jordanabina
In my book, Thoughts of a Dying Worship Leader, I do my best to unpack what coming into contact with the living God has been like for me. In chapter 2 I compare the experience to a great chasm, and my response to the depths.
Chapter 2 | Standing at the Edge of the Abyss:
“It’s like standing on the ledge of a dark chasm and throwing a stone into its void. As I wait and listen for the impact of the rock hitting the bottom, I never hear it reach it’s foundation. Then I have to live with the mystery and the question of how deep the darkness really goes. While others with you throw stones and are fascinated by the beauty of the chasm, you cannot shake the question of its depth. You return to the chasm throughout your life,
wondering, and throwing more rocks into it. You always find the same results. You become an expert in stones and geography, knowing the difference of shapes and sizes of rocks and how they travel through the air, but it doesn’t answer the questions, how deep does it go? What’s down there?“
Just a few nights ago I was able to share a little bit about worship with a group of incredible college in Napa, California. Incredible people who are hungry to know Jesus. The room was ripe with expectation and I had a sense all week that God was waiting for us that night. That feeling turned out to be true.
I wanted to communicate one idea about worship that night and it was this: worship is how we respond to the person of Jesus.
As a group, as a community, we centered our focus on 3 ideas about worship.
The first was that Worship is a sacrifice.
Worship really doesn’t have anything to do with how I feel, it has everything to do with who the Father is. Worship is contingent on who God is, and who He is never changes. Worship is better understood, at first, as a sacrifice. Doesn’t this make more sense anyway? It’s saying, I’m laying myself down, my life, to bring you praise.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”
Hebrews 13:15
When we approach worship as a sacrifice, we will enter into a lifestyle that honors God at all times.
The next idea was that Worship is cultivated in the wilderness.
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1
These words were written by David as he was fleeing for his life. He had been betrayed by his son and driven out alone into the wilderness. I believe a worshiper’s heart is forged in the wilderness, not just in the temple.
The worship in our solitude sets the tone for worship with the multitudes.
I do not see people who seek Jesus all week, struggle to worship in church. I know I never have. It’s when I leave my worship in the temple, that’s when worship becomes a struggle.
Worship is forged in the wilderness.
Where is the wilderness? Out there. Your work, your home, your drive, your life. Out there, in the world. In the good and the bad.
Before David ever picked up a sling in front of Goliath, he picked up a lyre in front of an angry king. He had spent time learning to play…do you know where this happened? As a young person, like yourself, in the wilderness, worshiping the Lord.
I believe the reason we see Jesus get up early, before everyone else, to go spend time with God the Father is because there is a forging that takes place when you get alone with God, and it’s unique to any experience you could ever get corporately.
A government can never take your ability to worship…ask Daniel. If 2020 stopped you from worshiping, then what were you doing before?
Take heart today, worship is forged in the wilderness. Which means, you need to ask yourself what your worship looks like…out there.
Resources for seeking God in the wilderness:
The Way of The Heart – Henri J. M. Nouwen
Run With The Horse – Eugene Peterson
Lastly, we talked about how Worship happens when Spirit touches spirit.
We can use all the right techniques and methods, we can have the best possible liturgy, but we have not worshiped until Spirit touches spirit
Richard Foster
All things fade in God’s presence.
Methods. It was never our music that convinced Him to show up.
Resource:
Celebration of Discipline – Richard J. Foster
Back to the chasm.
I don’t want to be a professional at the surface of God, I want to be a beginner at His depths.
All things fade in God’s presence.
Doubts. Ask Saul about His doubts, ask Peter, ask the woman at the well.
Philosophies. Ask Pontius Pilate about the truth.
Reasonableness. (David / 2 Samuel 6:16-23)
There’s clarity.
Worship is and always will be seeking and dwelling in God’s presence.
Resource:
Get A Bigger Pot – jordanabina.com
God’s Soundtrack for 2021 – jordanabina.com
Nexplorers Podcast – Deeper Into Scripture
You want to meet Jesus? Get into His presence.
What could be better for someone who doesn’t know Jesus, than to experience the supernatural presence of God?
How do we experience God?
How do we get this type of experience in our own life?
Begin to expect His presence in the wilderness and seek Him earnestly.
When you are not at Church.
Begin to expect His presence in the temple and seek Him earnestly.
When you are at Church.
Resource:
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George G. Hunter III
