While here on the earth, Jesus ministry displayed a mastery of the understanding and interpretation of scripture (notably Moses and the prophets) but also the ability to deliver a message that spoke eternal volumes, even in the use of a single phrase…at least for ‘those who have an ear to hear’.

It is also evident that He used various rabbinic methods of interpretation when teaching. To engage the party to whom He was speaking in a way that they should have understood.

One such method was remez (Hebrew) or simply put ‘to hint or allude to’. Quite often the teacher or in this case Jesus, would allude to a certain passage of scripture by stating a phrase or small portion of a passage. This would force the hearer to search their minds for the context of that phrase into its location in scriptures. Brilliant! One such example is even on the lips of Jesus as He hung in the last moments of His life on the cross…

‘Eli Eli lama sabacthani’ …‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’, Psalm 22:1.

Even in the moment before death Jesus soul was reminding His disciples once again, go to the passage…go to the passage, it will speak of things to come and give you hope. When we go to that passage we can see the whole crucifixion scene so clearly detailed that it opens not only our hearts but also our eyes to the amazing way that God fulfils His word to the letter.

For those of us that are called to the ministry of Worship through music, the use of such methods should not be ignored. Songwriters will often have an allusion or ‘remez’ to a theme that is to be structured within a small few sentences. Hymns, old and new, are able to employ a more thorough approach where whole passages are quoted or expounded. Contemporary worship songs do not often have the luxury of multiple stanzas of scriptural exposition and so the crafting of our worship is something that should be shaped, moulded and intentional creating a renewed thirst in the congregation to search out the truths ‘alluded’ to in the worship.

I firmly believe that this approach will have a profound effect on the writer, the hearer and the listener as the glimpses of God’s word will set our hearts on fire with revelation.

Ultimately, we need to be hearing from the voice of the Holy Spirit in our times of worship and in so doing the Living Word, Jesus....given, that is a no brainer. As the Chief conductor of our worship the Holy Spirit may use this very method to move the people in a certain direction by one simple phrase spoken into the heart of the worship leader or another in the team. This, not unlike the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, will require a step of faith and some holy boldness. Once that step is taken, however, the heart and purpose of worship can be accomplished...glorifying God and lives transformed.

I have no doubt in my heart that seeds were sown into many lives who heard the last words of Jesus on that day. That over the next few days they thought of the words of a dying man and went to the Psalms. Some 50 days later I hope that many spoke to Him again in repentance and faith and were counted among the thousands who worshiped their Messiah Jesus for the first time. The incarnate word of God, John Ch1.

What's in a word? Only the power of the creator of all that was, is and is to come...and that is no 'illusion'!

Adam

(Thanks to Chuck Cohen's amazing book 'The roots of our faith' for the inspiration behind this blog entry)
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In Isaiah 14 we read of the prophetic judgment on Babylon for their handling of the nation of Israel. When reading ‘behind the lines’ it becomes obvious that we step out of Isaiah’s imminent proclamation and into the Throne room of God and a message that is eternal in perspective and consequence, the fall of Lucifer.

Some scholars suggest that the reference to Satan in this passage is secondary to that of the king of Babylon…even if so, I see that it gives a clear picture of the attributes that Satan (Lucifer) allowed to build in his heart, ultimately determining his eternal fate.

The environment for this rebellion was, unfortunately, worship. Not so much the act but the object of it. The cause put simply…PRIDE! This passage reveals five steps up, each one closer to the ultimate goal, equality with God.

I will, I will, I will, I will, I will…the rest as they say, is history!

The sadness, such a lame word in this context, is that Lucifer was created with music and the anointing to worship in his very being (Ezekiel 28:13). When you take a minute to contemplate his downfall, how the Father’s heart must have been broken by this event.

By contrast, Jesus demonstrated the exact opposite to Lucifer’s pride…he humbled himself in ways that only eternity will unveil to us.

