Worship 101

Worship 1:01

Have you ever gone to a church that worshipped in a different style to the one you are used to and struggled to engage with God because the worship was so distracting? Did you keep saying things in your head like ‘I don’t like this’, ‘this feels wrong or boring or over the top or ...’. Have you ever gone somewhere new, perhaps even to a different country, and wished that the worship could be more like what you have at home? Or perhaps you are one of the ones who loves the way the worship is done here and thinks that the others who don’t like it need to get over themselves and get with the programme?

This issue, these thoughts are not new. They are an ancient as Cain and Abel and when Jesus walked the earth, this issue was as big as it gets – two people groups, both of whom have ancestry from Abraham – believe the way they worship is the best way and this issue, among many others, blocks relationship, blocks reconciliation, creates contention.

Let’s look at the story again and see what Jesus has to say about the matter.

Jesus walks into the scene as a seemingly innocent bystander who just wants a drink but he is about to rock this woman’s world, transform her village and announce to her a profound truth that is just as relevant for us today as it was then.

In one part of their conversation, recorded in John's gospel, chapter 4 verse 20, the Samaritan woman asks Jesus a question, in the form of a statement – “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Was she expecting the usual arguments the Jews gave on this matter, ones she probably grew up hearing and the ones her brothers learned to cleverly rebuff in their Sunday school class should they ever encounter a Jew?

Jesus answer is astounding (verses 23 and 24): “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

What is so astounding about this answer?

The Samaritan woman considered worship to be about the tangible facts: where should we worship? When should we worship? In what place, in what manner, at what time, in what order?

These are statements that still bring contention today – what songs ought we to sing, in what style, with what instruments, how loud, how many? Should it be on a Sunday or a Saturday night? What time on a Sunday? At what part of the Sunday service? Even wider than this, ,missionaries worldwide have faced issues of whether we should worship in round churches or square ones, with men and women separated or together, sitting down or standing up? Arms raised or arms prostrated out before you on the floor? In what language should we worship? Latin, English or our native tongue? You may think some of these issues are funny or bizarre but I assure you each one has actually brought division either recently or historically and prevented others from reconciliation with God because the Christians considered the style of worship to be more important than true worship.

Jesus cuts through all of this.

God seeks worshippers who worship in Spirit and in truth.

What does this mean?

For starters, are you really worshipping God when we come together to sing, pray, break bread? Or are you just going through the motions? If you are going through the motions, that is not honest or true. True worshippers mean what they say, sing, pray.

In Spirit – when God breathed life into Adam he gave him Spirit from his own spirit and the Spirit that lives within you longs to be reunited with God because as Jesus said, God is Spirit. How does your spirit worship God? I could write for hours on this but in a nutshell, when your head (thoughts) and your heart (feelings) and your soul (will) submit to God – i.e. GET OUT OF THEIR OWN WAY you find yourself in the Holiest of Holy places, the throne room of God with your spirit free to worship God.

If you find your brain going into overdrive thinking too much about the how, who, when, where then say “God, I may not like or understand this but I give those thoughts to you because I desire to worship you”. When you find your feelings are getting in the way of your worshipping God because you are upset the worship is not in the way you like it then pray “God, I feel upset/angry/disappointed/whatever but I give that to you because I desire to worship you”. When you’re stubborn will is fighting back saying “I won’t worship if it’s going to be this way” or your passive will is saying “Fine, I’ll go through the motions but I won’t really engage, I’ll just wait till it’s all over then go back to my own way of doing things” then pray “Father God, I am struggling to engage with you here. I give you my strong will/ my passive will and ask you to help me because at the bottom of it all, I desire to worship you.”

Then go for it. Worship God. Open up your heart, your mind, your body and worship God in the manner with which shows God you love him and glorify him - in spirit. 

It may - actually IT ABSOLUTELY WILL - look different for each person but the who, what, where, when, how doesn’t matter. If it is true and allowing your spirit to engage with God then it is worship and God LOVES it. Yes He does.

