Welcome again fellow worshipers of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! The perspective of personal worship takes on a whole new meaning when we wrestle with the understanding that worship has little to do with how I feel, and everything to do with God's acceptance of the offering of worship I bring before Him, as it is my sacrifice at His pleasure. As we press ahead and think about worshiping together, as the body of Christ, the sacrifice takes on added layers of complexity in sacrifice. Now we must indeed ALL come before our Lord with one heart, in one accord. What is interesting is that just as the foot does not give up it's 'footness', the ailments and difficulties of the week or the joys it provided in getting us into church, every part, including the feet, the hands the arms, the mouth, the eyes and all parts of the body became engaged in the act of worship last Sunday in church, and we did it with other bodies engaging in the same acts of worship together.
Was God pleased with our offering and sacrifice? I believe He was, and my body and the fullness of my soul was washed as together we basked in the presence of our Lord seeking to honor Him... and, for me, it has continued into this week! There have been plenty of pains, irritations, difficulties and struggles, in both myself and my friends; Yet God has been faithful and promises to be!
Interesting correlations can be observed in the corporate worship found in Ezra (Ezra 3:11-13) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 8, one of our classmates brought Nehemiah to our attention). It is my hope that you might take some time to compare the two accounts in similar circumstances, the people wanting to rebuild parts of the temple and the city destroyed not just by outsiders, but by their disobedience to God. Ouch. Repeatedly in scripture, time and time again, it speaks to the return of the people to God after calamity, remembering who it was that protected them, provides for them and leads them, and us.
Reading in Psalm 81 and hopefully you might also read Psalm 82, it becomes apparent that God wants us to listen to Him and follow Him. This takes on two meanings, personal listening and corporate listening. God has a will and desire for each of us, and for every church and the global church as well. Each requires a sacrifice, selfless acts and submission to God for the worship to rise as a fragrant offering to our Lord.
Remembering that in Romans 12, it speaks to the brothers that we are to present bodies as living sacrifices...all plural, as our spiritual act of worship. Worship is giving, and as one of our classmates asked...'are you coming to church with a bib or an apron?' In addition, I find that the many 'flavors' of churches out in our community speaks directly to the idea of 'sacrifice'. What am I willing to personally sacrifice in order to be in order in corporate worship? What is God asking us to give up for the good of the whole? What are we clinging to that needs to be released?
This week's homework is to submit yourself to God (an pray that I do too!). I want to, and we want to be fully found under the wing of our Lord Jesus. Now that we have covered the broader picture of worship, we will dive deeper into the details of specifics.
What is our key calling? When and where did Godly worship start? What did it look like? And, what is the heart and spirit of worship?
"Worship has little to do with how I feel, and everything to do with God's acceptance of the offering of worship I bring before Him." I know those are YOUR words, but it's all I can say right now. It's enough.
ReplyDeleteSubmit ourselves to God is not as easy as it sounds! At times it can require more of us than we have energy to give. One doesn't always see it, what does it look like?Does it have to look like anything? God asks us to spread his word, isn't that what he really wants from us, each of us? I have God firmly planted inside of me and in my heart, but it may not show especially when having trials in our lives. It might not be the best idea to dig deeper until we feel we are spiritually motivated and ready to accept God's plan.
ReplyDeleteSubmitting ourselves to God is impossible, and in direct conflict with my pride and arrogance. Unless I get help from Him submission will never happen! Our nature is to do what we feel and think is right, and left to ourselves, it is an empty journey. There must be some initial discipline, or desire to move toward God, and then as we do, and continue to listen to Him, read the scriptures, and pray,'the things of earth grow strangely dim', and the light of His glory and grace dawns with splendor.
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