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Do it

www.journeytoworship.orgRecently I rediscovered a simple truth.  Do it.

I recently posted someone’s critique of a well known pop singer.  They pointed out on several levels that she wasn’t promoting Christian values.  They didn’t say she couldn’t sing well…or dance well…or that she wasn’t smart….or pretty….or powerful…..or nice to people when she meets them.  They didn’t say that she wasn’t a great humanitarian or mother or actress or daughter or wife…..they just pointed out that she wasn’t promoting the values that we find in the bible, specifically the things that Jesus taught and did while He was here.

I like listening to many of the songs of this singer.  So I came to an important crossroads: If I know that her music promotes values that are against my values than why don’t I stop listening to her music?  I mean, if her song comes on the radio or pops up on Facebook or YouTube why don’t I just turn away from it and ignore it? I have a problem.  I don’t live what I believe!

I use to think that I would finally get to the place where I knew enough that I’d be able to figure out all the important spiritual questions of my universe.  But I no longer wait for that day 🙂  What I feel is a more pragmatic approach is this–I’ll choose to live up to what I currently believe.  That’s a huge deal!  After being stuck in the mode of thinking if I just heard the right sermon or attended the correct workshop or read the latest “deep” book I’d get to the point where I now would be the authority on all things spiritual and be able to discern all truth from error and know that I was right and others were wrong.  But over time I see that while my broad principals remain there were things I didn’t know that I became aware of that have changed how I view the world.

And rather than list all my current revelations I’d rather share the truth I’ve gleaned through this journey to worship.  If God has said “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”(John 13:35) and we aren’t loving in our homes than what’s the point of ANYTHING ELSE?  If we can’t get along in church because we fight and gossip and put down others, than why invite someone else to come join in the mess? We need a revival!  But we need a revival of love!!!

I’d like to suggest this:  Revisit the basics of the bible and do it!  I love the study of bible prophecy and last day events.  But I have marveled how preachers and teachers and saints of great prophetic understanding have become such hateful people.  Instead of flocking to the new and improved Revelation Seminar, why not show love to our neighbor.  Do it!

Yes, I believe that we are living in the last days…I think one clear characteristic of the last day saints is their lukewarm nature.  In Revelation 3 the description of the church of Laodecia sounds a lot like where I’m living today:

14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

When you or I come to the place where we think we know it all and therefore are better than everyone else we become horrible to be with.  No one likes a know it all–especially a spiritual no it all.  But here’s the antidote.  Become a do it all!  Just do it!  Do the works of rightness and love that God desires and requires.  Do it right now!  Don’t wait for a revival or special invitation.  Help the needy now.  Do it!  Call the lonely now.  Feed the hungry now.  Do it!

I love you and that’s why I wrote this.  Today I will not spend endless hours reading and learning more stuff that I’ll have forgotten most of tomorrow.  Instead I’ll take what I know and DO IT!

Remember:

www.journeytoworship.org
Do it!
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A Request For Support

Support RequestMany have wondered about the goal of Journey To Worship: The Blog or The Musical and now The Griffiths Family Show and how to support us.  So I’d like to take a brief moment to share with you a little bit of how we got here.

My wife and I have been sharing our musical gifts in similar ways for almost as long as we can remember. We have been musical evangelists (This summer I am the musical guest at Cheasapeake Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Campmeeting, June 14-18, 2016 and Monique will be the musical evangelist at The Allegheny East Campmeeting, June 23-July 3, 2016) far and wide and are happy to have been used by God for his glory.

But we’ve both had dreams of taking our careers to another level.

Because we both have a heart for service we have often made the decision to go the road less traveled and helped out smaller churches (We are currently serving at a small church in Denton, Maryland helping with music, the youth, small groups, and fitness). However, they aren’t able to pay for all that they need. But we choose to help anyway.

But now we feel it’s time to be able to share to a broader audience.

So we’ve been blogging and thanks to a very generous donor we’ve started a Youtube channel where we reveal how our musical family tries to put faith, fitness and fun together without going crazy. The response to both the blog and the Youtube channel have been overwhelmingly positive.

In addition I was able to premiere a musical a few months ago based upon my experiences as a missionary in Korea. My mentor in theater, Glenn Alan, told me that was really more of a table reading and that as we are able to gather some more resources we would be able to fully stage and video tape it to bring my story to more people.