Joy

Last night, at my women’s small group, a friend brought a problem to the group so she could ask for some wisdom and help in figuring it out. The result was so eye-opening and insightful, I want to share it with you and give credit to these amazing women of God too.

This was the problem: James 1:1-5 says that we should consider it pure joy when we go through various trials because we know that the result of these trials is patience. James then encourages us to allow patience to produce in us everything we need so we lack nothing and then he gives some advice about what to do when you don’t know how to do this – ask for wisdom. So this is the point my friend was at – asking for wisdom.

How on earth, she said, do I count what I am going through as Joy? Instead, I am ready to give up on my situation and I need some understanding of this scripture. At first we had no clue what to say or how to answer, and I knew that I too have struggled to find Joy in the middle of trials but as the sun set outside, the light began to dawn on us inside.

What is Joy? Is it more than just an emotional response to a pleasant occurrence? Is it something more like contentment? When are some of the times when I have experienced pure joy?

My moments of highest Joy have been after I have achieved something amazing – like baptising a friend. For others it was after birthing their first baby. Jesus experienced times of exhilarating Joy like when the seventy disciples arrived back from the mission field with stories of success and overcoming demons. The disciples were elated and so was Jesus (Luke 10:21-22) – not at the fact that demons submitted to them but at the fact that his disciples were discovering profound truths that had previously been hidden and were using this revelation to win souls, to fish for men like He had promised, like He had trained them to do. Yes! The plan was working!

This got me looking into the Bible (when I got home) at Joy – there are different words for Joy in the Bible but the rarest one (agalliao) is saved for the times of most exquisite joy and is often used to describe the joy connected to eternity with God: the Joy of salvation (Acts 16:34, Acts 2:26), the Joy of our eternal inheritance (1 Peter1:6, Matthew 5:12), the joy of believing by faith in Jesus (1 Peter 1:8), the joy of the Saviour’s arrival on earth (Luke 1:47, John 8:56), and finally, the Joy on that day when the marriage of the Lamb has come and the Bride is ready! (Rev 19:7)

But most of all, this type of joy is not just a physical emotion. It is a spiritual one. When Jesus rejoiced over the seventy disciples, He rejoiced ‘In the Spirit’. When a person accepts Jesus and is saved the party is in heaven (Luke 15:7).

But James asks us to consider it Joy when we are in the middle of a trial – in the exact opposite circumstance that would normally, naturally bring us Joy. How can we do such a thing?

When I was in my final year of University, I was having a hard time getting back into study after a year of working with Youth With A Mission. I had experienced life after University and it was so difficult to go back and finish my degree. A friend helped me when she told me to picture myself graduating in a cap and gown, holding my certificate and let that image do its work in me – that image gave me the patience and endurance to continue and complete my studies with the joy that when it was over I would have achieved something amazing.

Again, last year, while Johnny and I were waiting to for God to reveal the next place he was preparing for us and we were struggling to keep the faith through such a long wait, I asked God to give me a glimpse of the future, something to focus my mind on, to hold on to when I couldn’t see hope. And He did. I used the image that came into my mind to focus my thoughts on when the going got tough. I allowed that vision of the end goal to bring me Joy in the toughest times.

How do you think Jesus endured the cross? The Bible tells us that he too kept his mind focussed on the Joy that was before him (Hebrews 12:2). He walked the road to Calvary and endured the cross without giving up or losing heart because He knew that he was accomplishing something that would bring so much Joy to him, his Father, you and me. The thought and knowledge of the Joy to come, brought Joy in the middle of the darkest valley. It worked its power in Jesus and brought endurance and patience so he could finish the great and mighty work he was accomplishing.

So Joy is more than just an emotion after all. In fact it is something quite amazing - it is a spiritual glimpse of something eternal that we get to experience in our here and now.
 

You see, there is Joy coming. If you have your name written in the Book of Life, there is great Joy over you and great Joy coming for you. There is a wedding coming at which you will be standing next to Jesus in perfectly clean, spotless white linen as His Bride (Rev 19:8). There is an eternity prepared for you with no pain or suffering and you are currently being prepared for your place there. In the meantime, you can do two things to help you experience a glimpse of this joy now.

