Connected to the Moment
- As we reflect God’s heart, a new level of vulnerability is required as we lead into these days when people are broken, raw, hungry for encounter, and more transparent than ever before. And as always, the Spirit of the Living God is ready to meet them with His living water.
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Isaiah 60:1-3 NIV
I love an inspired song list. I love to sit and ponder and play and pray over what I feel would work in the moment we are leading into.
BUT…I am sensing this growing need for us to be bravely connected to the moment we are given, not just simply the plans we have made, as well-intentioned as these plans may be. Jesus modeled the way of ministry as His life was continually poured out for others, a pure response of worship to the Father.
As we reflect God’s heart, a new level of vulnerability is required as we lead into these days when people are broken, raw, hungry for encounter, and more transparent than ever before. And as always, the Spirit of the Living God is ready to meet them with His living water. This sounds remarkably like a woman who many, many years ago was met by Jesus at a well. Her brokenness and hunger created ears to hear as Jesus, the living song, came to her and ministered truthful, life-changing worship.
Truthful worship invites every person into an experience with God and invites us to taste and see His goodness. This also means that WE, as His ministers of these moments, need to be ready, our inner lives rich with His Word and our lives overflowing with His love, as we step out and sing what the Holy Spirit whispers to us in the moment. Thank God Jesus said to the woman at the well that He was looking for worshipers, not performers. Time to arise and shine with His glory as HOPE in Christ breaks through even the darkest of nights.
Let me leave you with a quote from A.W. Tozar as food for thought:
I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the ‘program.’ This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the public service which now passes for worship among us. We must never rest until everything inside us worships God.
With love and encouragement always,
Darlene
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Australian Darlene Zschech is acclaimed all over the world as a composer, worship leader, pastor, author and speaker, and became most well known for her involvement in the worship team at Hillsong Church, Sydney, Australia over many years. Although she has achieved numerous gold albums and her songs are sung in many nations of the world, Darlene’s success simply stands as a testimony to her life’s passion for serving God and people with all her heart. Alongside her husband Mark, they are the Senior Pastors of Hope Unlimited Church (HopeUC) on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia, which has now grown into India and the USA. As a composer, Darlene is perhaps most famous for the chorus “Shout to the Lord”, a song that is sung by millions of churchgoers every week and has been covered by many other artists. In addition to “Shout to the Lord”, Darlene has written many songs through solo projects: “Kiss of Heaven”, “Change Your World”, “You Are Love”, “In Jesus Name” and “Revealing Jesus”, a live worship album recorded with the Grammy Award winning Israel Houghton. Through the Compassionart project in 2008, Darlene was honoured to have the privilege of writing with some of the most generous-hearted worship writers and leaders of our day.