Time to get dressed.

Some of us are familiar with those weekends when we feel lazy, crawl out of bed and mill about the house for half the day in pyjamas, ruffled hair and unshowered. Our spiritual life quite often looks the same way. Full from a good Sunday meeting we are filled up, praised up and content with our God life in general. We wake up the next day and feel like not much needs to be done, and just walk about in our spiritual pyjamas content in the (misinformed) knowledge that since God is God and I just tanked up, I'm good for another week. This sort of apathy gets us nowhere quickly.

Before I go any further, lets get a few things set straight.... I was made for God, not the other way around. He is worthy of my full attention and complete service just because He is God. God is interested in my undivided love, not because He is unloved or lonely, but because I was designed for continual fellowship with Him. Anything less is falling short of the glory that I was set apart for.

With that set out, I must ask myself- "Am I actively serving my master?". In another perspective, am I pursuing God and what He desires, as I would for someone I love dearly? Since being engaged to be married, I found there is almost nothing that will stop me from pursuing my fiancée and doing all I can to give her the desires of her heart.

Coming back to our lazy illustration. If we suddenly discovered we had to rush into work, we would be caught unprepared and undressed. Trying to quickly jump into semi-ironed clothes, while doing a listerine gargle and desperately attempting to get hair to sit as we fly out of the house, doesn't mean we are ready for work. If we haven't made it a practice to wake up and immediately have a shower and do the fundamentals for being prepared for a day, we might find ourselves constantly trying to rustle something up and hope it works.

I know there have been times I have treated my spiritual life in a similar fashion. When a crazy day lands up and we quickly try to remember what the Pastor said last sunday, and fire off an SOS prayer and hope for the best. Our holy selves wouldn't like to admit that we do that so blatantly, but you know what I'm talking about.

Very often in my own walk, I find myself saying "Judah, it's time to get dressed!". Life seems to happen and the highs of belting out Hallelujah's last Sunday, seem to be a far cry from what I feel in that particular moment. This is where the need for worship as a lifestyle starts to make sense. I cannot afford to wait for a good moment to praise or spend time with God. NOW is always the moment. If I cannot fellowship with God NOW, it only means I woke up and didn't get dressed, I'm still walking around in pyjamas. Isaiah 61 exhorts us to put on the garment of praise. Psalm 105 calls us to look to the Lord and His strength and seek him always. Psalm 63 talks of seeking the Lord early, thirsting after His presence. I could keep giving you more examples, and I know you have many too...but the point is this: Am I dressed for living in His presence? (Check out what the priests had to do to even consider entering God's presence in view of what Jesus did for you)

This is the crux of the Christian walk. we are not called to an improved human existence...we are called to heavenly calling with a whole new and living way, i.e..quality and quantity of life available in the here and now, all the way into eternity. If being Christian is a tag onto our secular life, then we will always be SOS Christians. However, if we have set our minds on things above, and set our life to do the will of our Father, we will see the practice of spending time reading His Word, Praying, Praise, Thanksgiving,and Worship as inescapable necessities in being prepared for our day.

The heavenly man is someone who sees time in the presence of God as a lifestyle, not a one off event. That is not to minimise the importance and special place of church meetings, but rather the emphasize the need for us to come filled up, ready to serve the body and minister to the Lord corporately, rather than hoping to come on Sunday to be filled up because we're so close to empty we nearly didn't make it.

So church....it's time to get dressed. Put on the garment f praise (Is 61), Put on the armor (Eph 6)....get your gear on and live a full eternity centred life. If you already are, stand in readiness. God has prepared works in advance for you to do (Eph 2). He is with you and longs to share His heart with you.

In Spirit and in Truth

We have a great salvation. A GREAT SALVATION!

I sat and considered it...and was amazed at how often I sing stuff...and just give my mental ascent ("uhuh yeah so..." kinda thing) to it...and never really let that word minister life to me. "You see I'm a grown Christian, I know He has forgiven and I know I have new life and all...now I need to move to higher stuff". Although we wouldnt use those exact words...we inside feel like we have all these things sorted out in our lives.

Being involved as a worship leader and a worship team minister, I found it shocking that for more than half the songs I was singing...I was barely skimming the surface. The word asks us to
come before Him worshipping in SPIRIT and TRUTH. There is TRUTH to be latched onto and the SPIRIT is the one who leads us into those realities. Worshipping ( not only singing btw...I'm just using that as an example for Musicians) was never just a mind activity (it involves heart, mind and strength), it is something that takes all of us.

When we see how amazing this God we serve is...all we can do is fall FACEDOWN in worship. You might be a musician or worship leader...and I want to urge you as well with this word I received. Be a minister, who functions in the spirit and not merely on your Christian values and trained musical talent.

