The World On Fire

Pentecost is not just another religious holiday.  It is the new beginning.  It was the beginning of the new heavens and new earth.  The remaking of the Church and the world.  The remaking of the heavens.  Fire that resurrected a people and land that where barren and dry.  Fire that gave new life to Jews and ushered in the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God.  Fire that did not consume but gave life (remind you of another story?).  Pentecost is a an end to one story and the beginning of another.  It is the beginning, climax and end.  But it all points to Jesus.  All glory to Him who sits on the right of God.  And His first big act as King is to send a messenger that had been promised.  To send the Holy Spirit to dwell with the church in way that had only been hinted at in the Temple.  It was the fulfillment of the burning alter.  The candlesticks come alive and ready to do some real damage here on earth:  to come and set the prisoners free, to come and declare the good news to all people not just a select group.  And as we look back and remember what God has done, we work hard at spreading the good news of a world made new.  We do this by loving the ones that God has put in front of us.  And when those people are loved, we move out and keep moving out with the good new until all peoples know what we know: that Jesus is Lord and that we have peace with God through His Son!

Blessings,
Erin

Worship Changes You

"All cultures have a cultus at the center. The center of every culture is its worship. There is no such thing as a religion-less culture, and the same is true of all sub-cultures" (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 12). I found this quote over on Doug Wilson's blog.  I have meditating on things pertaining to this quote over the last couple of weeks. Jason has been preaching on Colossians and one of the points he made last week was the way God changes the world.  God changes the world and the people in the world using a means that looks like  foolishness.  The world cannot wrap their minds around it.  But that is not the problem and should not be a shock to us.  But we God's people seem to have forgotten as well.  God spoke the world into existence and it is His word that came and dwelt among us and took on flesh to die upon a tree for our sins.  And it is by the preaching of the Word and about the Word that God recreates us and the world, every Lord's day.  He meets us where we, takes us to the heavenly places and changes us using the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Lord's supper.  And this is related to the above quote because worship is at the center of what we do.  And worship is at the core of who we are.  That is why idolatry is such a problem  If you are worshiping the wrong thing, it will rot you to your core.  And this is why christians need to understand the centrality of worship.  God uses Sunday to change us.  it was designed this way before the fall.  We do not just need it because of sin.  We need it because we where meant all along to grow and change more and more into His likeness.  And Gods mean has always been the same.  His word is not just a book full of proverbial sayings that  warn and admonish, although they do that as well, His word when preached on Sundays is powerful and life changing.  It really does change us at our cores.  God is recreating us through his word preached.  He is recreating the heavens and the earth every Lord's day.  His supper really nourishes and changes our souls.  We need to love this truth.  To stand in awe of the way that God has, is and will change this world and the people in it, until the waters cover the sea.  This wasteland is not a wasteland.  This worldly pit is not a pit at all.  God is transforming us and the world every Lords day and we honor God most when we say  "Amen' to what he has declared rather then trying to figure out what could make worship more effective.  That is pride and arrogance on our part.  Go to church, open yours ears and your heart to Gods word, sing loudly, "amen" loudly, and love that you are being made more and more into his likeness every time you hear the word preached.  And thank God that you have a pastor who preaches the word of God without fear!!!!!