Silent Thunder

In the quiet of my still house this morning, I pulled out my book to review and prepare for our home group tonight.  As I re-read the chapter on prayer, one phrase really stuck out to me today: "We begin praying for others by first quieting our fleshly activity and listening to the silent thunder of the Lord of hosts."  I love that description - "listening to the silent thunder"...that is what makes us come undone...the realization of who He really is...shouldn't this change how we pray?

Here's a question for you...how much of your praying is talking and how much is listening?  If we are to truly pray the will of God, shouldn't we listen first to know what it is before we can verbally pray it?  John 15:7 says "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you."  Maybe if we get the "abiding" right, we'll see more responses to our prayer requests (because they will line up with His will).  My favorite description for what it means to abide in Him comes from one of my favorite books (I became a Christian and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt), describes abiding this way:

To abide means to live within. Jesus says He wants me to live inside of Him and that He will live inside of me.  That doesn't sound like a relationship to me.

What if you could somehow interview a baby inside his mother's womb?  And let's say you asked the baby, "Do you have a relationship with your mother?"

I think the baby would give you a really weird look...and answer, "That's what I thought you said, but I can't believe you would ask that.  How do I answer?  I mean yes, we do have a relationship, but c'mon it's way beyond that.  I mean, I live inside of her.  I can't live without her.  I am totally dependent on her for everything that keeps me alive.  I can't do anything without her.  So yes, I guess we have a relationship, but that's a colossal understatement."

I think that in order to live this way - by truly abiding in Him - it takes setting aside the necessary time to hear the "silent thunder" and to be in such awe of Him that we are undone.  So many times we have good intentions and then get busy and just don't take the time we should for our Creator.  Did you take the time to read Psalm 139 or did you intend to and then time just got away from you?

In my first post, I shared Psalm 19:1-4 - "the heavens declare the glory of the Lord...".   A friend was over last night and was showing me some recordings from NASA of the planets and the sounds they emit.  WOW!  Did you know that the heavens truly "declare" the glory of God?  They actually make sound?   How creative is our God?   And...as my friend pointed out...their sound matches their appearance!  (If you want to hear, go to You Tube and just search for planet sounds, NASA)NASA Voyager Recording of the sounds of Neptune

Silent thunder...if we will just be quiet and still and know He is God and listen to the silent thunder of the Lord of hosts, how much will that change us?  How much will that change the way we pray?   How much will it change the way we live?

I truly believe this is what it means to live a life of worship...it may or may not involve singing worship songs, but it is living in awe of the Great I AM and pursuing Him.  I challenge you to join me this week and increase the time you spend in His presence...listening...see what He will reveal to you in the quiet...listen for the silent thunder...allow yourself to become undone...then see what changes.  Don't let your busyness get in the way of abiding...our busyness is just temporary and will not fill any voids - it will not bring peace or joy; it simply gets in the way of those things that God wants to give us.  Start small - just take 5 - 10 minutes/day; my goal is to increase my time each day this week.

I would love to hear how God moves in you this week...hold me accountable...ask me if I'm spending time listening...share what He's telling you...let's journey together. 

None but Jesus

This morning, during our worship gathering we sang some of these words:

 -"in the quiet, in the stillness, I know that You are God - In the secret of Your presence I know there I am restored"

-"there is no one else for me - none but Jesus"

-"all my delight is in You Lord, all of my hope, all of my strength"

-"You alone are worthy of our praise forever"

-"Glorify You alone"

-"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord, God Almighty"

As we are singing and as we are leaving the stage, I have to ask myself, "does my life reflect this?  Do those who interact with me know that there is no one else for me but Jesus?"  If not, then I know something has to change...because He did give His life for me and He does choose to know me despite how filthy I am.   And...saying I'm a Christian, going to church, and bringing His name up every now and then does not do Him honor.   I owe Him ALL that I am...every second - every breath.

Our home group has been reading through the book "Celebration of Discipline" and the first chapter was on meditation.  One of my favorite quotes from that chapter was this: "Inward fellowship of this kind transforms the inner personality.  We cannot burn the eternal flame of the inner sanctuary and remain the same, for the Divine Fire will consume everything that is impure."

In all of our busyness, it is so hard to take the time to be quiet before the Lord, but I think this is possibly what changes me the most...to be in presence and be aware of who He is...just to sit and be in awe.  How can that not change me if I truly spend time dwelling on the vastness and greatness of God?

One of my favorite passages is in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah saw the Lord seated on the throne and saw the seraphims crying "holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty: the whole earth is full of His glory."  Verse 5 tells us that we he saw this he cried out to God and said "Woe is me!  I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips..."

If you have taken the time to read this, this is my challenge for you today...Set aside 10 minutes, find a quiet place - read Psalm 139 - now re-read it, slowly, taking in every bit of what you are reading...then sit in the quiet, in the stillness and know that He is God...and be restored.

"There is no one else for me - none but Jesus"

Accountability

There are blogs on worship every where you turn around, so why would anyone start a new blog on worship?   To be completely honest, the biggest reason I chose to actually start this blog is for accountability.  We are called to worship Him - to passionately pursue Him - on a daily basis and that can be so hard to do.   We get wrapped up in family, friends, work, and...yes...even church; in doing so, we so often leave our actual worship/pursuit of Him behind and just stay busy.   I am certainly a Martha by nature, so I have to find ways to force myself to sit quietly and listen to my Creator.  Of course, once I do, I am reminded of how amazing it is to be in His presence and hear His voice; even worth something maybe not getting done today so that I have that time with Him.

Psalm 19:1-4 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

We serve an amazing God - the Almighty Creator of the universe - the One who spoke the word into existence - the Sovereign Lord who knows what is yet to come - the same God that created each one of us and knows every, slight little detail about what we think, how we feel, and what path we will choose.   And despite our failures and bad choices, He has chosen to pour His unbelievable grace out on us - His love supersedes any failures we have experienced or mistakes we have made...that alone should spur us on to live every single day in complete & utter awe of Him.

God has given me an insane passion to lead others in worship and to teach what that means to live that out in individual lives.   So...I have decided to share my journey of worship with you...struggles and victories and share a journey of worship as we pursue our Lord & Savior together.