Jesus Culture 07 Holy

Simply Stunning is all I can say!!!!

The Shack is only Fiction – Lighten up!

The Shack is ‘only Fiction’ I have been told by several people when questioning its representation of Christianity and God. ‘Don’t take it seriously’, you can’t compare it to scripture. Why does it bother me that it grossly misrepresents God and truth? Mainly because a lot of people seem to take it very seriously given its ‘copies sold’ stats. I know it’s fiction. I have a copy given to me, I will read it eventually. But many Christians and certainly non-Christians don’t seem to be very discerning, when it comes to Christian truth, in my experience and take things too much at face value. The writer of the Shack could have made the book just as emotionally provocative without mullering biblical truth.

Anyway a good article that ask some good questions when it is pointed out it is just fiction. Click HERE!

OR its full link: http://www.carm.org/more-stuff/features/shack-only-fiction

Terry Virgo on Prayer – Elijah’s Prayer

Great teaching and stuff I really need to put into practice as I confess I am not a great prayer in my personal life. I can pray with others but on my own I find prayer hard to get in to. The discipline of praying alone is also one which I am so poor at. 20 years of being a Christian you would have thought it would be easier, nope! Any way enjoy this wonderful teaching from a truly wise man of God.

It is in two parts and well worth a listen to. This was also tweeted about by John Piper.

Elijah Prays For Rain from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Elijah Prays Part Two from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Men in the Media + Torchwood mini-review

Just a short post to give a quick few thoughts on Torchwood. Yes I know it was a week ago but it takes me time to write.

I watched the first series of Torchwood and then avoided the second. Mainly because I was sick of the unnecessary homosexual and sexual content of the show. It drifted so far from a scifi show into the realms of a Channel 5 trash show that it became unwatchable. We get it Russell T Davies, you are a Gay man. We get it John Barrowman, you are also a Gay man. Now take the huge chip of your shoulder and get on with writing decent stories. Sorry Rant over!

So with that background I watched this 5 part mini-series with a certain trepidation. I liked what I saw in the trailers so gave it a go. I have to say I found it on the whole very entertaining. It certainly pulled no punches and didn’t wimp out when difficult plot threads had to work themselves out adequately.

The end solution to the Alien threat was uncomfortable because it involved a child dying. Interesting resolution that, with one person being sacrificed for the sake of many so that they could be saved from an eternity of hell as a drug supply to the Aliens, the 456. Remind you of anything ;-)

The government discussions over who should be taken by the Aliens was well written. One can imagine exactly that kind of solution being put forward by any government. Save the fittest and sacrifice the weakest. How very Darwinian!

However what I found stood out for me was the character of Jack Harkness. On the one hand he is very heroic, given that he can’t die this is not very surprising and may even not be heroic. On the other he came across as a very weak Man. He runs away from emotionally difficult situations, hiding behind a mysterious facade or actually running away physically as he did at the end. Instead of facing the consequences of the decisions he makes.

This got me thinking about how masculinity is portrayed in the media. I came to the conclusion of badly I think. Looking at Michael Jackson again. Here was a man, idolised by millions, yet was a seriously disturbed, abused and lost human being. A small boy stuck in an adults body.

So many of the men we see in public life are either chauvinistic or effeminate and weak. Now I am not talking physically here. A man can be a good man and still be what would be described as physically weedy.

I am not going in to what makes a good, godly man now but just wanted to make the observation. Men are no longer men and have been tamed by the feminists and PC brigade. Let’s discover what a real man is before our whole society goes further down into the sewer of broken homes, no respect for authority, abuse etc…

Thoughts on Idol/Hero Worship in light of the death of Michael Jackson

After the death of any major popular public figure it always brings with it a major outpouring of hysteria, sentiment and grief. The death of Princess Diana and now Michael Jackson are two very good examples. What you see reported on the news for days afterwards is the views of anyone and everyone who claimed to have met, known, passed in the street one day, that person who has died.

Now of course it is sad when someone dies. What I find troublesome though is the value held to these public figures compared to any ‘normal’ person. Thousands of adults and children die every day, around the world, through starvation, war, illness, abortion, accidents etc… These countless thousands are no less important and valuable human beings. So what is it that causes us to be affected so much by the death of a public figure who we really didn’t know personally. We may have liked the music, liked what they stood for, admired their determination in the face of struggle. But does their death really warrant the mass scenes of grief and tears, the hype and hysteria that are played out on the news. People gathering where the person died, lived, is buried etc… just to be near something of that person.

