Fire On Your Head

This entry is not going to be sensational or alarmist or anything. I’m just going to reflect on the last year of my life living in a metropolitan city in Europe, and being one of the only white guys living on a pretty Arabic street and ministering in a cafe that is located in a Muslim neighborhood with a large mosque around the corner from us.

If it weren’t for the Dutch writing on the signs and windows, one might not realize they are actually treading in Holland if they walked through certain areas of Rotterdam. Sad to say, I cannot say that I’ve developed a ministry to Muslims given how Arabic my culture is, but I’m seeing the increasing importance of that aspect of apologetics if we’re going to make an impact in this nation, and I think I’m going to start.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I had two interesting occurrences happen today at the Hodgeschool Rotterdam that make light of something interesting. Both tying to Islam, or “other religions” if you will.

The Gebedsgroep (prayer group) that meets on Monday mornings and does evangelism in the canteen, has been using a small prayer room for a few years, not sure how long, but before I ever started joining them. I’m not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg, but it has muslim paraphernalia in the room, and has red carpet, cloths and up until sometime this summer, a picture of mecca on the predominant wall of the room. In order to book it, a student has to trade their student card with the administration in exchange for the key to the room they wish to use. So, every Monday the prayer group meets here. I’m not sure who else uses it or how often, but it obviously would be conceivable muslim students have access to it whenever they want.  In Leeuwarden, when the FIRE team and students prayed at the C.H.N., we used the “contemplation room”, which was dedicated to anyone of any religious persuasion who wanted to use it, but it was obvious from the decor that mostly muslims would use it, so I imagine it’s a similar case with this school.

Anyway, today, about 8 of us were praying and worshiping together in song as usual, and around 9:45 someone knocked on the door to the room and in Dutch explained that she needed the room to pray, because she needs to observe Ramadan. I did not understand all the detail of the conversation, but basically, this one young muslim lady was kicking us out for 5 minutes so she could pray to Mecca, even though we were there first and had booked it (and frankly, outnumbered her).

But we didn’t behave like that about it. We all picked up our stuff and went outside and waited. While waiting we watched another Muslim girl come in and join her. But I found it peculiar. Oh, and it was explained to me (since I don’t understand all dialog I hear in Dutch) that she was offended that we were wearing shoes while sitting in that room since I guess in Islam that’s a big no-no for prayer. None of us were obnoxious about it, but it did break my heart a little and enlighten me at the same time to see how a spirit of religion can so dupe so many people into form and ritual, reaching out and grasping AT a god they don’t even know if they have his approval or not.

After five minutes, they both left, and smiled at us in appreciation I presume, and we went back in and I found that we had a different atmosphere. No, it wasn’t heavy or oppressive and we didn’t do warfare and rebuke any demonic spirits or some hokus pokus like that. But we blessed the two girls, asked God to reveal His TRUE self to them, and then we lifted our voices louder in worship than we had been prior to their 5 minute prayer stop. I’m glad the experience happened, but has provoked me to thought about Islam in this nation all day since it happened.

Later after prayer, around lunch time, I partnered up with a guy I met for the first time today named Egbert who also is a full timer with Agape (the Dutch Campus Crusade For Christ) and we went around with the surveys we use as an icebreaker to start chats, and I met a young man studying to be an English teacher and who had also studied in Canada for a year. A lot of what he was telling us was that all religions are essentially the same thing, and all have the Holy Spirit in some way and they just don’t all call it the same thing.

I couldn’t help but ask him a simple question and ask him if he believed that this “holy spirit” would teach one religion that feeding the hungry and clothing the naked was good and noble, and then this same spirit go motivate individuals in another religion to crash airplanes into buildings killing people and blowing themselves up in cars to murder all whom they view as infidels. This young man agreed with me without hesitation that murder is murder, no matter what a religion says to the contrary. He was willing to admit that it’s true not all religions believe the same thing. So how can we ignore or pretend that “all religions lead to the same god” if not only is that not true, but one worldview and mindset has world domination and submission as its ultimate goal?

I know sharing my thoughts in such candor is not politically correct these days, but anyone wanting to close their eyes to the threat of militant Islam might as well bury their head in the sand. I have not researched it for myself in preparation for this entry, since I’m being more reflective than academic, but someone told me that there are more mosques in the Netherlands than there are in the United States.