One is to ask God for a vision or a revelation of the Joy that is to come at the end of your trial and fix your mind on it. James sums it up in these words: perfection of your character, completeness, lacking nothing. Three very happy thoughts indeed! The change of perspective will help you see your trial as God sees it – the trial is not the end, He will not leave you there. There is Joy coming in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

The second is to ask for His Holy Spirit – ask for His Joy to fill you, supernaturally, spiritually, abundantly. Go back to paragraph six, click on the links and read each one of those scriptures and ask God to fill you with Joy as you do. Go on.

The trial will not disappear, but His Joy will give you the patience to endure to the end where salvation is waiting! Yes!

Graceful Character (When God Says No)

Have you ever had that wonderful experience of God saying No to your prayers? The proverbial door being closed or sometimes even slammed in your face when you had your heart set on going through? After offering to serve in the worship team at church and being rejected, a wise preacher told me, (while I was tearing my heart out trying to understand why) that God is more interested in my character than what I think I can do for Him. It changed my whole perspective on the situation.

I was 19 then and that lesson has helped through several other times when the Lord has asked me to set some really strong boundaries in my life or asked me to lay down certain activities I thought I was doing for Him. I’ve come to love Romans 5:3-4 that says we can rejoice and be happy when we run into problems and trials because we know they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our hope of salvation (NLT version).

But why is character so important after all? Why is it more important than being happy, than fulfilling our dreams or by doing things that make us feel good? I thought Christ came to set us free so why do we still have to give things up or stop doing things we like – even Godly things like serving in church? It doesn’t make sense.

I think it has something to do with the verses that precede those wonderful ones in Romans 5. Here is verse 2:

 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege (Grace) where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. (NLT)

 

I believe that God has granted us an incredible privilege to live by faith, to stand under grace. I also believe that to live by grace successfully takes strength of character.

Let me explain:

The are two extremes of behaviour that Christians can fall into (or deliberately walk in) as a response to the Grace- legalism or lethargy. I have found myself wandering into each of these pathways in the last few years. Legalism is fuelled essentially by fear. It's the sin of the Pharisee who was so passionate and determined to do the right thing that they were terrified of ever doing the wrong thing. Therefore anything that even closely resembled the wrong thing or was once used by someone who once did the wrong thing... (you get the idea) was banned from their lives. One example of this Paul admonishes in 1 Corinthians 2:9-11 when the Christians began to disassociate themselves from non-Christians for being sexually immoral.

Legalism is a massive issue that takes many forms but the bottom line is that it's a trap that prevents us from living under grace and steals the joy that comes with Grace!

The other extreme is to abuse God's grace and use it as Paul describes later in the chapter, as an excuse for unrighteousness (i.e. to do anything we like regardless of whether it is right or wrong). I liken this kind of behaviour to living in the house of a rich person. Imagine you were in a foreign country and your passport and money had been stolen. With no where to sleep or turn to, a generous rich family allows you to stay with them and gives you free access to all areas of their house -  the bedroom, the kitchen the media room. There is a maid who will clean up your mess and a valet to dress you with clothes from the rich family's wardrobe. Paradise! 

Abusing God's grace is like going out from that house, getting all muddy and then walking that mud through the house with the excuse that the maid will clean it up so it doesn't matter. And the valet will clean my clothes so I don't need to mind about getting dirty. Yes, God will clean up your messes and cover you with his righteousness over and over again but what does that say about you and your character? God grace and His character don't change so He will always love you, forgive you when you say sorry and give you another chance. He can't seem to help himself He just loves us that much! But what does that say about YOUR character? It says your self-centred, undisciplined, disrespectful, unloving, unkind... is that really who we want to be?

You see, God longs to give us freedom but he knows that if we are to handle that freedom and still be a loving, kind, righteous person who will love God and others as themselves and who will lead others to Him we need strength of character.

