Part-One of a Series called “First-Choice Worship: Preferences”

Good Questions

What is revival? What is this idea of renewal? Are these concepts that are more rightly founded in the attempts of man to appease God or are they indeed the moving of the Holy Spirit of God to regenerate or rejuvenate our hearts to a place of freshness in our relationship to Him? My pastor has frequently mentioned from the pulpit that we should always ask good questions in order to get good answers. These are Good questions; where do we get good answers?

Do you want to know how to get God to pay attention to you? Peruse the shelves of the religious section of any typical bookstore or for that matter any Christian bookstore and you will see a surplus of “how-to” and “how-come” books enlightening us to the means and techniques of bringing the Holy Spirit down on our lives, ministries or plans. If reading a book is not your style, then click and listen to a podcast and you’re off and running again tackling the giants and keeping at bay, monsters that lurk ready to pounce. Well, isn’t that true? Is this not where many of us begin? I have to confess my first point of contact is all too often GOOGLE®.

Okay, I am convinced God uses media of all kinds to reveal to us some of the insights and mysteries of His Word; He does this through men and women authors and teachers, whom as servants, have poured through His Word and have shared with you and me what the Holy Spirit has revealed to them much the way a pastor does from the pulpit. I am equally assured that God has inspired a great deal of these works to His Glory and our benefit. But where do these books and podcasts, and sermons lie in our arsenal of defense? Is this a backdoor approach to the throne of God? What does God’s desire?

Likewise, we can maintain that whatever method we choose to serve and worship God should be satisfactory as long as it is from the heart: Classic, modern, time-tested, cutting-edge, old, new, traditional, high-tech- what really makes God smile? Another good question.

Respectfully, allow me to jog your memory back to a sermon-series our pastor preached well over a year ago: Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I am redolent of verse 12 earlier in that same chapter: And finally in the eleventh chapter, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” “…And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

Bill Gaither asserts in his gospel song: “Where could I go but to the Lord? " Clearly our first line of defense is God Himself. We can access God in our time of need through the doorway by which He Himself has provided to us: His Word – The Bible! We approach His throne boldly because our confidence is in what Christ has done to allow that access. The more we discover who He is the more we realize it’s not what we’ve done.

So begs this question, as long as we get to God, who cares when and how we get there in the first place? Indeed we serve a God of second and many times multiple chances. He is patient and long suffering in a way we just do not grasp. Yet we also serve a God who has so much more He can and will do in and through us once we surrender to Him. So here is a really good question: “When will we surrender?” “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand”. Isaiah 41:10.

-John Martinez