One more ministry that we’ve started is called “Prayer and Song.” We open our home on Monday evenings to invite any who are interested to come sing some songs of praise, share some testimonies and have a season of prayer. Most weeks Monique will cook for the folks too so it’s become a real intimate and friendly fellowship. We’ve received so many comments about how this ministry has been a blessing…one lady shared how she had been missing from church for 2 months and no one even called to check on her. The small group setting is one we believe in strongly.

We really could use your help. Over the past 14 years the number of people who have asked Monique when she was going to record another CD are too numerous to count. We simply are not able to afford it with all the ministry projects we are currently volunteering to do. Would you consider being a partner with our ministry?

Our next big projects are a CD for Monique and a Movie and full production of the musical, Journey To Worship. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated! Don’t forget to pray for us. We are only able to do what we’ve done so far because of your prayers and support. Below you’ll find a button to donate. You can give a monthly contribution or a one time gift. Every bit helps.




Thanks again for your support!

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Watch “The Griffiths Family Show Episode 3: The Korean Connection” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/ylhwE_sUsMI

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Watch “Uri Hananim The Griffiths Family Show” on YouTube

https://youtu.be/WTTduSHjQIA

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Today

Hug MeOn a blog where I spend lots of time considering the meaningful experience of deep spirituality I am halted by one word: TODAY!

While Jesus spoke about love and it’s centrality to his message and that it would be a characteristic of his true followers (By this shall all men know ye are my disciples….), he in action demonstrated as focal and powerful a truth as love’s preeminence.  He gave immediate invitations. He asked fisherman to come join Him and He promised to make them fishers of men.  He told the weak and weary, “Come unto me…and I will give you rest.”  He even asked his would be followers to take up their cross and follow Him. He gave his invitation on TODAY!

What’s so important about invitations?  Well, I recently concluded and shared in our Prayer And Song meeting this week at our home in Silver Spring, Maryland, that I may never get it all figured out.  I may never be spiritually or theologically fully right.  I may never have the most accurate understanding of the bible.  I may never have the correct exegesis of the text.  I may never overcome the bad habit I’ve been praying for victory over for 30 years.  But TODAY I can hug you and tell you I love.  Today I can text to check up on you.  Today I can call you and encourage you.  And today I can share with you what’s working for me and the reason for my faith.

Roman’s 13:12 tells us, 1″The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”  Tomorrow is not promised!  Let’s take action on TODAY! 

Recently a world famous musician died unexpectedly.  Thousands of fans have been morning and playing and singing his songs.  They have worn his favorite color to work.  They’ve made him their profile picture.  Some have even taken his songs and changed the lyrics and made them into praise and worship songs.  His death caught everyone by surprise.  But you don’t have to be surprised again.  Choose to live each day knowing that “The night is far spent.”  Tomorrow isn’t promised.  Do what’s in your heart Today!  You won’t regret it.

The two people in the picture with this post are my son and my mother.  TODAY I will tell them again that I love them.  What will you do TODAY?

 

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Forgiveness

ForgivenessI’ve been struggling with the concept of forgiveness recently.  I have prided myself on my Christian values and virtues.  I have pursued perhaps to the extreme the concepts of grace and love.  Freely I have received love from God so freely I should give love and forgiveness to others.  But what is they don’t deserve it!

Well one could examine themselves and realize that we don’t deserve the love or the forgiveness of God.  So how can we use that metric as a reason not to love or forgive someone else?  But then what if the person not only doesn’t deserve it but they aren’t even apologizing?  This one really sits awkwardly within my soul.  I recently have been dealing with this situation.  Does God really expect me to forgive someone not only who doesn’t deserve it and hasn’t asked to be forgiven?

Well I thought I’d share a song and a video about forgiveness and see if it inspires you in any direction and I’d love to hear your thoughts about where forgiveness fits in on your journey to worship.  Please write your thoughts in the comment section below.

Here’s the song:

And here’s the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs_vnqs0CMw

Enjoy!

Love you and don’t give up your journey to worship and wellness!

