Brave new worship revealed - part 1

Last Thursday, at our worship community gathering, I shared with all the musicians and sound team members some things the Lord has been revealing to me about brave new worship. I started getting this input when I began asking him about his purpose for Kelanie Gloeckler's time with us on March 21. It's now Tuesday, and the Lord continues to speak to me, showing me new things, revealing more and more about his worship. Because that's what this is really all about: his worship. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I think I had a belief that what I was doing on Sunday mornings or at the piano in my home was my worship. But it's not. Worship belongs to God. It's always been his. He will have his worship with or without me. If people don't praise him, the rocks will cry out in their stead. God will never be without his worship. I get to join in - to participate in God's glorious worship, but it will never be mine.

And so the Lord is revealing new things to me about his worship. This recent revelation about brave new worship started one night when I was getting ready for bed and my husband, Dave, read to me from Romans 10 out of The Message. Here it is:
(starting at verse 5) The earlier revelation [the law] was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy--every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story--no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?

The word that saves is right here,

as near as the tongue in your mouth,

as close as the heart in your chest.

It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God--"Jesus is my Master"--embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"

Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this--heart and soul--will ever regret it."

This scripture passage overwhelmed me. God was showing me that to enter into brave new worship is to fully embrace, body and soul, God's work of doing in me what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. I've claimed to believe this, but now he was asking me to plunge into it, dive in with my entire being giving myself over fully to this conviction. Wow!

I was reminded of a teaching on Georgian and Winnie's Blisstronica 2 CD about Aman. When Abraham believed God, his belief was more than an intellectual or emotional assent. Rather, he "amaned" God. God promised him that he would be the father of many nations. Although Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were in their old age and far too old to conceive a child, nevertheless, Abraham believed God heart and soul plunging himself into God's promises with his entire being. Even though his body was as good as dead, nevertheless, he gave himself over to God's supernatural viewpoint and believed that who God said he was, he was, and who God said he would be, he indeed would be. Because of this incredible, brave faith, Abraham was counted as righteous. Because of this faith, Abraham worshipped bravely--willingly offering his only son, Isaac, the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise, on the altar at God's demand. He could do this as one completely given over to God's promises.

Romans 10 tells us that "No one who trusts God like this--heart and soul--will ever regret it."

King David's life also demonstrates to us this dynamic of brave new worship. Watch for my next blog entry to share more about this.