Think about this for a moment.

With a population of 300 million in the USA, and only around 17 million people living in the Netherlands, that figure is pretty staggering. And when you live in Rotterdam, the proportion of Muslims to the rest of the population seems to be all the more obvious. I believe the figure is one out of six children in this country’s public education system are Arabic and middle eastern. With the average size of Muslim families, and the number of broken Dutch families (and this is so in the West in general), it is totally conceivable for the population of Muslims in the Netherlands to outnumber caucasian Dutch people in maybe as fast as one generation.

Are you seeing yet another example of how this generation needs a Jesus Revolution to take place now or never? That if we don’t seize the opportunity, it might be generations before we are ever given another opportunity?

Our revolution doesn’t involve violence. It doesn’t involve suicide bombings. The Jesus Revolution doesn’t involve beheading people who don’t convert to Christ. But they will know we are Christians by our love. Even if it’s as simple as just getting up and leaving the room you’re praying in because a muslim girl wants to pray to Mecca right then and there.

A prayer, fasting and intercession based Jesus movement can and will change this nation if we go for it! Can you imagine the change we could see on this planet before Jesus returns, if JUST the Muslim community saw an authentic Gospel of miracles, signs, wonders and a prophetic witness they could not resist? How else do you explain such a large harvest in the book of Revelation? It’s not far off to believe something wide scale will happen like the backbone of a whole religion being broken and the witness of Christ filling that vacuum in its stead.

Can you believe for it? Can you pray for it? Can you do something about it? Or do you want to just twiddle your thumbs, and wait for the rapture to happen with or without you making good use of your time here on this earth to see a generation set on fire for Christ?

The Jesus people are coming….

Link of interest: Submission – familiarize yourself with it instead of naively believing all religions are the same.

Lately, I’ve also been plowing through the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Old Testament of the Bible) and I’ve been reading it to read for myself instead of to study for anything. I find I go through seasons where I’m reading my Bible or praying and get total revelation downloaded into me, and then I can’t wait to sit on my computer to write it out and 3/4 of the times, to post the thoughts on my blog. Well I’ve been resisting the urge to do that, and to just soak in the Word of God and His presence lately. So, the following won’t be too detailed, but I’ll try to quote the Scriptural references, since I’ve been gleaning this from reading the intricate detail and instructions the Lord gives His people for how they’re to worship Him.

Actually, my thoughts on this are not actually anything new, but just today even I was reading Deuteronomy 12 and could not help but notice how many times the phrase “as the Lord your God will choose” or something like it shows up in regard to places and methods of worship to the Lord. Today, if you read the websites for many churches attempting to be contemporary, they focus in their self-advertising on how the style of worship is or things like casual dress, or various peripherals — indicating “hey, we’re not THAT religious, you can fit in just fine if you come here.” But are we imitating the world and offering hype, or are we pleasing to the Lord and being anointed with HIS presence first and foremost above the masses?

I’m all for being relevant to the culture around us, but I’m scared and nervous when The Body of Christ chooses to learn from the world how to worship. When we go to the idolatries of this world and then set up our own Asherah poles in the Temple of God to offer something up to Him our way instead of His prescribed way.

I’m not dogging musical styles themselves. What I am NOT saying is this style or that sound is sin. If you listen to a recent podcast message Dan and I did on secular music, you’ll hear me mock how in the late 1800s many churches of the day branded D.L. Moody’s ministry as from the devil because his worship leader and traveling partner Ira Sanky (did I spell his name right?) used a grammaphone record player in their evangelism, and they believed that tool was from hell. I am NOT saying guitars or keyboards or something is demonic. I like a little more expression than I do just singing contemplative hymns, but I love all of it–if God is being glorified the way HE wants to be.

I hate listening to people criticize one group for how they sing songs over and over, while others have no music and sit still and use only our voices to worship with words and song. However, I think there’s a danger when anyone says they can’t enter into worship unless ________ takes places, such as a certain style or musical instrument.

