areliablefaith

It was an awesome weekend of worship. The band from our church had a Night of Worship on Saturday in conjunction with the release of their latest worship CD. The 14 songs on the album are all original from different members of our church and performed by the band including members across the five campus’. The style is in the same vein as Chris Tomlin and the focus is upon our great God. If you get a chance look up the “No Other Name” album by the NewSpring Band.

Mentioning the night of worship makes me think of what worship is. As many of you know my occupation is as a Reliability Manager. I help my company’s plants understand what is necessary for the plants to run more consistently, producing product at a lower price by having the equipment do what it is supposed to do, when it is supposed to do it. One of the biggest tasks I have is to convince people that reliability isn’t just what maintenance does when the equipment breaks down. Reliability is all the activities, behaviors, and culture that have any impact upon the health and care of the equipment. Yet most persons have a very narrow view of reliability. The same is often true of the word Worship. In many cases we look at it as the time we sing praise songs. In other cases we may expand that view and encompass when we go to church. Even more progressive thinking would broaden that to say we worship when we are intentional to serving others in Christ’s name. I believe this is a fairly accurate definition although I see another level of worship that I believe we can and should aspire to and that is having the mind of Christ.

We are called to live “in Christ”. We are told to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We are children of the King. All of these show our reality, yet so much of the time we don’t receive, perceive, or feel these truths. In many cases we can experience a nearness to God that lasts until we walk out the door of the church, or until the first trial trips us up and then we seem to fall back into turbulent ways of the world.  For me it is usually a gradual losing focus that gets my eyes off of the reality of living in Christ and onto whatever task or challenge I am up against.  A great Sunday service, a true Sabbath rest, solid praise music in my car radio can all help me maintain focus a while longer, but like a water bladder that has a pinhole leak, over time I lose that sense of joy and Christ-centered focus that buoys me above the fray and gives me such sharp focus.

I have had seasons in my life where this pattern has been broken and I experienced an extended time of divine joy.  Last year during Lent was one of those times.  As I look back at that time I see a few reasons which I will briefly mention and then I will go into greater detail in the coming posts.  1) I was committed to being obedient to a task that I know the Lord asked me to do.  2) I had other believing friends who joined with me in prayer.  3) The Lord by His Holy Spirit moved in situations and circumstances to make His presence clearly seen.  4) We were intentional about seeking and doing whatever the Lord asked us to do during this season.

It is my intention to have a Lenten discipline again this year that draws me closer to the Father.  However after Lent last year I relaxed and I know that was a mistake.  I am asking for the Lord’s guidance now on both the Lenten discipline and the follow up.  He is faithful and I am asking that He do whatever He needs to in me to grow my faith.  Won’t you join me?  To God be the Glory!