• From His place of glory before the worlds were formed He willingly presented Himself as the Lamb of God to be slain (Rev 13:8)
• From the age of twelve Jesus was aware that He was to be ‘about His Father’s business’ (Luke2:49), yielding to His Father’s will
• Teaching his disciples that He, Jesus, was constantly looking to do the Fathers will and what pleased Him (John 4:34, 6:39, 8:29)
• In Gethsemane, the place of crushing, His ‘obedience unto death’ displayed the ultimate sacrifice and display of obedience to His Father’s will (Luke 22:42)

Pride…Our will and worship are inextricably linked. Without yielded and humble hearts we will fall short of God’s glory and seek to promote ourselves.

On the other hand, as we humble ourselves and give all that we are to the One who is worthy of all worship our hearts will explode with the glory that we see in and through the Logos, the reason why…Jesus!

Adam
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We recently had the ‘delight’ of looking for a rental in Singapore. As it happens we have ended up in a funky renovated HDB in Tampines, very close to all the important things…food, shopping centres and transport. Singaporean town planning at it’s best.

Prior to that, however, we spent hours surfing the net and wading thru countless pages of rentals, finally narrowing it down and taking to the streets to find our new home. Agent after agent, apartment by apartment there was one factor to this house-hunting mission that was constant…agents who revelled in ‘stating the obvious’.

Now, before any real estate agents black mark this blog for life there is a positive twist to come so stay with me!
With each apartment my kids anticipation for what was to come could be seen on their faces. With the turn of the key to each new apartment my three children would look at my wife Johanna and I with the expectation of hearing the following ‘Now this is the front door, this is the kitchen, this is a bedroom, this is the toilet etc etc’.

I know, I know, they are just doing their job but after the third or fourth apartment I cheekily began to finish their sentences…naughty I know, but fun!

Now having settled into our new HDB, apparently the best street in Tampines according to taxi drivers, I had a few moments to reflect on the events of the previous weeks. Smiling contently to myself in my lazy boy chair with a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee, a new blog entry began to emerge…with, I think, a little conviction of the Holy Spirit.

So often we are guilty of going through the motions of telling God what we need, what we want and how we expect Him to serve it up to us…I confess even the other day as I knelt to pray about my ‘needs’ the thought struck me that to ‘state the obvious’ about God and who He is will never be wasted time, never fall short of truth and will always bring a fresh awareness of who God is and always will be…similarly in worship, to ‘state the obvious’ about God is an element of worship that is eternal in its perspective, but immediate in the strengthening of our faith.

To all Real estate agents, thanks for the inspiration.

Adam
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This post is coming really late, simply because I got back from an awesome trip to Sydney for the Hillsong conference on the 13th of July, but just could not find the time to sit down and blog about it til now.

I had the privilege of travelling with 17 of my youth leaders and members of my church's music team as we roughed it out for a week, braved the Sydney winter, stayed in budget accommodations but soaked in the presence of the LORD for 4 days & nights. It was simply a glimpse of heaven for me, with more than 22,000 people representing more than 50 countries gathering for the sole purpose of worshiping our awesome God.

I remember one of things that I strongly felt during one of the evening worships was that this was what God desired. For HIS church to come together, people from different ethnicities, different denominations, different age groups, different cultures and different lands to worship in one voice. And in that 120 decibel worship environment, I could hear God whispering that BEEP was to do a similar work, of bringing His people from every tribe & tongue together in worship...

And so we continue on our journey of faith. I can't imagine why the churches in our nation and beyond can be bothered with the thoughts, dreams & visions of 5 guys, but by God's grace, a nation can be impacted through lives totally surrendered to HIS plans. I believe we just have to continue to (and I quote Pastor Edmund Chan's philosophy to ministry) "Dream Big, Start Small & Grow Deep". First, supporting the efforts of In-Deep, next serving the church through 'Just Worship'... then continue to produce and avail anointed songs from this nation to the rest of the Church...

the one united Church of Christ.
-kev
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It has been a couple of weeks now since the BEEP team welcomed our second ‘official’ staff member, Mr Irving Koh. For those who know him, he needs no introduction. For those who don’t, you can see a window into his personality by listening to him fronting up our BEEP podcasts.

You’ll be mesmerised by his engaging wit, his charm, his zest for life…well you get the picture, he’s just a cool guy!
More importantly he loves Jesus and has been waiting patiently for such an opportunity as BEEP music to serve the body of Christ in Singapore and beyond.

