Big God, Small Worship

"PRAISE THE Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in the heavens of His power! Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to the abundance of His greatness!" Psalm 150:2

I read Psalm 150 this morning and this verse jumped at me. I feel like so often our worship is so small because our perspective of our God is so small. When God is small in my mind, it's harder for me to pray, my worship times are shallow, my life is less surrendered, my faith and risk-taking is merely safe.

However, when my awareness of His Greatness is in my heart and mind, I find it so easy to pray fervently, worship deeply, give freely, risk greatly, and passionately surrender myself into His hands. I'm so glad the Psalmist said to praise Him "according to the abundance of His greatness".

That's the worship He wants. BIG worship. It's pretty easy to identify small worship among leaders, here are some signs:

1. When pastors become more passionate about their style or theological leaning, than God Himself.
   
2. When worship leaders care more about what other "cool" worship leaders think, than what God thinks. I often wonder if some worship leaders worship other worship leaders or their music more than God.
   
3. When church leaders care more about becoming great leaders, than becoming great men/women of God.
4. When talent is what impresses us, more than anointing.
5. When prayer and worship feels more like a duty, than a privilege.
6. When our prayers and pleadings are reactive, self-focused, and comfortable, rather than proactive (Kingdom-come), other-focused, and risky.
   
7. When churches settle on maintaining numbers, rather than growing and reaching more people.
8. When we are "too busy" to pray or seek God, as if He was that small.
   
9. When we get more excited about teaching and equipping other leaders, than being trained and equipped ourselves.
   
10. When our ways, traditions, and rituals become the standard versus listening the Spirit's voice.
11. When the name of Jesus becomes a common name to us - no longer bringing tears to our eyes or awe in our hearts.
    
12. When we no longer fear our God, then we know he has become small in our minds.

Wow, God help me to see you in your greatness. Open the eyes of our understanding, so that we may see the surpassing greatness of your Glory. Let us not settle for small worship, ineffective living, fruitless ministry, and shallow prayers. Let your Greatness bring me to my knees again, reminding me of my smallness and Your Surpassing Greatness.

Efraim Lucas Santos

This is our new little boy born January 25, 2010. His name is Efraim Lucas Santos - born weighing 8lb 1oz and 20'' long.

Mandy and I choose all our children's names primarily based on their meaning. Their names become our prayer and blessing for their life. They become a point of reference in our conversations with our kids and our prayers to our God. They are, in essence, our main hope and desire for what kind of people they will be and what kind of life they will live.

Our first daughter's name is Liana (Lily) Kate Santos. Liana means "God answers prayer" and Kate means "innocence". Our prayer for her is that she would reach the end of her life and be able to say that God answered her prayers, because of her innocence of heart and strength of character.

Our second daughter's name is Cailyn Grace Santos. Cailyn means "purity" and Grace obviously means grace, but biblically speaking, it also speaks of God's favor. Our prayer for her is that should would be a model of purity to her generation and be able to see and experience the grace and favor of her God in every moment of life.

Our third child and first son's name is Efraim Lucas Santos. In English, his name would be spelled Ephraim, but we used the Portuguese version since I'm Brazilian. Ephraim was one of the sons of Joseph (Genesis 48) and when Joseph took his two sons to receive a blessing from Jacob (Joseph's dad), Jacob crossed his arms and gave Ephraim the blessing from his right hand, which was contrary to the custom in which the 1st born would receive that blessing. The blessing was that he would become very fruitful...

Efraim means "doubly fruitful" or "increasing" and Lucas means "bringer of light" or "luminous". Our prayer for him is that he would "remain" in Jesus (John 15), in other words, live in the Presense of Jesus, and therefore become an increasingly fruitful man in the Kingdom of God. We pray that he would be a bringer of light to his generation, luminous with God's power and love.

Kids are truly a blessing from God. With each child our love increases and our understanding of the love and greatness of God multiplies. I love being a dad.

Cailyn Dancing

The Power of a Woman

Some of you might think I'm writing this blog to earn "brownie points", but that's really not the case. I'm writing this because the Scriptures say "give honor to whom honor is due" and I was so reminded today of the amazing power and honorable role of mothers/women.

I'm constantly amazed at my wife's strength:

She manages to keep the house clean and organized, even with two toddlers at home.

She teaches them, entertains them, and plays with them in a well balanced way pretty much every day.


I come home to a home-cooked dinner most days of the week and often even for lunch.

Even with the busy schedule, she spends time with God consistently, she invests her life into a small group of girls every week, and takes the time to blog her learnings so that others can benefit from them (mandysantos.com)


On top of all this, she takes care of her body by eating well and exercising (not right now because she is 8 months pregnant!).

She is able to go grocery shopping and even Christmas shopping with a 2 year old and a 3 year old at the same time! When I try this, it's usually not such a great experience.

She has high standards for her life, strong values for our family, and always finds a way to bring "meaning" to the things we do.

She cares deeply about our family traditions and understands that raising our kids and investing in them is more valuable than money, career, or comfort.

She constantly puts her desires aside for the greater good of our family and lives an exemplary life, without whining about "having no one to invest in me" - like so many people do.

She builds me up in front of people and is careful to protect the integrity of our family. I could go on and on...

One of the most amazing parts of all this is that she can do all that while being 8 months pregnant! If that's not honorable, I'm not sure what is. Anyways, I want to applaud all you women who are so strong and live selfless lives like my wife. In my eyes, you are stronger than most men I see in our world. Thank you Mandy!! I love you and am so grateful for having you as my wife.

Entering God's Rest

"God's promise of entering His rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it... For only we who believe can enter His rest." Hebrews 4:1,3

I remember the first time I entered "God's rest". I was in my room sitting on my bed... I was 15 years old and was living in Farmington Hills, MI. I had just come back from a weekend retreat with my church youth group. Before that retreat, I was living a "double-life" - using drugs every day, lying continually, yet claiming to believe in Jesus.

During a worship time in that retreat, the Holy Spirit touched my life and brought me to a place of repentance before Him. I cried and knelt and asked for God's forgiveness in my life. After the retreat, I came home and talked to my parents about the life I was living - I opened up my life and brought it to the light.

So there I was, sitting on my bed, with a clear conscious before God and people for the first time in my life! I experienced the fulfillment of Jesus' words, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) I felt an overwhelming sense of peace enter my heart and I said to God, "Father if this is what it is like to be right with you, then it's better than any drug I've ever experienced". That peace became my new addiction.

To this day I cannot stand to live outside of God's rest. If there's any sin or area of my life that's in the dark and that Peace begins to fade away, I immediately ask for God's forgiveness and bring it to the light again. I can understand why the writer of Hebrews said, "we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to enter it" - because once you know what it is like to enter it, you know how terrible it is to be out of it.

Let me encourage you to bring every area of your life to the light. If there are sins you are dealing with that are unconfessed or that no one knows about, you will not have God's peace. God created this place of Rest, so that we would enter it every day and live in it. Get down on your knees, expose your heart before Jesus, and step into a new addiction of peace.

"God's rest is there for people to enter... so God set a time for entering His rest, and that time is today... So let us do our best to enter that rest" Hebrews 4:6, 7, 11