The Tabernacle

A couple of weeks ago I was able to speak at a church in Melbourne that meets in the National Hellenistic Centre. I loovveed the opportunity to speak about God and how good He is and how He is the centre of the world, not us. I particularly loved being able to do this in that building, Australia’s National centre & library for Greek thinking and thought (ie man is the centre of the world).

There is a podcast of my message here.              8th Feb, 2009

There was an interesting spiritual battle during this time, during worship I was singing and praying in the spirit, really claiming the territory and the atmosphere, when all of a sudden I twisted my ancle and could hardly stand, I was able to pray through this, all of the pain left! Praise the Lord!

Later when I was to speak they couldn’t get my power point to work. The CD wouldn’t even load on their computer. I tried it later in another computer and it worked fine.
It was just another reminder of how the spiritual is as real if not more so that the physical world.

Pray with me would you please, that the Lord of the Harvest would indeed continue to send out more harvesters. Matt 9:38 Let us all play our part in this.

“For I will give the command and shake Israel along with the other nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, yet not one true kernel will be lost.”  Amos 9:9

We live in the era of grace. Thank God we do! In this era, God continues to shake us all. The year started with Israel in war & being shaken, & so too the nations as Amos prophesized. Here downunder, the bushfire threat esculates again this week as hot weather returns. Nationwide the effects of being sifted are being felt. This is what times such as these do.

I was in the shops the other day & the attendant said to me how refreshing it was to see the kindness of people in the midst of this incredible tradgey that now has claimed over 200 lives & over 2000 homes. She looked at Joel-Mark & I, & said how comforting it is to see kindness emerging from people as we raise children in this society.

There is always the good to emerge in the shaking. Perhaps ultimately this is the very heart of God. Good. He is good says the Bible. He is good, and all He does is for good. I see his goodness in this verse, when He says, “Yet not ONE true kernel will be lost.” Not one lost.

Jesus Christ the hope of glory, is emergin in us during these times. Christ in us. We are His tabernacle..His dwelling place and He is wanting to emerge. He is wanting to be for us, what has been lost, eaten by the locusts or shaken from us. He can & will be what He claims to be… everything! This is now an opportunity to discover that!

In these times of shaking, we are invited again to give God space to discover him in this. God said to Joshua, “Since you have never travelled this way before, they (the Levitical Priests) will guide you. Stay about a half mile behind them, keeping a clear distance between you & the ark. Make sure you don’t come any closer.” (Joshua 3:4)

It struck me how needed it is that we give God space to move. It is easier to see something like an ark when there is a bit of distance. It is a reminder that God asks for space in our lives.

God is moving, worldwide. He is taking us to a place we have not been before on a whole lot of levels. Ultimately, he is taking us to that place of Jesus’ return. He wants us ready… hence part of the purpose of the shaking.

At no other time in the history of the world has their lived so many people on planet earth as now. Of this number, 40% of the world’s population remain to hear of Jesus. Jesus said that when the gospel had been preached to all the world, then He would come (Matt 24:14). We have never been this close to reality. Some mission agencies are talking of finishing as organisations within years.

Jesus is coming. He wants us ready & sifting is one way we can get ready.

He is good. Jesus in us is emerging. Let Him have space to emerge.

I was in a church recently and in the time of worship I found I wasn’t focusing on God. Then I looked at the words of the song and I was stuck by the ‘subject’ of the song. When you look at a sentence you can discover the ‘subject’ by asking what or who the sentence is about? This song was full of ‘me’ ‘I’ and we. So the subject wasn’t ‘God’ the subject of the song was ‘me’ worshipping God. ie the subject of the song was ‘me’.

Now I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly want to sing about how good I am at worshipping God. I would prefer that the subject of the song was God and that I am Worshipping / singing about Him. So the songs that I like to use to lead me into worship are about God, and how Good He is and how wonderful He is, not anything at all about me, or how good my works or worship are. We do have a bit of a list of song titles on this website of albums and artists that tend to keep the main subject of their songs, God. Click here if you want to view or even sample some.

