Transcendent Worship

The reason I chose "transcendent" is because I feel like all worship should be transcendent, and an experience I had recently was what brought the idea to my mind.
I was at a service at my, now, old church and it was my last day. During the worship I decided to try something I had thought about, and so mentally I envisioned myself singing alone before Christ, not on a stage but at His feet standing on the crystal sea that was spread before His feet. It was beautiful and wonderful.
Later that same day I met up with the church plant team I had joined and we had a small worship service of our own, and I did the same mental exercise but this time I wasn't alone! The entire team was there, and I realized that God has placed me with a group of people who understand what it means for Christ to be our goal, and who understand what it means to transcend the physical in seeking Christ.
I look forward to the powerful impact God is going to create through these people, and it is an honor to be among each of them.
It is crazy to realize that I am a part of a close, personal family in Christ; I'm naturally skeptical because... well, I honestly never believed that it would happen. I never thought there'd be a group of people that I'd connect with the way I have with these people. I'm pretty stoked about what's happening, and I cannot wait to see what God has in store.
It has not been wonderful rose-petal-covered pathways; it's been rough, and painful. The enemy has his sights on us, and the temptation to try and "slide by" is great. But we cannot, we must be alive and alert. God has called us to something, and any halfhearted efforts will be destructive to the whole.
Not only should we worship transcendently, but we should live in it too. We are more than bodies gathering to make noise, we are children of a King and our lives are examples of Him.
Shame on me, for the days where I choose to live outside of His design. Shame on any who claim Jesus and show no compassion, no love, whose fruits are rotten and worthless. We should repent, turning our backs on who we were and accepting the life given to us. May love and compassion be our lives, may forgiveness and acceptance be our call, may we challenge as strongly as we comfort, and live differently from the world. Moderation and denial of self, not to punish ourselves but always to the freeing of our focus so that we may know more of Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a gift... Freedom from shame, guilt, and condemnation, we are justified in Christ. Washed symbolically in His blood thrown against the alter as a sin offering. The Old Testament is full of blood... so much blood, so much "innocent" blood, so that God's children could live holy lives. The burnt offerings were pleasing to God, not because He is a barbaric god, but because correctly done and with a longing heart His people were seeking Him. Even God Himself grew disgusted by the smell of burning flesh when it became an excuse to live however they pleased. He called to them, saying how He desired their obedience over their sacrifice.
I am guilty of this... begging forgiveness after choosing to sin. God is not pleased by this... OBEY! and you will have no need of guilt, no shame shall hold you, blameless will you live before the world and the Lord your God! This is what God longs for, holy unions between His heart and ours, not marred by selfish desire and the depravity of this life. We are called to suffer and struggle in this life, so that peace will come in the next. So that OTHERS might follow God, so that they too can experience this forgiveness. So that they too can live free that the witness and testimony of their lives would point others to Christ.  THIS is a Transcendent Life! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)





















God be glorified!

transcendent |tranˈsendənt|adjectivebeyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience : the search for a transcendent level of knowledge.• surpassing the ordinary; exceptional : the conductor was described as a “transcendent genius.”• (of God) existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe. Often contrasted with immanent.