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Redeeming a Dark Day – The Halloween or Reformation Battle

Ryan Egan — October 31, 2010 — Leave a comment

As I gear up to watch Luther tonight to celebrate my denominational heritage and as I also gear up to take my daughter trick-or-treating and be prepared to hand out candy myself I continue to acknowledge the struggle that many Christians (including myself) have every time October 31 comes around. I’m growing more and more of the opinion that because our God is a God of redemption we should do as much as humanly possible to redeem our culture.

One thing is for sure about this day: Martin Luther took a stand in the midst of great opposition to do his best to redeem the culture he was a part of. That is grand and I’m glad to continue to be a part of the result of the Reformation.

Instead of drafting an entire post on the issue I thought it would be helpful to send you to two places I’ve found helpful.

Funny and helpful: 5 Keys to a Sufficiently Christian Halloween
Logical and Helpful: Stand to Reason Blog: Halloween Worries, Doctrine Apathy

What do you think about participating in Halloween? (and please only answer if you can use sufficient, in-context Scripture references to strongly support your opinion, don’t just say “because it’s evil” :-))

In Theology

Confessing the Greatness of God

Ryan Egan — October 20, 2010 — Leave a comment

Do you find it difficult to confess your sins, publicly or privately? There’s something about openly admitting that we’ve done something wrong or that we’re inherently sinful people that is just plain hard for us to do. But it’s necessary. Oh so necessary.

Also, to me at least, it feels much easier to confess my sin to God than to someone I’ve wronged. He’ll always forgive me. He’ll always be merciful. There might be tougher consequences for admitting something to someone here on earth. They might not be quick to forgive and might be even slower to forget.

Glory in Him Who Will Fulfill His Promise

In my recent discovery of Martin Luther’s writings I happened upon some incredible thinking on confession that I had to share. He wrote a very detailed letter in response to the practice of the Catholic church requiring confession to be made as a part of a work for salvation (A Discussion on How Confession should be Made).

In one of the most refreshing parts of this letter he shares a perspective on confessing our sin that I had never thought of before: confessing your sin is equal to confessing the truth and greatness of God. He first writes:

…it is necessary, above all, that he who confesses should not put his trust in the confession he is about to make or has made. Rather, he should put his trust in the most merciful promise of God alone, with complete faith and with the certainty that he who promised the forgiveness of sins to the person about to confess them will most faithfully fulfill his promise.

For we are to glory not in making confession but in him who promised to those who confess…the work of confession is nothing but an occasion on which God is requested to fulfill his promise – or rather, whereby we are trained to believe that we shall undoubtedly obtain that promise…Thus it will come to pass that confession and splendor are the work of God.

What a fantastic way to start. The act of confessing our sin should not be the work that we hold onto or something we glory in, but we should glory in Him! Confession is not a chore or downer, but an opportunity to glorify God by knowing that He promises to forgive our sin.

Declaring and Acknowledging the Truth of God

He goes on to write:

For he who confesses his sins certainly speaks the truth. However, God is the truth, therefore he [who confesses] simultaneously confesses God.

While confessing our sin cannot be equated to directly confessing the nature of God, it can be equated to confessing, or acknowledging, proclaiming, or declaring truth, and thus acknowledging, proclaiming, and declaring God.

Why is Confessing our Sin Important?

Confession is a necessary part of the Christian life, both privately and corporately:

We are to confess our sin to God (Proverbs 28:13, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 32:5)
We are to confess our sin to each other (James 5:16) Why? “…and pray for another, that you may be healed.” It is so powerful when we truly confess what we’ve done not only to God, but to each other, so that healing can take place, relationships can be restored, and trust can be rebuilt.
I believe strongly that this passage is referring to confessing sin to the one against whom you’ve sinned, not just to a pastor or priest as a third party.

Do you include a confession of sin in your service? Do you regularly confess your sin to God and to each other?

(photo by Krist Adams)

In For Worship Leaders, Theology

Music Theory For Worship: How to Read a Lead Sheet (Key Signature, Rhythm, and Structure)

Ryan Egan — October 18, 2010 — 2 Comments

I run into many musicians who are classically trained and aren’t sure how to read lead sheets. I wanted to post a series of videos that teaches you the basics of reading lead sheets as well as learning how to play the chords written on them.

