Exodus 20:25 - "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."
DON'T CHOP ON GOD'S ALTAR
An altar is a facility for worship. It is not the actual worship; but it is that which assists the progress of worship. We must have altars...but God says "Don't chop on 'em"!
When you find a stone for the building of the altar, don't try to reshape it or refine it. Take it like it is - simple and spontaneous. Even if its shape will make the altar look non-uniform or lop-sided, nevertheless leave it like you found it. If YOU try to make it different, even with good intentions, you have polluted it - and polluted altars make polluted worship!
Now the building of an altar does take SOME human organization - the stones will not just pile up together by themselves. You do have to make a song list and practice, for example. But we can go TOO FAR in how we try to enhance worship. And we've gone TOO FAR when a person can't even worship from their heart in the spirit because they have to mentally concentrate on all the enhancements!
The key ingredients of true worship are the sacrifice, the fire and the altar for the sacrifice. And along with order (I Kings 18:30), the altar must have simplicity. It must be simple enough for the heart (more than the head) to pour itself out freely and spontaneously in thanksgiving and adoration without the fear of being ticketed by the "rhythm police" or having one's eye poked out by one of the "accessories" of our enhanced worship machine!
The unenhanced stones of real worship may not win us an award for being "up with the times" or recognition on MTV for being "hip"; but they will certainly attract divine fire for the melodies that finally have the freedom to flow and for the ease with which the worshiper can focus on the sacrifice!
Organize...yes! But don't chop on the stones of God's altar! Let them be simple and spontaneous and uninhibited before their God. Talented or not, they will hold up the Lamb for a sweet fragrance to God! Hallelujah, that's worship!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Two opinions: I WILL and I AM
In I Kings 18, Elijah asked the wavering Israelites "How long halt ye between two opinions". There are in this world basically only two opinions. Throughout the Bible, one can see as well that there have only been two systems of worship (the worship of God and the worship of devils), two groups of people (covenant or non-covenant people) and two wills (God's and Satan's). So once again, even though there are many different thoughts and theories, feelings and fancies, all of those will come under one of two all-inclusive opinions that can be summed up in the phrases "I WILL" and "I AM".
The angel Lucifer said in Isaiah 14:13,14 "I WILL" five different times, each time setting his will was against the Lord's will. It represents the inclination to have or to be something independent of the plan and provision of God. However, in Exodus 3:14, God introduces Himself to Moses three times as "I AM". Satan and the nature of Satan says defiantly "I WILL"; but God simply says "I AM"!
The original issue in I Kings 18 was not about the outright taking of one of these two opinions: it was rather about the people of God "halting" between these two opinions...wanting "I WILL" and "I AM" at the same time. But oil and water do not mix...and "I WILL" and "I AM" will not mix either! Just listen to the strength in both opinions: "I WILL" with the strength of self-confidence and self-reliance and then "I AM" with the power of eternity (Psalm 90:2 "From everlasting to everlasting THOU ART God")! Satan and his children have to "will" to become anything - but God just IS! The first Adam had to struggle and toil for life; but the Last Adam simply said "I AM life" (John 14:6)!
Let us all consider that life truly is a yoke (Matthew 11:29,30); and that there is no such thing as purely independent life - we are either yoked up with God or with the devil! And the easy one is God's yoke, where we do not have to try so hard to "will" Christ-likeness but we can rather simply BE Christ-like by yielding to the Spirit of Christ within - JUST WALK IN THE SPIRIT!
NO MORE HALTING, FELLOW BELIEVER! Abandon "I WILL" and rest in "I AM"!
The angel Lucifer said in Isaiah 14:13,14 "I WILL" five different times, each time setting his will was against the Lord's will. It represents the inclination to have or to be something independent of the plan and provision of God. However, in Exodus 3:14, God introduces Himself to Moses three times as "I AM". Satan and the nature of Satan says defiantly "I WILL"; but God simply says "I AM"!
The original issue in I Kings 18 was not about the outright taking of one of these two opinions: it was rather about the people of God "halting" between these two opinions...wanting "I WILL" and "I AM" at the same time. But oil and water do not mix...and "I WILL" and "I AM" will not mix either! Just listen to the strength in both opinions: "I WILL" with the strength of self-confidence and self-reliance and then "I AM" with the power of eternity (Psalm 90:2 "From everlasting to everlasting THOU ART God")! Satan and his children have to "will" to become anything - but God just IS! The first Adam had to struggle and toil for life; but the Last Adam simply said "I AM life" (John 14:6)!
Let us all consider that life truly is a yoke (Matthew 11:29,30); and that there is no such thing as purely independent life - we are either yoked up with God or with the devil! And the easy one is God's yoke, where we do not have to try so hard to "will" Christ-likeness but we can rather simply BE Christ-like by yielding to the Spirit of Christ within - JUST WALK IN THE SPIRIT!
