Ascend / Lenny LeBlanc

Ascend. Any Christian mountain climber will love this song by Lenny LeBlanc, and the album itself (All for Love) has enough gems to justify purchasing it.

Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord?
Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord?
We will ascend to the mountain of the Lord,
Generation, pure and holy.

I will not bow down to the idols of this world,
My heart belongs to only you,
My voice will cry out, forever give you praise,
My King of Glory, My King of Glory.

Only your blood can wash these stains from my hands,
You are the God of my salvation,
No one but you could ever purify my heart,
I need your mercy, I need your mercy.

When God says Hineni

Yesterday, I spoke about how we need to say Hineni (Here I am!) to God and how difficult that can be, given all the statement implies. We can take encouragement from the knowledge that God, too, says Hineni to us. In Isaiah 58:9, he says:

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

God promises that when we call him, he too will stand still and listen to whatever we ask him to do. It is a tremendous promise that even surpasses the one he makes in John 15:7, where Jesus says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

But the promise is not without reservation. The verses that Isaiah writes preceding this read:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Hineni, Abba

Every once in a while an event takes place in a persons life that results in a change that can only be described as dramatic. There have been several such instances in my life, especially over the last few years, but the most recent one took place just a few days ago. A bunch of musicians and worship leaders from the HSI ministry had accompanied me to a worship conference conducted by Paul Wilbur. While much of the workshop was targeted at the musicians, just before the session concluded Wilbur came and gave a short talk on worship that had me spinning for the next 48 hours. What got me going was what he said about hineni, which in Hebrew means, "Here I am".


This was Abraham's response to God when God called out to him. “Here I am,” he replied (Genesis 22:1). But Abraham was doing more than state his location. He was saying: "Here I am, standing before you with deep humility. You have my full attention. All that I have is at your disposal. I am ready, willing and able to do whatever it is you ask me to. Here I am, Lord."

And in reply God asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering.

Abraham didn't wilt. The very next morning he saddled his donkeys and along with Isaac and two servants he set out for the place God had told him about, ready to sacrifice his son who was born after years of waiting. And he would have done it too, had not the hand of the Lord stopped him.

"Here I am," he had said. "Hineni." And had meant it.

I had said "Hineni" to God soon after my conversion seven years ago and the result of that is the man you see today. But I knew he wanted me to say it again now, with the deeper understanding I had just been given of what the statement truly implied, and I shocked myself by finding myself unable to. I didn't want to say it because I was afraid of what I knew would follow.

I lay in bed last night, my body wracked in pain as muscles that hadn't been used in ages protested the vigorous exercise they had been given when I had gone swimming earlier in the day. Unable to sleep, I tossed and turned, struggling as much with the mental anguish of what God was asking me to do as the physical pain, until finally, I dropped to my knees by the side of my bed and said, "Hineni, Abba". A while later when I crawled back into bed, I wasn't too surprised that my pain had completely disappeared, and the sleep that followed was peaceful and restful. I believe Abraham slept easily that night God spoke to him too.

Hineni, Abba.

History Rising

Voices were raised in unison this evening in shouts of praise as Christians from all sides of the divide got together in the Dubai Tennis Stadium for an evening of soul stirring worship led by messianic singer Paul Wilbur. This was history in the making, as he became the first singer to ever perform in a public arena in the Middle East. HSI didn't organize the event (although I very much wish we had), but we did our best to help those who did — a group named Voice — make it a success, understanding that in events like these lie opportunities to end the divide that separates Christians from each other.


We, unfortunately, couldn't help much. We got the approval of Church elders, as regulations required, to involve ourselves in this project. Bishop Paul Hinder, who is a wise man and understands all too well the need for ecumenical endeavours, said he had no problem with this event, or of our own involvement with it. Fr. Tomasito Venaracion, parish priest of St. Mary's Church, is a wise man too. Although he knew that there could be repurcussions working with us (it is public knowledge that certain people in positions of power are allergic to us), he gave us the go ahead as well, showing himself to be a courageous man too. But that is as far as it went.

The details of what happened can be found, for whenever history finds the need for it, in the records of my correspondence with the Bishop, but for now there is no need to go public with the rather disgusting sequence of events that took place. What is important for the public record is the concert itself that took place tonight (November 24). It was an event that will live on in the memories of all those who attended as evidence of what God does when his children come together as one family. Something in the very atmosphere of the city changed, and by the end of it, when Paul Wilbur declared that Dubai had become a city of praise, everybody said, Amen.