Worship July 9, 2007
Posted by jonesy24 in The Bible - it's quality stuff!, What's happening with me..., Worship, You and me.add a comment
“Every posture in worship says something of both the worshipper and the one being gloried in. The raising of hands tells of a soul stretched out high in praise and the worth of the one being exalted. Joyful dancing interprets a grateful heart and points in adoration to the source of that joy. When it comes to expressing our worship, what we do on the outside is a key reflection of what’s taking place on the inside.”
Matt Redman
I used to get really annoyed in my old church. I got excited about the thought of worshipping God, and then got deflated by the people around me. This doesn’t go for everyone obviously, but I’ve never saw such a ’subdued’ bunch of people. I mean… hello… this is the God who saved your soul? You know… the one who gave his only son for you? Your creator?
One problem that I gained from being in the sortof situation on a regular basis, is that I almost restrain what’s going on in the inside… so that it stays inside.
Then there’s the argument that ‘you don’t know what’s going on in the person’s heart’. True. I don’t. I’m just of the opinion that specific times of worship isn’t an opportunity for you just to sing a few catchy songs (and some not so catchy songs) and then sit down for a sermon. Whether you’re singing the songs or not, this is You and God time.
It’s biblical to do physical acts of worship. It might not spell out that we NEED to do it, but it certainly happens.
“All the angels were stranding round the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God…”
Revelation 7:11
In Ezekial, the prophet beholds the ‘appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord’. He responds by falling face down.
Daniel sees a vision of God, whose face shines like lighting, and whose eyes blaze like flaming torches. He bows with his face towards the ground and was speechless.
Loads of people adopt the posture of facedown worship. Abram, Moses, Aaron, King Dave, Peter, James and John.
Even in 1 Samuel, the philistine nation captures the Ark. They carry it into their temple and sit it beside the idol of Dagon. Next morning, the idol is found face down on the ground before the Ark.
This is one particular act of worship. Facedown, or bowing, or kneeling. That posture. You know the one. It’s only one out of a good few.
So, I’m concious that postures, or physical acts of worship mean something significant. Facedown (Matt says:) worship “always begins as a posture of the heart. It’s a person so desperate for the increase of Christ that they find themselves decreasing to the ground in an act of reverent submission. A soul so captivated by the Almighty that to bend low in true and total surrender seems the only appropriate response.”
I’m beginning to look at Worship. What it is to… and how to… and specific acts of…
The next part I’ve just got to work on is applying them. By letting what I feel inside become visible.
How do I act? July 9, 2007
Posted by jonesy24 in The Bible - it's quality stuff!, What's happening with me..., You and me.add a comment
I’ve been thinking recently… how would I act if Jesus was walking about in human form today? How would I act God was here, in person, now? Or… to be more honest… am I acting as if God is alive? Am I being the person who has a personal, intimate relationship with his Creator, or the person that has a relationship… but it’s like a internet relationship. There’s a big space inbetween. Or something.
I can’t help but think how…easier it would be, if it was the blatant, ONLY God (nothing else), visible miracles and movements like it seems to be in the bible. Obviously they were spread out over a long period of time though.
Which leads onto the next problem. I doubt. Even in what feels like my best moments with God – where I know he’s as alive today as he was 2000 thousand or whenever years ago – little doubts creep in and I end up asking myself stupid questions like, ‘But, where does it mention dinosaurs in the bible?’.
I mean, it would be a lot easier to follow God if I walked outside one morning to have a burning bush in the back garden that wasn’t actually being consumed by the fire.
But… here’s the thing…
When I start thinking like this, what am I really doing? I guess there’s potential that it’s attack, or something… or maybe it’s just I’m longing for blatant visability – in other words, hoping to bring the supernatural down to MY level of… understanding – something my brain can compute. Which, if I ever do manage that… It’s not God.
This is the part where I give myself a shake and think something along the lines of, ‘God is beyond anything that I could possibly understand. And I can’t bring him down to my level of understanding.’.
So… there’s a word for it. It’s faith.
That’s part of believing. I guess. I believe God can do the impossible. So, if i believe God can do the impossible, and if it’s impossible – I won’t be able to understand it, I have to expect not to understand God (not that he’s impossible – he’s just outside my understanding)… at least not anywhere near fully.
So, that’s probably one big ramble. But here’s the end line. I do believe; I just need help overcoming my unbelief – my doubts.
