Month February 2015

THE HEART OF A WORSHIPER

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“I am of the opinion that we should not be concerned about working for God until we have learned the meaning and delight of worshiping him”      A.W. Tozer.

In AW Tozer’s book “Whatever happened to worship”  the writer says that, like an amnesiac, the human race experienced a dramatic fall and, as a result, we have forgotten that we were made to walk with our God and worship him. Even as Christians we can forget this and take our place in Sunday worship out of habit, duty, love of music, enjoyment of the people or atmosphere.

We must therefore learn, or re-learn, “the meaning and delight of worshiping Him”

A heart to give thanks.

The fall of mankind was characterised by a lack of worshipful gratitude – “though they knew God … they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him” (Rom 1 v 21) A  prime characteristic of those restored to relationship with God, therefore, is the cultivation of a renewed attitude of gratitude

When people think of you do they think of a worshiper?Remember, the Father himself is seeking worshipers.  (See John 4 v 23-4)

 A heart to give our whole self.

The “first” or greatest, command is “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. (Luke 10v27) Our God requires, and deserves, nothing less than wholehearted worship.

In Romans 12 v 1 Paul takes up the notion of totally giving ourselves and gives us a picture of placing our whole selves on a sacrificial altar of worship – This in a willing and joyful response to the magnificent mercy of God in choosing us and saving us by Jesus’ work on the cross.

 A heart to seek Him.

In Psalm 42 v 1-2 the writer compares his hunger for God to the physical longing of a deer for water. He “pants” for God and knows that nothing less, or other, than the Lord himself can meet his thirst.

“Where can I go and meet with God?” is the great question of the worshipping heart. God has hidden things for us not from us; and he promises to be found by those who seek him wholeheartedly.

 A heart to delight in Him.

What a great command – “go on, indulge yourself!” – “delight yourself in the Lord” Psalm 37 v 4

The psalmist encourages us to exalt, boast and revel in our Lord – His attributes and actions. To delight ourselves is to glorify him!

A wonderful cook is most glorified in the licking of lips, the mopping of gravy, the longing for seconds, and the salivating expectation of more!! The very enjoyment glorifies the provider all the more as the consumer delights in the feast!

In the same way we are encouraged to “delight” in the Lord – to be enraptured, delighted; to honour and esteem, applaud and shout, relish and indulge ourselves! To luxuriate and be captivated and fascinated with all He is and has done. What a privilege!

 A heart to know Him

 David’s primary request was to “gaze on the beauty of the Lord” Psalm 27v4

It has been fashionable to say “I do not want to know any more about the Lord ; I just want to know Him”  Why settle for “either/ or” when it is the Lord’s will for you to have “both/ and”? We can cultivate our love Him with all our minds as well as all our strength and soul!

If I had said, to my future wife, “I don’t want to know anything about you I just want to experience you”, I would have been told to get lost, – and rightly so! If you love someone you want to find out their opinions, taste, family background, ambitions, gifts, character and desires.

Further earthly discovery sometimes leads to discovering areas of disappointment in one another. – BUT there is no disappointment in our God, for He is perfect and complete and His beauties are endless.

Let’s gaze on his beauty in ways that involves both learning more about him and experiencing his wonderful closeness – there will always be more to know!

 OUR PERSONAL PRIORITY

Matt Redman wisely says “The private place always needs to outweigh the public place”  Wherever your time and place is – do whatever it takes for you to meet with God. Developing the heart of a worshipper is the best thing you can do to glorify God and enrich the worship of your church.

Thank Him, give yourself to Him, seek Him, delight in Him, know Him!

 “If we give ourselves to God’s call to worship, everyone will do more than he or she is doing now. It will have the quality of eternity in it. It will be gold, silver and precious stones, not wood hay or stubble” A.W. Tozer.

Pigeons away … drains, (and gift day), here we come!

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granary pigeon men

At The Granary, work has been completed, by contractors working on the problem of years of pigeon occupation and what is politely called guano!

It is great to see something actually happening on the site, as most of the huge amount of work so far completed has been legal architectural or planning. Much investigative work has also been done to find out where, and how, we can reconnect the building with services.

On Sundays 1 and 8 March we are having gift days for the redevelopment work, which we estimate will cost in the region of £600,000 (in addition to the purchase price).

The purchase is moving ahead slowly with contracts being written, valuations undertaken and searches being conducted.

It is so good that at the same time as we are working through the practicalities of buildings we are, as a church, having a period of focused prayer for our city. From a spiritual point of view “unless the LORD builds the house, we are labouring in vain”

BULGARIA visit, Jan 2015

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Bulgaria jan 2015 leadershipI met some wonderful people, (and ate some wonderful food), whilst in Bulgaria! We begun with a leaders Saturday in Lovech, where the church has restored a formerly delapidated building into a great church facility. On Sunday the team split up and preached in 3 different churches – I went with Rosen, (2nd on left), to his church in Veliko Tarnovo. Great time of discussion and friendship building as we drove and I very much look forward to meeting again. The warm of their welcome was fantastic and I felt very relaxed and at home as I spoke about The Father’s Love, from the Prodigal Son… Left straight after the service to travel to Sofia where I spoke again to a church plant.

Experiencing different cultures and languages but discovering the same family, with the same Father is a great privilege!

Worship – Our highest calling

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“Desiring God” is a great title for a book! – In that book John Piper argues that to be preoccupied with anything less than God is to rob ourselves of our greatest joy and privilege. God tells us to praise him above all else because He knows that’s the place of our highest fulfilment and satisfaction. We are made for Him – to worship Him is our destiny! To not worship Him is to miss out on what we are on earth for.

