Perfect Worship

I have been thinking a lot about worship lately and so have a lot of other bloggers. Worship just seems to be on everyone's mind. I think maybe, at least for me, it's in part due to always striving to be closer to God. There is nothing that makes feel closer to God than my worship and praise to Him. We have such a wonderful worship at Highland Oaks and we will miss that this week since we are visiting Ashley in Abilene. Maybe that's why it is on my mind more this morning. I have long discovered that no matter where I am, my worship is what I make it. But there is nothing like being at your home congregation when it is a place where people really love Jesus and want nothing more than worship and praise Him. I am very blessed and very thankful for what we have. I know that is not always true for some people.

I was reminded this morning about an excerpt that was taken from Disciple's Prayer Life by T.W. Hunt. It has been saved on my computer for years and I haven't read it in probably at least 2 years. So when I thought about it this morning out of the clear blue, I figured it must be something I am suppose to share today. So here it is...

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Walking in Fellowship with God Today

You will need a big imagination for this, so stretch your mind. Imagine that the angel Gabriel appeared to you, and said to you, "you have been chosen for perfect worship. God has commanded that I take you to Heaven this morning so that you can never again mistake the nature of worship in spirit and truth. You will never forget the worship you offer to God today." Then Gabriel transports you into a realm of perfect glory, light and beauty. But he explains, "before you can enter the presence of the Lord, you must be utterly clean, so we have a special bath for mortals about to enter His Holy Presence. You will take a shower with a most unusual cleanser to do its work on you until you are totally clean."

But the shower proves to be more shocking than you could have anticipated — you find yourself under a shower of blood! Yet you dare not disobey — so you allow the blood to soak you thoroughly over your entire body. To your amazement, everywhere the blood touches suddenly turns glisteningly clean, clean in a way you never understood cleanness before. As you emerge, you realize for the first time in your life what "unblemished and spotless" means. Gabriel explains to you that you have been cleansed with the blood of Christ Himself.

Then Gabriel, gesturing toward a magnificent temple, tells you, "Now you are fit for the presence of the Lord. We will dress you now in robes fitting for those who enter the throne room of God." As you wonder at the glory and beauty of robes unlike anything on earth, he explains that you are being dressed in the robes of the righteousness of Christ. Fully dressed, you hear the Lord; you sense His yearning for your company. You step into the glory of perfect love with a joy that you wish would last forever.

Now try to imagine what you would say to Him in these circumstances!

This is what you have as your present possession. When you pray, you come into the presence of formidable holiness, washed in the blood of Jesus, dressed in His righteousness. You approach a yearning love and fellowship with a Holy God. Your worship must be valid—in spirit— and it must be real — in truth.

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As I was rereading that this morning, the word picture I got from this story is incredible. To literally be standing in a shower be washed with the blood of Jesus. To literally be pure and holy in the sight of Christ. We are so far removed from the actual day that Christ was crucified I think we sometimes forget the blood He shed for us. I want to think more about His blood and the way that it covers me. Because even though we may not have that literal shower, His blood continually covers us every moment of every day. I want to be more mindful of the sacrifice He made. As I worship, I want to be more mindful of His blood that covers me. If I am, my worship will never be the same.

Imagine...

I was listening to the radio in the car the other day and the lyrics to one of the songs I heard has been bugging me ever since. We listen to the Mesquite Schools radio station KEOM most of the time since Jeremy is on the radio in the mornings. They play music from the 70's, which is usually always fun to listen to and to reminisce about. But that day, the song that came on really bugged me. The song was John Lennon's song, Imagine.

I have never been much of a John Lennon fan so I've never paid attention to the lyrics in his songs. Now I know why. The very first sentence in that song is "Imagine there's no Heaven, it's easy if you try". I couldn't believe what I had just heard. I then continued to listen to the rest of the lyrics. Pretty incredible... and not in a good way!

I understand that a lot of people think he was great and all about peace. While I'm for peace, his song is, in the words of my son, ridiculous. First of all, it is not easy in my mind to imagine there is no Heaven. To say there is no Heaven, is to say there is no God. If you just look up toward Heaven, to the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the rain falling, the (sometimes here in Texas) snow falling, the beauty of the sunrise and the sunset, the brilliant colors of the rainbow or the pink, purple, bluish color the sky gets when the sun is going down... how can you look at all of those marvelous things and say it's easy to imagine there is no Heaven, no God. Not to mention the birds, the trees, the flowers, the mountains, the oceans, the beautiful landscapes that surround the countryside at every turn and the breeze that blows so gently on a cool summer's day.

I don't know about you, but I cannot look at all these things and imagine there is no God. I look at these things and all I can imagine, is how great, awesome and magnificent God truly is. To live in John Lennon's world you are called to merely exist. No interaction with God's wonderful creation, no conflict ever - of any kind, just merely existing.

I don't want to just merely exist. I want to enjoy everything God has placed on this earth for us to enjoy. I don't mean the physical things, although those things are nice too, but I'm talking about the things of this world He created. The beautiful landscaping, the wondrous skies, the sunrises and sunsets, the wonderful animals, the oceans and all the wondrous creatures who live there and the way the breeze feels blowing in through your windows during Fall and early Spring. With all the amazing things He has done for us on Earth, I can't even imagine how magnificent Heaven will one day be. So... easy to imagine there is no heaven? Not for me! I can't wait to someday see Heaven in all it's glory and be able to enjoy it while sitting at the feet of Jesus. Now that's something to Imagine!