Worship 15 Mountain Climbing

[HKHaugan]

Pinnacle, summit, peak, top, crest, apex, height, roof, tip, brow, point, apogee, zenith, capstone, climax, ultimate, optimum, acme, eminence, crown, supreme, cap, head, tower, vertex, loft, ceiling, meridian, spire are all words that describe the place beyond which there is no other. For those who believe in God it is He that populates every one of those words. Every language has their own set of words to describe absolute perfect superiority. All of them point to the essence of their source, the Lord God. He holds the absolute place of authority above the entire universe and all that lies within it. God stands above and alone as its Creator and Ruler. Yet He embraces the entire cosmos, it's seen and unseen entities and the space in which they exist, as its cells move intricately together within it all. From galaxy to galaxy and suns to suns to the smallest functioning piece and the forces that hold and move them all together, it is God whose mind, heart and Spirit has all balanced in His knowing grasp. Now that's just part of what we are in.

There is yet another dimension.

Spiritual reality is that reality out of which all Creation comes and beyond which there is no other. The Lord God is its substance. He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ. It is His grace, the spiritual power sustaining both the visible and invisible cosmos, that shapes the spiritual reality that is us, His images, the world His objective and the Body of Christ, His personal family. He is the definition of the personal reality that caps every thought, insight and reason in the human mind with the urge to venture ever further. Far more lies outside our intellectual, emotional and spiritual perimeters in all the yet to be discovered phenomena of existence.

Through the Lord Jesus He has opened the door to exercising discovery in His relational dimension. It is not limited to the talents and abilities of a few but to the unique individuality He has granted each of us. That relationship experienced through His Word is the key to everything. This is the same God who limited Himself in our time, our space, our material bodies to show that we were created by Him to be images of Him and enjoy this overarching grandeur. The planet upon which He has privileged us to live, He made for us. It was His pleasure that we might find our pleasure in it. It is this spiritual dimension in which 'we see through a glass darkly,' a misty fog-like perception where the Lord reigns in the complete mastery of its total function, for through Him it all came into being. Though sin and evil darken existence their annihilation was declared on the Cross and their end guaranteed.

Both the dimensions mentioned, Creation and its forbear our Holy God, carry inherent worth, value and treasure that draw us to desire our immersion in them. Even in the midst of the sin that separates us from Him it is His image in us that longs for the qualities that flow from His. The longing in itself is built into us, the longing to feel the worth that is Him, the desire to respond to who He is, to have what He has. That is what is called worship.

Worship is the beginning of moving into this dual reality of the temporary and the eternal where the first one will eventually be changed in the twinkling of an eye and the permanent that is in the mind of the Father will be realized as He has planned. Just the attempt to put that thought into words is far beyond this writer's human ability yet the Lord revealed such a suggestion to the Apostle John in that magnificent taste of what is to come, the Book of Revelation. It is precisely for this reason that we cannot limit the meaning of worship to an institutionally corrugated format that is restricted to an hour on a local calendar day. The vision John was given was so all consuming that time actually ceased for Him. He was caught up in an eternal vision and the words he used to describe it were crafted by the Holy Spirit that hope would enthuse and frame the worship experience for believers. The book of Revelation captures a man in worship. A man lost in the majestic whirl of the presence of God. A man overwhelmed by the panorama of God's ultimate experience for every one who dares walk with His Son Jesus in the relationship He offers. John was a man who stepped into eternity and was granted the privilege of describing it so that all who accepted Jesus as Lord would have a taste of what was to come.

The application of eternity to the present moment and every next moment is worship. It's the way the Lord God planned for us to see the world, its fallen state and its inevitable downfall. But, at the very same time, to have a view of the ultimate victory over sin, evil, the devil and all that stands against God and His Kingdom. It's that context of what is to come that we carry into our relationships, our ministries, our view of all the people around us and what sparks our every next moment. Again, when the Lord says that we are to worship God and serve Him only, every next thought and action is to be impregnated with Jesus-consciousness. He is every moment's connection with eternity. David caught this in these words, “Praise be to the Lord, for He has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song. The Lord is the strength of His people, a fortress of salvation for His anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance, be their shepherd and carry them forever (Ps.28:6-9).”

The shepherding of His people begins with His Word. It is our worship manual. When Jesus was tempted He said that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Mt.4:4)." To grasp that statement fully means that we take the Word, mine it, milk it, master it and mature in it. This is how the mind worships. The Word contains a vast storage of God's essence, nature and substance. Just reading it opens us to a spiritual space where measurement is insight and outsight, wisdom and grace, conviction and forgiveness, love and mercy, justice and balance, faith and hope. The Word leads us into a pasture where we drink from the fountain of the Spirit and are sustained by the same Spirit bathing us in the perfect acceptance of the living Lord and the caring Father. From that acceptance comes the security to push through the underbrush of our fear and reluctance to actually encounter the hearts of others right where they are.

Mining the Word means to dig into it. We put ourselves into a search mode. We want to know what is in it. Every story, every person, every event, every teaching carries a personal message being delivered to us. Ask, seek and knock and it will be given, appear and opened to our unique personal understanding. The Word is the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. It contains the keys of the Kingdom, to the Kingdom and for the Kingdom. But it is only faith that can turn the keys.

Milking it means to take words, phrases, verses and paragraphs, discover their meanings and themes. Then feel for the Spirit's leading to compare them with what is going on in the world around us and gaining insight into where it might be applied for personal and relational growth. We all come as children into a relationship with God and, just like Jesus, need to “grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (Lk.2:52).” Again, note the shadow of the Cross in these words. His Word will be our cross in the most positive sense since the Word is alive in the Spirit. To carry our mind to the foot of the Cross is the step in faith enabling us to be nursed by it, to receive its nutrition and energy.

Mastering it means to consciously let it tutor us and be open to the Spirit's leading in how it best can be shared. While no one ever 'masters' it in the sense of quoting and controlling it, you can tell when it becomes our constant point of reference wherever we are and with whom ever we relate. Our dependency on it increases until everything is seen through it. What is really happening is that the Word masters our pride and pride is translated into the hunger and thirst for God 's right instead of ours.

Maturing through the Word is the goal. It actually becomes our master which is mastering it by yielding to the way the Spirit gives us its insights and then leads our use of it. It becomes our interpreter when the secular world speaks the devil's language. It sifts the chaff from the wheat. It builds a spiritual security that let's us relax in the midst of the world’s pressure and the maturity not to use it to prove how right we are but to let God prove how right He is. It is a worship manual that enables us to share as the Spirit leads and sharing it in the love of Jesus. That's when sharing is worship.

Mining, milking, mastering and maturing; you're climbing to the top---it's all worship.

“Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell (Ps.43:3).”