Filed under: ministry, Moraine Valley Church, Reynosa, Theology, worship | Tags: ministry, Reynosa, Theology, worship
Worship by Association. What a concept! This past week our family had the privilege of visiting some of the most amazing people located outside of Reynosa, Mexico. I have been challenged to see worship for God in a way I have not had much experience with. I have heard and read many times in Scripture about giving t0 the poor and helping the needy. But it was this week that God spoke to me very clearly about what it means to worship Him by association.
“Do not be proud, but be willing to association with people of low position.” Is is possible that I could give to the needy, help the poor, supply all the resources necessary to fulfill their need and yet still not have allowed my heart to worship God? I think this week the Lord spoke to me very clearly and said yes. Worshiping God by helping the poor is much more than fulfilling a need. This out-pour of worship to God must continue to the heart of seeing yourself like them, being with them, living like them, having a total identification with them.
We spoke with one our missionaries here in Reynosa and asked them very specifically: what is it that YOU need? Very clearly they said, “when you care for these people, you care for us.” I couldn’t believe my ears. The very thing that God has spoken to me a day prior I was hearing again, but this time in a different voice. I was seeing and hearing this very concept in action.
I was encouraged this week to read Isaiah 58, a passage that speaks about true fasting. Packaged inside this passage it says, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?”
My prayer is that as we look to become more Christ-centered worshipers, that will not only would have a sound that blesses God’s heart but that our lives would reflect the sound that He hears.
