Count Yourself Blessed~

Long time since i blogged something and dat's just because i really couldnt afford the time or energy to.

However, today, something inside me snapped and i just had to go and blog it down.

The following entry is basically written for musicians in CHC or issues which i feel pertain to my ministry of music. The contents may or may not offend some ppl, but if they do, then this message is certainly for them~ Hope all of us read it well :) What ever i'm about to write also pertains to myself. So i speak for myself as well!

I was just thinking really hard about the following terms 'Skill', 'Flow' and 'Anointing'.

In my course of interaction with ppl in my ministry, i've come to realised dat many of us seem to have wrong concepts or ideas about the following terms. And this has bothered me for quite awhile now and so i brought it up to God. So then, today i sorta got understanding of the issue.

Wat is 'Skill'? Well, simply put, skill is the technical know-how of what to execute in ur respective instrument. Dat means, whether u can shred the guit at 200bpm without batting an eyelid AND still staying in time, or whether u can do some really groovy stuff on the drums or whether u can do some solid mind blowing fills on the drums, or whether u know how to manipulate chords and other scales and modes to convey some sort of feeling and wat not. Basically, 'Skill' is knowing WHAT to play and playing it WELL.

'Flow' on the other hand is basically knowing what to play and WHEN to play it. Simple as dat. So dat means, when everyone is picking up, you also pick up. When everyone else is following the worship leader, you dun suddenly do a distortion riff or watever or break out into a drum solo! To 'Flow' with others, is basically to know what to play and when is the right time to play at the appropriate moment. Alot of ppl i have spoken to confuse 'Flow' with 'Anointing'. Flow has NOTHING to do with Anointing.

Someone who can 'Flow' well and has 'Skill' in their playing, DOESNT mean dat the person has ANOINTING. Let me give u an example..

If i can get the world's most worldly, skillful and musically inclined musicians to play a worship song, and if we show them oh, this is wat we want, this is how it is to be played blah blah blah.. I can tell u dat ALL of them will have BETTER skill than any of us; all of them will have BETTER FLOW ability than any of us and all of them will probably make the song sound so wonderful musically, dat it'll make us wonder how come we cant exactly play like dat...

But does dat mean those worldly musicians have wat we christians term as the "anointing"? Does dat mean that the service die die will have the immense presence of God?? I doubt so.. or rather really.. i think it's hard to say, why? Cos Anointing comes from God above only and He alone decides whether or not to give of it freely. Can God choose to anoint a worldly musician's music? Why not? He is God! Which is why when we pray for Sun's concerts, we also pray for everyone involved, dat God will give them wisdom and anointing etc etc and NOT ALL are christians rite?

IN OTHER WORDS, 'Anointing' is not something we can learn. Basically, it is God's prerogative, NOT ours. Skills and Flow are knowledge which can be acquired.. but NOT Anointing. If God chooses not to fill our services with His presense and power, then really, all dat we do, whether it is playing music, or doing sound, or singing, or security, or ushering or watever ministry, IS FOR NOTHING :)

Think about it. It's really dat simple. IF.. and i say IF.. the Holy Spirit doesnt come in his mighty presense, all dat we do every weekend.. is a REAL WASTE of TIME, MONEY and other precious resources, and dat's just a fact :) Because really, unless the Holy Spirit touches the ppl, all of us who labour in the various ministries would have laboured in vain!

For the past many weeks, i have been thinking about this one issue and also observing ppl in their actions and conversation. This is about my observations and mine alone..on some musicians who somehow think dat they are in some way superior to their fellow ministry members and the likes. You hear it in their speech, you see it in their faces :) They think that they have ARRIVED.... WHOAA.. LOOK OUT.... :P

So.. in the course of my interaction, when i heard some musicians (and i wun mention names at all) making vehement remarks like, oh! it's because i played SOOOO well, dat is why there was such a great presense of God in svc today! (OH WOW, should we then erect a statue of you posing with ur instrument in church??? Maybe we should place it at the entrace of the sanctuary, so dat EVERYBODY will know who is responsible for the great presense of God in City Harvest Church!!)

