Tuesday, June 15, 2010

God and Emperor's New Groove??

So I know I've posted a blog very similar to this before, but God will not quit reminding me! The other day, I was running sound at my church and God brought an illustration into my head. Do you remember the movie "Emperor's New Groove"? If you haven't seen it, it's a classic and a must see! In that movie there is a peasant named Pacha who lives on a mountain with his family. Well, the emperor (Kuzco) wants to tear down Pacha's house to build a summer getaway for himself. (Forgive me if I butcher the story line, but I believe this is somewhat how it goes!) The first time that Pacha hears of this, he runs to the Emperor's kingdom, and kindly asks the emperor to reconsider. Well, Kuzco says no. The next time you see Pacha in front of the emperor, Pacha barges into the emperor's courts demanding that he change his mind...needless to say, Pacha is furious! I wrote a blog about a year ago on approaching God with reverence. (refer to blog entitled "What I'm Learning.") I began to think today...Have I lived up to what I wrote in that blog a year ago? The answer was a huge NO. Let me ask you a question...When you enter the presence of God, whether it be at home alone, with your church, etc....Do you approach Him as if you're before him in His courts right before His very throne? Let me ask you another question. Whenever you sing songs to God, do you ask God if you may sing praises to Him? It's as if we've got this mindset that we can barge into the Creator of all of the Universe's throne room and start telling Him how we want things just like Pacha did to Kuzco. Have you considered that maybe God may want you to be silent in His presence and just absorb His holiness? Lay all political views aside for a moment, and picture this with me. Lets say you have a deep conviction of something president Obama is doing wrong, and you just HAVE to talk to him. You go to the white house and just barge into the oval office and start laying out your convictions in a harsh (non-loving) way right there in front of the president...(We all know that you would probably not even make it in the front door, but just humor me!) Do you think this would anger the president? Do you think it angers God when we come to church with our agendas and our routines without consulting Him about any of it? I'm really bothered by the fact that we as Christians think we can use God as our doormat, and be finished with Him. What if every time we worshipped God, we asked Him how He wanted to be worshipped instead of assuming things and "worshipping" Him out of routine and maybe going through a whole "worship" service not even thinking of God the entire time. What if we even changed the way we pray? Not just a "dear God" prayer...A prayer that is reverent...as if you were before our King's throne. What would this look like? Do you even think you could stand? Read Isaiah 6 to get a glimpse of what Isaiah did before our King in worship.

2 comments:

Becky Dietz said...

You've given me something to think about. I think I'll be approaching God differently.

Lindsey said...

Good post, Zach. Gives me new perspective.