music :: worship :: life
Speak to God with your whole life,
And let all the world listen.
Let them construct a Sanctuary for me so that I can live among them.
—Exodus 25:8
The ancient peoples of the mid-east worshipped at special places—a holy mountain, a sacred grove, a hallowed well. The early Hebrews did this, too. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—all dedicated special sites as sacred to God, erected monuments and altars, and journeyed there to worship and offer sacrifices. Moses took the whole tribe of Israel to a holy mountain to worship and built an altar there for sacrifices.
But on the mountaintop, God instructed Moses to build Him a tabernacle—a special tent devoted to Him. This tent was not to protect God from the elements, or to hide Him from the people. The tabernacle served as an invitation to worship, an invitation to fellowship, an invitation to communion with Him.
It was a holy place, but it was a mobile holy place—a sanctum to-go. Wherever they went, whatever they did, the tent served as a visible reminder of God. God wanted to be sure they remembered that He was always with them. He wanted them to know that no matter where they were, they were always invited to worship. No matter where they went, He was always present.
He wants us to know that now. He is here with us right now. He is always present. We need no special place to come and worship. We need not go anywhere to enter into His presence. He sent His Holy Spirit to make our bodies into temples. And it is we who need to become present to Him. We present ourselves to Him, not as burnt offerings, but as living sacrifices, if, wherever we go, whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God.
Throughout this season I have been reminded of a story from the life of Jesus—the story of Martha and Mary:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
—Luke 10:38-42
This is the season when we get distracted by all the preparations, all the details, all the scurrying. Locust swarms of shoppers strip the malls bare and clot the city’s traffic arteries, turning streets into honking, cursing glaciers of gridlock. The simple worship service overnight grows into a six-headed beast no one can tame. Fuming families sulk in their corners, or feign togetherness to prove to the world that they are brimming with the mandatory holiday spirit. Lead-pipe evangelists pound the “Put Christ back in Christmas” drum. The Christmas juggernaut grinds us all to pulp.
I say, “Let’s put Christmas back in Christmas.” Christmas means a celebration of the coming of our promised savior. We’ve all been distracted by the preparations we think need to be made. But Jesus is saying to us, “Only one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen rightly.” If our attention wanders away from Christ and onto any other thing, we have lost that One Thing. That One Thing is Jesus. The One Thing we need do is sit at the feet of our master and king, and devote ourselves wholly to Christ.
To save the world, Jesus needed only a few handfuls of straw and a simple cattle stall to lay in. He needed no elaborate preparations. Nor does he require of us an elaborate response. When we surrnder ourselves in joyful devotion to Christ, we are doing that one needful thing.
Merry Christmas.
Lord, you have planted in each of us a seed. You buried in the soil of our souls a seed of your kingdom. And from deep in our souls, that seed calls out to you. It is this seed that compels us to reach for you. And it is this seed that drives our longing—for communion with others who strive for you.
Lord, you have sent us your spirit to nourish that seed. Through prayer and praise, work and worship, we lift our souls up to you, and you send down the gentle rain of your grace and the warm sunlight of your love. With time and care, our kingdom seeds grow into trees tall and strong. Maturing in you they begin to bear fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Lord, when you bring us together, we become an orchard. Each of our trees bears different fruit. Separated, we become unbalanced, malnourished. But together we produce a rich harvest that feeds us all, with an abundance of good things to richly nourish your whole kingdom.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
—Galatians 5:22-23
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
-Romans 5:6-11
Imagine a war—a battlefield—one where the battle lines are clear: something like World War I, where the trenches and concertina wire clearly marked which side was which. Imagine God on one side and all mankind on the other. While the battle is still underway, God sends an emissary, his only son, across enemy lines to make peace with us. We execute the emissary, yet God makes peace with us anyway.
Who would do such a thing?
Are you married to God?
Is he your all in all?
Is he your everything?
Is he the center of your life?
Is your relationship with God the axis around which everything else revolves?
Are you married to God?
Or are you married to the world and having an affair with God?
Just getting a little God on the side?
Sneaking off to God in stolen moments here and there?
Looking over your shoulder, covering your tracks?
Making sure the world never suspects?
So are you married to God?
Or are you just fooling around?
[powered by WordPress.]
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Aug | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
53 queries. 0.805 seconds