This level of fanaticism and reaction shows that these public figures like MJ, Princess Diana, Elvis, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain etc.. are raised to a level of ‘Hero Worship’ by many people. They may not describe it as worship themselves, as ‘Worship’ tends to be seen in a religious setting  or as an externally visible act. However the reaction to that person no longer being around uncovers the reality of the heart.

We are all Worshippers! We are all Thirsty!

You see we are all worshippers. It is irrelevant whether you affiliate yourself with a religion of some description. Even the most die hard, ardent atheist is a worshipper. Richard Dawkins is a worshipper, mainly of himself, but a worshipper none the less. The question is what or who do we worship? What or who do we lift up as having ultimate value in our lives? Who or what do we pour ourselves out to, giving most of our time, money and energy? Who or what has first place in your life, is preeminent? Who or what, when it calls, do you drop everything to give it attention or time?

Below is a list of some, but by no means all, things that you can worship in your life:

• Your Job
• Sex
• Money
• Food
• Alcohol
• Sports Team or person
• Pop/Music Star or Public Figure
• Your Husband or Wife
• Children
• Relationships
• Technology
• Drugs
• Religion
• Television
• The Environment
• Health

Now most of that list are not actually bad things in and of themselves. Some are very good things indeed and are certainly to be enjoyed. But the problem comes when, to quote Mark Driscoll, ‘a good things becomes a God thing which is a bad thing!’. To put it in Biblical language, you knew I would go there eventually, it is Idolatry, plain and simple.

When something becomes the controlling factor that determines what you do day to day then it may have become an Idol. I realise Idolatry is not a term used much in modern language. It possibly conjures up images of stone or wooden figures, shrines and primitive people bowing down to them. However in the Bible it is essentially anything you place above God in your life.

Now for someone who is not a Christian this will not seem a particular problem. Why would you place God above any of the list above? Which is true, you wouldn’t and can’t do anything else other than to give yourself to one or several of the above or any host of other things this world offers a thirsty soul.

Which leads me on to the second point. We are all ‘Thirsty’! In Jeremiah 2:12-13, a chapter strong in language against Idolatry especially verse 20, God calls Himself ‘the fountain of living waters’ and condemns Israel for ignoring him and trying to find water for themselves. In John 4:13-14 Jesus indicates we are thirsty souls needing the ‘spiritual’ water that only He can provide that ‘wells up to eternal life’. The Bible is full of language indicating we are thirsty souls looking for satisfaction to our spiritual thirst that only God can provide. These are often linked with passages where people are chastised for trying to get that thirst satisfied in places other than the Lord God. This is called Idolatry and as we shall see later, God is not impressed at all!

So why are we the way we are. Why are we Thirsty Worshippers desperate for the deep longing in our heart and soul to be satisfied by something.

Why are we all Worshippers? Why are we all Thirsty Souls?

Firstly the Bible indicates that God is effectively a worshipping community of One. The Father, Son and Holy Sprit are, though One God, always in a state of Glorifying the other. God the Father glorifies Jesus the Son, Jesus glorifies the Father and The Holy Spirit both. God is complete in Himself and needs nothing and no one. He did not create us because He needed anything from us.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Psalm 50:12

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” Romans 11:35

Now since we human beings are made in the Image and Likeness of God, Genesis 1:26-27, it follows that we therefore are worshippers. However we are not God. We are created and He is creator. We were quite simply made to Worship God and have perfect communion and relationship with Him, as Adam and Eve did in Eden. In that relationship with God we were created to find perfect satisfaction and wholeness for our heart and soul. There was no emotional pain, rejection, fear, abuse or anything negative that we find so often in our relationships today. So what went wrong? Why do we now find our heart longing for something better than what we have. No matter how good our relationships are we still, deep down, know that something is wrong. It could end, it could be taken from us. We know that we will be hurt, rejected, let down, disappointed by those around us. We fear hoping too much for something or someone in case what we place our trust in falls down around us.

When the devil tempted Eve he did so by subverting Gods word and undermining the perfect trust relationship with God. In Genesis 3:1 the devil used the term “Did God actually say?”. This put doubt in Eve’s mind and the rest of the conversation raised a question regarding Gods goodness. The effect of the fall and sin means we are cut off from any relationship with God. Sin stands between us and God and we are lost. We are cut off from the only true source of salvation and satisfaction that our souls need. We doubt God’s goodness towards us and spend our lives trying to organise our own satisfaction and salvation. We are thirsty and we look everywhere but God to find something to quench our parched souls. Psalm 42 and Psalm 63 are wonderful descriptions of a thirsty soul longing for God to bring satisfaction.

