Jesus is freakin sweet........

We don't realize how incredible Jesus. We just don't.

The other night at Visions, I felt like the Lord was telling me to worship a spell far away from the rest of the group. For those of you who haven't seen Visions, the dance floor at the front of the club is where worship takes place. During worship, the decided majority of stuff happens up front. Up front is where the energy is at, where the music takes you to the pinnacle of thrill in God. It's always been like this in every pentecostal church I've ever gone to. Up front is where the action is.

So at least for me, taking worship to the back of the club is quite an innovation. God is everywhere at once (commonly called by God-researchers-- theologians--- His omnipresence). Yet at least for me, it feels like He is more one place than another the majority of the times we hang out. In the middle of the deepest most passionate throes of worship, I perceive the universe in relation to God differently than when I'm sitting at home or at class.

In the past, worship has been about going to God to learn a different way of seeing all sorts of things. Life, liberty, love and many of the pursuits of happiness all get filtered through the lens of God as I sing to Him with other people (while not the whole of worship qua worship, corporate singing is the first thing my tradition has given me to reach for when I hear the word).

The thing is, there's more to worship. Namely God. Worship from the back of the club taught me that we get so wrapped up in the passion of the moment, hands raised, belting our lungs out with other like-minded souls, that we forget that worship isn't the thrill of a moment or the passion of a group mentality. The point of worship is God qua God-- an unattainable person who has made Himself attainable solely for the purpose of His love.

It starts by not limiting ourselves with just trying to see with new and better eyes, but instead trying to see with His eyes. It starts with asking for His heart because it is His heart- Not because it makes you feel good or important or better.

See, all those things, like singing and the group, aren't bad. Being part of a group, especially one with the Benevolent Creator at it's head, is a beautiful and wonderful thing. It's commanded by God. It's a part of His heart (Heb 10:25). The problem begins when we substitute cooperate passion for personal intimacy: when we think God is more present at the front of the club then at its back.

Ultimately, the core of worship isn't all the peripherals. As my friend Rebecca so eloquently put it, it's about spooning with Jesus. It's getting so close to Him that His breathing sings in your ears. It's touching His heart. It's loving His stare (even when He's angry). It's pursuing Him because we are lovesick as nobody has ever been from the dawn of time hence. His goal is that we recognize that. That we see Who He is and love Him so. I beat this to death but, at the end of everything, there is nothing else. This is the Great Romance!

May it increase!

Daniel

Hymn to the Lord of the Great Romance

Hymn to the Great Romance
By Daniel Gabriel Allegri

All hail the Triune Lover!
All hail the Fiery Just!
All hail the on-fire eyes!
All hail the chain-mail trust

All hail the Truly Great!
All hail the sooth-stained Good!*
All hail the fire-washed saint!
All hail the bloody rood!*

May the heart of evil ever fail
May they batter 'gainst it's bloodied helm
The floods of justice, soon prevailed,
The once-eldest sons, now overwhelmed.*

May we truly love! May we truly see!
Awash in that consuming swell
A bellowed cry, a mortal knell
a ransomed heart, an empty hell

May our Lover ever know
the consumation of our passion's flow
And may we beloveds ever see
His passion 'pon that glorious tree


rood: an ancient name for a piece of the true Cross
sooth: truth
eldest son: from the story of the prodigal son in Luke 14 or 15

more about the freedom of Christ

I can't help but think that just when I know God I don't. The Lord is wiley. He is sneaky. He doesn't conform to our so-so notions of what true righteousness is. Honestly, I hesitate to use the word because of the preconceptions that come along with religious verbage. Saints and sinners alike use the word, but nobody takes the time to explain their meaning, much less the meaning of the Holy One, Blessed be He. How does God define righteousness and does God's meaning ( of anything really) correspond with the meanings we tend to give such an exalted turn of phrase?

And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE ADONAI YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Torah and the Prophets."
(Mat 22:37-40)

If we can agree that God thinks righteousness has something to do with 1. being good and 2. doing what He says (My gut says to go with these, and I have no argument for these other than my own fundamental definitions). Then, most of righteousness is wrapped up in this-- love. Later, in 1st John, love is explained and defined and elucidated. I think I might try and start there in my search for what words mean. Love is primal to the Christian Religion. Life and Time and History stands on nothing but the awesome Love of God. In fact the point of life is love, and the point of love is God. So good deeds, freedom from sin, and the external markers of the Christan life kind of rest on that. If I want to live as a Christian, then Love, not religion or power or faith or prophecy is central to our existance. Love Conquers All. Love is life.

So what is love then?

Daniel