Worship – Page 4 – LOVE | ACCEPT

How Desperate?

A familiar praise chorus that plays in my mind quite often is that soaring, multi-note verse which we sing “I……I’m desperate for you” in a cry from our heart to Jesus. We love to sing the song to our savior or even just hear it playing on the CD player but what would Jesus really desire from us? Is he pleased with our pitch-perfect rendition of the song or would he rather that you and I were truly desperate for him. I’ve had the quiet of a warm summer evening alone to meditate on how truly desperate I am and I come up wanting.

In Mark chapter two, the story is told of an event in which a great crowd has gathered to hear Jesus teach in Capernaum. So many people gathered, desperate to hear the word of truth taught that there was no room anywhere, even in the doorway or outside the door. Four men, also desiring to be near the Lord, brought their paralyzed friend in the hope that a brief touch from the Healer might free their brother from his bondage. They moved en masse from door to door, window to window trying to catch a glimpse of Jesus but there were so many others already there that hope began to fade. They were desperate.

The normal avenues of getting close to Jesus were closed but these five men were unwilling to be turned away. They climbed, muscling the unmoving body of their friend inch by inch up the outside stairway all the while fearing the Jesus might finish his talk before they could find even a small opening. Upward they went, bumping the paralyzed man occasionally against the wall but never stopping as they looked for another window, another door. Finally, they could go no further. Ahead of them lay the expanse of a thatched roof which to some might be the indicate the end of the line. Not to a desperate man though. These friends were willing to go to any length, take any risk, and experience any hardship in order to heal their friend. The hole started small, probably nothing more than a wind shifted opening in the thatch but with the application of eight hands, the opening became bigger. Large enough to spy the Lord at first, the men knew this wouldn’t be enough so they returned to work, scraping and moving the thatch until the hole was big enough for a man. Their hearts pounded from the exertion and excitement as they grabbed a corner of their friends mat and lowered it desperately into the sight of the Savior. All the Paralytic could do was look to Jesus with hope.

We need to ask ourselves how desperate we are. Are we comfortable, putting Jesus in a secondary or tertiary position in life? Are we turned away by the crowd around Jesus, telling ourselves that we could never push through the wall of people to get closer to him? Would we go to the windows or even up the stairs a couple of steps in order to catch a glimpse before turning away? None of these option reflect a heart that is truly desperate for Jesus. Only when we are willing to scratch a hole in the roof, to break down some walls because we are unwilling to be turned away from our Hope are we truly in need. Jesus is waiting.

Fluttering on the Church gate: [25] Theses

This is an older post at the Vintage Christianity blog but well worth your time to read. The brother puts some challenges to the modern church, many of which can’t help but bring us to convicition. [25] Theses: The New Reformation-Against All, For All

Clearing Our Temple

In John chapter two, we catch a glimpse of the Jesus we don’t often picture in our minds. The meek, gentle curly haired, soft featured Jesus turns into the gigantic, whip wielding terror who overturns tables with his eyes blazing and the chords of the flail snapping as His righteous anger intersects with His love for the Father’s house. Rather than Jesus meek and mild, we see the Lord, mean and wild. Perhaps, on this glorious Sunday morning, we too can be deeply troubled by the unrighteousness that we encounter, in the Lord’s house or on the way there. Let your heart be stirred by the same things that stirred Jesus. Let it be driven to action by oppression and prejudice and usury and all of the things that affect God’s people. Do something outrageous of your own…Jesus did.

Be blessed this day.

Drying Up

I am reading in Luke 11 this beautiful morning and I looked out to see my neighbor across the creek come out to water his plants. I smiled as I watched him water, but wondered if he really thought he was accomplishing anything. His watering consisted of spraying the tops of the plants from the hose for a couple of minutes, maybe wetting down the leaves of the little trees he just planted and then going in. The top of the soil certainly looks wet but we both know better. Here at this elevation in the Rocky Mountain region, our humidity hovers near zero and with today’s light wind, that top layer of soil is going to dry out within a few minutes after he closes the back door. The roots that are searching down deep for life giving moisture are getting nothing from that exercise.

SO what does this have to do with Luke 11. In the middle of the chapter, verse 28, the Lord utters these words:

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

How many in churches last Sunday (mine included), or this morning in their quiet time, or listening to a speaker on the radio on the way to work heard God’s word but then failed to translate it into obedience? It is so easy to be bathed in the Word, like the jets from a hose, but then not have that moisture sink in. God’s Word runs off of the skin and dries like water if we fail to absorb it. This requires that we spend the time necessary to let the Word run down deep, where our souls can be nourished. It requires that we meditate on the sermon, on the speaker’s comments, on the passages we read in the Bible rather than just hearing or reading and moving on.

God will provide thunderstorms later this afternoon, so the plants in my neighbor’s yard will get the water that they need. He will make up for our failures. Perhaps today is the day we need to out for a nice long walk in the rain. Want to join me?

Distraction or Attraction

Looking out the window of my office at this early hour and watching the sunrise turn the bottoms of the gray clouds a vivid pink, fading to orange as the cacophony of the avian masses sing their praises to the Creator, once again I am struck by the glory of God. The simple beauty of His creation stirs my heart each day and I bend in worship. It takes nothing more than a sunrise or a single flower or the languorous flight of one of the water birds off the nearby lake to focus my attention on the greatness of the Lord.

