Sunday, March 25, 2007

Obedience in Worship

In Genesis 22, we read about Abraham and how God asks him to sacrifice his own son Isaac on the alter. I like this story because it shows Abraham's devotion and trust in God. In verse 3 we read that Abraham sets out the very next morning to do exactly what God asked him to do without question. I can't imagine what he must have been thinking. That's hardly enough time to wrap your mind around what you were asked to do, but Abraham does so.

Now God instructs Abraham to travel to the region of Moriah (in Jerusalem). This is roughly three days worth of travel from where he was. THREE DAYS, that's a long time to contemplate what you are going to go do. Also he instructs Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice, which usually entailed some type of ceremony. Can you imagine, traveling three days with your only son, all the while planning to kill him once you arrive.

Once they come to the region of Moriah, Abraham tells his servants to wait here with the donkey. then he says "we will go worship and then we will come back to you."

This sentence has always caught my attention. Abraham was told by God to go and sacrifice his only son, so he goes with the full intention to do so. However, in this one statement, Abraham reveals his trust and faith in God. He says "we will go and worship". Nothing out of the norm here. Then he says, "and then WE will come back to you." That is the part that has always intrigued me. He either knew that God would provide a sacrifice in place of his son, or he trusted God to raise his son from the dead after he had shown his obedience.

As Abraham raised his hand to kill Isaac, God called out and stopped him. He instead provided a lamb for the sacrifice and I can guarantee that Abraham will never forget that worship service.
There are many lessons to pull from this story but I just want to focus on one. We have to be obedient to God in order for our worship to be true worship. Abraham withheld nothing from God. He was willing to give up his only son to the God that he feared, loved and was devoted to. He was obedient, even when it made no sense. We too should with hold nothing from God. He gave it to us, he provided us with everything we have, and it is really His.

Obedience is part of the biblical blueprint for worship. It is among the most important aspects in the building of the tabernacle

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Not All Worship Is Acceptable To God

Genesis chapter 4 recounts the story of Cain and Abel and their offerings to God. Abel was the keeper of flocks and had brought the firstlings of his flock to God as a sacrifice. Cain was a farmer and had brought some of the fruit of the ground as an offering to the Lord. Which one do you think God accepted as a acceptable sacrifice?

As I read through, I was suprised to find that Cain's offering was not accepted by the Lord, and Abels was. As we read last time, blood had to be shed for the covering of sins.

Hebrews 9:22 "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

I'm not sure if this is the reason for Cain's offering not being accepted, but it makes sense. Cains hard work and the ground brought forth the grain and fruit which he offered, and there is obviously no blood involved with grain, so where is the sacrifice and suffering? It could have also been that Cain brought his offering with the wrong attitude or motive.

Abels offering was accepted by God but why?
We can see that he brought the firstlings of the flock out of reverance and faith in God.

Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

An observation of Abel can be that he approached the giving of his offering to the Lord with faith. Faith that God is who He says He is and can do what He say's He can do.

The sacrifice that Abel brought to the Lord was only enough to cover his sins and not to forgive them. A more perfect sacrifice was to come, one that would remove and forgive all sin.

We can learn from Cain and Abel that not all worship is acceptable to God. It must be done God's way and not ours.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Study On The Tabernacle - Sin

I have been doing a study on the Tabernacle and how God instructed us to worship. I have found it very interesting and thought I would start sharing my discoveries.


God's Way and Our Way

It's funny to me that humanity usually tries to figure out a way to justify our sin or absolve it our way. We try the "I'll do better next time" line, or the "Please forgive me Lord" line but then go right back to doing the same thing we just "repented" of. Or we just give it a good ole' sweep under the rug and hope it goes away. That's what Adam and Eve did when they sinned in the garden. They had eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed. So what did they do? As their cheeks were blushing, they grabbed the nearest fig leaf and tried to cover themselves up. Then they heard the Lord walking in the garden so they hid themselves in the bushes. now were up to two acts to cover their sin.

God calls out for them and asks where they are. I think this is funny because although we know that God knew where they were, I think he called out to Adam and Eve to make them realize they were hiding from Him. Talk about adding to the shame. So they come out and God asks why were you hiding? Adam explains their shame due to their nakedness so they hid. you know the rest of the story (Genesis 3:1-13) He blames her, She blames the snake and the buck gets passed. See we haven't changed much since the beginning of time.

Our way simply doesn't work because it only leads down a road of lies, deception, and grief. God has a very specific plan for worship and it starts with forgiveness, and although they may have not understood it completely, he starts to lay it out for Adam and Eve in verses 14-24.

First - God condemns Eve to pain in childbearing and that her desire will be for her husband
For Adam, hard labor for his food and eventually death.

Second- He makes clothing for them and covers them. Now I have always read over this and not given it much thought, but stop here for a minute and think with me. Where did the clothing come from and what was it made of? Verse 21 tells us that the garments were made of skin. Who's skin? This is the first lesson in forgiveness for us. Without blood there can be no forgiveness! God had taken one of the animals (one that Adam named and walked in the garden with) and killed it spilling it's blood. He used the skin of the animal to cover Adam and Eve thus covering their shame. (We will get into this more later, remember don't just read it but think about what it is saying and what it could be referring to.)

Third - God banished Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Their sin caused separation from God. Never again would they be allowed to walk with Him in the cool of the garden.