So we are created to be worshippers, to pour ourselves out to something or someone and we are thirsty beings who are no longer in touch with the only source of true thirst quenching satisfaction, The Lord God. So we spend our lives worshipping that which we think will satisfy our thirsty souls, bring salvation to our lives, relief from the pain and a little taste of heaven on earth.

So what practically does this look like in our lives?

What Idolatrous Worship Looks like

I had a picture/vision, whatever you want to call it, recently that was of a desert oasis. A person in this oasis sees another one appear in the distance. Not being satisfied with the one they are in and thinking the other one will be better they run out into the heat of the desert towards that new one. When finally they reach that one, hot, weary, dehydrated, gasping for breath and desperate for water it vanishes into nothing. It was a mirage, a trick of the mind. Then they see another one and off they head. Forgetting the real one they left in the distance. This is what we do with God and idols.

We might give ourselves to our career at the expense of family and friends. We might become addicted to pornography, sex, money, alcohol, people, religious activity, whatever it may be that we think is the thing that will quench our thirst.  This could be the adulterous couple, the parents who let their children dictate how the family is run never saying no. The unmarried couple living together. The person who start the path down drug addiction with just the odd puff on a spliff. The person or couple always doing something on their house to make it look better. The person who changes job regularly. Any number of things that brings the high, the feeling of being alive, the relief that thing brings us temporarily is all with the aim of satisfying that thirst.

But it never, ever does, not fully. It is an illusion. It may give the impression of temporarily satisfying us but eventually we realise we are still thirsty. We either carry on in pursuit of that thing in the hope it once again brings some relief or we switch to something else. Endlessly running after something that will always leave us face down in the mud, more desperate, more determined to find something under our control to satisfy us. Every person is caught in this endless cycle, some more obviously than others. However every single human being that has ever lived and will ever live is in the same situation. A sinner apart from God, lost, thirsty with no possibility of finding for themselves a way out.

What God has to Say about Idolatry

I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. - Isaiah 42:8

I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god - Isaiah 44:6

To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? - Isaiah 46:5

I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me - Isaiah 46:9

Deuteronomy 4:15-31

15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

1 Corinthians 10:1-22 Paul warns against idolatry and goes as far as saying that any other God except the God of the Bible is a demon and reminds us what happened in Exodus 32 when Israel fell into idolatry.

Romans 1:18-32 The great passage where Paul sais we have in verse 25, ‘because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator’.

There are innumerable passages that show God is not at all impressed with His children worshipping any one or thing other than Him. This may seem harsh and wrong on the face of it. However, firstly God is God, creator and has every right to expect His creation to worship Him. It is not wrong in any way. It is selfishness, prideful, folly and arrogant for a human to desire or demand to be worshipped but not God. Secondly it is in our absolute best interest that we worship God and that God is jealous for our worship. He knows what is best for us, that we can only find true satisfaction in worshipping Him. As John Piper would say “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him!”.

 

The Solution to our Idolatry

So the obvious solution to our Idolatry is Worship of the one true God of the Bible. The God who humbled himself to become a human man, lived a perfect sinless life. Died in our place, took our sins upon himself and imputed his righteousness. By his death and resurrection we have access to God and our relationship restored and our sins forgiven if we turn to Christ. We have a new, regenerated heart that knows where to find satisfaction. This doesn’t mean we always go there but it means we can go there. I hate the idolatry I find in my own life that robs me of joy in my relationship with God and everyone else.

But by the Holy Spirit we can turn from temptation and idolatry to worship God and find joy and peace and love and security.

The first of the Ten Commandments is in Exodus 20:3-6

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

If that is our first priority and our hearts desire then all the other commandments fall into place. If we worship God and God alone we will not need to or desire to turn to alcohol, sex, porn, adultery, shopping, people, jobs, money, greed. All our non physiological problems are found in idolatry in one form or another. Where we seek something other than God to satisfy what only God can.

Only through Jesus Christ can you find forgiveness of sins. Only in worship of God can you find the answer to your thirsts and longings that this world absolutely, 100% fails to satisfy. Stop listening to the lies that you can do it yourself apart from Jesus.

Michael Jackson died, the ‘King of Pop’. Every idol, public figure, pop star, hero, person and everything will pass away but the ‘King of Kings’, the Lord Jesus will remain forever.

