I was blessed on Sunday to enjoy a Worship Sunday service where Roger preached about our whole lives as an act of worship.
What really resonated with me most of all was a statement Rog made at the end of his message, about how “there is no retrenchment in heaven”!
Roger has been retrenched a number of times and on one occasion he simply went home and asked his wife to play worship songs on the piano as he prostrated himself on the loungeroom floor and worshipped God.
That kind of worship cannot be offered in heaven. It is the Unique Earthbound Worship we can only bring to God while we are stuck on this mortal globe facing the pains of human life.
In heaven there will be no tears, no pain, no sorrow. So we cannot offer God our worship through gritted teath and pain-filled heart.
Alabaster Box
As a young man I heard a sermon about the lady who broke an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it onto Jesus, as an act of devotion and worship.
“And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.” Mark 14:3
By breaking the box this woman released the precious ointment and filled the room with the fragrance of her act of worship.
In the same way, when we are “broken”, we are able to offer God a fragrance of worship that cannot be released if the box is not broken.
My Song
All those years ago, as I reflected on that message, my heart’s desire was to release to God the kind of fragrance that can only come from being “broken” for Him.
I made up a simple song to voice the thoughts of my heart.
“Some times I feel like an Alabaster Box, Waiting to be broken to Glorify My Lord”.
I don’t think I ever looked forward to the “breaking” process, but I knew it would always bring glory to God.
Today, as I work through my battle against bank fraud and court injustice, being crushed by the powers of those who are intent of denying me my lawful rights, I recognise that there is a level of “crushing” going on. I am heartened to realise that in these difficulties my worship to God becomes all the more precious.
Praising Through the Pain
Only on earth can we praise God through the pain of heartache, fear, loss, brokenness, shame, trials, sickness, and all the other evidences of a fallen world. In heaven these things don’t exist. There is no sorrow in heaven, so no way we can praise God through our tears of pain and struggle.
So that gives you a new way to view your present situation. If you are facing pain, challenge, discomfort, opposition, uncertainty or anything else that causes you pain, you are in a perfect place to offer precious worship and praise to God.
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