Maybe, just maybe, a Divine Creator formed us from the dust of the earth because of His limitless love and developed the amazing organ we call the brain to thoughtfully, considerately and fearfully consider the universe that reveals the glory of Him.
Or, maybe it was all an accident. But if that accident led to the random evolution of that same brain, why would I rely on the end result of that original accident (the conclusion that the brain is a random development of evolution) as lending validity to the original accident?
Today we have a guest blogger. She’s also the lady I live with. That’s right, the divine Mrs. Bassett is in the house! Both literally and figuratively. This is a great piece she wrote several years back and she just found while cleaning up old computer files. As I read it on her facebook it took my breath away. File this one under, “I Wish I Could Convey Feelings Through My Writing Like That.”
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Okay, confession time. I’m addicted. I could watch home reno shows 24/7. I just love how they take these sad little places and make them into something wonderful. Further confession: I live my life vicariously through these shows since those of you who know me know I haven’t used one single bit of the information gleaned from these shows to further the decor or ambiance of my own home. Who has time???
Well, God’s makeovers may require more than we’re sometimes willing to give, but they reap eternal rewards with peace as a great side benefit! Ha!
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)
It’s time! Let’s get rebuilding. Have you ever been hurt so badly that you couldn’t breathe? You know, like the wind knocked out of you? It’s terrifying! I mean, you’re fairly certain you’ll survive, but for a moment you have total understanding of the human body’s need for air in a real and meaningful way. You panic. You struggle for air. You may even do stupid stuff because you’re just trying to breathe.
I’ll ask again. Have you ever been hurt so badly that you couldn’t breathe? This time, I mean by life. Maybe a loved one dies, a child strays, someone you trusted wreaks havoc in your life, a dream dies, a job is lost, a spouse leaves, you’re in financial ruin. You can’t breathe. You struggle for life. You do stupid stuff.
It’s okay. You’ll live through it. I promise. Just breathe.
There are two movies that come to mind when I think about this. One is Deep End of the Ocean where a mother turns around and her two year old is gone. Michelle Pfeifer is the most amazing actress in the scenes that follow. I practically collapse with her each time I watch it. You might be wondering why I would watch it. It’s a reminder. It’s a battle cry for me. My heart so breaks for that desperate mother. I remember how many mothers and fathers are out there living in that desperate moment, and I plead with God for them. I stand in the gap for them knowing that He is faithful to provide peace.
The other movie is Ever After. This is an all-time fav. I’m hopelessly romantic and I love a happy ending. Especially when the villain’s lies are brought to light and justice is served. The scene I picture first though, is where Danielle (Cinderella as it were) has finally mustered up enough courage to get all dolled up and go to the ball to claim the love of her life and to tell him the truth about herself. However, before she can do that, the villain, the evil stepmother, takes it upon herself to discredit her in front of God and everybody. Defeated, she runs away from the purpose and the plan she was created for. To add insult to injury, she is then sold into slavery to the most hideous of men.
How ironic, don’t you think? It’s always when we turn and run from the plans and purposes God has for our lives that we end up bound in a cycle of slavery. Hmmm.
Have you ever felt like that?
Are you still suffering the consequences of those events?
Do you feel defeated, deceived, and destroyed?
It’s time to rebuild! That’s right. It’s just that easy.
Deal with it! Get before God and choose joy. Release any hurt, and humble your heart before Him. Let forgiveness reign.
Decide today to take hold of every one of those thoughts that WILL return to you…”don’t you remember what they did to you…don’t you remember how you felt…God doesn’t care about you or He wouldn’t have let this happen to you.”
Determine to break the chains of hurt and hostility that bind you. LET IT GO – every hour on the hour if needed. Speak it into your life. You will be victorious!
Diva Up and put on your crown of forgiveness – forgive not just those who have hurt you, but yourself if you’ve made mistakes that made it worse. Then, go to your closet and pick out your designer garment of praise. This is your armor to defeat the enemy that would keep you bound up with an ineffective testimony of hurt, doubt, anger and shame. Put on the oil of gladness and stink pretty! Create an aroma that is life-giving to those around you.
Declare the Word of the Lord over your life! Let Him be your defender and your shield.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners.
You will be called an oak of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. You will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; you will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Praise His name!
You are chosen for His greatness! So, let’s get this makeover started – get dressed, and get rebuilding!
No, really…this one is at least PG-13, maybe even R.
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you! Take me away with you – let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.” Song of Songs 1:2-4
“Egadz! Cover your virgin ears…get the kids out of the room. What an outrage! It’s scandalous! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
Consider for one moment what would happen if some goatee sportin’, gauge wearin’, tat displayin’ emergent church type described a relationship with Christ like this from the pulpit. What if an otherwise demur young lady described her desire for God, in terms of the latest, hottest “Bond-girl” anxious to “bed” the super-stud “Bond, James Bond.”