Back in my mind, i am thinking.. Just who do u think u are? You mean without you, there wun be presense of God in the service?? Wat.. you mean to say dat you can move the hand of God at ur bidding just by how well or how bad u play ur instrument?? HELLLOOO?! I have 4 words for ppl like dat: WAKE UP YOUR IDEA!!

Remember dat smart alec priest in the bible who thought dat he would just do God a favour by helping Him steady Himself. He put his hand on the Ark and it was adios amigos for him :) Careful.. we could jolly well end up like dat~ *draws finger across neck*

Yeah, and even i myself sometimes am guilty of behaviour and manner like dat! I remember there was once at some muso gathering, there i was talking with a few musicians of whom i was more familiar with, and on the other end of the table were another bunch of musos who were much their own clique :) And, there was this muso whom i was talking to who made a remark to some of us saying something to an extent like: "Over here are the real musos (meaning us sitting over here, cos we ahem.. apparently play for more 'important' services like main, chinese, etc etc on a regular basis so we're kinda impacting the world more than.. ahem you know who...), and over there are the muso wannabes (cos really, they just play for 'small insignificant' svcs like dialect la.. JAMS la..AND they are not as skillful as US!!)." And we all laughed.

And guess wat, i laughed along! WOW... as if it was the funniest joke of the new millenium! And then straight away i knew in my heart dat God was not pleased.. Do YOU think dat it is real funny making fun of other fellow ministry members who may not play the bass as well as u do? Or play the drums or keyboard, or brass, or percussion or WATEVER as well as u do??

My frens, let us be VERY CAREFUL with the words we say about each other, cos the bible tells us dat for every word dat we speak, idle or otherwise, we WILL be held accountable to God. Let us not for one little moment think dat, just because we are in the prestiiiigious MAIN service band.. or in the glooorious SOT band.. or whether we are annnchoring the INDON SVC band... or CHINESE CHURCH SVC.. or DIALECT SVC.. or WATEVER really.... Who cares? Let us not for one moment think dat we are more superior in our skills, in our ability to flow better than the guy/girl next to us. If you are dat perfectly wonderful, then really God has no use for you :) You're too good wat.. rite? Cos the last time i knew.. God only used ordinary nobodies to do His mighty work. The last i knew.. God only used the base things of this world to put to shame the wise!

Let us count ourselves lucky, count ourselves BLESSED, or however and watever term u wanna use, honoured, hengz ah.. WATEVER really.. let us count ourselves blessed dat we can be stewards of our musical gifts.. dat OF ALL PPL IN THIS WORLD, IN THIS CHURCH... God chose you to play the keyboard, or God chose you to play the bass, or God chose me to play the drums or God chose you to play brass, guitar, percussion.. watever.. And let us not delude ourselves by thinking dat hey.. if i don't play well ah.. then God's presence will not be present.. OR.. wah lau eh, i tell u i played so darn well today ah dat God's presence CANNOT NOT COME!! COS I PLAYED SO :)

Pls la.. really, don't kid yourself.. you may be the musician in church with the best flow, the best skill, the best instrument, the best WATEVER.. but should God choose not to fill u with His anointing, really, you are but a NOBODY :) Ya?

I can surely tell u this.. If God exposes the kind of thoughts or words which we say in secret between each other about other fellow musicians' musical abilities or the lack of, or any other faults for dat matter..(which is wat we call *GLEAMS* BITCHING.. YES u read it rite, and YES I SAID IT ON THIS BLOG.. the term is BITCHING ABOUT ONE ANOTHER) I can tell u, NONE of us will be fit to play on any stage. We'll be disqualified IMMEDIATELY.

It is an honour indeed to serve in music. But it is a greater honour to know dat it is not i who serves, but Christ who serves through me :) Using me as a mere tool, in His potter hands, to bring forth His grace and mercy :) Indeed, it is by Your mercy and grace dat i can even have so much as a chance to display my talents and gifts to the world :) For dat i am forever grateful :) Thank you Lord, and help me please to first remove these hypocritical logs in my eye, before i utter any ill word or deed to the ppl around me. Help me speak well of my enemies, and of ppl who are not better than me in watever way. Amen :D