee and how much I enjoy drinking it and smelling it and going to a coffee shop and leaving smelling like coffee. I think the only thing that makes coffee any better is when it's free and enjoyed with a kindred soul.