Peek-a-Boo!

My youngest daughter has earned the nickname "Boo." She has, for months, loved playing peek-a-boo and hide-and-go-seek. Nothing seems to bring more giggles of glee as when we find her and go "Boo!" So, the name name stuck. The funny thing is she LOVES to be found... over and over again, and I must say that it is really cute when she does this. I guess part of her joy comes from knowing that her father is seeking her.

Did you know that your Father is seeking after you? Jesus testifies to this to the woman at the well when He tells her that, "true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." (John 4:23b) In Exodus, God outlines some of what this looks like. God being God, has the right describe to us what His expectations are when it comes to worship. In my reading this morning, I noticed a couple of things that seems to be prerequisites for worshiping in spirit and in truth.

The first thing I noticed is that God is seen for who He is. God himself describes some aspects of His character; He declares to Moses who He is. Moses responds IMMEDIATELY: "Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. " (Ex. 34:8) Just as Christ tells the woman, truth of who God is is part of what God seeks in our worship. How can we worship what we do not know? God has revealed Himself in so many ways in His word, in His creation, in His Son; do you know Him for who He is?

Secondly, I noticed is that God outlines for Moses and the Hebrews "HOW" they were to come to Him. The cool thing is that He not only lays out what He expects them to do or not do in order to worship Him. After He reveals Himself, He then makes provision for them to be right before Him. In verse 10 of the same chapter, God initiates the covenant with His people, so that, as the NIV renders it, "The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. " How would like to try to guess how to please God, knowing that the wrong methods would result in a non-humorous version of the cartoon I posted yesterday?

Lastly, we see that the people responded with glee. In chapter 35, their hearts were moved for God, and they gave massive amounts of money and materials to contribute to the building of the tabernacle. Over and over in scripture, we see that God is seeking those who will do what it takes to honor God not because it is something they HAVE to do, but because it is something they WANT to do. Are you worshipping Him begrudgingly, or is it something that excited you to pour out your love to Him as He deserves? The result in the end of this book was a Tabernacle was constructed to be able to meet with God, and God's Glory filled the place.

These are some of the things that God is seeking. Do we giggle with glee when He finds us, or do we run from Him and hide in shame?