Friday, October 28, 2011

In Spirit and in truth....

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain." Exodus 20:7


This is a very strong command... the Lord takes His name very seriously. In the Old Testament His name was given as a facet of his being, as a description of who He is, and what the people needed at that time. Jehovah Jirah - my Provider, Jehovah Rappha - my Healer. God's Name is not just something we should just throw around recklessly. There are very obvious examples of this, I'm sure we all hear people take the name of the Lord in vain, just in our every day life, in our day to day conversations. We've all heard and have ourselves said God's name to punctuate our disappointment. But God does not want us using His name as an exclamation point. His name is Holy, because He is Holy. Therefore we should be treating it reverently everytime we say His name. Jesus taught us to pray saying: Our Father who art in heaven- Hallowed be Thy Name. Hallowed means Holy. Holy be Your Name.

But more than just in idle conversation, God's name is in my opinion even more often taken in vain in our churches during our worship. We are idly throwing out God's name in song, not meaning anything that we say.

 John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

When I break this verse down I see that God is asking us to worship first in Spirit, this means that we are not worshiping in the flesh, the music is not as important as the heart. God is not hearing our off key rendition, He is hearing our spirit crying out to His.

Secondly He is listening for us to mean what we are saying. To worship in truth. We are not to be idly saying 'O God you are my God...' We are supposed to mean it: "God YOU are my God!" This doesn't mean He wants us shouting as loud as we can over each other. No God is not asking us to do that. He is asking us to feel, and to know that, yes, God is our God.

Matthew 12:36

36 But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

This does not mean that we should not sing if we don't feel it. It means that we should enter into the house of worship with intention, with preparation to worship our God. We should soften our hearts to hear from Him. And be willing to put aside all the cares of the world to truly worship God in spirit and in truth!

Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Here am I.... send me!

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

This has always been to me, the most frightening of verses... Here am I, send me? But what about my job my family? I always was worried that as soon as I said this, God would send me somewhere far away, with snakes and spiders galore. Well I suppose so far he has sent me to be worship leader at MMCC... where we do have our share of snakes, but that is aside from the point. I have frequently heard God's call to action, and have reacted in various and some, quite despicable ways. Reading through the bible I see a large variety in how the prophets responded to God, often very similarly to what I have personally done as well. Which one is closer to our response? Which one would we like to have be our response?


First I would like to examine Jonah... God called him to go to Nineveh, called him to tell the people(who clearly were bad people) to repent, or be destroyed. What was Jonah's response? "Here am I, I'm not going"

Jonah 1: 1-3  1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 

God called him to a work - Preach against Nineveh, but his reaction showed lack of faith (in God) & love (for souls), cf. Jonah 4:1-5. For myself personally, most often this response is out of fear. Often like Jonah - I will be running from spiritual obligations, believing I have good reasons which clear me from responsibility.


The next biblical person I would like to have us look at is Moses. “Here am I, send Aaron”  Exodus 3:11-4:17
  Moses knew the need which existed, he just couldn’t see himself being used by God to meet the need. He offered multiple excuses aimed at removing himself from God’s consideration as deliverer of Israel. He was hoping that God would change his mind. I often rationalize why I am not best suited for some spiritual work - That surely God could find someone other than me, and better than me, to do what needs to be done? 

The last person would be Isaiah how did he react when God called him? 
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah was overwhelmed with God's majesty, was stricken by the sin of the people, and was eager and willing to go wherever God sent him, to say whatever God told him.

What is our reaction when God calls us?

Ephesians 4:1-4

 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling

We have all been called, if you are a Christian God is calling you, calling you to service, calling you to be holy because He is holy, To be the salt of the earth, a light in the world. Calling you to shine His light forth so others might see it and be saved. What is your answer today?


Until next time: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord be gracious to you, make His face shine upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26