Worship for Today: Celebrate the Lord's blessing with joy!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Deuteronomy 16:13-14,

"Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have
gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be
joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants
and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the
widows who live in your towns."

Moses tells the Israelites to be joyful when they celebrated the Feast
of Tabernacles. The Israelites were to gather where the tabernacle
would be placed in the Promised Land and celebrate this seven day
holiday. The reason for the joy they were to celebrate this feast with
was the harvest the Lord had blessed them with. It was to be a joyous
occasion as the Lord's blessing would make their joy "complete", verse
15.

While we are to worship the Lord today "with reverence and awe",
Hebrews 12:28, sometimes I am perplexed at the low level of joy
encountered amongst believers. How could this be? The Lord's blessing,
expressed in the harvest they took in at the end of the year was to be
cause for joy among the Israelites. We as Christians have been blessed
as well!

Today, in the church, we have been given a place at the Lord's table,
members of his kingdom as co-heirs with Jesus Christ. We have been
given eternal life, life abundant to be shared with one another
together with the Lord. We have been given the Holy Spirit who is a
constant companion with us, who has gifted us to serve one another and
who has sealed us with a guarantee of our place with the Lord in the
resurrection! Talk about the Lord's blessing! Talk about cause for
joy!

As Peter puts it, "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and
even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled
with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal
of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:8-9.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com