David

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Thank you for making us number one

www.journeytoworship.org
Thank you for making us number one

 

I have been grateful to be making Gospel music for many many years now.  I enjoy ministering through both song and word.  But it’s a very special gift from you when you let us know how special what we do is to you.  Watch the video

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Through My Eyes

Good Evening!

It’s been a little bit since I’ve shared with you. I’ve been through a lot. Yet I’m still on the journey to worship. And that’s good news! And if I had the chance to hear a bit of your story I know you’ve been through a lot yourself. Sometimes we just have to take a moment to rest and rejuvenate. I feel that my batteries are recharged so here we go.

In a few months I will be blessed to reach another birthday, a very special one. Reaching this milestone has inspired me to reflect about life differently. There is so much hype about achieving success that we are more than not constantly in a stressed out mode pursuing things that often don’t make us happy once we get them. But the reason that we are taught to pursue these things is because it helps someone else make more money.

If there’s one thing that I hope this blog and your journey to worship lead you to is this: your quality of life does not consist in the abundance of things that you possess. I watched a documentary this past week by a movie director who made it big. With the money from his first movie he purchased a mansion in Beverly Hills. When his second movie was a great success he purchased an even bigger mansion. But the funny thing was that after the movers left on the day he moved into his first mansion he thought to himself, “I’m not any happier having this house.”

What makes me happy right now is the idea that I might give to someone reading this blog something that might change their life…something that might make their journey safer, happier, or just plain more fun. The pursuit of God or worship in general has often become a boring ritual. We don’t often think of it as fun. But I’d like to suggest that God showed us the example of where joy and fun come from. God gave us the gift of life. He gave us the ability to be givers just like him. We can give to a stranger or to our children. We can give money or we can give attention or time. But when we give we create something priceless with our actions. This is the essence of the fruit of the spirit. This is love–the act of giving of self to make others healthy, happy, or whole.

I’d like to dare you to stop whatever you were doing and take a moment to give to someone else right now. It can be a compliment or it can be a donation.  It can be a hug or a kiss or it can be a word of wisdom.  It’s what you see as an unmet need.  Look for it.  I’m sure if you pray and ask God to show you, you’ll see what you should give.  If you would, please share in the comments how it made you feel to give and perhaps if you know how it made the recipient feel as well.  Let’s make the world a better place with one simple gift.

We may argue about theology till the end of time but there is no debate about the beauty of love expressed through the kindness of giving. That’s worship through my eyes.

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Journey To Worship in Korea

Journey To Worship In Korea
Journey To Worship in Korea

Did you know that the largest church in the world is in South Korea? I didn’t know that before I went. But my journey to Korea enriched my life greatly. The influence of this journey is part of the inspiration for my new musical Journey To Worship.

In August of 1989 I began my journey to Korea. When I arrived after a very long flight from Maryland to California to Hawaii to Seoul, I was amazed at all the people. I had to learn that because of the density of people I shouldn’t take offense if someone bumped into me and didn’t say sorry. Seoul was filled with beautiful people.

one out of millions of Seoul (South Korea) markets. zillions of people

The people were so willing to help me when I had a question to ask. I enjoyed all the conversations I had in Taxis or on the trains. I was determined to learn the language and I knew I had to practice at every opportunity. Also, because I was teaching English I knew my students would want to practice their English most of the time so I felt blessed to find some of the staff who were willing to help me learn. Pastor Kim, Il Mok volunteered to teach me Korean and I was a highly motivated student. My dad spoke Spanish and some Portuguese but I had never had the chance to master a second language and so I was eager to learn.

I not only learned the language but I also learned so much about the culture. I would like to invite you to come and hear more of what I was blessed to learn from my experience in my new musical, Journey To Worship. In fact, for those of you who have read this blog I will offer you a special discount on tickets to the premiere performance, December 5, 2015 at 5:30pm at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church. Just email me at David@journeytoworship.org and put the word “Discount” in the subject of your email to me and I’ll share the details.

From the beginning of this blog I have shared stories about my journey to find Worship That Nourishes. My Journey to Korea lead me to make several discoveries which proved to enrich my spiritual experience. I hope you’ll be able to join us December 5 but if not the production will be touring in 2016. Come back to this blog for updates on our tour schedule. Thank you for your continued support of Journey To Worship.

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