When Our Hearts Are Captured

Clipart Panda

It was so good to be back in worship service today and to have conversation with fellow believers after being away for so long with the flu. So thankful for the church family God has brought us to here. Being reminded of a reason my church is so important. Sharing that thought with you today.
 

Yet if your heart is being progressively captured by the awe of God, his work, his grace, and his kingdom ("things that are above"), you will see your church not just as a place you attend but as a major commitment of your life, and you will live with a ministry lifestyle in the place where God has put you. When awe of God has captured your heart, ministry will fill your schedule. You won't need the church to schedule ministry for you; you will approach work, marriage, parenting, extended family, friendships, and community with a ministry mentality.

~ Paul David Tripp, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do

Sunday Worship ~ Getting Our Awe Back

You could argue that every element of the gathered worship of God's people is intended to give people their awe back again. We need a moment to refocus on the grandeur of God's glory and grace. We need to see his awesome wisdom and power again. We need to dwell on his patience and faithfulness again. We need to be stunned by the perfection of his holiness and the righteousness of his judgment again. We need to be encouraged by the awesome truth of his constant presence again. We need to be reminded to rest in his amazing sovereignty again. And we need to be blown away by the reality that, by grace, he is all these things for us. He has unleashed his awesome glory on us! You see, awe doesn't just remind you of who God is; it redefines for you who you are as his creature and his blood-bought child.

Paul David Tripp in AWE

Sunday Ponderings ~ Totally Awesome!

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Pondering today on an article in today's Parade Magazine on the feeling of awe. You may have read it and had the same reaction that I did. The author described the feeling of awe:

“Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or beyond human scale, that transcends our current understanding of things,” says psychologist Dacher Keltner, who heads the University of California, Berkeley’s Social Interaction Lab.

We might say that it's a response to something that takes our breath away or leaves us speechless. I felt that way this week when we took a day trip to Palasaides Park and saw the beautiful mountain vista stretched out before us. Our daughter has spoken of the same feeling when she and her husband hiked to Oregon's Crater Lake. The author has it right--we are wired to feel awe, but there is something much more transcending than "to get us to act in more collaborative ways, ensuring our survival." 

Yes, "we realize we’re a small part of something much larger. Our thinking shifts from me to we." But the we is not just you and me, the we is mostly God because it's really about Him. The heavens declare the glory of God. It is His glory that transcends anything we understand. It is something far beyond ourselves.

Why, then, as the author states, does "[awe] make us act more generously, ethically and fairly?" Because we are made in God's image, and that is how God is. Awe is our spirit resonating with the one who is drawing us to Himself. Those of us who know Him respond in worship at those times. What an awesome thing it is, to recognize the hand of God!

Photo ~ Crater Lake Panorama August 2013, Epmatsw, Wiki Commons CC 3.0