27 March 2017

GEMS OLD & NEW (4)

By John Ollis

As I have continued to read through the Book of Revelation as I suggested previously that in the midst of all the signs about things that are yet to come, there is the constant theme of WORSHIP, there are too many statements to record here, but in many Bibles the words are italics, so they will not be hard to find.

WE MUST PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON JESUS (not the signs)

If I asked you the question what is worship? I would receive many different answers. Much of our thinking about worship has been developed as a result of personal preference regarding style and methods. Young people would often say it is  the type of music, and perhaps the level of the sound etc.

In reality worship has little to do with our preferences and the style we like. Over my 65 years of Christian experience there has come numerous emphases regarding worship especially in the Charismatic world, and some of those emphases I have really enjoyed. But I ask again what is worship?

IT IS THE LOVE LANGUAGE OF THE HEART

True worship can often totally bypass our lips and is simply an expression of our heart. One of the root meanings of worship in the Greek is “to kiss” we can tell Jesus in a thousand ways how much we love Him, not only  for all He has done for us, but simply loving Him for who He is. It would seem our primary occupation in heaven will be to worship, we need to fully understand what worship means down here, and do it down here, even if in some ways we may be limited here. I think many Christians are going to feel at least initially disoriented when they arrive in heaven. Jesus reminds us that the Father is SEEKING worshippers, not just those who praise, not busy servants but worshippers. God wants more Marys (not Martha’s) who will simply sit at the feet of our Master and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The other thought that has stood out to me as I have continued to read Revelation is the statement “Behold I come quickly”. John wrote over nineteen hundred years ago and the mindset of the early believers is that Jesus could return  TODAY, they would even greet each other with the statement “The Lord cometh. We know God does not live in time, and I guess these past nineteen hundred years has simply been a blink of the eye to God,

This is the tension we must live in today, we must plan our future, develop our career, take responsibility  for all these things, and yet at the same time, live as if Jesus could return today. We must really work hard at this. John said in 1 John 3:3 that “he that has this hope (of Christ’s soon return) purifies himself”. Living in the light of Christ’s soon return will surely impact our lifestyle.

Jesus tells us the Holy Spirit wants to lead us into all truth. Let us pray and ask the Lord to help us to fully understand what worship means and not our own personal definitions. Again through prayer we can learn to practically live as if Jesus will return today.

Numerous people over the years have tried to set dates regarding Christ’s return, I don’t know why they bothered when Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour. The bible is full of signs indicating we are getting closer to that glorious day, may the Lord help us to keep looking up, and walking in the Spirit.