Why Lament When We Can Worship? - by Pastor Allan

There seems to be so many challenges facing us as we try to worship God in this unprecedented (fill in the blank). We lament the changes and find it more difficult to worship as we try to adapt to those changes.

In the Garden of Eden, worship was very simple. It was walking with God in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). That ended after an unfortunate lapse in judgement on the part of Adam and Eve.
At Mt. Sinai, God wanted to meet with his people. He longed for the days in the Garden of Eden when he could walk with his people in the cool of the day. But the people did not go up to the mountain into God’s presence. They were afraid because of the fire (Deut. 5:5).
So, God gave his people detailed instructions about the Tabernacle (Exodus 25-27; 35-39). Why? If God’s people were NOT willing to enter into God’s presence, then God would provide a provisional place.

Now with the New Covenant through Jesus, God again invites us to enter into his presence just like in the garden. But, too often, we have been comfortable with a provisional place. A place like in the Old Covenant with boundaries that keep us comfortable. Close but not too close.
Our provisional places and provisional routines have been disrupted during this unprecedented (fill in the blank). So, we lament the changes in the provisional places and long for the day when the familiar place and routines of worship where we could observe God will be restored.
God’s desire is to restore. Not the provisional places, but places where he can again walk with us as he did with Adam and Eve in the garden.