behold the greatness

“Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.    Isaiah 40:9b-10

Rhythms, disciplines, or practices; call them whatever you like but in the Christian life we have a whole list of things to do. They are things we should be pursuing and engaging in as regular parts of our following after Jesus. From Bible reading, to time spent praying, fasting, serving others and worshiping (just to name a few); we have a list of “to do’s” that are a part of our lives.

These practices are good things. They are right things–so long as they are kept in their proper place. So long as they are seen as ways of responding to Christ. So long as the “to do’s” don’t become our identity or the place from which we get our value. I love these things we do. I love learning how to do them better, how to go deeper with them, how to learn more of Christ in them. And I read books on them; books on how to study the Bible well, how to pray effectively, how to fast responsibly, etc.

I’m wondering though, is there a practice (at least one) that we have largely neglected? Not that we would disagree that it’s needed, but have we forgotten to preach and teach on it, to write good books about it; forgotten to encourage one another to spend intentional time in it?

I’m thinking of the practice of beholding. Beholding the greatness of God; beholding his majesty and magnificence. I’m not talking about listing the things he’s done for us, that’s the practice of gratitude (another intentional practice that we don’t give enough attention to). What I’m talking about here though is recognizing the holiness and grandeur of God. Not just being awed by what he does for us, but literally being amazed and astounded by who is.

When was the last time you spent significant energy considering the truths about God’s character that involve more than just listing what he’s done for you? 

We see merit in setting aside time to read our Bibles (even if we struggle to do so regularly) and we see the need to give time to prayer. Why would we not also give intentional time to the practice of beholding the greatness of God? The NIV uses the simple word “see” in Isaiah 40:10, “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power…” and the ESV uses the word “behold” in the same verse. Personally, I like the word behold a little more because for me it intimates something deep and significant. An intentional perceiving of something (or in this case, Someone) impressive. But the call us for to see the Sovereign Lord is such a powerful reminder as well.

How often do we just not see him in our daily activitites? How often do we pray to ask for things from him and read to learn things about him and talk to tell some things about him and yet go through the whole day and not see him?

Behold the greatness of God. He comes and he brings everything with him that he needs. His rule is with him, his reward is with him, his recompense is with him. He does not come needing or seeking to gain. He comes delievering, determining, ruling. And all he receives ultimatley has come from him as well.

I love how Isaiah 40 proceeds afetr verse 10, because it offers the chance to bring about comparisons. It asks some critical questions of God: Who measures up to him? Who is like him? Who can give counsel to him? Comprehend him? Who has his endurance, or power, or faithfulness?

No one. No one. No one.

Behold the greatness of God, who has no equal, who is measured against none but himself. The Sovereign Lord who is Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer all in one.

How would our hearts be changed if we began to give regular time to sit and ponder the greatness of God? What if we were patient enough and willing enough to learn how to make our relationship with Christ less about ourselves and our needs and our wants and our blessings and our thoughts and more increasingly about Jesus? What if when we spent time in Bible study and in prayer we spent equal time in beholding God, in seeing him? Can you imagine the way our hearts would be moved? The depths of the love of Christ we would discover? The change we would experience?

It seems to me we would come to know him far deeper and love him far greater.

Now this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  John 17:3

 

wandering worship

Last weekend I was on a retreat with the men from my church. We heard from several different people talking about different aspects of being faithful men in our homes, our workplace, our city and our church. We were consistently turned to the Bible as our guide for understanding what God is calling us to as men.  The whole experience was a deep and meaningful one and I have found myself, in the days that have followed from there, continually returning to one specific passage we looked at:

 

Jeremiah 2

 

Have you read this passage recently? You should take the time. Read the whole chapter; feel the weight of God’s frustration with his people—with us. The fact that God sees us for who we are so clearly (as Jeremiah 2 reveals) and yet still chose to send his Son Jesus to die in our place is incredibly remarkable. We simply don’t deserve this salvation. Jeremiah 2 captures the wandering hearts of God’s sinful people.

