I have been a worshiper for, well... my entire life. But I've been a worshiper of Jesus Christ for a little over 11 years. When I first started out on my Walk I understood that Jesus was the Savior; powerful and perfect. However, I also viewed Him as a kind and loving pacifist, forgiving this, and teaching that. A friend of mine calls this the "prom king" view of Jesus: the idea that we fawn over Him like He is the high school quarterback, or some rock star. Please do not think that I am minimizing His kindness, love, forgiveness or His teachings. I am merely trying to point to a trait of Jesus that has been revealed to me in the last few years and is very often overlooked: His awesome terror.
You see, we tend to think only of the traits that we, individually or corporately, see as advantageous. For example, if I commit a sin, I think of Jesus' forgiveness. If I want or need something, I think of His provision. What we have forgotten, or never really learned, is that He is down right scary. This notion was reinforced to me recently by a sermon given by Louie Giglio. He mentioned that when the Bible says to fear God, we have always said that just means to revere Him, to respect Him, but not to be afraid of Him. But there are times that the Bible says "fear", and even times when it doesn't say that, that we should be afraid... be very afraid. One of Louie's examples was during creation, when God opened His mouth and billions of galaxies containing billions of stars flew forth. Yes, I agree. We should be terrified. I like the way C.S. Lewis said it in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." " 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
What does this have to do with "The Wall Writings?" I have taken a very curious passage from the book of Daniel and used it to describe this blog. (By the way, I can't stand the word blog. I might start calling it something else... maybe snot or something else.) In chapter 5 of the book of Daniel, we read the story of the writing on the wall. This is one of those times I would be scared. Maybe not quite as scared as Belshazzar was in the story, but still scared. No doubt you have heard the saying "the writing's on the wall." Yes, it comes from the Bible and it means that danger is imminent. Obviously, if you read this snot (maybe I should come up with something else) you aren't about to get stabbed to death or anything. The danger I speak of isn't necessarily physical. I am only warning you that you may not like anything I say. I am not a traditional person and I am not going to say traditional things, or say things for the sake of tickling ears. It is highly likely that I will say something that really ticks *blank* off. (Yes, I put blank in there on purpose. That is where your name goes, not an expletive.) As a matter of fact, I am challenging you to voice your opinions, especially if you think I'm a nutter. I am not trying extra hard to be controversial. I am trying to be honest.
That said, for those of you who were part of our online worship study, this isn't going to be that different. I am going to post the studies that we have already done (though some things will be added and/or edited) to start out and then continue where we left off in our study of the history of worship. After that, we'll see where the Lord leads. I'll leave you with one of those scary times in the Bible.
2 Samuel 6:2-7
And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines on sistrums, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
