- I strongly believe that the way we live is a consequence of the size of our God. The problem many of us have is that our God is too small. We are not convinced that we are absolutely safe in the hands of a fully competent, all-knowing, ever-present God.
- When human beings shrink God, they offer prayer without faith, work without passion, service without joy, suffering without hope. It results in fear, retreat, loss of vision, and failure to persevere.
- Worship is not about filling God's unmet ego needs. God has made us so that when we experience something transcendentally great, we have a need to praise it. Our experience is incomplete until we can wrap words around it.
- We are to worship God, not because His ego needs it, but because without worship, our experience and enjoyment of God are not complete. We worship God not so much because He needs it, but because we do.
- God reveals Himself. So we reflect on what God has done and respond in worship. And our understanding of God grows.
- God may "pass by" for you in the comforting words of a friend, or in the beauty of a spring day when the earth begins to come back to life and you realize the heavens really "are telling of the glory of God."
- Sometimes it will be in the act of getting out of the boat that I see Jesus passing by and I see a God who is bigger than I had imagined.
- Every time someone gets out of the boat, their God gets a little bigger.
- Worship also reminds me that the day will come when our fallenness will be utterly healed. In that day we will fully realize the truth of the saying that "perfect love casts out fear." When we worship, we look forward to the day when fear will be defeated and destroyed as sin, guilt, and death. Worship, therefore, in reminding us of this powerful God who is for us, becomes one of the great weapons against fear.
- In worship I declare that God is real.
- When human beings get out of the boat, they are never quite the same. Their worship is never quite the same. Their world is never quite the same. Whatever the results, whether they sink or swim, something will have changed.
- Every time you walk on the water, each time you trust God and seek to discern and obey His calling on your life, your God will get bigger and your worship will grow deeper, richer, and stronger.
may 19 2010 ∞
may 19 2010 +