Blood and Fire
The idea of worship has been a topic that I just can't stop thinking about. In particular, I want and desire to know what worship truly means to God. What will God accept as worship? What in my life and as I lead worship in church is considered folly by God? I don't necessarily intend to answer all of the questions I will pose in my blog posts, because I believe that there is a lot of mystery to God that will go unrevealed to me.
“33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
My hope in sharing my thoughts is to invite you into a healthy and deep dialogue (in the comment section down below) about worship.
Today's eureka moment on the topic of worship came to me in my studies while I was reading two texts; Isaiah chapter 6 and A. W. Tozer's book Worship, The Reason We Were Created.
Chapter 7 deals with Isaiah's personal encounter with God; in particular, the idea that it took Isaiah, a knowledgeable educated prophet of God, a special encounter to fully understand how completely unclean and sinful he is in the presence of God. In Isaiah Chapter 6, Isaiah shares with us a vision he had about meeting the "King, the Lord of hosts!" In verse 5 he explains his response to being in the presence of a Holy, Holy, Holy God.
“5 Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Living in a world that is so consumed with knowing all of the "facts" and #AlternativeFacts it is quite easy to get caught up in thinking we are always correct in discussions and arguments. In many Christian circles (and also in my own heart at times) this looks like having the exact and only correct view of God. I think that this attitude and pride can lead us away from an Isaiah moment of revelation about the one true God from the one true God.
In Isaiah Chapter 6, Isaiah has a vision of God that was flat-out-right strange (*read in the thickest West Texas accent possible). Isaiah explained God as sitting on a throne high and lifted up with the train of His robe filling the temple and seated around him stood the seraphim - an angelic being (over simplified definition).
Isaiah's vision gets a bit stranger as one of the angelic beings called to another:
“3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Why did the seraphim say "Holy" three times? Tozer speculates that it could be linked to the idea and concept of the Trinity - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all three in one. If this is true, what an amazing experience that was recorded approximately 700 years before man (the son of Adam) even knew of Jesus - God the Son - or even had developed the idea of the Triune God.
As if this experience was not strange enough, after the declaration of holiness smoke filled the temple. It was at this point Isaiah cries out to God. This is very intentional because our God does not like sin; in fact, he is hostile to sin. He is a consuming fire seeking to burn up sin. (Heb. 12:29) Remeber that our God is Holy, Holy, Holy! So a Holy God cannot be in the same space as sin.
Isaiah might not have entered this vision knowing fully of his current sinful state. Many times in life I think that I too don't fully understand how sinful and unholy I am. Most of the time I feel like I am in the right and am following God, not sinning, but little to my knowledge there is sin lurking in the shadows in my heart - sin that only a true Holy God can detect and consume, if I get close enough to his presence to experience the "strange" encounter with God.
I really enjoyed and was blown away that Tozer reference to a slogan that the Salvation Army often uses
“The Salvation Army has always had as its slogan “Blood and Fire.” I am for that in the things of God. We know of cleansing by blood of Christ. The references to God’s workings often have to do with a holy flame. John the Baptist pointed to Christ’s coming and said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:...he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matt. 3:11).”
As a member of the Salvation Army, I think that we are awesome at understanding and sharing with our community the Blood part of the slogan but many times we miss the consuming nature of sanctification through God's Holy Fire. I think that from reading Isaiah Chapter 6, I can conclude that in order to become a true worshiper of God I must submit to Him fully and come close enough to his presence to experience the "strange," awe filled presence of a Holy, Holy, Holy God.
Isaiah's worship experience also shows us that worship will be painful! It has to be because, in order for me to truly live out a life of worship, God will have to consume the sin that lives within me. The sin that even I don't know or see...even beyond that he will have to devour the very seed of sin that I was born with since I am of the descendants of Adam.
Finally Tozer describes that we can and are often misguided by our meager intellect and "Know-it-All" attitude with God. We are often susceptible to the pull of Christian culture to become an "Evangelical-rationalist" and allow our "intellect" to cloud and distort who God truly is, limiting our transformative worship experiences with the creator of the universe (Prov. 3:5-6). I don't want to be misquoted on the last point - Tozer is not telling everyone to blindly follow feelings and evangelical experiences - but is calling us to fully engage in our own personal study of the word and our experience connecting with the Triune God. We are called to follow Christ, not just teachers and leaders around us. My challenge to you is to invite some time to connect with the Triune God this week through reading, praying, and being still with the Holy, Holy, Holy God.
God, please help us to have hearts that truly seek to see you and that desire to understand you more and more each day. Help us realize that you are so much greater than anyone can imagine and Holy, Holy, Holy. Your majesty, glory, and holiness go beyond all combined human intellect. I thank you for what you have revealed to me today about worship and I want to keep the words of the Psalmist close at heart and in prayer today and this week: "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 139:24-25). For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever amen.
Focus Hymn of the week:
326: Thou Christ Of Burning, Cleansing Flame - 2015 Salvation Army Song Book
Verse 4:
To make our weak hearts strong and brave,
Send the fire!
To live a dying world to save,
Send the fire!
O see us on Thy altar lay
Our lives, our all, this very day,
To crown the offering now we pray,
Send the fire!
Focus Spiritual Song of the Week:
Refiner's Fire - Brian Doerksen
CCLI #: 426298
Chorus:
Refiner's fire
My heart's one desire
Is to be holy
Set apart for You Lord
I choose to be holy
Set apart for You my Master
Ready to do Your will