 

God remembers our devotion; our passion when we were young:

 

Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the Lord says:
‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.’ ”

Jeremiah 2:2

 

Remember the days of first believing? Remember that energy and passion? The devotion and excitement we had for God? Remember the love? The problem is we tend not stay by him. Our hearts wander. We stray from him and our energy and commitment fades. We forget and we find ourselves distracted by new and shiny things that promise much and deliver little.

 

This is what the Lord says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.”

Jeremiah 2:5

 

God goes on in the verses that follow to make the point that we forget about God. We fail to ask where he might be, what he might be doing in our midst. We forget to look for him. Instead, we exchange him for things that are worthless. We are worshippers; it’s in our DNA, it’s a part of our makeup. There is no getting around that. When we push back on the notion of God and convince ourselves that worshiping him cramps our style, we’re only fooling ourselves. We will worship something. So God asks what fault was found with him that worthless idols were put in his place.

 

What about us? What fault do we find with God? Does he not come quick enough? Does he not answer our prayers in the way want him to? Does he fail to be so small that we might comprehend everything about why he does as he does and why he doesn’t do as we wish? When we’ve made our lives all about us we will find that God fails to live to the standards we’ve set up.

 

But we’re not claiming our independence. We’re not “breaking free” from him to live for ourselves. We will worship. We will have a master. If not God, then something—something dead. We will always worship, but our hearts have a tendency to wander, so our worship wanders too.

 

And did you notice that last sentence of verse 5?

 

“They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”

 

It’s not just about god being mad that we gave our affection to something else. That we trade relationship with the Almighty creator for the creation. It’s the reality that our very value is tied up in God and our completion and fullness are found only in relationship with him. He is our worth. When our worship wanders our relationship with him is broken and we become worthless.

 

Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.

Jeremiah 2:11

 

What things am I tempted to worship in God’s place? What else do I put my hope in? What things do I tell myself could make my life different? Better?

 

We are worshipers, but we are sinful wanders as well. So we must always be on guard for what we are placing our trust in and who we are looking to for identity. Jeremiah 2 has much to say to us about our hearts, our worship, and our wandering. For today, lets us simply consider: have we found fault with God? Have we strayed from him?

 

to the core

 “We fail to love people because we are idolaters who love neither God nor neighbor.”      – Powlison, Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair

 

I am profoundly struck by the subtle ways that we tend, even when acknowledging our own sin, to turn our idolatry into somewhat of a noble attempt to meet our most basic and “good” needs. As if somehow our hearts were in the right place, but we just mis-stepped along the way.

 

Whether it’s our pursuit of the approval of others, our constant state of anxiety over money or our willingness to gossip about others, the issue isn’t rooted in a noble desire for simply finding love, security or self-worth. Our temptation might be to say something like, “Well, he just wants to be loved and doesn’t know how to find that in the right way.” Or, “she just wants to feel some sense of security about her future and should learn to trust God more.” Or we’ll look to the gossip and say, “It’s his desire for them to make better choices that causes him to speak that way about them.” The logic in all these ways of thinking is that we had the right idea—the right desire—but in our sinfulness we just got off track a little.

 

Why do we do this? Why do we ignore the reality that we are caught up in idolatry that has no good root or redeeming quality? Why do we let ourselves turn our sin into something that sounds noble of heart that just needs a little redirection? This is definitely anti-gospel, because it implies that our desires—our yearnings—are at their core in line with God. It leads us to believe there isn’t anything wrong with what we desire, but that it’s the execution of filling those desires where the problem lies. It implies that the problem is ignorance more than sin; or maybe a lack of discipline. This way of thinking is far more palatable to our desire to find something good within ourselves. We want to twist our own idolatry into something that we can consider at its core to be based in a godly or God-given desire rather than embracing the reality that as sinners, the core issue out of which our idolatry surfaces is simply our sin.