Now the bible doesn't come right out and say it, but we can assume, that they might have helped raise or take care of the animal that God killed to clothe them. We can imagine that they may have been saddened or grieved by the death the animal received that should have been theirs. Sin is costly and when sins are committed, something has to die and blood must be shed to rectify those sins.

So here we are, at separation from God caused by their (our) sin. As we usually do, they tried to cover it up but were unsuccessful. God gives us a hint of what it takes to regain our relationship with Him, and it all starts with forgiveness, but this isn't the full story.

The ultimate message from Adam and Eve is that if we are going to worship God our sin must be dealt with first.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Transcending the Ages

For the past four or five weeks we have been singing a few hymns here and there in our song sets at church on Sunday mornings. We have done songs like:

“There is Power In The Blood”
“Come Thou Fount”
“Amazing Grace”
“What A Friend We Have In Jesus”
“Will The Circle Be Unbroken”

Well this week I really dove deep and put in the Doxology. I know, I know, I either hear
“What were you thinking” or “It’s about time”. Now on this months singing team, we have a diverse age group so I wasn’t sure how it would go over. Obviously the more experienced generation would know it and appreciate it, but why? Is it because of the message of the song, or because they just grew up singing it? The younger generation I knew wouldn’t know it, so it would give me an opportunity to explain it just as I have all the other songs of old that we have been singing.

Well sticking to my style, I didn’t want to do it exactly how it has always been done, so we played it just a tad bit different than usual as to be a little more culturally relevant to the ear. Well I must say that the song is still alive and well today. It is so rich in doctrine when it comes to the Trinity. After singing it a few times, the youngest on tonight’s team (18) asked what the song meant. After explaining it, we sang it a few times more and she made the comment that out of all the songs we had done tonight, it was her favorite. That surprised me just do to the age of the song, the newness of the other songs we were singing, and I really didn’t change it that much. I think it just came down to the fact that the message of the song puts all glory and honor on God just as it should be. After hearing the comments tonight about this song, (and there were many) I’m excited to sing this Sunday. To sing a song that is pure in integrity, with no “I’s” or “Me’s”, it’s just refreshing.

One more thing, The doxology is usually put at the tail end of things, kind of a wrap up song if you will. Take up the offering then sing the doxology. Finish the service then sing the doxology as a way to close out the day. I didn’t put it at the end, in fact it’s just shortly after the middle of the service for this reason; the lyrics.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above thee Heavenly hosts
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost


I believe our praise should be continual and never ending, not something we do only we get or give something, but in all circumstances. So we will sing this song in a buffet of praise Sunday morning as we enjoy the rich message of the doxology.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Something Is Brewing

Have you ever had a feeling that something is happening inside of you and you just can't put your finger on it. I'm not talking about a physical ailment rather a deep desire or brewing to see or make something happen. I have this, and I'm not sure what it is yet but I know it's there. My family and I have been through a lot of change this past year. God called me (us) to leave our church and friends of Anchor Community Church, www.anchorpeople.org and go to serve at another church across town, Union Chapel . This proved to be one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made, however it turned out to be the right one.

Shortly after taking the position at UC, I was asked to join the steering committee team for the United Brethren In Christ National Conference. http://www.ub.org/nc/about.html This was also a difficult decision due to the fact that I have never been involved in a planning team like this before, especially of this size. Since accepting the opportunity to serve in this capacity, I have been stretched and have learned a lot. I'm still in the process of planning but it is exciting to be involved in something of this magnitude and importance.

I'm so glad I'm a part of the things I'm a part of right now. The books I'm reading, the meetings I attend, the capacities in which I am serving, they are all pointing me in a direction of action. I find myself getting passionate about making a difference in the lives of those around me. I find myself thinking up ways to convey the information I have in a way that people will understand and want to listen to. I have a deep desire to see people find the truth about Christ and watch Him transform their lives, not modify, but transform!

Lately I have been reading a few books that speak to the position and predicament that the local church finds itself in today. I'm not talking about a building either, I'm speaking of the body of believers. It seems that in today's culture the church is laughed at more often than it is taken seriously, and I ask myself why. Why does it seem that the church of today isn't vibrant and growing like it should be? Why is it when I go to church, I never hear the celebration stories of so and so being saved, or so and so leading this person to Christ?

To me it seems like we are so focused on the inside of the church, we have forgotten that outside the walls of the building there exists this whole other civilization of people that are hungry for the information we know about Christ. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great when I see people from my church come forward during an alter call and get things straightened out with Christ, but why does it stop there? Why don't we go home and strike up conversations with people about what happened to us that day? Why does it always stop at the door when we go home? Where is the transformation? Behavioral modification is not the business Christ is into, but total life transformation!

As I look back at the past 8 months to a year, I see how God has been pulling me in this direction, and He never ceases to amaze me. Even when I thought life was spinning out of control, I can see now it was a perfectly devised plan from my wonderful creator.

Following God is hard, because is goes against everything the world tells us to do. However we are not of this world nor were we created to live here forever. I try to keep that in mind when I feel God tugging on my heart like He has been lately. It always takes faith and understanding that He will always do what is best for me, and that on my own I can accomplish nothing, but through Him, and through His strength, I can accomplish all things.

Praise God!