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Fear begat Worship, which begat Confession…

Confession is a far under utilized practice in the church today.  Aside from Catholics who confess regularly, very little confession ever goes on amongst Christians.  Typically, when a person finally arrives at the point at which they are willing to confess their sins one to another (James 5:16), their sins have already been found out and what the individual is doing is validating all the rampant gossip surrounding whatever recent incident that needed confessing.  The problem with this is that it is not confession, nor is it all that constructive.  Confession is for the sake of healing and growth.  As is evident in the passage concerning confession found in James 5 as well as Isaiah 6.  

Please Read:

Isaiah 6: 5-7

James 5: 13-16

When we have contact with the Lord through worship, as well as the regular going-on of our gathering together, confession is a natural step.  If we were to use this element of our Christian lives more regularly, there would be far less timidity concerning our own need for confession. 

However, the most important step to making the act of confession valuable to the growth of the believer is that it must be met with an attitude of redemption instead of condemnation. Redemption is the immediate response from the Almighty when Isaiah confesses his sin, and is the immediately following the act of confession in James’ letter.  We must begin to be a people of reconciliation, and redemption if we are to ever achieve the example set before us by Jesus Christ.   

For it is He who has reconciled us to good work and to eternity, and though he did not sin, we have laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. 

Let us take great care to show confessors compassion rather than heaping upon them guilt and shame. 

Fear of the LORD is the Root of Worship

Please read Isaiah 6:1-5

This passage describes a tremendous scene that depicts worship of the Most High God in its most primal stage.  The seraphim of verse 2 exist for no reason but to give glory to the LORD and do this without the veil of sin but remain fearful of the awesome power of the Almighty! We see this in their demonstration of the unnecessary veil, as well as in the words they use to describe the King of Kings who sits on the throne!

Each of these beings covers their face, and feet with a set of wings.  Though they are without sin, they are overcome by a fear of the LORD that requires that they cover themselves in order to keep from offending their King.

They cover their feet, I believe, because even without sin, their existence is an affront to the Holiness of the LORD of Hosts.  The difference between the Creator and His creation is infinite.  There is no way to quantify the difference between God and everything else, except to say that there is God…and everything else.  

This statement helps to expose the reason why these seraphim also cover their face.  Not that their face makes a mockery of God, but that the act of viewing God proposes the idea of equality.  Even without sin, these seraphim, who exist to worship the Father, are yet unworthy to look upon His face.  

After seeing this glorious display of worship, we are able to view Isaiah’s actions in a far more informed light.

Isaiah’s immediate reaction to the scene is to admit the truth about what should happen to him.  He indicates that the proper actions concerning him being able to see the throne room is fear.  He fears the Holiness of God, the Power of God, and the Sovereignty of God.  Isaiah knows that because of his sin, he should be destroyed because he entered the presence of the Lord of Hosts.  Isaiah does the only thing that his fear will allow him to do; he bows, and waits on the word of the Lord.

Fear of the LORD culminates into the physical and spiritual posture of worship…

Ministry in Concert with Ministry

Speaking with a group of friends about the effects of attempting to balance the work of one area of the church with another, we discovered another analogy to describe the proper proportion and transfer of emphasis from one are of ministry to another throughout the church year.  

Rather than looking at ministry as a balancing act where pastors, staff, and lay leaders perpetuate a stunning display of spinning plates atop tiny poles, the church should be more like an actively monitored concert of sea-saw movements focused upon the overall development of people in the church.  Instead of trying to perpetuate every possible activity that the church can think of throughout the calendar year, try and assume programs that will influence the stages of life and growth.  Let musical specials give way to children’s events and mission trips lead into senior adult ministries.  See the church’s ministries as a flowing river of life for each to enjoy and participate rather than a tepid pool of muddy water that, if we were to stand inside too long, might consume us like quicksand!

If your area of ministry is tired, take a break.

If your area of ministry is long overdue, schedule an event or two.

Make time for each season of ministry in your church, and know that each season has a definite beginning along with a definite end.  

Remember, there’s always next year...

Begging the Spirit to Bless!

