Heart Tracks - Trembling

       I'm writing this on a Sunday morning.  As I do so, many thousands of people are entering the doorways of their particular church.  For the next few hours, they will likely be exposed to a good deal of the word of God through teaching, preaching, and singing.  It will not be a new experience. They have heard it the week before, and the week before that, and the week before......well, you understand what I mean.  Likely a good portion have been to a mid-week Bible study or prayer time, as well as some form of daily devotional.  That's a lot of "word" to be exposed to.  The question for you, for me, is how have we responded to that word?  Did we contemplate it, even "receive" it?  Were we indifferent, even bored by it?  Could it be that we had heard it so many times before that it had really gotten "old" to us?  Let's stop here a moment, and consider this question.  How many of us actually trembled at His word today, or any day for that matter?

     Isaiah 66:2 reads, "This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word."  We don't seem quite comfortable with that.  In an age where we've created a very comfortable God, one who encourages casual relationship as well as worship (and I'm not speaking of clothing attire here), a God who induces an awe, reverence, and yes, fear that brings us to the place of literal trembling, doesn't seem to be exactly what we're looking for.  Yet, this is God as He truly is, God as He actually relates.  If you doubt that, look into that word and see how those who knew Him best responded to Him when He spoke.  He spoke to John in Revelations 1, and he lost all physical strength. Christ spoke to Paul on the Damascus Road and he fell to the ground.  God spoke to Moses and he literally trembled before Him.  In Luke 5, as Jesus spoke, Peter, realizing who He really was, "fell down at Jesus' knees saying 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man O Lord.' "   So many of us talk of coming away from a worship time being "convicted" about something in our lives that He wants to change, yet too often, it never goes beyond that.  Could it be that somehow, we don't really understand just who it is that speaks to us?  The One who with His very words created the universe and all that is in it has just spoken to us.  If we really understood just what that is, what it means, could we really respond in any other way but how John, Paul, Moses, Peter, and a long list others did?
     Commenting on this Francis Chan wrote, "That's what it would look like to tremble at His word.  Yet we open our Bibles all the time and we have to ask ourselves, 'Does this even have a trace of effect on my life?'  We read, 'You are the Light of the world,' and we think, 'Oh, okay, whatever.  What's next?"  Isaiah 66 tells us that the Father looks to those who walk in humility, with contrite hearts, and who tremble at His word.  Is He looking to you and I today?  Does He look to us as we read His word, hear His voice, and as we pray to Him?  If we have heard Him, how have we heard Him?  With a trembling that leads to transformation, or do we once again, exit the building remarking on what a good sermon we just heard as we head out to lunch, or home to the ball game?  Jesus spoke and everything was changed.  What happened when He spoke to us?  What has changed?

Blessings,

Pastor O