This morning on the way to work (yep, same spot on Norvell Road) God nudged me to turn on the radio and Family Life Radio especially, which isn’t often my first choice. I haven’t listened to music in the car much lately … just relish the silence. For a minute I relented because the rest of my day would be filled with noise right up to hitting the pillow, but that nudge became very strong. Funny, when I did turn the radio on, the station was right there (usually its W4 Country).
First conversation was talking about bugs, then the news (some microwave oatmeal story – tastes better cooked for 25-30 minutes okay?!), then back to music. Casting Crowns. East to West. Especially these words … “But today I feel like I’m just one mistake away from You leaving me this way … In the arms of your mercy I find rest, ‘cause You know just how far the east is from the west. From one scarred hand to the other” all these years I’ve thought those lyrics were like placing my scars (consequences of sin) into his scarred hands … and this morning I saw/felt/understood/imagined and could feel the motion across my chest as the soldiers would have taken Christ’s arms and spread them on the cross, then the nails puncturing his wrists/hands making those scars … the pain, the angst, the Blood.
You can imagine the healing in tears, the forgiveness, and Pastor’s words from Sunday’s sermon came to me echoing Prof Shuta’s words from class time and time again, we just are to receive (this garment from Matthew 22:1-14), just receive, just receive … Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, thy beauty are my glorious dress, ‘midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with JOY shall I lift up my head. Oh how hard it is to stand at that place of unworthiness and look up into the loving face of Jesus, then fall into His arms, those arms that were stretched out for you and for me. Surrender.
Then a moment of doubt crept in, Lord, is your forgiveness really for me … I know it is for others … but is it really, really, really for me? There is just so much in all of this for me today, and a few lyrics from a song to jar me loose and send its message home to my heart. So very much. Thoughts from class came flooding in again, the purpose of God’s (My) Word … is to produce worship. Sixty-six love letters. Written by the hand of man, but by the very Breathe of God. And again, as your mind roles through word pictures of all the verses that you’ve ever read, perhaps memorized, the stories and once again I see the mystery, the awe of a God that would love me so much – ME full of sin, full of junk, full of selfishness, and full of nothing worthy of salvation.
Almost wiped the sweat from my brown and was thankful I made the move to turn the radio on this morning. Wow, what I would have missed.
Maybe some of these lyrics will bless you today as well. You can find them at http://artists.letssingit.com/casting-crowns-lyrics-east-to-west-xngr6x5
Grace and peace ... grace and peace to you this day.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
What's Missing? Awe.
Good morning all … at least I think its morning. Maybe its my imagination, but this ‘morning’ seems darker than most! Here’s a big question all of us have been asking on and off in the past few years …. My professor asked it of us yesterday in class ….
Why does worship seem hard to get people involved, active, seemingly alive?
You can imagine that I sat up and took huge notice …. The ‘kids’ didn’t seem to have an answer, and I was certainly fishing for just one myself.
He went on to say, “Because its hard today to get people in ‘awe’ of anything.” He stopped so we could picture that in our minds eyes. My mind saw videos, flashing lights, ‘stuff’, then moved to the mundane daily grind before the ‘aha’ light went on. He went on to say, “We make God too familiar. Worship should take you out of the ordinary (it should be different than the everyday) and take you into the extraordinary.”
He left it right there and went on with “so what is the purpose of scripture?”
He didn’t wait for us to answer.
“Purpose of scripture is to draw us into worship.”
A lot fell into place with me, I’m sure its not the first time I’ve heard it from him, and honestly, I KNOW IT, but its often buried, so I took IT off the shelf and blew away the dust. This class has forced me to go beyond a daily routine of reading God’s word and worshipping … its like the top of my head has a new opening now … and I want to go outside of that box/skull. I want to know more. I want to know HIM more. Sound like a lyric line of a song?
“While we humans can never exhaust the complexity of God in whatever we say, nevertheless, on the basis of His self-revelation to us we can at least express what we do know of Him on that basis.” Shuta says this in every class in some form or fashion and at some point. Sometimes he stands there and says just two words, “exhaust, express” …. And we connect. And I think that we should ‘say’ those ‘words’ in someway, at some time, through our music and worship leading each and every week. Inspire awe.