I spoke to a local pastor yesterday who made a statement to me that, at the moment, seemed to be an authentic stance on doctrinal philosophy, but the more I ponder what he said, the more I am in awe as to the weight that only a few words can have.

“We can’t do anything without the presence of the Holy Ghost. We BEG the Lord to bless us with the Spirit’s power!”

When speaking of his church, this pastor stated that there was no program or person who was capable of producing “anything worth anything” for anyone without the power of the Holy Spirit. I was amazed and impressed with the dedication to the theme of the Spirit that this pastor used throughout the conversation that we had. There was a simple and clear desperation interwoven throughout our conversation. We each wanted the same thing from ministry; we each longed for the Lord to use us to bring Him glory. Longing is the beginning, begging is the process, but humility is the posture.

I began to ponder the word that this new brother of mine used to describe his church’s prayer process. Begging! I had to ask how long it had been since I longed for something so desperately, and seen the Lord as so powerful that I Humbled myself before the Almighty and BEGGED of Him the blessing that only He can offer?

1 Chronicles 7:14

¹⁴if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Beg the Lord!

Conformed to the Worship of a Lesser God

Worship is a word that has been hijacked and associated with Christian corporate meetings. While this definition may be true at times, the word Worship has a far more broad definition.

Worship is defined as a verb in this way, “to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing). “

If this is true, the idea that God is the only one who is capable of receiving worship falls incredibly short of reality. ‘Any person or thing’ indicates that what we may have hoped to reserve for the Almighty, may indeed be divulged to any object, regardless of its deity.

What would cause us to worship something, or someone other than the One True God?

There are some of us, if not all of us, who have been taught from the nursery that there are objects, people, days, and programs that are worthy of our adoration. Things like church buildings, pastors, Sunday school, denominations, etc. have each been exalted as places and elements of Christianity that are worthy of our adoration and worship. The problem is that we have robbed God of worship and offered it to these cheap replacements.

We have been molded and conformed into people who love religion over relationship, and our own building over the building up of the saints. We have been taught to love the statues and graven images of our religion instead of becoming a bond-servant to the one who saved us. We must, as the scriptures say, be transformed by the renewing of our mind, to replace worship offered to idols with authentic worship of the one who deserves our praise!

Conformed to the pattern of this world may not be the vile and disgusting activities that we see around us by those who do not believe, it may simply be the belief that something we have created is more worthy of worship than the one who created us.

May the spirit wash over you and may you see with new eyes, that which only He is able to show you!

Conformed vs. Transformed

While teaching at a youth camp recently, I was asked the question, “When do we experience the transformation that the Bible talks about?” Of course this is in reference to the passage found in Romans 12:2

² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Though this passage is short it is full of theology and doctrine relevant to our ministry as Followers of the Way.

We are asked to do two distinct things in this passage. The first is to stop actively conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world, while the second is that we must be transformed.

Stop Actively Conforming to the Pattern of this world:

I have hear a lot of sermons about what this might mean and it seems to always center around the way the world is selfish and seeks to hoard everything for themselves. “Look out for number one” is a saying that personifies this attitude that infects the world around us. As we begin to adopt this mantra for ourselves, we force our bodies into the mold that the world has established. When we do this, we are unrecognizable as Christians. The Lord said that we would be recognized as disciples of Jesus Christ when we love one another. Such an act of selflessness can only come from above, and will immediately distinguish us as different that the pattern that the world has set for us.

Be Transformed:

This is a different statement because it asks us to do something that we are unable to do. This is the result of the understanding that Paul had in the transformational power of the Holy Spirit over the natural world. He experienced this in a more pronounced way than most. His life was changed in a way that was impossible for him to accomplish. Only through the power of the Spirit was he able to ‘Be Transformed’ from Saul to Paul. The statement Be Transformed is something that requires us to relinquish control and allow the Spirit to take authority.

Both of these commands take time; time to recognize our fault, time to know our weakness, time to wait on the Lord, time to see the transformation that He has brought forth in us.

May the Lord be the element of change in your life, and may the desires of your heart be for transformation and eternity.