So how do we get strength of character so that we can enjoy this freedom of living under grace while still remaining attractive to God, ourselves and others? Back to Romans 5 again: problems and trials. Like facing rejection and loss and yet still loving the Lord and trusting Him with your life, believing He will work it out for good. (Romans 8:28). Like accepting with Joy the closed door in front of you, trusting it is for the best.

The younger we are in our faith, the stronger the boundaries seem to be. Like a good parent, He trusts us more as more as we grow. He may say No to some of our prayers or ask us to give something up for a while even though it is something you love. Even if it is something good and worthwhile.

Why?

Because He is working on our character.

Why?

So that we can walk in freedom, stand in Grace and yet still remain attractive. So that we can experience the joy of our salvation and not live in fear. So that when we get the chance to live our dreams, we won't bring shame or disgrace to God but will be a shining star, showing others the way to Jesus.

 

My Little Flower

I am truly terrible at gardening. What ever the opposite of green fingers are - I've got them. Some friends just bought us a flower basket and my first thought was to panic and wonder how long it will take me to kill them. But I was told all I need to do is sit them outside and they'll look after themselves - thank goodness! That is my kind of flower basket!

Today I've been asking the Lord what to do for my darling youngest daughter who has not settled into nursery at all. In fact, it got so bad last week that I have decided to pull her out. I couldn't find a single other preschool available in the area so this morning I spent some time talking to God about it.

I asked the Lord to show me what the Bible has to say about bringing up children. I had just been reading in Song of Soloman so was immediately drawn towards the verses that read :

"My mother's sons were angry with me
They asked me to be the keeper of their vineyards
But my own vineyard I have not kept."

Then I took a walk and found some purple crocuses growing by the side of the road and remembered a Word someone once had for my daughter that she was like a flower and like a flower, she would bring joy into people's lives just by being there.

My little girl is like a flower. She requires much love and tender care and during this time of change and upheaval, she needs all the extra care and attention I can spare. If I want to write books that help parents bring their children closer to God, I can't neglect my own precious vineyard/garden.

But like I said, I'm not very good at gardening! I think I've hoped that my children would be able to stand all the change and thrive in their new environment with relative ease - my older child certainly has! She must be more like an oak tree! But my little flower is younger and just wants to be home with mummy. There's nothing wrong at all with the nurseries and preschools she's tried and every other kid there seems to thrive. But my little flower is not quite strong enough yet to withstand the harsher weather and just needs to stay close to her Mummy. I think this is where she will grow stronger - and when the day comes for her to send her off to school, I won't have any regrets.

So my prayer is that of the Shalumite woman in Song of Soloman 1:7 :

"Tell me, O you whom I love,
Where you feed your flock,
Where you make it rest at noon."

May the Great Gardener teach me how to look after my flower so it will bloom in all it's radiant beauty and grow strong, with deep roots, to survive the harsh weather in years to come. Will the Great Shepherd teach me how to tend to my kid like He has been doing so faithfully for so long.

And immediately I have my answer!

^"8 If you do not know, O fairest among women,
Follow in the footsteps of the flock,
And feed your little goats
Beside the shepherds’ tents."

As my daughter desires to be close to me, so I must remain close to the Shepherd. As I try to teach her, I must remain close to the teacher. As I try to nurture her, I must remain close to the Great Gardener. As I try to lead her to Jesus, I too must follow in the footsteps of the flock.

Whatever it is I am called to do in this life, if I stay close to Him I'll stay under his shadow. The safest place to be.

Look Up and Follow The Star

A Maori chief once described to me the way pacific mariners hundreds of years ago would remember the location of a particular island by identifying a star that hung in space above that island. The star that orbited perfectly with the earth's rotation in that exact spot would be given the name of the island. Then, whenever they wanted to sail to that island again, they would locate that's island's geo-stationary star and sail toward it until it was directly above their heads. Then ta-da! They were at the island again! Cool, huh? 
 