Let’s focus on aspects of corporate worship …

THANKSGIVING

To “enter His gates with thanksgiving ” is much more than “let’s wake everyone up with a fast one”! The first step away from God is that we don’t thank Him (See Rom 1v21) In the midst of all sorts of life distractions, therefore, it is so good to simply thank God and remind ourselves of his mercy, his kindness and wonderful nature. Such appreciation is our “gateway” into God’s presence.

PRAISE

An illustration – When we first married my wife was unmoved by the delights of, say, tennis,  (along with most others sports!), however watching together, learning about scoring, tactics, angles and spins has gradually led to appreciation and even outburst of “WOW that was fantastic!” Praise grows with understanding! – (I have also learned, from her, to appreciate our rich history and legacy of historic buildings)

We praise what impresses us – and the more we learn of who God is and what He has done the more we will be impressed with that understanding and praise him. That’s why songs full of truth about Who God is and What He has done are so helpful!

IT’S PERSONAL

We are not just praising a God but our God and Saviour. Our praise engages our emotions, as well as our minds, when we realise that We have a personal interest since “the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2 v 20)

IT’S HAS TO BE EXPRESSED!

Thinking warm thoughts toward my wife is not enough – Praise has to be expressed to really be praise. In all sorts of worldly settings praise is expressed through clapping, shouting, dancing, drumming, dancing … Wholehearted enthusiasm; maybe not very traditionally British but very Biblical. Watching Olympic fervour, or F.A. cup craziness could maybe help us learn to better express our praise to the One who is, above all else, amazing and genuinely wonderful!

ADORATION

We enter into worship to honour him but also to encounter Him. “Knowing you Jesus – there is no greater thing”! (Graham Kendrick) We are pursuing moments of love and adoration, encountering God’s presence and delighting in Him. “How lovely is your  dwelling place, … my soul yearns, even faints … my heart and flesh cry out for the living God”. “Better is one day in your courts than a a thousand elsewhere” (Psalm 84)

“In the end the heart longs not for any of God’s good gifts but for God Himself. To see Him and be in His presence is the soul’s final feast”. (J Piper)

EXPORTING HOPE … UGANDA and Emmanuel Rucyaba

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emmanuel 2015

 

We have been friends with Emmanuel for many years, a friendship that has deepened over time. It is a privilege to partner and serve him. In past years we have helped with the construction of a school and provision of teaching staff, the building of a clinic and the ongoing construction of a hospital.

Through what we call “Exporting HOPE” we are planning to be involved in then following ways –

We are aiming to assist in the set up and ongoing mentoring of some businesses in order to provide uplift and dignity to those who have no work. We are seeking finances for this.

We are aiming to help connect Emmanuel to a variety of other apostolic ministries so that he can gain from increased fellowship and contribute his experience to others too.

We would like to help Emmanuel train up to 100 church leaders in the next 5 years, via sponsoring, and serving as teachers, in his leadership training school. Wouldn’t it be great if we could expand that facility to Rwanda in time!?

We have helped provide some advice and finances toward a farm to provide income for the ministry, enabling it ultimately to become more financially independent.

I am travelling to Rwanda and Uganda, with Colin Baron, this August.

WORSHIP – The boasting instinct

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WORSHIP – The Boasting Instinct.
David was in fear for his life! Hounded by King Saul he had fled for refuge to King Abimelech. Abimilech was minded to kill him and he had escaped only by pretending to be insane.  What would we have left like? – depressed?, lonely?, angry?
When he wrote his psalm about it we find instead that he says “I will praise the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice” (psalms 34 v 2-3)
David models and encourages praise in the midst of difficulties He makes a “soul decision” that we would do well to copy –“my soul will boast in the LORD”
Both individually and corporately the people of God need to make the same decision to praise God. – “In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever” (Psalm 44v8) In this parallel statement the psalmist gives us a good, and non religious, definition of praise – to boast in our God.
If we are honest there is a part of us that likes to boast! It starts early, with a primary school star for good spelling, or art, and can grow to epidemic proportions as we boast of what we, or later our children, have done or achieved. Fastest, tallest, brightest, strongest, prettiest, richest, highest… you name it and we can boast about it!
The truth is, of course, that we would have nothing to boast about except through the goodness of God – who deserves all the praise, since every good gift comes from him. What do we have that God hasn’t given us? Jeremiah speaks to us when he says “This is what the LORD says, “let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, nor the strong man his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches – but let him who boasts boast about this; that he understands and knows me”
I think the LORD wants to restore and re-use our capacity for boasting!
Firstly, the Holy Spirit can help us live in humility so that we are actually able to boast in our weakness . This is very counter cultural but allows us to be real and God to be glorified. Paul models this for us “If I must boast I will boast of the things that show my weaknesses” (2 Cor 11 v 30) – there is something very attractive about a people who are real with each other. Boasting in weakness also allows more opportunity for God to show his power; “my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 11 v 30 and 12 v 9-10) Paul’s conclusion was that he would “therefore boast all the more about his weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” Let’s be real and expect an increase in his power among us.

Secondly, let’s use this boasting instinct to praise God. “No one may boast before Him … so, as it is written, “let him who boasts boast in the LORD” (1Cor 1 v28-31)
When we boast of ourselves it is inappropriate – the bits that are great are the work of God! But when we boast of the LORD it is entirely appropriate – He is bigger, stronger, larger and longer, wiser, richer, kinder and better than anyone!!
So … the next time you are not sure what to do in a praise time – make a “soul decision” to try some boasting!! – My soul will boast in the LORD!

P.S. (Who knows, “boasting” could even change our definition of evangelism!)