There is no God in heaven who is unlike Jesus.
A call to worship.
Themes
Jesus Christ the Word of God • Jesus Christ the perfect expression of God • God responds to our weakness and our sickness
For all our dark and frightening imaginations of some god, some being “out there,” or of endless nothingness… what we do know is that there is no God in heaven who is unlike Jesus. There is no act of God other than the act of Jesus.
Scripture reading
John 1:1
This call to worship1 is from the Gospel of John, chapter one:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Prayer
Father in heaven, what’s it like there, where you are? What’s it like in your eternity? We confess that across the millennia, we’ve groped and guessed with our imagination and we’ve come up with all kinds of dreadful gods, devils, and powers. Our most current answer is… endless space — nothingness. But Father, there is an answer: the answer is you; you are there. You are behind it all. And we do, in fact, know exactly what you are like. You are like… Jesus Christ. Before anything existed, there was you, and there was your Word, who was you. Unlike the way that our own words imperfectly express us, your Word was a perfect expression of you. And eventually, that Word came to live with us. And we got to know him. For all our dark and frightening imaginations of some god, some being, or of endless nothingness… what we do know, Father, is that there is no God in heaven who is unlike Jesus. There is no act of yours other than the act of Jesus. There is no you but the you we see and meet in Jesus. He is the radiance, the glow, the glory of all that you are, Father. And since you are like Jesus, we know what happens when we cry out, “Remember me!” We know how you’ll respond when we call out in our sickness and weakness. We know first hand your true love, true power, true wisdom, true justice, true majesty, because we know him. And we get to know him more because he is here with us this morning. Right here in our midst. This morning, Father, enable us to see Jesus, so that we can experience the unsurpassable desirable you — the God of amazing grace, remarkable favor, and true love. In the name of Jesus Christ — where all your perfections shine so brightly and so beautifully, Amen
Inspiring resources
A call to worship creates wonderment, amazement, curiosity, yearning, captivation, provocation, hopefulness, thankfulness, affection, rapture, delight. As these mix together, the response is worship.
If this call to worship leaves you wondering or curious or provoked or hopeful, consider diving into this awesome book.
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, September 19, 2021.