One time I invited a friend with me to the Morning Star Fellowship near FIRE in North Carolina, and this person criticized the worship music, which sounded that night like an alternative rock band. I immediately told them “the worship wasn’t for you.” I recall another time, and I have a grin on my face just thinking about it– when living in Peterborough, Canada many of my friends there would try car pooling to Toronto on Monday Nights to go to Tehillah Monday–a very urban young adults worship night made up of many churches and different cultures–it is one of my favorite places to fellowship and worship when I have a chance, bar none. We would always pray for safe travel and things before hitting the road together, and I distinctly remember one night one brother praying that ‘the band would play the songs we like.’ I tried not to laugh, but this was NOT a baby Christian or an otherwise immature believer, but it showed me how messed up our thinking is concerning worship being a form of entertainment for us instead of a sweet smelling fragrance the Lord loves to receive from us.

Many times we make worship about ourselves and only participate in it if it fits a certain pattern or form of OUR liking. That’s rotten apples. How would you like it if someone asked you what you’d like for your birthday, because they intended on honoring you with a gift, and you knew they were serious and would buy you whatever you said you’d want within reason. You tell them “well, there’s this new CD out by a band I really like, and I was going to buy it myself next paycheck, but if you’d like to buy it for me, that’d be great also.” Then they present you some cheap Wal-mart discount bin CD they randomly grabbed, because they didn’t want to walk to the isle it could be found in, but grabbed something and offered it to you. If you were raised to have good manners, you’ll thank this person for buying a gift at all, but you’ll be puzzled as to why they even asked you if they had no intention of honoring your taste and getting you something that would be meaningful to you.

But this is exactly what we do with much of our worship to God.

Cain decided in Genesis 4 to offer up crops instead of a sacrifice that involved blood atonement like his brother Abel offered Him. Subsequently, we all know that Cain killed his brother when the Lord honored his offering instead of his own.

We read in Leviticus 10 how the Lord killed Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron the priest, for offering “unauthorized fire” before the Lord, differently from how He commanded it, but had just accepted from their father in the previous chapter. What happened to them? A fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them. How would we like it it a fire came out from the pulpit of many churches all over the Western world this Sunday morning, in response to the strange fire that gets offered up week after week?

Steve you’re being a little harsh. What kind of worship DO YOU think the Lord accepts.

Gee, I don’t know, but how about rephrasing the question and not asking me or each other what the Lord accepts but asking Him? He states in Deuteronomy 12:2-6a:

You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall NOT worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. (Emphasis mine)

Now I realize that in North America and Europe in the 21st century Church, these specific Old Testament details are not even of any concern for our contemporary settings, but how much of what we do have we gleaned from the societal idol worship of the cultures around us, instead of directly from the throne of God above? How many worship services are reminiscent of night clubs and bars? How many worship services sounds like a rock concert not because the band is talented that way in that direction with their musical talents, but because we’re trying to imitate the world’s stylings? How much of what is done in the name of contemporary Christian worship and spirituality is just based on trends and not the voice of the Spirit of God?

I have no problems with loud amplifiers if the goal is worship and adoration of HIM, and not elevation of man and good bands and showcasing their talent. In fact, I LOVE dancing in Church before God. But I don’t just jump around and move for nothing, I only go nuts in worship for Jesus–you can see examples of this in videos I’ve posted on Facebook. But I’ve been to worship events that raunched of Christian celebrity rock stars, and yes worship songs can be catchy, but so can secular songs. I’ve also been in settings where I’ve seen girls dance like hoochie mamas the same way I imagine they’d gyrate their bodies around at a dance club. Also, have you ever decided to attend something because you liked the band that would be leading the worship? How come we won’t go if Hillsong United is NOT the one leading it (I think they’re great, but I’m just citing an example)? The problem with most of the church is we confuse entertaining with anointed.

When we look through “old” law, we see that God has a pattern, and it may not lie in the details and specifics for us under a new covenant, but we can still seek HIS face, and seek to please HIM in our worship, and do whatever it takes of us to leave a sweet smelling aroma in His nostrils.

Do you see for ways to kiss his lips with your worship, whether it be through music or other ways?

If you’ve never checked out our FIRE On Your Head podcast, I strongly recommend doing so–not just because Dan and I have a lot of fun doing those, but we’ve carefully selected some pertinent messages to fuel the Jesus Revolution in our sphere of influence, and there are a couple of messages loosely related to this subject, “Keeping the Pure Fire” that Jerome Ocampo preached, and “The Fire of God” that Dr. Josh Peters preached, before a massive repentance altar call took place one night at the summer school.  Visit our podcast site at www.fireonyourhead.com