*Just an update before we move on to today. My family and I have just been traveling approximately 40 hours in the car in the last 10 days so I was able to listen to quite a few podcasts, Vinyl Cafe stories, Sirius XM radio and Christmas CD's. My favourite new Christmas music for this year is definitely Keith and Kristyn Getty, An Irish Christmas. They've authored several new hymns found in the supplement like "In Christ Alone". Anyway, I'm loving this CD! And there are a handful of Issues, etc podcasts that have been helpful in our study here, if you have the time to listen to them maybe while you're traveling around this season? "The Smalcald Articles: The Office of the Keys and Confession" , "The Season of Advent" and "Myths about Lutheranism: Lutherans Don't Have an End-Times Teaching" .
Or as my husband says, "It's like John saying I went and saw God in heaven and it was pretty awesome."
So this is where it starts to get challenging. I really enjoyed the letters to the churches and thought their meanings were pretty straightforward, more or less. I laughed at the words of the devotion when they start a paragraph "So here we go." Because that's how I felt!
They did a really good job explaining the word pictures here and their meanings and in the significance of the numbers mentioned. It's important to remember that we're going to get different snapshots of the future. For instance, when there's a car accident and there are different witnesses to interview, each witness will have his own perspective. That doesn't mean that only one witness has the right account. Put them all together and you can have a pretty well-rounded "look" at what actually happened!
That's the basic idea of what's going on here - only perfectly done because Jesus is giving the various perspectives on the future of Christ's church!
What struck me particularly about the throne in heaven is all the worshipping that's going on and that I am included in those that are "dressed in white" and wearing "crowns of gold". This is a future picture of you and me!! This is a snapshot of how we will spend eternity with Jesus. If the holy beings in heaven praise God, certainly we'll want to do the same on earth - with our worship, our offerings, and our time and talents. Worship means "ascribing worth" that Jesus truly is worthy of our adoration. We will grow in our desire to live that out on earth as we grow in faith through hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament.
As the Holy Spirit grows this desire in us, what ideas might you have in incorporating worship in your daily life?
2 comments:
I also really appreciated the clear interpretation in “Behold I Am Coming Soon” of the imagery in Revelation 4. Oh, I just can’t wait to be a part of the reality that the imagery is describing!!! Come, Lord Jesus! Hurry!
Worship = ascribing worth. I don’t recall ever hearing that definition before! That’s really good. In my mind I’m going to start calling it “worth-ship,” I think. :-)
Ideas for incorporating worship into my daily life…
Giving God worth-ship is mainly an activity of the heart, soul, and mind. It’s a first-commandment kind of thing. So how to I keep God as the thing of greatest worth in my heart, soul, and mind on a daily (hourly?) basis? By the power of the Holy Spirit, of course. How can I access the power of the Holy Spirit? In word and sacrament, of course. God is worth-y of my time to dig deeply into his word on a daily basis. God is worth-y of my time in prayer. God is worth-y of my time gathering with fellow Christians around God’s word and sacraments. Some dishes might not get done, some shelves might not get dusted, some cookies might not get baked, some communication with friends and relatives might not happen, some time with my husband or children might have to be cut a bit short, some gifts might not get bought, some decorations might not get put out. But that’s okay, because God has more worth-ship in my heart than any of those things.
Martin Luther, a busy man who God used to preserve the truths of the gospel, started each day with 3 hours of prayer. "THREE HOURS!!", we say. Luther said, "I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." Whaaat? Doesn't seem to add up does it? And yet...what better way to start a day and set our priorities straight than in "worth-ship" of our King of kings? Or maybe an hour of devotion in the morning and an hour before bedtime. To start and end the day with Jesus would certainly help us all "run from crazy." I echo "Running From Crazy" ( love that name BTW) in saying Come, Lord Jesus! And as it says in 2 Peter 3 we can "speed its coming" !! How is that possible? By quality time in the Word each day, building up our spiritual life and SHARING the Good News that we know and supporting mission work where we cannot go. Worhty is the Lamb!!
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