Inspiration – Page 13 – The Blog of Tom Sanders

Transformed? pt.3

One day Jesus and His disciples were traveling and after a long day of travel and ministry they began to look for a place to rest. It was getting close to the time where He was going to be betrayed and crucified and He was on His way to Jerusalem. So He sent some people on ahead to the next town to find a place to stay. The town was in Samaria and when the Samaritans heard He was traveling to Jerusalem they refused to let Him stay. James and John, two of Jesus disciples were outraged at being treated this way and responded by asking Jesus “James and John, His followers, saw this. They said, “Lord, do You want us to speak so fire will come down from heaven and burn them up as Elijah did?” Jesus turned and spoke sharp words to them. (*He said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you have. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives. He came to save them from the punishment of sin.” They went on their way to another town.)” Luke 9:54-56 NLV

You do not know what kind of spirit you have. It is something that we as Christians need to ask ourselves. There are three kinds of spirit at work on us. We have the will to choose to do things our own way and follow ourselves. God is constantly calling to us and we have the choice to follow Him. And there is the devil who as long as we are not following God doesn’t have to do much with us. We need to choose which one we follow.

Most of us as Christians follow ourselves and we don’t see transformation in our lives. It is up to us whom we follow. Paul wrote a lot on this topic, but specifically in Galatians 5. He wrote similar to Jesus and said we have to decide which spirit we will have or follow. And the one we chose to follow would be evidenced by our lives. And this isn’t a choice we can make passively, because both sides are battling each other. “I say this to you: Let the Holy Spirit lead you in each step. Then you will not please your sinful old selves. The things our old selves want to do are against what the Holy Spirit wants. The Holy Spirit does not agree with what our sinful old selves want. These two are against each other. So you cannot do what you want to do. ” Galatians 5:16-17 NLV By default we follow ourselves and do what we want to do. If we don’t choose to follow God we choose to follow ourselves. We need to decide and act on that decision.

Paul wrote that the evidence of following ourselves is “The things your sinful old self wants to do are: sex sins, sinful desires, wild living, worshiping false gods, witchcraft, hating, fighting, being jealous, being angry, arguing, dividing into little groups and thinking the other groups are wrong, false teaching, wanting something someone else has, killing other people, using strong drink, wild parties, and all things like these.” and the result of them is “I told you before and I am telling you again that those who do these things will have no place in the holy nation of God.” Galatians 5:19-21 NLV This sounds just like the world we all live in, and unfortunately most of the churches we attend.

But transformed lives can be ours to live. We don’t have to live life like everyone else. And a transformed life is the best message we can offer the world around us. One of the best times for evangelism is in the first few months after someone chooses to follow Christ and their friends can actually see the transformations happening. And life with God isn’t supposed to be simply about talking to people, it was meant to be about flowing with God and in His power. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NLT

When we choose to let God lead our lives can be transformed because the evidence of our choice is transformation. Paul continued to tell us “But the fruit that comes from having the Holy Spirit in our lives is: love, joy, peace, not giving up, being kind, being good, having faith, ²³being gentle, and being the boss over our own desires.” Galatians 5:22-23 NLV This is a great contrast to living life our way. Jesus demonstrated this life for us and invites us to do the same. We need to evaluate the fruit in our lives and decide which spirit we will be of. The choice is up to us, but the rewards can be huge.

“If the Holy Spirit is living in us, let us be led by Him in all things.” Galatians 5:25 NLV

Worship? pt – 3

Worship in truth – pt 1

Worship is powerful when we get it right. God’s presence fills our lives and we come to know Him deeper and deeper. The problems we face surrender to the sovereignty of who He is and His care and provision for us. Worship allows us to refocus ourselves from trying to do things our way, and brings us again to the place where we submit and align ourselves again to His hand and plans. At least when we get it right it does.

