Worship

Well now, let me just say that I am so excited to go to Africa with my friend Andrea in exactly 45 days...and a thank you Jesus that I am able to stay for the last three weeks at Beautiful Gate ministries in Kitwe. This is such an answer to prayer, as Andrea leaves Africa after five weeks, so I am there without her for three weeks, but now I have somewhere to go! My friend Jody from Winkler worked at Beautiful Gate for the past year and a half, so I've heard a bit of how I would be able to serve there. It is a ministry to the children of very poor families, I would be able to help out in a school, visit the families of the children to see what their needs are, and also do evangelism to the street children!

Anyway, something that really challenged me this last weekend was what my pastor was saying on Sunday...about how my culture, tradition and our relationship with Jesus can be in conflict because I am essentially trying to please all three. I am trying to respect my culture, my Mennonite background and also my relationship with Jesus. When I worship Jesus, however, how confident am I to come before Him and worship Him with free and open expression? Am I more concerned about what people, my culture, think about me than I am about what God thinks of me? I was challenged with the thought that nothing is static about Jesus, to stand still is to fall behind. Am I confident in who I am in Christ to make new advances in my relationship with God, to press through the expectations of my cultural norms and Mennonite traditions and to obey Jesus in who He is calling me to be and how He is asking me to worship Him? I need to start approaching God in the way He has made me and not in the way someone else thinks that I am.

In Hebrews 10:22 it says that we can draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...this is like an invitation to approach God and express myself to Him in ways that I have never done before....free and open expression in confidence before Him. I want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, not a victim of society and cultural norms or traditions; I want to advance and occupy new territory for Jesus Christ...beginning by developing my personal relationship with Jesus. That's where it all needs to start. With personal repentence, to dynamically worship God and not to stand still. May we worship with hearts that long to be filled by Him alone.