WHAT INCENSE DO YOU HAVE AT YOUR PLACE?     

I love the worship song, "Worthy is the Lamb".  There isn't a lyric in it that doesn't resonate powerfully with me.

However, the line, "Day and night, night and day let incense arise", captures my imagination.  

I imagine from our churches that the incense of worship and prayer rises up to heaven as a pleasant fragrance to God.  

"Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out"  Revelation 8:3-4

But then I think about my life, my home, my street, my town.  What is rising from there... because something is.

Is it a fragrance of worship, of thanksgiving, of prayer, 

......or a smell of grumbling, griping and selfishness?

Or is it the silence of disengagement?

If we could open our spiritual eyes, we would see this. I like to picture my home, and wonder if there is anything rising that captures heaven's attention?  

I almost always have a song playing in my soul.  Jeff, who is recently retired, has noticed that I often sing at home.

We recently had a holiday together with some other family members.  This was something really special, but holidays with other family members can often have moments of tension.  I found myself at odds with Jeff, and the next morning there was silence. 

No song, just an overwhelming sense of stupidity.

I know that, at times, there is grumbling and crankiness.  I wish it wasn't, but as James said in his letter, our tongues are the hardest, near impossible part of ourselves to tame. (James 3:7)

When it comes to the silence of disengagement... I never want that!  

The only way to re-engage is to admit our stupidity, and ask for forgiveness, not just from the people we have hurt, but to The Lord.  We can have confidence that He ALWAYS forgives.  

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Let there always, day and night, be the delightful fragrance of open engagement, thanksgiving, prayer and worship, not just in Church, but in our homes and hearts as well.

Until next time,

Lynda xx