 

Instead of seeking to find out what things we have given the title of our heart to or which things we’ve used to try and escape the rule of God, we would rather be treated as simply those who have made misguided attempts at fulfilling the “God-shaped hole” in our lives. This false way of thinking so subtly side-steps the root of the issue: we are sinners who neither love God nor worship him if left to ourselves. This is our problem. This is why we are idolaters.

 

This false way of thinking about our desires and sin is also dangerous because we can easily fall into the trap of simply trading one form of idolatry for another. Religion can become the idol we call people to worship. Or it could be good works or moralism. If all we do is tell people their idol worship is misguided “good” desires then we are not calling them (or ourselves) to true healing and change, which comes only from God. Jeremiah 17 says, “Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.” (v.14). We need saving, not redirection. We need healing, not just a realignment of our thinking. It’s not as if we are simply sinners on the surface, or sinners in certain areas of life. We are sinners to the core. There’s just no way to get around that.

 

This is the gospel truth: we are sinners who neither love God nor our neighbors. Salvation comes when Jesus steps in and doesn’t simply redirect, but truly changes us. He changes our hearts and desires and everything, making us new.

 

to be envied

This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.  1 Peter 1:10-12

  

I read Peter’s words about the time of Christ’s suffering and salvation and I must simply wonder.

 

I read of prophets whom we consider with great admiration and certainly some intimidation. They were the voice of God after all! They were the only holy ones in a world of wayward and forgetful followers. But what I read from Peter in his first chapter of his first letter is that they wanted what we have seen and experienced. They wondered what we know. They longed for what we live in.

 

And the angels—yes, the angels—God’s original messengers. Those who are required, when they arrive to deliver messages, to start with reassuring words like, “Do not fear.” These ones whose very presence is so overwhelming to the humans they come to stand before, they also are interested in what we live in. They eagerly watch the things that are happening through the death and resurrection of Jesus; the things happening to us and in us.

 

I read these few words from Peter and I wonder—why are we not more amazed? Why are we not more awed?

 

Have we become like the little child who gets all he cries for and so is thankful for nothing? Are we so spoiled that we have believed our own hype? That somehow we’ve bought into the notion that we deserve what God has given. Or is it that we are so desensitized, that we have become numb to the greatness of the gift and the depth of God’s suffering on our behalf?

 

Do we not realize that our position is one that has been envied by the godly before us and anticipated by heavenly beings?

 

We stand in the midst of grace unmatched. We are swallowed up by love so perfect and so undeserved. And yet, it seems at times that our hearts barely are moved by the magnitude of it all.

 

What would our response be to trade places with the prophets? To be told of a great and heroic rescue mission, but to be told that the message of it was not for us? To be told that this rescue, this love gift, would come long after we were gone and that we would need to still live in the in-between of fallen-ness? That the redemption was to come—later?

 

Can you imagine the joy mixed with heartache? Can you fathom the hope mingling with disappointment these prophets of God must have carried?

 

Do we not realize that our position is one to be envied?

 

It has nothing to do with us. We are the recipients of unearned redemption. We stand on the fair side of grace. It does not mean that life is not a struggle. It does not mean that sin is not still our issue. But to be filled with the resurrected Christ is our joy and our identity.

 

This truth should move us and amaze us and render us speechless with delight and gratitude.

 

advent day 22 – gifts of worship

These men are mysterious. Were they kings? Were they simply wise men from another place? Were they men of faith? Did they truly understand the significance of this child they sought to honor? Whatever became of them after this encounter? Scholars debate and we wonder.

 

Shouldn’t our wonder be over the depth of their sacrifice to worship? Shouldn’t we be inspired by their pursuit of the Messiah with gifts to bear? Should all they gave up, all they endured, all they experienced as inconvenience just so they might bow at his feet draw our hearts towards genuine worship?

 

Often our worship is done in convenient times and convenient places. Too often we can find ourselves distracted as we approach and only partially engaged as we bow—if we even dare to bow. Our backs are tired, after all. And bowing…well, that’s just not something we are comfortable with.

