Sunday Morning, Part 1

Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?

Did you feel the mountains tremble?
Did you hear the oceans roar?
When the people rose to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one

Did you feel the people tremble?
Did you hear the singers roar?
When the lost began to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one

And we can see that God you're moving
A mighty river through the nations
And young and old will turn to Jesus
Fling wide your heavenly gates

Prepare the way of the risen Lord
Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring your hope
Songs that bring your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice

Did you feel the darkness tremble?
When all the saints join in one song
And all the streams flow as one river
To wash away our brokeness

And here we see that God you're moving
A time of Jubilee is coming
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide your heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord

by Martin Smith

People, if I were a more punky person, I would say that the lyrics of this song totally rock my socks off. Ok. Maybe I'll just say it. THIS SONG TOTALLY ROCKS MY SOCKS OFF!!! (Sorry, sophisticated friends.) I love this song, and what it means to me. We sang it yesterday morning at church...oh, excuse me, "with church" (because the church is God's people, right?) My TotalSocksRockedOffness started earlier in the morning, actually, when we walked into church (you know what I'm talking about...the building) and this sweet brown face with these fuzzy little curls and captivating brown eyes met me in the foyer. The little girl wasn't really there. She was in Africa, but her picture was on a poster for Compassion International. A dozen other faces were pictured on the table...its very hard to look at them. They rouse my compassion, and yet there's a painful challenge to wake up for real...to open up somewhere inside and dig out the holes that are filled with me so that these little children can fit in my heart. There isn't room there yet. They've been tapping on the door of my heart, and sometimes pounding, and sometimes squeezing in when I'm not watching. But these children are dirty, and smelly, and they are so, so poor, and their needs are so huge...I'm afraid. If I let them in, they will trample my nice clean spot in here, and they'll want something from me...they'll take my time, my money, my energy, my health...everything. If I give something, I have to give everything, and there's no holding back. If you give a mouse a muffin, you know! But I want to love them, because Jesus does, and because I know that the only way to get real life is to give mine away. So I continue looking at the pictures. I refuse to flinch and turn away, though I stand by the blaze to be branded.

So my heart was already beyond our borders for the morning, not that I was ignoring everyone here (I hope), but my heart was already stirred. Then we went into Sunday School...there was Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know."

Lately I've been longing for fellowship...the kind where you are in God's word and sharing it, giving thanks and testimonies, and "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." Its something I've only tasted...I haven't fully known God's power this way. The power of His healing for people and nations...children in the city streets. The power of Acts, the power of the disciples following Jesus and then coming together to be His church. I see this happening in other countries...China, and India, and Afghanistan, and others. Great and mighty things. I've been disconcerted by, and critical towards, America's institutionalized church with its programs and structure and big buildings and affluence...so dissatisfied with the coldness and separation of churchy church...but I have to confess my hard heart.

Forgive me, Lord, and forgive me dear friends, for condemning the church as I've experienced it. I only condemn myself. I don't think any of us want to be apathetic or stagnant...but we've been lulled into this. I've grieved the Lord with my complaining, and even now I want to be careful of generalizing and stereotyping American Church...because its not all apathetic and even yesterday I was just so blessed by the body of Christ, by those around me and God's Spirit. I'm ready to quit pointing my finger. "We war not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Eph. 6:12. This sounds pretty stiff, but its God's word. And honestly, it encourages me because I don't have to be so disappointed and resentful towards the church! I can't be offended or depressed by the apparent apathy or reserve conerning spiritual things that I sense form others... I am no better...I walk into a crowd at church and sometimes feel very lost and alone. And sometimes I feel just as lost and alone, or more so, when I am face to face talking with friends because I know there is so much more to talk about than what we did yesterday, but I don't know how. I don't want to be that way...and I don't think they want to either. Something besides flesh and blood holds us back. But isn't God's power much greater? And doesn't He come visit us when we repent?

For long enough now I've held this judgement in my heart, and God is slowly turning that outstretched finger inward. I just want to take the forgiveness He offers, to live in that grace, and to lavish that grace on my brothers and sisters. We are all followers of Jesus, struggling with the same problems.

I've been pondering Isaiah 58 a lot lately...

6 Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear...
9 then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help and He will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always, and satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters do not fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath, and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land, and to feast on the inheritance of your Father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken."