Stadiums and Slums …
Today was one of those intense kind of days where you are processing so many things in your mind, that by the time the evening arrives you are mentally exhausted and need to switch off and unwind a bit.
So between work and making dinner for the family I turned on my iTunes ready to watch a worship video that I love and usually takes me into that place of rest and inner stillness, ready to unwind with Jesus.
To be honest I’m not quite sure what happened next, but the video I was expecting didn’t play and in its place began a 15 min video of a conference I had no idea I even had. It was called ‘spontaneous worship’ and as I watched I was undone.
Let me explain a little further….
The clip is of a conference of about 15,000 men and women lost in spontaneous worship. It was beautiful, moving and profoundly impacting. I watched transfixed as wave after wave of spontaneous worship erupted around the stadium until the whole place was exploding with dance and song.
As I watched I wept
All that I could whisper to the Lord was ‘ this is what you deserve’
He is so worthy, He is so very deserving of our worship, of our continual love and adoration, of endless voices lifted high in exaltation, the sound of the masses raised in ceaseless song, declaring and proclaiming His magnificent splendor and glory.
If the whole earth joined together, right now, every single nation, every tribe, every tongue and worshipped Him ceaselessly, until the end of days, it still would not be enough to express just how very worthy and utterly deserving He is.
As I watched that little video clip … 15 mins… 15,000 voices raised…
What blew my mind all over again was this…
This all powerful God, who created the heavens and the earth, who breathed stars into existence and spoke light into being, who formed man from the dust and breathed life into him.
This God who holds the universe in his hands and who is all consuming light and fire.
This God who dwells in the praise of Cathedrals and Stadiums.
This all powerful, all knowing, beautiful, holy, righteous God.
CHOOSES to come and hang out with us in the filth and the dirt and the stench of the slum.
He is NOT confined to a building.
He is NOT concerned with his surroundings.
He is NOT drawn by the beauty of ancient architecture.
or REPULSED the stench of raw free flowing sewage.
He is instead CONSUMMED with a LOVE for the hearts of the people He finds in all of those places.
and CHOOSES to manifest Himself right there with them.
He DESERVES stadiums, He CHOOSES slums.
PSALM 8 – When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?
