Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness... part 2.1

Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness...

Well, we’ve started on this journey to discover what this concept means, and in part 1, I hoped that the Holy Spirit would enlighten us a bit… I think He is doing so, as this concept is immense.  I pray I can be faithful to capture what He wants for this time and space.  In part 2, we are going to look into the BEAUTY of God, and I encourage you to use it as a stepping stone to spend time in worshiping Him, through the pictures and links I share, but also find your own, that are meaningful and beautiful to you…  at the end of part 1, I shared there are several understanding of what the “beauty of holiness” might be referring to.  Since God is amazing, and infinite, I believe it can be multi-dimensional, and He longs for us to meditate and ponder with His Holy Spirit who makes His word living and active, powerful and sharp, to see what He has for us, now, in this time and space.

One thing I have desired of the LORD, that I will seek; that I will dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the BEAUTY of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple…

 Psalm 27:4

This was King David’s heart cry, this was his ONE desire…to gaze upon God’s beauty, the glory of God, and to know Him.  He was a “man after God’s heart”, as in seeking after Him, pursuing Him.

What is the beauty of the LORD?  We will first look into visual beauty, what we see with our eyes...

the colors of a beautiful sunrise or sunset...

mountain majesty...

the sweet innocence of a child...

the Divine design in the universe (a whirlpool galaxy)…

and this is just a very, very, small glimpse of the infinite Beauty of the LORD.  Take some time to reflect on some beautiful pictures that you might find, remembering they are just a taste of the Beauty of the LORD, as He is immeasurably more than we can imagine… and remember, we don’t worship the creation, we worship the Creator, and the beauty in creation points to Him.

His entire creation is worshiping Him continually, the rocks and trees, the skies, the seas, the mountains, the streams, the air we breathe.  There is something supernatural when we worship Him in the midst of His beautiful creation, worshiping in sync with nature. 

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Psalms 63:3-4 

All the earth worships You and sings praises to You; they sing praises to Your name.”  

Psalms 66:4 

Bringing Abuse from Darkness into the Light...

Into the Light...

One of the original compelling reasons for starting this blog is based on John 3:19-21; which I shared here... http://lightshininginadarkplace.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-light-of-world-jesus-christ.html

Another scripture that has been especially meaningful to me over the last few years is Ephesians 5, with several phrases being especially emphasized in that passage including v11... Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, instead expose them... bringing things that have been hidden in darkness into the light. This is God's way.  The enemy's way is keep it in the dark. I will get back to this, but first, just a brief personal update on why I haven't posted anything since mid August...

I have taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging... in August, our vacation ended in E-vac-U-ation, and our friend's cabin that we were staying at burned down due to forest fires. No one was injured, but we have spent additional time processing the loss and taking steps to help our friend rebuild next Spring. I have continued to study and write, just haven't posted things here. So just a bit of explanation on why I haven't posted anything for over a month..

Ok, now back to the point of this post.

Over the last 4 years or so (2012-2015), it has come to my attention, that there is a horrific amount of abuse going on in the Church. And far too often, in response, the leaders respond with damage control and cover up through abusing their positions of power, instead of doing the right thing in accord with the Word of God. Sadly, the Church often does the exact opposite of what God calls us to do and keeps things in the dark, twisting and distorting scripture to justify doing so. In my research, I came across this website/blog of Rachel Held Evans (RHE) that is a wealth of information of resources and I want to share that here...

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/abuse-resources

and then here is a series RHE did in 2013 called into the Light...
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/abuse-series-intro

Excerpt from RHE interview with Boz Tchividjian:
RHE: What are some of the most common mistakes churches and Christian organizations make when it comes to responding to abuse? 

BT: The greatest failure of the church/Christian organizations when it comes to responding to abuse is institutional self-protection. Too often Christian institutions have been willing to sacrifice the individual human soul in exchange for the protection of their own reputation. What makes such responses even more heinous is that they are often justified in the name of “protecting the name of Christ”. Such a justification is nothing but a pious attempt at self-protection.  It may come as a surprise to some but Jesus does not need us to protect His name! In fact, it was Jesus who sacrificed Himself for the soul of the individual. Tragically, in all of its attempts at self-protection, the Church too often completely misses this beautiful truth. As a result, many abuse survivors in the Church are pushed away from the arms of Jesus and prevented from experiencing glorious Gospel love. EOQ

So Church, let's be the salt and light that God calls us to be. Refuse to be silent about the injustice that is going on in the Church. Bring awareness and expose what is in darkness. For His glory and our good.