“But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 NLT

Every time I have read these verses I have asked how do we worship in Spirit and in truth? Worshiping in truth takes on two facets. The first is that we must worship God for who He really is. So many people talk about God in our world. We have people who talk about a God who is not the God revealed in scripture. There are so many ideas put forward in our day that have nothing to do with God at all. God is not a vengeful judge. And He is not an all accepting loving deity with no expectations either. He isn’t a faceless far off uninvolved substance drifting in space.

When we worship we need to come to a place where we are willing to yield to God and let Him describe Himself. We can find who God is in scripture. Jesus came to earth to show the Father to us. Jesus said “To see me is to see the Father.” John 14:9 MSG. We can read how Jesus interacted with people on earth and see how He lived. We can learn of God in our relationship with Him. Jesus states in John 17:3 “all who receive Me will experience everlasting life, a new intimate relationship with You (the one True God) and Jesus the Anointed (the One You have sent)” Voice.

If we are willing to yield our expectations and understandings about God and allow Him to speak to us He will bring us into new understanding of who He really is. All through scripture God revealed Himself to people and caused their understanding of Him to deepen and grow. Every time God named Himself in scripture it was to describe His nature to people and He is still doing that today. But we have to be willing to let go of our current understanding.

If we refuse to let go of our understanding of God as a vengeful judge ready to jump on you every time you do something wrong you will never be able to see the loving caring side of God who deeply desires to free you and care for your every need. If you simply see God as a big bully in the sky, you will never come to understand God as your staunch defender. So much of what we see about God has little to do with who God truly is. And we can never worship God for who He is if we are unwilling to let go of our current understanding.

God is actively seeking those who are willing to worship Him in truth. Who will let Him reveal Himself to them. It is up to us to be willing to open our hearts to receive what He is so willing to share

Worship?

For most of us when we think of worship we think of gathering ourselves together within the confines of a building somewhere to pray and talk about God. For many, many Christians in North America at least this has come to describe the first part of a service where we sing together. Having been a worship leader for almost two decades it has for several of those years been my definition as well.

Worship has been a source of great contention and fighting in churches throughout history. Charles Spurgeon even called the worship team “the war department” because worship has always been a subject which causes people to argue. How many songs do we sing. What kind of songs can we sing. Are there musical instruments allowed?

I have begun to realize over the years that we have completely missed the boat in regards to worship. Because worship was never meant to be about us. Music isn’t even needed for worship to happen. I have left many services over the years, ones that I have led, and others where I have been a participant, and have often heard people say “wasn’t worship powerful?”, and the opposite “worship didn’t do anything today.”. I have had people say they didn’t like the music I chose. I have had people refuse to take part except when songs they like to sing were played. I have been involved in discussions where people demanded that chorus be used instead of hymns.

I think we have walked away from true worship and have begun to worship worship. We value the songs, the lyrics, or the rhythms that we like and discard everything else. We take part when we feel like it, depending on how spiritual , or how difficult or easy our week has been. I have struggled to take part myself when I was feeling low or tired. But worship was never meant to be about us.

When we allow our preferences and passions to determine our worship we focus on ourselves and what we want. And worship was meant to be all about Jesus, letting our love and hunger for Him express itself. Worship is about proclaiming God’s value and glory. It is about focusing on and valuing God simply for who He is.

Worship is about our lives placed before our creator and exalting the one who made us, and redeemed us. Wolfgang Simson wrote “worship has much more to do with Spirit-filled obedience (Romans 12:1-2) than with music and singing “worship” songs. Our worship must center on the unquestioning readiness to lay aside life, limb, possessions, family, house, friendships, evangelical respectability—everything—to see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. Worship is not so much what we do but how we do it; not so much what we say or sing but how we are a living sacrifice.”

We have allowed ourselves to walk away from the passion and power of lives lived in surrender and allowing our lives, hearts and voices to give expression to the greatness and awesome splendor of the King of kings who spoke the entire world into being, and knows every star by name, and still has time to know how many hairs are on our heads. We serve an incredible and awesome God and we need to return again to the true roots of worship, and become the worshipers God is seeking after. “Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him.“ John 4:23 GWT