Who among us would ever describe our longing for God’s presence like a hot, steamy foreign film; a scene between two breathless, passionate newlywed lovers that are so anxious to experience the ecstasy of union that the open-mouth, tongue probing kissing starts in the elevator…continues with the disrobing just outside the wedding suite doors and climaxes with…my, it’s getting warm in here.
Or, how about Jesus describing His church like a pin-up girl, keeping a poster of us up on His wall like a the ubiquitous “Farrah” placard of the seventies? Only, He really does have a mad, passionate (appropriate) relationship with a really hot babe…His church (His bride).
Let’s be honest, this type of thinking isn’t just remote to most Christian’s thinking, it’s revolting. Most of us find it an anathema and repugnant. No proper follower of King of kings would ever allow this thought to fly over our head, let alone build its nest in our hair (sorry, Martin).
Disclaimer: I’m not necessarily advocating that we flaunt these descriptions in the public market or shout them from every pulpit. But, we also shouldn’t regard them as completely foreign to a relationship with Christ; not necessarily the graphic descriptions, but the breathless passion they engender.
After all, right there it is in scripture…right there in the Bible. A lover “resting between my breasts” (1:13); “no wonder the maidens love you” (1:3); “my heart began to pound for him” 5:4).
Rather passionate and seductive, wouldn’t you say? Kind of takes your breath away if you let your imagination run with it a while, doesn’t it? And, I’ve left out the really graphic stuff.
But, that’s my point. When was the last time the thought of Jesus took your breath away? When was the last time you had a “crush” on Him? Do you let Him seduce you? Do your knees go weak when you think of Him?
It’s much safer for us to think of our relationship with Christ in business terms. Business contracts don’t make us blush. Corporate mergers don’t take our breath away, they let us stay dignified. They’re measured, thoughtful and considered…and certainly don’t make us weak in the knees.
Mad, passionate love affairs are undignified; drive us to act like fools; consume our every waking moment; overwhelm us to extravagance. Would anyone ever describe our relationship with Jesus using the words undignified or extravagant?
My daughter, Abbie, has some great quotes on her computer desktop that I think Solomon would have appreciated. I hope they describe my foolish, and completely appropriate, passion for Jesus.
“Love: a wildly misunderstood, although highly desirable, malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes the eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise and the lips to pucker.”
When do I blush at the thought of Jesus?
“To him she seemed so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else’s heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”
Is our infatuation with Jesus so strong that we don’t understand why everyone else’s heart isn’t wild for Him? Why aren’t we so mesmerized with Him that we’re afraid to approach Him? But, knowing that to approach Him only makes the spell stronger.
“Love is when the woman (or man) of your dreams becomes a reality and sleep stops being a priority.”
Do you ever stay up all night just to be with Him?
“Love enables you to put your deepest feelings and fears in the palm of your lover’s hand, knowing they will be handled with care.”
Throughout scripture the terms used to describe worship seem to transcend time, space, posture, attitude, etc. The concept or worship remains elusive throughout the Old Testament. At times it took the form of scheduled observances, i.e. “The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations – My appointed times are these: For six days work may be done; but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation” Leviticus 23:2&3. These are “worship” as noun.
There are also feasts such as The Passover or The Feast of Unleavened Bread. These are the action verb of worship. Sometimes the priests offered sacrifice on behalf of Israel as passive spectators and at other times God’s chosen people were active participants, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses…” Exodus 12:1
In Joshua’s “farewell speech” we see worship as lifestyle, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” It is in “lifestyle worship” that the Israelites seem to be the most schizophrenic. I won’t list them here, but there are myriad examples of God’s Chosen putting on and taking off their t-shirts with pithy phrases. Let it be sufficient to say that the Israelites were just like everyone else in lifestyle…only more so. When they were religious they were more religious than anyone else, but when they were secular they were more secular everyone else.
In Psalm 2:11, “Worship the Lord with reverence,” we see worship begin to reveal itself in a new light. The word for worship (Abad) in this verse implies to be worked or slaved to a state of exhaustion. Whatever owns or enslaves our resources, attention, thoughts, heart reveals what we worship. And, it will wear us down till there’s nothing left. Reverence (Yir’ah) can be associated with awe that consumes one’s attention, sometimes to the point of terror. The question for us to answer is, “what do we want wearing us down and consuming our attention?”
As an aside, being in the presence of God always leads to one of two inevitabilities: either worship or judgment (death). That should produce some awe that will consume your attention to the point of terror. There is no middle-ground here. “The fear (same word translated at “reverence” in Psalm 2:11) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” But, being in awe or reverence of God is also the beginning of wisdom, the knowledge that He is loving and just and gentle…well, there just aren’t enough adjectives.