Woohoo!

In writing this little letter of introduction several things occurred to me that could not remain unsaid…as is often the biblical way of things let me first begin with the natural, then with the spiritual.

The natural:

Since arriving in Singapore with my family over six months ago, the BEEP guys Irv, Merv, Gev, Kev and Jdub, have made our transition into the Singaporean lifestyle that much easier for my family and I (not to mention the various wives aswell). They even let me play in their band, so I became an appendage to a five fingered Starfish, what the?

None of what we have accomplished in the past months could have been achieved without the sacrifice of time and energy from this ‘band of brothers’.
Thanks guys!

The Spiritual

Since beginning this new venture that is Beep, we have come from the place of a bunch of people with a common heart and desire to a functional team that is seeing the amazing hand of God moulding, shaping and stretching these simple vessels, these living stones. The Apostle Peter speaks about this in his first Epistle, no longer individual bricks but living stones being aligned to the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus.

Are we there yet, do we have it all together? Nooo, but this hand or foot or ear, whatever part we are playing in the kingdom is on the way and we’re not looking back!

One thing I do ask you to keep in prayer is that Irving and I resist the temptation to have prata and kopi more than once a week at the little Indian coffee house behind the studio, the climb up the studio stairs seems to get harder with each visit…haha!

Adam
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Recently, after having enjoyed a delicious, albeit expensive cup of coffee, I bumped into a Pastor from our church (in fact I literally bumped into his table and spilt his coffee into his lap). He kind of stands out in any Singaporean crowd due to his ginger locks and moustache, he was hard to miss. We had not yet met and after some introduction and pleasantries we got down to the business of discussing our testimonies.

As we spoke together of missions and of his direct work in the volatile province of Orissa, India, I was reminded of a father and his two sons who were martyred near that region, burned to death in there jeep by Hindu extremists on January 22nd, 1999. You may have seen the headlines as we did in Australia…such headlines as ‘Murder at midnight’ splashed across papers and newscasts alike.

The Staines family had been originally sent from several churches including ours in Brisbane…so the news spread quickly and came thru to our Pastor only several minutes before we were to begin our worship the following day.

As it happened I was leading worship that day. Our Pastor, with great anguish and yet triumphant joy made the announcement to the congregation that the Trumpet had sounded for Graham and his two boys, Timothy and Philip. They were now seeing their Saviour face to face.

Needless to say leading worship was difficult that Sunday morning, moments where words could not be uttered, eyes were filled with tears…and yet incredible hope filled our congregation. Though shocked and bewildered, we all caught a glimpse of eternity that day that I am sure was not be soon forgotten.

In simple terms what we did that day opened our eyes to another tangible dimension of Worship…the reality of life and death, of martyrdom for our Glorious King, what we have often read about became a part of our churches story.

As it happens I did not even know the family personally, but that didn’t diminish my response to the Lord that day. Faith, Love and importantly Hope were the ingredients of thanksgiving, of worship that Sunday morning. My eyes are filled with tears as I write not only for the Staines family, a wife and daughter left behind, but for the glory of the Lord, that the zeal for His house would consume us as we lay our lives, our hearts, our all before Him.

For Graham, Philip and Timothy the fire and zeal of God that consumed them, fueled the flames of hatred that brought them into His presence. An ironic twist of fate…never! Rather, a crown of righteousness as a reward for their ultimate act of worship, ushering them into the presence of Jesus, with arms open wide.

Though sad for those left behind, there is ultimately victory for the Kingdom of God and a testament to the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in this family’s life. Gladys, widow of Graham and their daughter Esther have been back in that very place for several years now continuing what they as a family had begun, all to the glory of God, in praise and worship of their King.

Adam
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we're flying without a net! beep has moved into our first official premises... officially! and HQ Beep is rarin' to go... to ikea for lamps, plants, etc... oh those stylish yet reasonably priced home decorations/ accessories... how you draw me like a moth to a flame ... like icarus to the sun ... like Adam to a freshly-fried donut ... Lord, give us strength!
jdub
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