Only in him can we find a passionate, loving, all satisfying relationship that can see you through everything this world throws at you and into eternity with Him rather than eternity in hell.

Brilliant Introduction to Calvinism from John Piper

If you click the following link there is a brilliant summary and introduction to Calvinism from John Piper. If you have ever wondered what it is, who Calvin was and why it makes sense for many people then click HERE.

Also just cam across this PDF book on the 'Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World'. Contains some arguments against the emergent church view of theology.

Some Great Songs I love currently

Love this song particulary:



Kim Walker has such a great voice, and:



and



Love playing this one in church:

Explanation of God’s Sovereign Will and Grace in Salvation

The following is one of the clearest explanations of the Sovereign free will of God in salvation that I have heard. Taken from John 3:1-10 is explains the process of how God the Spirit enables a person to come to saving faith in Christ. Outstanding teaching from Jon Piper here, enjoy!

Click here to go to John Piper’s website including the notes from the sermon.

For the Video of the sermon click here.

For the Audio of the sermon click here.

(By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org)

How Can we get it so Wrong?

I recently had a fleeting visit to the city of York. This city has a very long history over many centuries which I don’t claim to know much about. However I recently became aware of an incident that happened in 1190. The outline of which can be seen in the photo below.

This anti-Semitism partly stemmed from the utterly incomprehensible idea that all Jews were responsible for Killing Jesus. This has been a recurring theme of anti-Semitic behaviour from people who claim to be Christian through the centuries.

This got me thinking about why and how such atrocities can occur and how people claiming to be Christian get it so horribly wrong when it quite clearly goes against anything that is written in the Bible. Then it occurred to me that up until the Bible was translated into normal everyday language, whatever that may be, ‘Christians’ only knew what was taught them from the pulpit of the Church. (From a brief search this site gives an outline of the History of the Bible translations). Not until the 1500’s was an English translation of the Bible available for the common man. The Roman Church tried to suppress any version that was not in Latin and killed many in the process. It became clear that the Latin Vulgate bible that the Catholic church held to was massively corrupt and I am sure the source of much of the error that seeped into the church over the centuries. Satan won a great victory for a time here by blinding the understanding of the common man by using our innate desire for power and corrupting what started as good, the Church!

Not until everyone could read the Bible for themselves could they discern that what was being taught by the Church was far from ‘the Truth’. This kicked off the Reformation and much conflict between the Catholic and for a time Anglican church who wanted to retain tight control and those that Declared the Truth of scripture boldly challenging the established order. I am not about to discuss the Reformation here, Google it if you wish to look that up.

We are encouraged to search the scriptures daily like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11), finding out if what is being taught us is right. We should never take on face value any teaching that is given. We are to test the spirits to make sure everything is from God and not from the Devil. The only way to do that is to know what is contained in the Bible. Without scripture we will warp God’s word and come up with all sorts of error in our thinking about our Faith for ‘the Heart is Deceitful above all Things, and desperately sick;’ (Jeremiah 17:9-10). A Christian needs to live in the Spirit but from the Word of God. Without both we either end up as ‘Charismaniacs’ and falling into all sort of gross lunatic heresy or we become legalists bound by duty and adherence to the law.

Either being ignorant of scripture or choosing to put your own slant on something, influenced by culture for instance, leads to such errors that Steve Chalke is currently declaring. He has denied the ‘Substitutionary Atonement’ of Jesus calling it cosmic child abuse. The whole of Christian faith pretty much hangs on this doctrine and it is so clearly taught right from the beginning to the end of scripture. The current Emergent church seems to be falling in to this trap of discarding Biblical Doctrine for the sake or being culturally relevant. Taken to its ultimate end is how the Cults that are based on Christianity came about. Where a Man or Men decided to add to what the Bible says and distort what is clearly taught in the Bible alone. Revelation 22:18 clearly warns that God is really not impressed by anyone who adds to scripture along with Other OT passages that command us not to add to God’s Word.

So in conclusion and in answer to my Question that is the Title of this article. How do we get it so wrong in reference to doing things in the name of God that are so in contradiction with God and His commandments. If we do not understand what is in Gods word, about the human condition, our sinful nature, our ultimate destination if we do not accept Jesus Christ and his Substitutionary death on the Cross, ie: Hell. We will invent our own theories and doctrines and be deceived by the Devil who is the great deceiver and father of lies. His very goal is to get us to put ourselves in the place of God and walk in utter darkness while thinking we are in the light.

