Hello
Here’s today’s Holy Nougat
“But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! 1 Kings 8:27 NLT
One of the most important elements off worship is the recognition of God’s holiness. That is, the understanding that God is so wholly Other and extraordinary it is not feasible to assign the common or ordinary to God. God’s purity and perfection does not allow for ‘contamination’ by our sin nature.
Yet, even as we recognize God’s holiness, it is important that we also understand the depth of God’s love for us in the extreme measures employed by God as God seeks to make room for us in the divine presence. Initially, it was only the high priest who entered the Holy of Holies trembling and alone, praying that God’s glory would not destroy them. It seemed very unlikely that God would dwell on earth.
Then there was Jesus Christ. God-become-mortal. Living with us. Bridging the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holy Otherness. Jesus Christ shifted the paradigm, making God directly accessible to us. AND offers each of us the opportunity to engage directly with God despite our own individual sin. Moreover, with His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ further shifted the paradigm by affording EACH of us access to the Holy of Holies. We are able to approach God directly. By ourselves. Because of Jesus.
In Jesus’s name.
Therefore, worship MUST assume a more personal dimension. Because, the temple in which God really desires to live is the one created in Our Hearts. Despite our sinfulness. Courtesy of Jesus. Allowing us to become righteous before God. (2 Corinthians 5.21) Now that’s some serious reason to praise! What an amazing Love! Isaiah 66.1 declares that earth is God’s footstool (i.e. God’s hassock/ottoman) as heaven cannot contain God. Yet God desires to live WITH us … IN us.
Could it be that worship is not so much about the opulence of a building (although music and aesthetics helps to enhance worship); but about the state of our hearts – the temple in which God truly wants to live and be worshipped?
How will we worship God, wholly and holy Other, in the temple of our hearts today?
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
