Week 10 | God's Design for Worship

Well, we've finally come to the last week of this study and I hope it has been beneficial and encouraged you in your faith.  It still amazes me when I step back and look to see how God's careful plan of worship has been woven into the Garden of Eden, the Tabernacle, Temple, and one day will be revealed in the New Jerusalem!

The diagram below by Ralph Wilson, is a great visual for what we have been studying.  While we have looked at the "things" that made up the Tabernacle thousands of years ago, the "reasons" behind their design are applicable to anybody in any period of history.

I think the most amazing thing about this entire study is to realize the access that we have as believers to the God of the universe.  Remember that this Tabernacle in the wilderness had a myriad of priests who tended to the things of God, and yet only one of those many priests had the privilege to go into the Holy of Holies and actually encounter God in a way no other could.  Only one priest in the thousands of Israelites in the desert had the privilege to experience the Tabernacle to its fullest:  to enter, to sacrifice and confess, to be cleansed and forgiven, to enter into worship and encounter the true and living God!  I'm not saying that the ordinary person was not able to encounter God personally.  I am saying that only one had the privilege to walk through the Tabernacle (or Temple) and experience all that it was designed for.

Picture yourself in a large arena - maybe a sporting event or concert.  There are thousands of people cheering around you.  There is a pause in the action and an announcement comes over the loud speaker.  Your name has been chosen among the thousands for an amazing experience that no one else will ever experience.  That might be how blessed that Old Testament high priest felt.  

And yet, now we live under a new covenant in New Testament times and guess what?  If you have accepted Christ into your life, you are that one!  Do you feel blessed yet?  And if you haven't and have questions about who Jesus Christ is, please let me know and I'd be happy to connect with you personally connect with you.  Jesus is the most amazing gift anyone could ever receive!

As a Christ follower, we have the opportunity to enter into the dwelling place of God 24x7:  to sacrifice and confess, to be cleansed and forgiven, to worship and encounter the true and living God!  In fact, we ARE that dwelling place of God!  1 Cor 3:16 says:  "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"  We don't need to GO anywhere, because we are the living Temple of our Holy God.

If you ever doubt that God loves you, look at what He has done for you. From the Garden of Eden, He created a way to live with man.  Man messed that up and then He again created a way through the Tabernacle and Temple.  Again that became messed up and so God sent His very Son Jesus Christ to make a way once again.  This time, Christ's sacrifice became the permanent solution for God to dwell with man and vice versa.  Over and over again, God continued to work with our screw ups in order that we could still live in community with Him! We did none of the above – it was all God’s doing. We simply need to accept the gift He has given us.

We serve an amazing God that would carefully include all of these details across 66 books of the Bible, through over 40 different human authors, across 1500 years of time! Sometimes when we seek to connect the dots, the picture that results can knock our socks off!

On a personal note and as a worship leader, it is my sincere hope that you have the opportunity to experience this pattern of worship every time you come to a worship service.  Unfortunately, I know that my own downfall is that I have not always led with these things in mind.  So if this hasn't been your experience in a worship service, pray for your worship leader that he or she might encounter God in an amazing way and lead with all of these things in mind and out of the overflow of that experience.

I pray you feel as blessed as you actually are.  :-)

God’s grace and peace to you until next time!

Tracy

In case you missed it last week... here's my all time favorite to share with you..

Revelation Song
By Jennie Riddle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONpG8GcqhqY

Worthy is the, Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to him who sits on
Heaven's mercy seat

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of Kings
You are my everything
And I will adore You

Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power be
to You the only wise King

Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder
At the mention of your name
Jesus your name is power
Breath, and living water
Such a marvelous mystery
Yeah...