So yeah...I'm sooooo thankful for the great salavation I have!!!!!! Join me right now and give him praise and give Glory to His name. Let His Spirit rise within you!!!

Worship: For an Audience of One

I was at the Extravagant Worship Conference a few years ago with Darlene Zschech, Matt Redman and Delirious. Here’s some stuff I have carried away from there added with some things I have gathered over time. I had actually written this for the worship team in Vizag, but I think this is something we can all be blessed by. This is not my thoughts on worship, instead signposts to what scripture asks us to follow.

Here Goes....

+ Worship requires sacrifice:

Most of us understand that statement, but a lot of us dive straight into bringing the sacrifice etc…What I want to get at here is: you cant ever dream of coming with a sacrifice, unless a sacrifice has already been made to keep you alive in the presence of God . I'm talking about Jesus. Its so so so so so vital that this governs your thinking about worship. If you ever try coming to God any other way you’ve lost the plot. We all know this as part of Christian teaching and theology, but is it something that rules your heart attitude when you come before God in worship? Romans 12:1 encourages us to keep that clear as we present ourselves to God in worship. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, in view of the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” When I used to read that, I would read it in my head as “present my body, living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God…tada…my act of worship” I totally forgot that I cannot make my sacrifice holy and pleasing. That’s why the first part of the verse is key: “in view of Gods mercy (because of the sacrifice)…present yourselves”. So before you go into worship, remember the pathway, through Jesus. The priests who were ordained to minister in the Holy of Holies had their earlobes, right thumb, right big toe smeared with blood, and their robes sprinkled with blood as they presented themselves (Lev 8:22-). In David’s tabernacle, all the instruments and musicians were sprinkled with blood, as purification for worship.
Never cut corners in your preparation for worship. Are you cleansed?? Have you been washed by blood before you step up there to minster?? To put it plainly, worship is a bloody affair. In the contemporary church, we have become used to nice songs and clean suits. This would not be the case if the sacrifice of Jesus was not complete and once and for all. However, as cute as we may look in our suits and dresses, and our music equipment being impeccable: we cannot forget that the blood of Jesus cleanses us!!! So enter "in view of His mercy".

+ Worship starts with seeing God: Leviticus 9, Job 42, Revelation 5

When God made the rules for worship, He told the Israelites to bring offerings and sacrifices, after which they would SEE Him (vs4, vs6). Let me remind you that until then, God was believed, not seen in general. For me personally reading Leviticus 9 slowly, really brought it all home to me. As a result of God accepting the sacrifice, God consumed the sacrifice. and when they saw God, worship happened(vs23,vs24)!!! If we as worshipers are not practiced in seeing God regularly, spending time in His presence; don’t expect to go up on Sunday and lead the church to place where they see Him. If you are in the congregation, don’t expect a great “experience” to flood over you all of a sudden. Here’s a good place to be thankful for God who loves to show Himself despite the worshipping team getting in the way sometimes or us not being sensitised to the presence of our awesome God in the secret and quiet places of our own lives. Thankyou Lord for mercy!

+ Know who you are worshiping: Hebrews12:28, Ps 95:6, PS 5: 7

This is one area of worship most people side-step just because salvation has brought them close to God. They are “cool” with God, so however close I get, “it doesn’t matter, I’m cool!”. When you read through the first five books of The Bible, you see God teaching His people to worship. In all the times they worshipped God, they were afraid. Even when there were times of shouting and rejoicing, there was an ever present knowledge of – “Hey guys, this is our Creator we are rejoicing before”. That’s the kind of fear Im talking about, because our God is a consuming fire.
Leviticus 9 puts it like this: "Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown."

+ Worship ends with you consumed

If you read through all references to worship, there are two things that happen; an offering and a consuming. When we present ourselves as a worship band, or just as a worshipper, we come fully prepared to give our everything to glorify our most Holy God. We then pack our instrument away at the end of the service, or get off the platform after singing, or leave the building : WITH NOTHING OF “ME” LEFT. That is the whole point of all worship, that it will be something acceptable unto God which He will consume. Grab a hold of this: you being blessed by a time of worship is good, but it's not the point. Nowadays we have become consumers of worship, when instead we should be the ones consumed in worship(us the consumees, God's the consumer). Always keep that in mind as you talk to people after a meeting. This a good place for your pastoral role as a worship leader/musician/fellow believer to come in. Point people back to the reason of our coming together. Be happy that they enjoyed the worship time, but be very quick to point them back to the God who upholds all things by the word of His power and who made us for His pleasure and glory. He is the one in our midst.

I need to close now. I pray you move to new levels of intimacy with your Creator. Enjoy the presence of Abba and at the same time see The Creator of heaven and earth in His Glory. Join all creation who are right now around The Throne singing – "Holy holy holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Be blessing and honour, glory and power unto The Lamb of God".

Love you all dearly,

With love and prayers,

Judah