Just last year we were at a large worship / prayer house in the USA and an artist got up and started to sing about how he wanted his tombstone to say what a lover of God he was. I’m sure his heart was great and he was wanting to say how he wanted his life to honor God. But in the group listening and participating I didn’t want to find myself singing about what a great worshipper he was. Ie the subject of the song, or what the song was about was him.

So I have found it a good practice to look at the subjects of our worship songs and make sure that they contain God, songs may have a blend of subjects but I believe to be true worship the main subject needs to be God, because we are worshipping what we are singing about. Now please don’t anybody take this as a new way to criticise or correct people, taking someone to task if you find a worship song where the subject isn’t God, we can in love gently introduce the thought that the subject of worship songs is important, please remember there is a place for other songs in worship & church as people have many needs and hurts and God loves to meet those in so many ways. The point of this blog is to mention that if you are looking for songs to lead you into ‘worshipping Him’ ie. getting your eyes and thoughts off yourself and onto Him, then ones that are about Him and his attributes are wonderful for doing this.

Our Greek/western way of thinking tends to make all things about us, we are the centre of the universe, the most important person on the planet is you! Man is god and everything can be explained, researched and understood. These are Greek thinking patterns that I want to submit don’t fit Christianity, because we are not the centre of the universe, God is. We are not the most important person on the planet, man isn’t god, God is and He is jealous of that position, and while people try to explain and research God, He is unfathomable! He is way more than a concept, He is God the King of the Jews, the creator of the universe and everything in it. And guess what He cannot be fully understood! His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
This western influence may want to bring the focus of our worship subtly around to us, but I want to suggest that true worship, those that worship in Spirit and in truth, will be single-mindedly focusing their worship and the ‘subject’ of their praise on the one and only true God, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

As I write these words now, bushfires of the likes of no others in the history of this nation Australia, still remain out of control.

This ‘inferno’ has gotten within 15kms of our home. Nearly 200 people have been burned alive, 5000 people homeless, 1000+ homes destroyed. These are big numbers for a nation’s whose population is but 20 million.

It is as such that our ‘cousins’ (nicknamed because of geography not relation) in New Zealand have flown over some 150 firefighters & the Australian Army has been deployed to help bring the fires under control. Forensic police now sift through ruins seeking for bodies on a level that is unprecendented in Australian history.

As fear & anxiety have risen in the atmosphere that is filled with black smoke & burning embers, I have sought the Lord. As I have waited on him, over & over one thing has echoed in my spirit.
 
Amongst the Australian indiginous Aboriginal peoples, it is common knowledge that before the white man came & settled in this land, they would intentionally set fire to areas of the land & let it burn.

They knew this land & they knew it was not tamed, nor could it be tamed. They had learnt how to live in & with this sunburnt land. They learnt some of its secrets & blessings. They lived with its terror & strength. And from this, grew a respect & love for this great southland.

As a child I had the priviledge of spending a small part of my childhood amongst these precious people. I learnt an astounding thing from them… that when they burnt the land, it birthed life.

Death gives birth to life. In God’s kingdom, it is also true. No more so than in the life of Jesus Christ, whose death brings us life. With God we are always to look for the ressurrection life in what He does. It is not about the death. It is about the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and this power was God who chose over & over again in the Scriptures the image of fire to represent his presence to us.

But the thing that has echoed in my spirit these last days has been the astounding fact, that in Aboriginal land knowledge, only certain seeds are activated by fire. No matter what natural force or climate hits these seeds, it will not be activated. The only thing that activates the seed is fire. Until that time comes, it lays dormant.

God knows what it takes for His seed to be activated. He is the fire.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.” (John 10). He is life. He is coming! Jesus is coming!

Life is coming! Out of ashes, out of drought, out of the shadow of death, life comes. Our land teaches us this. So did the life of Jesus!