 

This story of Jesus’ birth reveals shepherds of lowly station who were elevated and deemed worthy of an audience with the child-King. And it reveals these mysterious men of high rank and wealth lowering themselves, inconveniencing themselves for just a chance to adore and worship this God-with-us child come to save us.

 

How will we worship this coming week? Will we seek to give gifts of praise and humble posture? Will we seek out an audience with the child-King? May today’s reading of the wisest of men—men covering great distance and much that was unknown—inspire us to be wise as well. Wise enough to seek out the Savior and bow in worship.

 

Day Twenty-Two Reading: Matthew 2:1-12

 

The Wise Men left all behind in search of the Messiah so that they might worship him. Do you find evidence of sacrifice in your own attempts to worship, or is worship simply an act of convenience for you?

 

What gifts do you bring as you seek Jesus this week?

 

Prayer—Father, may we worship you with our whole lives and in sacrifice, not just in convenience.

 

advent day 15 – worshipping

Week Three – Worshipping

 

As we hear and believe the gospel of Jesus it is the only right response to bow in worship to God for this gift. As we seek to anticipate the coming celebration of Jesus birth we want to learn to worship well—with truth and sincerity. We want to respond to the amazing ways in which God accomplishes the gift of dwelling among us in Christ.

 

So this week we come alongside the wise traveler’s who come from far away, we join the dirty shepherds forgotten by the world around them, we kneel with those who’ve gone before us and many who will come after us in worshipping the gift. Jesus our Messiah.

 

 

Day Fifteen Reading: Psalm 95

 

We are called to worship the Lord. What does it look like to join wise men and shepherds, a poor young husband and wife, and centuries of believers since then as we come to worship Jesus, the Messiah?

 

How will you engage the Lord in worship this week as the celebration of Jesus birth draws nearer?

           

Prayer—Lord, we come before you to kneel and worship. May our hearts be softened by this time of year and the coming of your Son.

 

psalm 15

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord ?
  Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
  speaking the truth from sincere hearts.

 

Who may worship the Lord and enter his presence? Those who are blameless? Who is blameless?! Certainly not me. Certainly not you. No one—no one on their own. In Jesus we are found to be, but never alone.

 

Doing what is right. How often do I do what is easy or convenient—or simply more desirable—than to do what is truly right? And speaking truth from sincere hearts? Well, I just said I often do what is easy or convenient or more desirable. Speaking truth, being sincere—these are often the opposite of easy or convenient or desirable.

 

Those who refuse to gossip
  or harm their neighbors
  or speak evil of their friends.

 

What will my day and my choices look like when I learn the art of holy refusal? Refusing to gossip, to harm neighbors, or speak evil of friends? I can only assume that “harm their neighbors” here speaks of harming them with words since it is couched between two things which bring hurt through lips.

 

This is far more difficult than I care to admit. Words come so easily; angry words feel so justified, careless words so natural. What was it James said about taming the tongue? Didn’t he speak of the lips we use to praise our God and then to turn and curse those he’s made? He spoke of me. He spoke so truly of me and my heart echoes his words, “This should not be.”

 

Those who despise flagrant sinners,
  and honor the faithful followers of the Lord ,
  and keep their promises even when it hurts.

 

Who may worship and be in God’s presence? Those who despise flagrant sinners. This is easy so long as their flagrance is not in ways I am weak as well. Then it feels like maybe they have a good reason or simply need more grace. But flagrant sin—could this be the worst of sin?

 

And what does it look like to honor the faithful? To encourage them? To lift them up? Does it mean to point them out and speak well of them? Why does it feel like we are dividing rooms and people and friends? Despising the flagrant sinners from the honored faithful? What does this look like in a world of grace and peace that comes from Christ?

 

Those who lend money without charging interest,
  and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
Such people will stand firm forever.

 

Who may find God in worship? Those who care so little for their stuff. Those who aren’t driven by the constant hunger for the more power, more position, more material. Those who don’t love money. I don’t love money, but maybe I love the things money gets me…

 

“Such people stand firm forever.” I am fortunate to stand for a moment before failing in one, no two, well truthfully—all of these areas. A moment and I am down. A moment and I am flailing and faltering.

