Give Me Oil In My Lamp Keep Me Burnin'

I remember that song from my childhood days and understood it to represent the Light of Christ in my life. As we talked this past Sunday night about the oil that filled the seven branched lampstand within the tabernacle, my research revealed the kind of oil that was used in the lamp. God commanded Moses in Exodus 27:20, "You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn." (italized mine) It's interesting that the olives had to be "beaten" not ground in a mill as was the usual method of collecting olive oil. Could it be that God was giving us a glimpse of what would happen to His Son, the Light of the world, even in the process of making oil that would produce light for the tabernacle? I beleive it was no consequence but a deliberate foreshadowing. The lamp was to burn "continually" (Ex. 27:20 & Lev. 24:2) which also references the light that will light up heaven; "For the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb." (Rev. 21:23)
        One last interesting point about the lampstand and the oil: the oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit and priests and kings were anointed with oil to represent God's Spirit was to be upon them and direct them in their work. All true believers have the Holy Spirit Himself poured out upon them for we are His temple; He is within every believer, as the candelstick was within the sanctuary, a source of light and life and comfort. The number of branches is significant (7), in that, it represents a perfect and complete source of light that would emanate from Christ Himself, the Light of the world.

Beginning the Journey....of Worship

This Week's Theme is "A Heart of Worship". In our first lesson we adopted the definition of worship as; Worship is our response to God's revelation of who He is and what He has done. The first day's lesson ended with a phrase "our worship creates a 'place' for us to encounter and experience God."
Worship Thought:  The Main Idea for Day 3 is; We are free to worship God because of Jesus' sacrifice. For those of us who grew up in the church, that is not a new revelation. In fact we might even say "duh"....no kidding. But let's think a minute and ask ourselves, "what if we weren't free to worship God?" What would that look like? How would that make you feel? Would life be different?

Seven Words of Worship

Life University is coming soon to Union Baptist Church and I would personally like to invite you to attend the class that I will be leading. Seven Words of Worship by M. Harland & S. Moser combines biblical truth, practical application, and inspiring real life stories to clarify the reader’s understanding of worship, focusing the spiritual practice on seven key words: Creation, Grace, Love, Response, Expression, Presence, Experience.  Worship is a leading topic throughout the church today and the central purpose for gathering the body of Christ each week.  I will periodically extend what is covered in class, or just give new insights to what was discussed, here in my blog, giving you the opportunity to dig deeper into God's Word and other resources as well as to post comments of your own about what was covered.  I look forward to seeing you in class and hearing from you here on my blog.  
Class sign up dates are: January 16 - 30 and class begins February 13, 2011.