Yet, come Sunday, churches across the land will focus their worshippers on the video screens and try to gain their attention through technically proficient multimedia shows. I wonder if we’ve gone a bit overboard to the point where our attention is distracted. We have the ability to project our praise lyrics over the top of moving images that transition into a video vignette that leads to a twelve slide set of sermon notes, all with stunning transitions and a fade to black before coffee. Do we really need this? Perhaps our attention would be better focused on God if we were to shift our worship hour to 5:00 AM to see His natural transitions and images.

Defining Religion in America

Later this summer, I’m teaching a section of Religion in America in our Themes in Religion and Culture curriculum. The course examines the intersection of various religious traditions and the pluralistic culture of America to see how each contributes and affects the cultural religion of this society. In order to contribute to this discussion, students will need to be clear on the boundaries created by their personal definition of religion and cultural religion. Since many very smart people drop by here from time to time, I would like to enlist your help. Can you provide a definition for both of these terms?

Hidden Hope

I’m preaching from John chapter one this morning and there is a passage which offers much hope to those of us who have prayed and shared and done everything we could to brings friends and family to Christ without any outward signs of movement. When Jesus runs into the skeptical Nathanael (“can anything good come from Nazareth?”) he sees something that we don’t. He sees that the Spirit has already been at work in Nate and that his heart has already turned toward the Messiah. Philip who shared his witness with Nate sure didn’t see it and his outward behavior sure doesn’t show it but Jesus knows it.

You and I never know how the Spirit is working in someone but the Lord does. Trust Him and take hope that He will leave none of His own behind.

Be blessed

The Danger in Waking Up to Worship

Labberton comes to the end of The Dangerous Act of Worship with the answer to the question that has been gnawing at the reader from the first page; how? We have been reminded on each page that everything that matters is at stake in worship. The nudge that opens our eyes to see the world as God does comes through worship. Our hearts rent for justice are a result of worship. Labberton repeats his earlier assertion that we are to be people who heed God’s call to live out our worship in such a way that justice becomes an identifying mark, a testimony to Jesus and His transformative power. And yet, we remain asleep, drowsy from a lack of direction. He offers four concrete steps to rousing ourselves.

First, we must decide for ourselves to worship fully and faithfully. Worship is not measured in attendance and praise singing, it must be a way of life. A worshipful life involves full submission to His Lordship, to dying a little bit to gain a bit more of Him. In doing so our eyes open wider and wider, preparing us to…

Second, choose to see the injustice around us that cries out to be addressed by the transformative power of Jesus Christ. As our blurry vision clears, we must make the effort to focus it on the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, and the oppressive forces that put God’s people in those positions. We see it and as an act of worship…

Third, we choose to engage it. It does no good to simply see injustice, to have viewed it for emotional purposes like a painting in a gallery. Unlike walking away from the picture and promptly forgetting the details, Christ’s brothers and sisters should choose to keep the injustice in clear view. We examine it from all angles in order to restore justice to the situation from as many perspectives as possible. Our vision is filled with the needs of others, trusting in God for our own, so that we can worshipfully…

Four, choose to actively love others as Jesus Himself loves them. We will choose to love in full acceptance and in forgiveness. “When we choose to love in the name of Christ for the sake of justice, we allow our compassion to take us to people and to places for the sake of the other person, in advocacy for their need, out of a compassion for their suffering, even when it means sacrifice and suffering for us.”

Is our worship dangerous to our lives as we have known them? If not, the moment to begin is now. We have the promises of the Father for the future but a vocation to fulfill here in this broken world. It is through true worshippers that justice is restored. Labberton concludes with these questions that we must all ask ourselves:

Are we who follow Jesus Christ believing and acting out what God considers the matters of first importance? Or are we, as I fear, asleep to the real passions of God and the real needs of the world? More specifically, do our lives and practices of worship lead us to live in the ways that matter to God?

Peace be with you.

Imagine a Dangerous Life of Worship

Can you remember the first time you started reading the Bible? There were a lot of weird names and miraculous things happening and, whether you finished a single book or the entire Bible, you probably had a pretty good handle of the story because you read most of the words. Now, think about the second, third, or twentieth time you read through a book of the Bible. You began to discover things that you didn’t see the previous times. If you are involved in a bible study, others around you point out things that they saw that are new to you and vice versa. This awakening comes with the expansion of our imagination, growth that is a product of our deepening relationship with the Author of the story. Mark Labberton talks about worship that broadens our imagination in chapter nine of The Dangerous Act of Worship. True worship fires our imagination and enables us to have a more expansive view of our roles in restoring that justice that God wants for His world.

Imagination here is not just fanciful musings on what could be. Worship that brings us closer to the King is worship that fills us with God’s dreams and it leads us to look at people and events and our lives in a different way, discovering things that were not there the last time we looked, just as when we read the Bible over and over again. This process is enabled by our realization that God has placed His repentant children in a new place where we live by His grace power rather than our own contrition and energy. Our participation is ignited through prayer and scripture reading that opens our eyes to those around us. We seek their benefit while trusting in the Father for our own. As our imagination expands in this way we begin to see how God has arranged our intertwining lives such that we can contribute to a restoration of justice in their lives. Worship expands beyond our hour on Sunday to become our lifestyle.

At Saddleback last Sunday, Pastor Rick Warren said it plainly, if you don’t have a dream – a God sized dream- you’re just marking time. What’s your dream?