 

But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.      1 Corinthians 15:57-58

 

It is good and right to be called to high living and right loving. It is helpful to read a Psalm of calling and challenge and remember that I am called to live and love and be as Jesus. And it is better still to remember that in Christ all is accomplished in me. All I cannot do, everything I cannot be. He does and he is in me.

 

So I will strive and today I will commit to be the one who walks in the presence and worships the Lord with my life. Today I will seek blamelessness and sincerity of heart. Today I will practice refusal of words that wound. Today I will despise my own flagrant sin and honor the faithful ones in prayer. And I will pray to love things less than people.

 

In everything I will thank God for the victory that comes only through Jesus.

 

when we look

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
  the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
  human beings that you should care for them?

Yet you made them only a little lower than God
  and crowned them with glory and honor.

You gave them charge of everything you made,
  putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
  and all the wild animals,

 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
  and everything that swims the ocean currents.

O Lord , our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

                                                             Psalm 8:3-9

 

It’s all around us—this greatness, this majesty of God. Everywhere we turn he is there displaying himself in awesome, overwhelming glory. And when we look we can see him.

 

When we look.

 

It is a looking that happens with eyes for sure, but it is so much more than that. It is a looking of the soul. A looking that is open to the God of the Universe and cries out in desire to see him, to seek him, to be known by him. When we look with this kind of openness we can see him in all his crushing glory; for ours is a God who wants to be seen.

 

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20

 

We can clearly see the invisible. Yes, this is a seeing that involves more than just the eyes. It is a heart seeing and a soul seeing. It is a seeing that recognizes not simply that something—or dare we say it—Someone much more magnificent than ourselves has created, has fashioned, has controlled this place we dwell in. But it is also a seeing that recognizes his glory and then is overwhelmed with the sense of our own state. A seeing that rumbles deep within our soulbones and cries out, what am I that you even care? Why would you be mindful of us in all our smallness and ungloried ways?

 

To look and truly see the work of God’s fingers is to be struck by the elevated place and prominence we’ve been given. Not struck with pride or entitlement—that comes when we are looking with souls still blind. But to be struck by the undeserved state of our prominent place in all creation. To be befuddled by God’s grace and goodness. To find ourselves headspun by God’s strange, deep interest in us. Shouldn’t we be little more than a disappointment? And yet he loves wild and reckless and unashamed.

 

Perhaps this is why the prophets of Old feared seeing God in all his glory. To see such purity of love and majestic glory, to be confronted with such a God who commands all and knows nothing of words like “too hard” or “impossible.” To see this same God throw all his power and all his glory into loving us with such shameless bravado towards the shackles of death—to see such love and glory directly—who could take such a sight?! Surely it would render us lifeless. How could one give any attention to blood pumping or lungs breathing in the face of such wonder?

 

And so, until God makes all things new, until he restores our souls to complete wholeness, he shows himself through what he has done. For ours is a God who wants to be seen. If we are looking with soul eyes we will see; and even then the glory we glimpse can seem too much. It can drive us to bewilderment over why a God so magnificent would consider us, let alone love us. And yet he does. Praise our Father, he does.

 

O Lord , our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth. May we look with eyes of soul and eyes of heart and may we see you.

 

no idols

I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.     Exodus 20:2-6

 

The Ten Commandments. The giving of these by God to his people is about as well known as anything in the Bible. As I approached these this morning I was captivated by these first two. No other gods. No idols.

 

Immediately I remember some years back when I spent 20 days in India. Now that is a place filled with idols. Actual, literal idols. I still remember entering shrines and temples and watching the people bow to these statutes, give gifts to them, revere them. It was strange and disturbing to even be near places that others considered to be holy because of these statues they believed to be local gods.

 

It’s easy to think when I read the Ten Commandments that these first two commands are for those people, not me. It’s easy to think this until I start thinking of what really is an idol, of what we could consider to be a god.

