Worship 24 "Play It Sam, Play It..."

[HKHaugan]

To receive Jesus is to begin a spiritual relationship already in the mind of God and one that is never ending. You've heard that before but to really tap the reservoir of what that means we extract the operative word in that statement---”spiritual.” Keep that word in mind as we continue.

Those of you who know me know that I like many of the old movies from the 40's and 50's. Black and white, the first technicolor ones and their imagery depended on the acting styles of the stars in them. Much was left to the imagination since the acting and the dialogue were geared to touching the mind's ability to build its own images as you went along. “Gone With the Wind” was not only a majestic movie but had truly memorable lines one of which was Scarlett O'Hara's philosophical handling of conflict, her lonely attempt to avoid reality, “I'll think about that tomorrow.”

That brings me to my appreciation for one specific line from another classic. At the very end of the 1942 movie Casablanca, cabaret owner Rick (Humphrey Bogart, American expatriate) and Inspector Renault (Claude Rains, the Vichy collaborator) both having a guarded professional agreement throughout the movie, overcome mutual enemies (Nazis). As the nighttime fog moved about them they can be seen walking more personally together, freed from the chains of Nazi power, into a surrounding fog (the unfolding future). Peering into the fog Rick etched that inimitable line, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The movie's buildup to that statement was based on the enduring conflict between anxiety-plagued individual survival and hope for real and enduring relational fulfillment. Every one of the characters in that movie were seeking to escape the Nazi scourge of Europe using Casablanca's neutrality to flee fear and find freedom. They were trapped between evil and hope and only special travel papers were needed but none available except through evil manipulation. This is spiritual reality.

Due to a fluke event Rick had come into possession of the papers necessary and saw a way to escape but Ilsa, whom he had once loved, arrived on the scene with her famous patriot husband, seeking escape to continue his battle against the Nazis. In a last desperate moment he gave them the papers, a clear picture of sacrifice for values he held and knew were greater than himself. Inspector Renault and Rick arrive at the airport and Rick gives the papers to the couple. Rick shoots the pursuing Nazi officer and watches longingly as the plane takes the heroic couple away. This is when Rick looks at Renault, now his friend based on their mutual recognition of ultimate good, and defines a future of hope, the beginning of a friendship. Spiritual hope.

Relationships can be real, lasting and worth giving your life for. This is what Jesus brought ot mankind with grace, hope and love. Grounded in Him every relationship has a new beginning and an ongoing hope while being filled with His grace and love. But accepting a relationship with Him is only “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” It's all what comes after the beginning and goes on and on. Everything that succeeds from that acceptance point is worship. Spiritual focus.

Worship is what you do to satisfy the hungering attitude to grow and mature. That involves belief, trust and faith in the presence of the risen Lord in every next moment. This is when worship begins. We don't just become disciples of Jesus, we reorient everything we are to Him; His mind, His heart and His Spirit. Baptism, joining a church and being confirmed is not earning our key to the executive wash room, or an invitation to the doctor's special dining room or getting that membership in the local club. We haven't 'arrived.' We've just begun a living relationship into eternity. It's an ongoing worship experience in the most basic way to grow the mind, heart and spirit. It's an absorption in the Word of God for the mind, trusting our heart's deepest longings to Jesus and extending ourselves in faith by the leading of the Holy Spirit wherever we are. Spiritual fulfillment.

The mind is engaged in the structure, the heart in feeling and the spirit in action. The Lord Jesus initiates each to be nourished by the Holy Spirit through Scripture. The Holy Spirit plants Scripture in the mind for belief. He then shifts belief to the heart to build trust in the substance of what is believed. When trust is built He motivates our spirit with the faith to act out our trust. You trust what you believe and act as a witness to Jesus. The Holy Spirit works them together to build an identifiable disciple of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit works in those three He is balancing them according to what He knows is best suited for our individual personalities. Maturity is learning how to keep the balance from day to day. Spiritual future.

Now if God has given us His Word consider the way it is approached. First, it is important to realize God has a mind, that God thinks, God reasons, God analyzes, God systematizes and God plans, to name just some of the workings of His mind. Second, God has a heart, God trusts, God loves, God cares, God relates, God gives, God shares, indicating He is relational. Third, God acts, He is Spirit, He creates, He speaks, He holds all Creation together, He inspires, He energizes the mind and heart, He listens, answers and takes part in the lives of His people. In Jesus you see their balanced perfection in the way He relates to His family, His disciples, His friends and His enemies. You can feel it as your read about His confrontation of the devil and the world forces that try to erase Him and His influence. You can sense it in the impossibilities He makes possible; His miracles, the rearrangement of His physical surroundings at the moment of need, the impressions of His presence that confounds the brilliant, exposing their defensive pride and we could go on but it is quite simple and plain, He is God.

When you put all this together it is His Word, Holy Scripture, that adapts our minds, hearts and spirits relationally to Him and one another.

Why is Scripture so important?

Because there is no other vehicle to adequately explain the meaning and purpose of existence and our part in it. Starting with God and ending in God nothing else really makes sense. Nothing else can help. From philosophy to religion the human mind, besieged by sin, has attempted to control thought apart from God (Gen.3). They are human fig leaves self-deceptively placed to cover the inner consciousness of being alone and afraid in a huge universe. Humanity historically is self-destructive. Humanity needs help from outside itself. Ultimately pride and fear rule and the power to manipulate them is in the hands of deductive ideas of human origin. Scripture is God revealing Himself, His nature and His plan and His very mind. In Scripture we can begin to sort out what makes our mind, heart and spirit work together in concert, in balance and in perfect complement one to the other. Spiritual balance.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins (2Peter 1:5-9).”

Now we're talking worship, spiritual worship.