“And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and His name one.” – Zechariah 14:9 {ESV}
What better reminder could we find today? As millions of people who are called Christian meet in tens of thousands of worship centers with hundreds of differing denominational splinters dividing us, this bold prophecy from nearly 3,000 years ago points our hearts forward to a time where we will be in utter oneness. Forgive me but this is not some sentimental gushing. What I write of today concerns the fullness of God’s glory in the redeemed and the untainted promise that God will eventuate a perfect people who will reflect His name and His name only. I, for one, have trouble waiting for this day.
There will be no Baptists then. No Pentecostals nor Methodists will be found. If you are seeking a Catholic or a Presbyterian in those days you will be wasting your time. It won’t be about the Reformed, the Arminians, the Neo-Calvinists, the Fundamentalists, the Charismatics or the Orthodox. There will be only one flame in that appointed time and it will burn so brightly that the silly wicks we strive to keep lit in our day will long since have smoldered away. I have this holy hunger in my heart today. In a few hours I plan to gather with a group of people, among whom you would be hard pressed to find three that agree perfectly on all things Christian. We work through those differences, we humble ourselves, we have learned diplomatic silence as well as intentional reproof. Our hope is not our consistent agreements. There is no assurance in the false assumption that we have it all right. We have been made to see enough from God to know that there may be a thousand things we do not see at all, or perhaps see inaccurately. In the final day of God, when all focus is deservedly resting upon the Risen Lamb, not one single pilgrim who has been translated to God’s paradise will be thumping his chest or pointing his finger. My desire is that all of that nonsense would stop long before we arrive to that moment that Zechariah described above. My hope is that we can lose ourselves and the microscopic components of our individual kingdoms of dust so that we can be caught up in Him for just a few moments on this Lord’s Day. Would God not be deeply pleased if you made it ALL about Him today?
Before you leave for church, bend your knees and beat your breast in humble need. Call yourself the desperate one so that you will not give in to the temptation to deem others more pitiful than yourself. Sing as one who has their sins wrenched from them and a white robe wrapped around the scars where the sins were once embedded. Pray with assured joy that the mercy seat has atoned. Lift up holy hands with palms wide open to signify that you know that you have nothing which God needs in those empty hands; let that same gesture display to His omniscient eyes that you must have those hands to be filled with what He offers. Grind the idols of your dead, mindless traditions to dust if you no longer know why they are there. Fads and fanciful trends are a hollow wisp of air to the Almighty so please don’t play the fool who mistakes something cool for something consecrated.
We do well to sit in silence and wait for God to orchestrate something in our souls today as we attend worship services. Most people will say that they don’t have the time to sit still and wait. Most people will sense an impulse to move – to do something. Very few will be willing to wait until God begins to lead in worship today before some man-made plan is rolled out to congregants with their unprepared hearts. Walk in the sanctuary, dim the lights, turn up the amps, light up the video screens and…get your worship groove on. Our weekly spiritual high is readily available but…coming down is such a drag. But what might happen if you waited on God? What might happen if your church leaders made you do so before engaging in typical Sunday noise? Perhaps the best that God might offer our churches waits behind as little as 3 minutes of absolute silence and stillness in the congregation. Three minutes of waiting. Three minutes of that dreaded quietness that my generation fears in corporate worship services. I’m wondering if God still might reserve an outpouring of His very best on those who are willing to wait upon the Lord. What if it only took as little as three minutes of purposeful quietness?
Those three minutes will never happen at most of our churches. There’s too much to do and excitement is the call of the day. Since those three minutes are not likely to happen where you gather today, make sure it happens in your private preparation for an encounter with God before you leave your home. Get serious. Get still. Get very small.
And then get ready. He is still a God who moves when He becomes the focus.
“Call yourself the desperate
one so that you will not give
in to the temptation to
deem others more pitiful
than yourself.”
The thoughtlife you have recommended here is the only 100% secure place I know on earth. It isn’t a shame based moment. It is just fact. I am nothing, He is everything. And I need HIM.
I would love to attend a a Christian church where the masses sat silent before God for the WHOLE service. Just showed up and sat quiet. I think we would all see just how loud we really are. And.how unexplicably powerful God is.
Habakkuk 2:20
“The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him”