I Read Isaiah 44: 5 yesterday - "One will say, 'I belong to the Lord'; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, 'The Lord's'...", and have been thinking about the way in which I choose to express my worship of Jesus as the Lord and the Saviour of my life...
I am constantly challenged by different expressions of worship. I am the youth and young adults pastor at a pentecostal church in Donvale, I work for an organization that has Anglican and emerging missional roots, I interact, lead and support christian young adults from Uniting, Baptist, Church of Christ and Pentecostal backgrounds and I am constantly blown away by the diversity of worship expressions there are within the Church at large.
I used to think it was crazy that we could all read the same Bible and come up with so many different forms of worship.
Now I am encouraged by all that I am seeing, experiencing and learning. I have my struggles, my disagreements with some things but overall I find that I am becoming more aware of just how BIG our God is and just how AWESOME a thing it was that Jesus accomplished for humanity.
The worship of others has enlarged my picture of Jesus, His Father and Holy Spirit. It has revealed to me His heart for others, the poor, the outcasts, the rich, the abused, the oppressed... The worship of others has ripped me from my comfortable position and challenged me to grow, to enlarge my vision, my capacity and my worship.
I have come to realise that worship is something bigger then what we have come to experience in a Sunday 'Church' service. Worship is given and experienced in our work, our conversations, our love for each other, our quiet alone times - it's an everday, every moment LIFE thing that I guess can be, could be and should be experienced all the time, the more we become aware of God at work in our world...
Worship takes place everywhere Jesus is glorified.
I love the Jesus, His Church, my 'local' (church) and His great diversity that I see and am being blessed by in and through all of the Church's expression of worship to Him.
So whether you say it or write it on your hand, I am just thankful for all people who can and do declare, in their own unique expression, that they belong to God.
Thanks for showing me more of Jesus in and through your expressions of worship to Him and challenging me to think bigger and to worship with my whole life....
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