I think I’m getting it. Five weeks, 15 hours of class time, the hours on homework is phenomenal, just 83 questions from this Tuesday to Thursday, and they ain’t just fill in the blank. Reading, reading, and reading some more. Then questions have five or six Bible verses to help you ‘find’ the answer, and the answer isn’t just one word. It’s a thought process. And well, you know what my thought processes are from experiencing Worship Updates often. It’s stretching me, I’ve gone from digging in, to frustration levels enough to want to quit, to digging back in, countless times, knowing it’s the Holy Spirit who is drawing me back in. So, I put my stake in the ground here and now and decided to stop counting and am working on getting ‘out of my head’ on this one … taking the journey.
I pray that you all, at some juncture of your life, decide to dig deeper. Ladies, there is opportunity right at your doorstep for two more weeks of Beth Moore study on Tuesday nights and Thursday mornings. Last night, I decided that I was truly designed for the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s all I want to say, other than Pastor and I are having discussions on something from this/like this for Lent. Men, work Adult Bible Class into your Sunday mornings when you are not scheduled and any other ways of connecting (www.allprodad.com). Team, let’s find ways of re-integrating the study of God’s Word into our ‘assemblies’ when we are together … let’s discover together how that can be best done. You won’t be sorry, oh, no. Not in the least.
Why does worship seem hard to get people involved, active, seemingly alive?
You can imagine that I sat up and took huge notice …. The ‘kids’ didn’t seem to have an answer, and I was certainly fishing for just one myself.
He went on to say, “Because its hard today to get people in ‘awe’ of anything.” He stopped so we could picture that in our minds eyes. My mind saw videos, flashing lights, ‘stuff’, then moved to the mundane daily grind before the ‘aha’ light went on. He went on to say, “We make God too familiar. Worship should take you out of the ordinary (it should be different than the everyday) and take you into the extraordinary.”
He left it right there and went on with “so what is the purpose of scripture?”
He didn’t wait for us to answer.
“Purpose of scripture is to draw us into worship.”
A lot fell into place with me, I’m sure its not the first time I’ve heard it from him, and honestly, I KNOW IT, but its often buried, so I took IT off the shelf and blew away the dust. This class has forced me to go beyond a daily routine of reading God’s word and worshipping … its like the top of my head has a new opening now … and I want to go outside of that box/skull. I want to know more. I want to know HIM more. Sound like a lyric line of a song?
“While we humans can never exhaust the complexity of God in whatever we say, nevertheless, on the basis of His self-revelation to us we can at least express what we do know of Him on that basis.” Shuta says this in every class in some form or fashion and at some point. Sometimes he stands there and says just two words, “exhaust, express” …. And we connect. And I think that we should ‘say’ those ‘words’ in someway, at some time, through our music and worship leading each and every week. Inspire awe.
I think I’m getting it. Five weeks, 15 hours of class time, the hours on homework is phenomenal, just 83 questions from this Tuesday to Thursday, and they ain’t just fill in the blank. Reading, reading, and reading some more. Then questions have five or six Bible verses to help you ‘find’ the answer, and the answer isn’t just one word. It’s a thought process. And well, you know what my thought processes are from experiencing Worship Updates often. It’s stretching me, I’ve gone from digging in, to frustration levels enough to want to quit, to digging back in, countless times, knowing it’s the Holy Spirit who is drawing me back in. So, I put my stake in the ground here and now and decided to stop counting and am working on getting ‘out of my head’ on this one … taking the journey.
I pray that you all, at some juncture of your life, decide to dig deeper. Ladies, there is opportunity right at your doorstep for two more weeks of Beth Moore study on Tuesday nights and Thursday mornings. Last night, I decided that I was truly designed for the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s all I want to say, other than Pastor and I are having discussions on something from this/like this for Lent. Men, work Adult Bible Class into your Sunday mornings when you are not scheduled and any other ways of connecting (www.allprodad.com). Team, let’s find ways of re-integrating the study of God’s Word into our ‘assemblies’ when we are together … let’s discover together how that can be best done. You won’t be sorry, oh, no. Not in the least.
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