Prior Editions
Lenten Devotional
Week
1, Sunday 2/13/05 – Saturday 2/19/05
Worship God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
About a year ago, we set
off as a church on “40 Days of Purpose”.
As we focused together on God’s purposes for His people, His
church, marvelous things happened. In our hearts Jesus grew in
prominence, and in our lives His purposes began to take hold.
We were startled as we
read then in our first daily devotion, “It’s not about you.”
The body of Christ, His church is about our Father in Heaven, about Jesus,
about the Holy Spirit. The holy, three-person God we worship is a God of
blessed community who calls us to community to build community.
As I thought about the revelation that it’s not about me, I wondered
about God’s perspective. He certainly has taken great pains
to show and tell us how important we are to Him. So it is good
and right we worship Him. And as we worship, we discover it is
indeed about Him and His glory. But do we see Him and worship
Him as He is?
God is spirit.
We are spiritual beings with bodies, and, in most cases, bodies that could
use some work. That aside, our natural inclination is to focus
on the needs and desires of our bodies, giving secondary importance, if
any, to our souls and spirits. Our limited connection with our
own spirit puts us at odds with our Creator, who is spirit. The good
news is Jesus not only pays the debt of our sin, but also bridges the
chasm between our physical and spiritual selves, opening the eyes of our
hearts, revealing the truth about our triune God. And we know
that every effort and inclination we make toward God, God will enable and
encourage. This should give us great hope. His
Holy Spirit resides in us to guide us into all Truth, which we know is the
person of Jesus. To worship God in spirit and truth means, at
least in part, to understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is our reality,
and this earth is a shadow of what is to come.
Scripture reveals the
spiritual nature of God and man as of prime importance and our bodies are
not so important as they initially seem. Important, yes, our
bodies give us the ability to transact God’s will and advance His
kingdom. But as we worship, our bodily appetites transform
into things that please God. We learn to understand and
appreciate more and more the spiritual nature of God as our own spiritual
natures mature in Him.
Just before Jesus is led
into the desert by the Holy Spirit after His baptism, we see a vivid
picture of the fullness of the Godhead. Luke 3:21-22 sets the
scene, “21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was
baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and
the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice
came from heaven: 'You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased.' " We see Jesus at the hub of redemptive
history, God in human flesh, ministered to by God the Holy Spirit and
affirmed by God the Father. Jesus, the reconciler is also Jesus, the
reflection of God in man. Jesus, at once, provides a picture of man
redeemed, and God the redeemer. He is the bridge between body and
spirit.
Worship in spirit and
truth has been widely discussed recently with great insight on the Yahoo
web site. It’s evident we are a body of worshipers who seek
God’s best. Gary Grecco brought a timely and challenging
message Sunday, encouraging us to re-assess our priorities and how we love
God. Do we see Him as He is, one God in three divine persons?
Are we satisfied in Him? This is an important question.
In Hunger for God John
Piper explains, “What is at stake here is not just the good of our
souls, but also the glory of God. God is most glorified in us when
we are most satisfied in him. The fight of faith is a fight to feast
on all that God is for us in Christ. What we hunger for most, we
worship.”
Someone said a long
time ago, “The worth and excellency of a soul is measured by the object
of its love." In other words, what we seek, study,
pursue, enjoy and worship influences in large measure the kind of people
we become. God says in Joshua 22:5, “Be very careful to keep
the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you:
to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands,
to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your
soul."
Best
blessings in Christ,
Dave
Roberts
Mid-Week
Musings
An
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