On the day Jesus was born, the light of a certain star reached the sight of earth's leading astronomers - wise men from the East. We can assume that it hung directly over the town of Bethlehem in Judea which is how the magi found Jesus - by travelling towards the star looking up and up and up until the star was directly above them and then they were at their destination. Just like the pacific mariners would do many years later. Right? Well almost.
 
At some point they stopped looking up. Perhaps their necks were aching as the angle of looking up increased! Matthew 2:10 suggests they actually lost sight of it for a while. Whatever the reason, they began to look around instead of looking up and what they saw when they looked around was a palace.
 
Fast forward to present day and imagine you are a skilfully crafted creation of God, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD works - GOOD works that have been prepared for you by Father God. He prepared them for you to walk in them follow them through as your life's journey (That's Ephesians 2:10 in case you didn't recognise it). I don't know about you but I have had moments when the realisation of this has overwhelmed me.
 
Over a year ago, I knew a change was coming in my life and I felt utterly and completely unequipped, unprepared and inadequate. That was the word: inadequate. I knew that this realisation should make me more reliant on God but I couldn't seem to stop looking down - right down, within myself. If I had to pinpoint it exactly it was right inside my gut - I looked inside my gut and my heart and instead of seeing any skilled craftsmanship I just saw that I didn't have what it took to walk in the good works Father God had prepared for me. It was not a fun position to be in and maybe you have been there too?
 
In that moment, the Holy Spirit performed something utterly supernatural. So supernatural it terrified me until I decided to trust Him - He began to lift up my head. I felt my head being slowly, gently, tilted up - it turned from looking so far within myself I thought I would turn inside out to looking so directly up above me that I thought my head would fall off behind me and go bouncing along the floor. I never knew a head could be tilted so far back! (In fact, if you try it now, there comes a point where your head can actually rest in that upright position but you have to go all the way back!)
 
I began to worship. With all my heart and soul I began to sing out to Him - I should mention at this point I was at a women's conference with a few thousand other women all being led in worship by a very gifted worship leader but that is by the by. I discovered in the position of looking up, there was nothing between me and Him. I couldn't see any of the 3,000 other women in the room and I couldn't see me - all I knew was I was looking towards Him, our God in heaven, Jesus the Light of the World (John 8:12). And nothing was separating me from Him.
 
The psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills to look for his help from God instead of looking at his own fear and despair or the evil around him (121:1). Isaiah tells us to lift our eyes to heaven which is eternal and see God because everything else down here will one day pass away (40:26). When Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes he said his understanding returned to him and he praised Him who is Most High and eternal. (Daniel 4:34)
 
So I was in good company! And the experience was so memorable that whenever I find myself head in hands, focusing on me and my weaknesses I remember to look up to Him and just keep walking.
 
So if we are looking up towards Jesus and still walking we will be making our decisions based on where He is leading instead of the distractions we see around ourselves. And now we come to the point of the wise men.
 
They were so close to the end of the journey and there was this huge palace in view and they knew they were looking for a king so they decided to take their eyes off the light above and instead follow their natural eyes. And what was the result? Every baby in Bethlehem since the day the star first appeared (which was probably Jesus’ birth day) lost their life shortly after that. To the natural eye it seemed like an obvious assumption to make but ultimately, they had stopped following the light.
 
So I'm writing this to myself today. I've been following the Light of the World (John 8:12), trying not to focus on my shortcomings but instead clinging onto His holiness, His enormous faith, His power and His love for me and you. And I've been walking by faith, seemingly in the dark for long enough that the tempting thing would be to stop and look around and start making assumptions about where God is leading me next. That's what the magi did and it didn't work out too well.
 
So I shall simply keep putting one foot in front of the other while I look up! I shall try very hard NOT to make any assumptions based on my natural circumstances, no matter how tempting it may be and keep my eyes on Him. Can I give you permission to remind me to look up and can I encourage you to do the same? Then we can once again share of God's faithfulness when we finally reach the next destination along our journey.
 
Look up and follow The Light of the World!

Your Home Church is Always Home - a shout out to RCF

Sometime between the age of 19 and 21 I decided I must have left home.

