Christ Writes Our New Story

When Daniel realized that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. Three times daily he was kneeling and offering prayers and thanks to God just as he had been accustomed to do previously.  Daniel 6:10 NET 

Merry Christmas! Allow Holy Spirit to sing with us, ask Him to pour out our anguish, our happiness, our grief, our forgiveness. Because even though we cannot see it or touch it, heaven is as real and vital to us in our worship as oxygen is to our lungs. In fact, why not decide today as we celebrate the birth of the Christ to build prayer into our daily lives, unhurried quiet, where, among other disciplines, we pause to consider the radiance of who Jesus Christ actually is. God. And praise Him unreservedly, raw, wide open to our innermost thoughts. 

Philippians 1:9-11 NET  And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. 

And so we must worship now in light of God’s future, in ways that are intelligible and helpful to all. Jesus Christ loves each of us who know Him as our Lord and Saviour.  He has always welcomed us, seeking salvation, just as much as ever He did while walking the earth. 

When we use simplicity and praise, adoration and love in our worship, we are able to clearly hear the voice of Him. Amazing grace!  Our worship, filled with admiration and surrender, should also have such beauty and weight that it captures the hearts of the emerging generations. 

By His blood, Christ has brought us all the way behind the curtain and into a new and blessed way of life and worship before the face of God. Because new covenant worship takes place in heaven, it is spiritual and regenerative in its very nature. 

We breathe air into our lungs that we cannot see — and we live. In the same way, as we worship we breathe heaven into our souls — and we live, filling our hearts with the unseen, life-giving atmosphere of heaven. Faith convinces us that we are in the realm of heaven as we worship, and it encourages us to breathe deeply, that we might become more fully alive. 

Thus, worship offers praise, commits our faith, (Hebrews 11:1 NET Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see). How does worship make us come alive? How does it wake us up? worship awakens us to the past, to the generations who have gone before us in the faith, who are now the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven.   As we become aware that this great cloud of witnesses are actually fellow worshippers with us, we gain a new sense of the continuity of God’s kingdom across the ages!  He is all that is, all that was, all that will be!

We rejoice in the knowledge that Christ truly is the mercy of God to a thousand generations of those who love Him. Our joy is enhanced as we read the same Scriptures and partake of the same Supper as generations before us did, as we sing songs of praise and the same hymns and as they did we follow the same patterns in worship they did. 

Psalms 150:1-6 NET Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary! Praise Him in the sky, which testifies to His strength! Praise Him for His mighty acts! Praise Him for His surpassing greatness! Praise Him with the blast of the horn! Praise Him with the lyre and the harp! Praise Him with the tambourine and with dancing! Praise Him with stringed instruments and the flute! Praise Him with loud cymbals! Praise Him with clanging cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

Hearts filled with praise, a gratitude that brings us to our knees before our mighty, gracious Lord of all. Singing, praying, acknowledging with grateful hearts all that the Lord has done for us, is doing for us, challenges us to find our places in the story of Christ’s kingdom and to look for Him to write new chapters in the story through our lives.