Hebrews 4:12 says: ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’

If you do not know what the Word says then you will be deceived and are in fact in Darkness and heading for a most horrendous place. This life on earth is the closest you will get to Heaven. Happy to live your own life, your way, for you alone. I plead with all my heart that you would come to know and understand that without surrender and submission to Christ there is no hope. But with Christ there is salvation, Hope, joy, life and unconditional Love for eternity. Living knowing this life is the nearest you will ever get to Hell.

So such atrocities that occurred in York and through the Centuries and up to today in the name of the God of the Bible absolutely inexcusable in the light of the Word of God. The conflicts in the world today are not because of ‘Religion’ even when they are in its name. They are caused by such things as greed, selfishness, pride, desire for power, covetousness, ignorance, false religion, hatred and idolatry. True Christianity speaks against such things because the Bible does and therefore God does. We are to stand up for truth and fight against evil and oppression but only out of a heart to see people brought to Christ and for God’s Kingdom to come on Earth for the Glory of God alone.

The Otherness of God

This is a talk I recently gave to our church Worship Team where we are working through the Book Facedown by Matt Redman.

Worship of God must come from a sense of wonder at His otherness or it is not worship. Words like Inexhaustible, immeasurable, unfathomable, eternal, immortal and invisible try to convey something of the otherness of God.

God is like no other but as Tozer remarked ‘Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms’. The Bible reminds us repeatedly of God’s uniqueness.

Q: Are there any areas in your life you can identify where you box God into your view rather than that of scripture?

Isaiah:

I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 42:8

I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god 44:6

To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? 46:5

I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me 46:9

We must be wary of trying to be so culturally relevant that we fail to see the higher value in the Glory of God. He is in no way like us and we merely touch the shallowest depths of who God is.

It is too easy to present a tame, domesticated God in church and fail to explore the mighty depths of the Lord. We can package God as though he somehow needs us, our worship, our offerings and love. God does not need us at all, in any way. He is perfectly whole, complete in the relationship within the Trinity.

Q: Has it ever occurred to you that God in no way needs you?

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Psalm 50:12

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25

Everything we have comes first from God, even the breath we use to praise Him came from Him.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” Romans 11:35

God owes us nothing and never fall into the lie that He somehow does. No matter what deep and painful struggle we may find ourselves in we must never think we can demand God help us and that he somehow owes us an answer. Or that we can demand He bless us, heal us, fix the circumstances we find ourselves in. He may do so in His sovereign will and loves to lavish good gifts upon us but never, ever think he somehow owes them to us.

Q: Can you think of times where you have demanded God come through for you and been disappointed that He didn’t?

When things go wrong, how we react is a good indicator of how much we understand about the otherness of God. It highlights where we are placing more trust in ourselves or something other than God. That we are more interested in our own comfort than His Glory. This is idolatry! Worship of something other than God.

However this picture of Gods otherness is only really complete when we add in His outrageous Grace. God does not need our worship but the wonderful thing is He loves our worship. God delights in honest, heartfelt worship. He is like a doting father over a cherished child. Just as His otherness is beyond our understanding so is His fatherly love and grace.

This Love and grace is summed up in the sacrifice of Jesus that provides the access to God in the first place. Without which we could never approach the throne room of God. We come through Jesus, in Jesus and with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our existence, from creation to salvation to sanctification is quite simply all about Him and for His Glory.

Isaiah:

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. 43:7

the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. 43:21

I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 43:25

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. 48:10-11

We are created and he is creator. Every page of the story is one of Grace, Love and mercy towards us. God lavishly gives us good gifts but we must never think for a second any of it is about us. God is passionate and jealous for His own Glory.

It seems hard to accept that God must care about his own Glory. When man glorifies himself it is pure arrogance and pride. When God glorifies himself it is from a place of pure holiness. God must prize Himself above all others since there is no one else above Him, He is God.

Passionate and intimate worship of God is not so uncommon in today's church. However we need to find ways of helping the church respond to the otherness of God which is equally as important. This surely has to start in our own lives and become part of who we are. A people who reserve something for God alone. Words, thoughts or actions.

Q: Is there anything you do or could do that is reserved for God alone?

Q: How in leading worship can we get across something of the Otherness we have been discussing?

The Jews revered the name of God so highly they would not even write or say his name. We need to recapture this sense of otherness but we need glimpses of this otherness before we can sing wholeheartedly about it.

Tozer writes: ‘What the Church needs today is a restoration of the vision of the Most High God’. This is a relevant today as it was 50 years ago when it was written.