Check out the video below (Email readers, you’ll need to visit I am an Offering to see the video.)

The lead sheet I used in this video is Jesus, Thank You from Sovereign Grace music and can be downloaded for free here.

In Music, Training

Stop reading this and go and get a glass of water. Right now. Did you do it? Good. Now drink it. All of it. Enjoy it. If you did what I asked (which I hope you did) you are among 1/8th of the world’s population that can drink that glass of water without worrying about these things:

Having to walk miles to a water source, fill your water container, and walk back while carrying it.
Getting terminally ill from viruses in the water
Using the same water to drink that has been used to wash clothes and be used as a toilet both by humans and animals
Forsaking a career and education just so you can get water

It’s Time to Act

Today I wanted to spend some time calling us to action. I hope you’ve learned some things from this blog. I hope you’ve turned it into action and applied it in your life or ministry in the church. But today, right now, while we worry about what restaurant to chose tonight or how much gas costs, there are billions of people who don’t have any way to get clean, healthy, safe drinking water.

Today thousands of bloggers around the world are taking up the call to talk about water and I wanted to join them. However, I didn’t just want to talk about it, I wanted to do something about it.

Charity:water

Among the many charities that are helping provide clean water to the world, I’ve recently come across one that deserves our time and is worthy of our money. Watch this video from charity:water (RSS and email readers, you’ll need to click through) to get to know what they’re doing and the seriousness of the situation (video has some potentially disturbing images), and then read the following details about their organization and facts about water in our world:

Every penny that you give to charity:water goes directly to providing clean water around the world. None of it pays for overhead or administration which is provided by private sponsors and donors.
Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water has an amazing testimony and is a faithful follower of Christ that wants to truly change the world.
The average American uses 150 gallons of water per day. The average person in a developing country struggles to find 5.
90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old.

Please Join Me in Proving our Faith isn’t Dead by Providing Water

In the book of James there is a very convicting set of verses talking about the fact that we must have works that accompany our faith:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17, emphasis mine)

Will you just be saying “Go in peace. Be warm and filled” or will you join me? My initial goal is to try to raise $2000. If we can get 200 people to give $20 we can provide water for 200 people for 20 years. However, if we can increase that goal to $5000 we can build a well that will provide water to an entire village (250+ people). Head over to mycharitywater.org/iamanoffering to donate. You can donate anonymously as well.

Please spread the word. Hit that lovely little F button down there to share this on Facebook. If you’re reading in a reader or in email, hit that lovely little ‘post to Facebook’ link at the bottom of this post and let your friends know and ask them to spread the word as well.

(p.s. This blog post is a part of Blog Action Day. No, I do not stand for many of the causes that are alongside this one on the official website, but if we, as Christians, can’t prove that our faith isn’t dead by not actually doing something about issues like this then the causes that we disagree with are always going to win. Today I want to stop talking and start acting, prove that our faith isn’t just words, and do something about a serious issue.)

Lessons from a Sea Horse: The Holdfast

Ryan Egan — October 13, 2010 — Leave a comment

Did you know that a sea horse has a specific spot to which they always return?

One of my daughter’s favorite new books is a book about the lives of sea horses. The book goes through how sea horses look and various things about how they live. One thing that particularly caught me was what is called the holdfast.

The Holdfast

The holdfast is a spot that a sea horse finds on coral in a reef that become their “go-to” spot. They always return to this anchor of safety and they never stray more than a few meters from the holdfast. It is especially important to them when strong ocean currents swell. They can hold fast (hence the name) with their tails and keep themselves from being swept away from their place of safety by the powerful current.

Our God is a Steady Place of Refuge

I couldn’t help but think of several passages from Scripture about the steadfastness of our God and the result of trusting in Him:

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. (Psalm 21:7)
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. (Psalm 125:1)
I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8)

The sea horse clings to the hold fast in times of turbulence and trouble. Do we do the same with our God? Is He the one “in whom (we) take refuge” or is it something else?

What is your holdfast? Are you going through times of turbulence and have latched on to something other than the faithfulness of God?

(photo by Doug Deep)

In Leadership

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