I still spent my holidays from University in my parents' house, sleeping in the 'my' room surrounded by the trinkets I'd collected as a teenager but in my head I thought I was grown up now and must have at some point 'left home'. It came as quite a shock to my Mum when I mentioned it once!

I remember especially throwing myself into the church I was attending at university which I thought should be my new home church but actually, I was always just a student who everyone knew was only there term time and would leave once the three or four years were up.

Then I met and got engaged to the wonderful, charming and gorgeous Johnny Gilchrist and I was totally blown away by the way my 'childhood' church of Rugby Christian Fellowship embraced him and me back into the family of RCF. When we went on mission they supported us as a church and many individuals within did as well. Of all the people who reply most to my emails and prayer requests, it's the members of my home church who watched me grow up from an enthusiastic child to a sulky teenager and a big headed young adult. These are the people who have been our biggest champions and prayer supporters through the years of living by faith with YWAM and then as missionaries (as we saw it) to our new-home town in New Zealand. (I have a sneaking suspicion some of the people in Tauranga will also join this group of Biggest and Best Long-Distance Supporters)

Every time we have visited home they have cared about our lives as if it were a part of their own.

I have come to believe that you can never really leave home if the people at home still love you.

This is just a shout out to all the young people searching to make their own way in the world - don't think you need to leave the people of your childhood behind you just because you are now grown up. It is the people who have watched you grow that will stick by you through good times and bad and care about you no matter what you do, because they know who you really are. If they still love you after that, they always will!

A Big, Big Thank you to the people and Pastor of RCF.

Leaving The Land of the Long White Cloud

It was exactly seven years ago today, the 8th October (our first wedding anniversary), that we stepped onto the plane to leave our home country for seven years.

Looking back, how do I measure the success of seven years?

Have we achieved the dreams that we thought the Lord had placed on our hearts here? Certainly not. If I wrote a 'to do' list seven years ago I'm sure only a few of the things would be ticked off. And the grief of knowing that has been hard.

A few months ago, a friend gave us three scriptures that I didn't understand at the time but now I think I understand what the Lord wants me to learn from them. One of them was:

Micah 6:6-10

With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
With calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
Ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

 

 

If I could be allowed to paraphrase, it would go like this:

"What have I done here in New Zealand that will impress you, my Lord?

Is it the time and overtime I put in with my work for YWAM and the Church?

Will you be pleased with all the newsletters I wrote or the holiday programmes Johnny ran?

Did you like it when I let my relationships slide because I was busy doing Your work?

No. The Lord has shown me the yard-stick with which to measure my life.

Have I acted justly, done the right thing and stood up for the right thing? Kept my integrity and my promises to others?

Have I shown mercy to those who need it at every given opportunity? Have I forgiven instead of wanting revenge?

Have I walked humbly with my Lord through the ups and the downs, the hardships and the highlights? Have I stayed close to Him and given up the flashy impressive accomplishments in order to follow His gentle nudging and still small voice?"

 

 

We have not left behind us anything flashy that would seem like a mark of success to us or the rest of the world but that is not how God measures success. It's obedience, not sacrifice that God loves (1 Samuel 15:22-23 and Hebrews 10:5-7). What does that mean? I think it means this: sometimes we can spend (or dream of spending) huge efforts building something great for God that everyone will see and hear about. That is what Saul did when he made a sacrifice to God without waiting for the prophet nor listening to the word of God. He thought a big display of man-made glory would most reflect the glory of God and bring His pleasure. But he was wrong. All he did was try to prove himself - to protect his own authority because he was afraid everyone else would stop believing in him if he didn't. All he did was lose his authority and his children's inheritance.

 

God forbid I would put my trust in big flashy acts of sacrifice that impress others but destroy my closest relationships, especially with my children. No longer will I grieve for the dreams I once thought were the measure of a successful seven years in New Zealand. Instead I hope and pray that I have done, to the best of my ability, what the Lord requires of me.

 

What is it the Lord requires of us? To Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with your God.

 

That is the yardstick the Lord uses to measure a life.