Anyway, it’s in Psalms, most of which were written by the greatest worshipper on Earth, that we begin to see what worship is. But, it’s in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, that worship reveals itself fully. It’s in the salvation of Christ that reverence for God moves from being consumed with terror to being overwhelmed by the tsunami of His love. It’s when we are brought back to life in His resurrection, after realizing our death that we are God’s glory.
There is another distinction in worship between the Old and New Testament. In all of the feasts and festivals (some of which I listed earlier) of the Old Covenant the worshippers (people) came to the temple. Under the New Covenant the temples come together in worship (“Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in You?”, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own.” I Corinthians 3:16 & 6:19 respectively). There’s that implication of worshipping or bringing glory to whatever owns you.
To my thinking, this means that the idea of meeting together on a particular day at a particular time to renew our minds, refresh our spirits, recharge our batteries and rejuice our emotions to simply survive another week is inefficient at best and completely ineffectual at worst. It’s what consumes us during the week that defines worship. Simply coming to church in the hope of plugging into some spiritual outlet for a few hours just isn’t going to cut it. We need to recognize that we are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us. We have the power source, the everlasting battery, in us. But, if we’ve been getting our “juice” from other sources (the other things in life that we allow to own us) it actually inhibits our ability to draw on this infinite power.
The inverse to weekly corporate worship as a source of energy is true. Ultimately, if Christians have been in a state of worship throughout the week, loving “the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”, then when the “Temples” all gather together an overwhelming, awe inspiring corporate expression of that state of worship can’t be contained. When two or more, who have been in a private state of worship, are gathered in the name of the Originator of that worship, then the Origin and Originator of that worship is there. Worship begets worship. I’m not going to pretend to understand it. All I am able to do is testify to the magnificent mystery of it all.
This individual, private, upper-room, continual attitude of prayer, this little light of mine type of worship always results in a kind of spiritual critical mass when combined with like individuals. The outward manifestation of individual worship starts an uncontrollable chain reaction that culminates in a mushroom cloud of corporate worship that can no more be contained and harnessed as could a nuclear explosion.
It’s because the meaning of “worship” has been a casualty of the worship wars. It’s because we, as Christians, have been deceived and lied to about what why we were created.
We are created, we have our being, our very existence is for one over-riding purpose: to bring glory to God. John Piper, in his book “Let the Nations Be Glad” does an excellent job of laying out biblical texts that reveal God’s zeal of His own glory. Here are just a few…
“God created us for His glory: ‘Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory.’ Isaiah 43:6-7″
“God forgives our sins for His own sake: ‘I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.’ Isaiah 43:25″
“Jesus receives us into His fellowship for the glory of God: ‘Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.’ Romans 15:7″
“God instructs us to do everything for His glory: ‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’ I Corinthians 10:31; cf. 6:20
“Everything that happens will redound to God’s glory: “From Him and through Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36
So, here we are again. Back at the question, “what is worship?”
Worship is a being verb.
Consider it…don’t miss the nuance. God created the universe for His glory; chose Israel for His glory; God led Israel out of Egypt for His glory; God sent Jesus for His glory; Jesus performed miracles for His glory; Jesus suffered, died and lived again for His glory; Jesus gives us life through His resurrection for His glory; Jesus will come again for His glory; in Him we have our being for His glory.
There it is: “for in Him we live and move and have our being”…for His glory.
We are worship. We bring glory.
The question for us Christians is, “to whom or what do we bring glory?” Just because something, or someone, is created for a purpose doesn’t always mean that the purpose is fulfilled. Are we worship that brings glory to God or to something else? Are we worship that attracts those around us to God or distracts them to something else? Or worse, are we attractive worship or repulsive worship?
When we are cut off in traffic, what type of worship are we? When the cashier at McDonald’s gets our order wrong, what type of worship are we? When we see a homeless person who could use a sandwich and coffee, what kind of worship are we? When a young girl is struggling with the option of abortion, what kind of worship are we? When the teenage boy down the street, who we allow to annoy us with his sub-woofers, continues to make poor life decisions, what type of worship are we? When the elderly lady across the street, who we think complains too much, could use her lawn cut, what type of worship are we?
In short, are we worship that attracts people to the Savior or repulses them?
For that driver, forgive because you were forgiven. For that cashier, offer an encouraging word for the difficult day they may be having. For that homeless person, make an extra sandwich when you’re making your own lunch for the day. For that young girl, offer to help raise that precious, unborn child in the way that she should go so that when she is grown she will not depart from it. For that teenage boy, remember what it was like for you at that age make yourself available to walk the difficult road of adolescence with him. For that lady, what’s one more yard on your to-do list, anyway?
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Be worship…and then stand awestruck when you see what corporate worship can be when two or more have been gathered in His name throughout the entire week.
And, just as being worship results in corporate worship, corporate worship encourages being worship…but I’ll let you write that story on your own.