NO MORE HALTING, FELLOW BELIEVER! Abandon "I WILL" and rest in "I AM"!
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Visions of God
In Ezekiel 40, we read of the hand of the Lord taking the prophet Ezekiel from the land of Babylon to the land of Israel in the visions of God. That phrase intrigues me...in the visions of God! There was the land of Israel, to be seen by any and all in the same way as any and all might see it, with its hills and valleys, its cities and towns. Yet, Ezekiel saw it in the visions of God! He saw the land beyond the spectrum of light available to the naked eye...much like the devices used today to see infra-red light.
Infra-red light emanates from us all like a heat wave; and when looking through a special device, it looks like red light or heat radiaitng off of the object being viewed. That light is always there; but it can only be seen with assistance.
In the visions of God, Ezekiel was "assisted" by the Holy Ghost (the "hand of God") to see people and places in a fuller spectrum of light, like God sees them all of the time. He was able to see not only their outward visible features but also their genuine heart condition, regardless of what seemd to be. He could see their potential, whether good or bad; and he could even see the heavenly beings sent to comfort or condemn them. All of this was always there to be seen; but only the assisted eye, only by the anointing of the Spirit, could one see in the visions of God these other (infra-red, if you will) qualities.
If ever we needed a scriptiral truth to be real to us today, it is this one. For we sorely need to view our times in a fuller spectrum of light - we desparately need to see all things and all people in the visions of God! Otherwise, we may miss the hidden potential of some and simply "throw them away" out of our minds and our care. We might also be deceived by the glowing charity of others and yet overlook their absolute hardness and rebellion to God. We might get frightened by the looming storms of our day or we might get discouraged with the manifold wickedness of our world and lose sight of the mission of the Lord!
Yet one glimpse in the visions of God, and Paul began to sing in his prison cell!
Philippians 1:19 - "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation..."
One glimpse of the REAL potential of the situation (getting to the other side to deliver a man from a legion of devils), and Jesus went to sleep on a "pillow of faith" on a ship that was sinking in despair (Mark 4:35-5:20)!
In the visions of God, one can clearly see that "all things work together" because we are in our Father's training ("chastening" - Hebrews 12) program. Whatever comes along, though not necessarily caused by God, will be coordinated by Father God into our conformity to the image of the Son (Romans 8:28,29)!
On and on the list could go from the Bible of people that were "assisted" in their vision to see life in the visions of God. Let us lift up our eyes, as Abraham (Genesis 13:14), and look around us in the visions of God! Let us see Lot accurately as one, though family, that needs to move on! And let us see the true potential of what has been left to us when someone else has already taken the best for themselves! Let us turneth off the TV and turneth on the visions of God to see the Cross and the Empty Tomb in all things and all things in Christ!
Infra-red light emanates from us all like a heat wave; and when looking through a special device, it looks like red light or heat radiaitng off of the object being viewed. That light is always there; but it can only be seen with assistance.
In the visions of God, Ezekiel was "assisted" by the Holy Ghost (the "hand of God") to see people and places in a fuller spectrum of light, like God sees them all of the time. He was able to see not only their outward visible features but also their genuine heart condition, regardless of what seemd to be. He could see their potential, whether good or bad; and he could even see the heavenly beings sent to comfort or condemn them. All of this was always there to be seen; but only the assisted eye, only by the anointing of the Spirit, could one see in the visions of God these other (infra-red, if you will) qualities.
If ever we needed a scriptiral truth to be real to us today, it is this one. For we sorely need to view our times in a fuller spectrum of light - we desparately need to see all things and all people in the visions of God! Otherwise, we may miss the hidden potential of some and simply "throw them away" out of our minds and our care. We might also be deceived by the glowing charity of others and yet overlook their absolute hardness and rebellion to God. We might get frightened by the looming storms of our day or we might get discouraged with the manifold wickedness of our world and lose sight of the mission of the Lord!
Yet one glimpse in the visions of God, and Paul began to sing in his prison cell!
Philippians 1:19 - "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation..."
One glimpse of the REAL potential of the situation (getting to the other side to deliver a man from a legion of devils), and Jesus went to sleep on a "pillow of faith" on a ship that was sinking in despair (Mark 4:35-5:20)!
In the visions of God, one can clearly see that "all things work together" because we are in our Father's training ("chastening" - Hebrews 12) program. Whatever comes along, though not necessarily caused by God, will be coordinated by Father God into our conformity to the image of the Son (Romans 8:28,29)!
On and on the list could go from the Bible of people that were "assisted" in their vision to see life in the visions of God. Let us lift up our eyes, as Abraham (Genesis 13:14), and look around us in the visions of God! Let us see Lot accurately as one, though family, that needs to move on! And let us see the true potential of what has been left to us when someone else has already taken the best for themselves! Let us turneth off the TV and turneth on the visions of God to see the Cross and the Empty Tomb in all things and all things in Christ!
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