Worship

Been doing some thinking on this. Started to try some catchy phrase Sitting in the Master’s Lap and equating it to Otis loving to sit in my lap but don’t want to go there or cheapen the word so let’s just stay with the title, “worship”.
I’ve been reading Tozer’s “The Purpose of Man” where he defends his thesis that the purpose of man is to worship God. As usual, Tozer speaks to the beat of my heart and I”ve been pondering what this means. I did some journaling this morning after reading Psalm 63 … which certainly feeds into the thinking.
Not unattached to the thought is a note that I scribbled years ago that I finally taped into my journal that says.
“Is the next generation of laborers a group who will have a $100k education at the feet of highly educated professors … or will they be trench warriors who have trained at the feet of Jesus?”
I don’t know and I don’t say that as a slam to my professor friends. I say it because I believe they must be people who know what it means to sit at Jesus’ feet.
Psalm 63
-earnestly I seek you
-my soul thirsts for you
-my body longs for you
-I have seen you in the sanctuary
-your love is better than life
-and more …

Through the years I have heard some say that some worship is “just an emotional experience” … I even remember critics saying that intimate times of worship were just setting people up for failure when they returned to the “real world”. Or … could it be that these intimate times of worship are reality and we spend most of our time living a lie?
When we are engaged in worship … we are who we were created to be. We are no longer: stressed, unloved, struggling with lust, eating disorders, depression, finances, anything … Lately I have been thinking that worship is THE answer: to our shortage of funding for missionaries, our lack of intercession (though that one may be a bit like the chicken and egg debate and not worth the time).
I think of some of the songs of Graham Kendrick (wonder what ever became of him?). I think of the song that I only heard one time but it kept me in ministry at a Prayer Summit at Crown in the 90’s
Turn my heart O God, like rivers of water.
Turn my heart O Lord, by your hand.
Til my whole life flows in the river of your Spirit
And my name brings honor to the Lamb

Yes, worship … individually dancing before my King in Carver Park, through music in groups of hundreds or with just a very few. Sometimes with music, sometimes with a pencil and piece of paper, sometimes with a canvas and paint, sometimes with a piece of bread and a cup of juice. It is who we were meant to be. It is where I love to reside. Brennan Manning uses the word “union” to describe it … yes, a wonderful union.