Faith means striking out, with no clear end in sight and perhaps even no clear view of the next step. It means following, trusting, holding out a hand to a God we can’t necessarily see. It’s something I’m willing to do. Despite the occasional doubt.
Poland – My 6 year old stalker! July 7, 2007
Posted by jonesy24 in What's happening with me....add a comment
Oh. And I almost forgot to mention.
Meet Natalia – my 6 year old stalker. This girl was attached to me everywhere I went… unless her older sister gave her into trouble.
So, on the left is me and Natalia. On the right is me – walking about with a little girl attached to my back.
Poland July 7, 2007
Posted by jonesy24 in Holiday, Mission, Poland, Re:Hope, What's happening with me....1 comment so far
Well, if anyone didn’t know… I’m just back from Poland 3 or 4 days ago. I was going on a Missions trip to help run an english camp for Polish kids. It rocked.
Meet the team:
(Photo: Me, Scotty, Stephen, Beth, Peter and Leah)
We arrived in Poland a couple of days early, which gave us a bit of time to chill out, and hang out as a team before we went to the camp. We landed in Krakow, and stayed in a little Hostel place pretty near the city centre. It was fun. I had to endure the torment of what could only be described as the wrong way to cook whatever the substance was, that Leah and Beth tried to feed us. 10 points for effort though.
After a couple of days, we headed (on the train) to… somewhere which I can’t remember the name of – the place where the camp was going to be held. There we had the pleasure of meeting Arek and Donna – who work/represent O.M, and who started a small church (in a pretty much totally hardcore Catholic nation). Later on, the american team arrived. Quality bunch of people. It was a case of chilling out, getting to know each other, preparing for the camp, etc.
So. Apparently I didn’t know what was happening at the camp. I knew I had something to do with music. I thought… perhaps helping out or something. But it turned out that Scott and I were completely in charge of what was happing. The days broke down into something like this:
The kids would come round about 9ish, where we’d have a sortof ‘kickstart’ or ‘intro’ to the day. Each day had a seperate theme (for example: friendship, etc.). After ‘kickstart’ the kids would break up into ‘classes’ depending on their english ability, and rotate what classes they were at throughout the day. The classes consisted of: Music (led by Scott and myself); Art/Crafts (led by Leah and Beth); Sports (led by Peter and Stephen); Conversation class; and a movie class.
It was pretty much entirely up to Scott and myself for what we wanted to do in our class. We basically read out the song (of the day), line by line, repeat after me style, so that the kids would get the pronounce-ay-ation (and yes my spelling sucks!), then we’d find out any words that they didn’t understand or know already and get that sorted. After that, we’d teach them the basic melody of the song. If they progressed quickly, we’d then get half the class to do the harmony, while the other half done the main melody. Vice versa.
This is me teaching the class part of ‘Be lifted up’. There should be better videos soon. I dislike this one. I sing bad in it.
Over all, the camp was awesome. The kids were great and really into it. One class in particular gave me ‘a new smile’. These kids sang really good, and really loud. You could pretty much hear them from down the stairs and along a corridor. Made my day. Everyday. It was awesome to have the chance to go and minister to them, and not be held back by a language barrier (despite the fact that I had to talk really slow!).
My buddy Scott wrote this about our music class, and more specifically – me.
“I was amazed when on the second day I sat back as Mark easily taught and engaged 5 classes of young people. I saw in him elements of leadership that I had not had an opportunity to witness. I watched the young kid I met 7 or 8 years ago stand as an adult in front of a class passing his love for music and for the Lord onto a room full of eager kids. It was truly a blessing to be there serving.”
Scott actually got an e-mail from one of the older guys who attended the camp. One line in particular stood out:
“I have never met people like you and rest of team”
We made a difference. At the end of the camp, kids were coming up to us with tears streaming down their eyes. They saw something different in us. Some took a ‘free bible’ and had the team write individual messages on the inside of the covers. Some of them came to church after the camp was over.
After the camp, we left to go back to Krakow. We spent a few days staying in another Hostel with our new American friends. We also visited the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz… although that deserves a seperate blog.
I enjoy working with Kids. I love representing God in a different country. I love mission work. And I love seeing the difference or the effect we can have on other people’s lives, just by showing a little bit of Love, or a little bit of God to them.
