If everyone prophesies, then the unbeliever or one who does not understand will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” Isn’t this what we want to have happen in our churches? There is a way…

“Bless you!” It sort of rhymes with “Tissue.” When I was growing up, it was just a nonsense word we said in sympathy when someone sneezed. It’s too bad that none of us seemed to grasp the power of what I have come to know as a “blessing.”

Have I been so focused on making Jesus accessible that I have forgotten the fear of God? Maybe I should ask Uzzah about that.

When we learn how to make the best use of our time, we use time itself as an act of worship. God prescribed to Israel how He wanted them to keep time. What can we learn from them?

God’s will to have heaven on earth. He set His longing in our hearts, as well. Maybe that’s why He taught us to pray Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What happens with the laying on of hands? Laying on of hands imparts something, and it is far more powerful than we might imagine. It is as if a transfer of spirit is taking place. I place my sins on an animal, or I impart a blessing or gift, as if my spirit travelled through my fingertips and went into the object. Or I lay my sins on Jesus.

So, let this be an encouragement to you, my artistic friend. He knows your name. He is the One who gave you that skill. He placed that fire in your belly. Do what you to do His glory! He is pleased with your offering, as you give it to Him! Do you sense His pleasure when you run? Then run! Run like the wind! Run as if God were depending on you to bring Him glory in your running!

Reading the Bible has been made so much more clear by visiting the Holy Land myself. Here are some thoughts from reflecting on the sites.

What does the Lord require of me? What kind of worship is pleasing to Him? And what kind might He tolerate, but not prefer? Or, what kind of worship is absolutely appalling to the God of the universe? Do I know? How can I find out? So far, marching through the Old Testament, we have been discovering as it unfolds, but God has not clearly said, “Do this, but never do that.” Has He? Well, not exactly.

It’s all about Jesus. Seek His face. Not His hands.

John did not say, “We behold His glory when we sing songs.” He says, “We beheld” it.

Moses says, “Now show me Your glory.” And in doing so, he sets the model for contemporary worship. “Show me Your Glory” could be the theme of many current worship songs.

What does it mean for US to be holy? It means that we are set apart, not to be like the other people on earth. We are called out of the mundane to meet together with God and with one another. As Jesus says near the end of Revelation, “Come out of her, my people!” Come out of Babylon, so that you do not share in her destruction! 

It is our tendency—our temptation, I think you could say—to fit in with our culture. If we are not consciously opposing the unspoken values of society around us, then we are drifting downstream, unaware of our inexorable movement in a downward current. Instead, the Lord calls us to swim upstream, to fight against culture, to resist the group think of the unbelieving neighbors around us.

The LORD tells Israel that an altar should be simple and made of unhewn rock, with no “steps” leading up to it. The Puritans summarized it as, “God’s Altar needs not our polishings,” doesn’t it? How do we apply these principles in our worship?

The tabernacle of Moses is the only structure dictated in detail by God Himself. It defines worship. And every detail of it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

What is God’s intended purpose for the Ten Commandments? Read to the end of this installment to see what I think is the answer, which will serve as a surprise to most of us.

Everyone believes in the Ten Commandments, in theory, but almost no one agrees on them. And no one has ever followed them, save One. And we killed Him, while we were assuming that He broke them all. Just goes to show something, huh?

In many ways, this is the single most central Old Testament passage to understand the nature of God and our relationship to Him.