 

Idols are anything we worship. Anything we give priority to more so than God. Recently someone in our church passed on these words from N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope regarding idolatry.

 

One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship; what’s more, you reflect what you worship not only back to the object itself but also outward to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, or customers rather than as human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat other people as actual or potential sexual objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it and treat other people as either collaborators, competitors, or pawns. These and many other forms of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and of those whose lives they touch. (p. 182)

 

Idolatry, as Wright points out, becomes what we are. Whatever we worship and value above God gets reflected in how we treat those around us. Whether we use them or love them. Whether we value them for who they are or what they offer. It’s determined by what we worship. Worship God and people will experience a difference in how we value and live them. Worship something else, and it will taint our relationships.

 

What do we worship? Money? Sex? Security? Popularity? Food? Career? The television?

 

The list could go on and on. What do we give precedence to in our lives. What do we always have time for? These are questions we need to ask. These are issues that require constant vigilance.

 

The same person who passed on Wright’s words also passed on these from Mark Driscoll’s book Doctrine.

 

If we idolize our gender, we must demonize the other gender. If we idolize our nation, we must demonize other nations. If we idolize our political party, we must demonize other political parties. If we idolize our socioeconomic class, we must demonize other classes. If we idolize our family, we must demonize other families. If we idolize our theological system, we must demonize other theological systems. If we idolize our church, we must demonize other churches. This explains the great polarities and acrimonies that plague every society. If something other than God’s loving grace is the source of our identity and value, we must invariably defend our idol by treating everyone and everything who may call our idol into question as an enemy to be demonized so that we can feel superior to other people and safe with our idol. (350-351)

 

As we seek God today, as we look to worship him, we would do well to take some time and consider what we truly worship. Is it God or something else? It will affect our relationship not only with God, but with everything and everyone in our lives. It is a destructive force that drives wedges, robs, joy and derails us from the path and plan of Jesus.

 

meaningless motions

“The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the Lord .
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 1:11-17 

 

The more things change the more they stay the same. The Israelites lived in a time far removed from our own and served God before the coming of Jesus and yet they are more like us than we would probably care to admit.

 

Here in Isaiah 1 we find God speaking some harsh words. He is telling them that all their religious activities are detestable and disgusting to him. He cannot abide with them and wants them to stop. It’s all meaningless God says, because they are not changed within. Their hearts are dirty.

 

What God wants more than sacrifices, more than words, more than songs, more than endless rituals, services, and gestures is a changed heart.

 

He’s looking for repentance, a seeking of forgiveness, a contrite approach that acknowledges wrong doing. Otherwise to God our presence before him is little more than a “trampling of his courts” he didn’t ask for.

 

A trampling of his courts. It’s painful to me to think in those terms. I’ve always relied on the fact that God wants to hear me, wants to spend time with me; the idea that he is always inviting always pleased with my efforts. In many ways this is true. God does want relationship with us. So much so that he sent his Son to bridge the gap and offer it to us. But he requires that it not be meaningless. That it not be fake. If we are just going through the motions, going for appearances, going because we have nothing better to do, then he would rather we not go at all.

 

What God wants form us is meaningful interaction. He wants us offering ourselves, our hearts, our agendas, our “rights”, our insecurities. He wants us seeking him honestly and genuinely. He wants our lives to be lived out for the poor, the oppressed, the helpless.

 

“Stop bringing your meaningless offerings!”

 

This is God’s plea to his people. No more meaningless acts and gestures. Make it real. Make it about loving others. Make it about hearts that don’t pretend. Hearts that are open to God changing, God cleaning, God rearranging them. This is the kind of worship God seeks from us.

 

As you get yourself ready to worship God this weekend take time to examine your heart. Take time to offer to God, to open it to him before you arrive at the gathering for worship. Seek him now so you may be ready to give gifts of worship that are acceptable and pleasing to him.

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photo “lifted high” by jonathan liedtke