In fact, his unusual closeness to the Lord only deepened Moses’ fear of Him. Yes, Moses and God were friends, but not buddies. You might think their close, one-on-one relationship would have developed in Moses a “me and God can take on all of you” attitude. But just like at the burning bush, he continued to come to God on his knees. He had experienced the impossible but he was still amazed. He had seen so much, but he never lost the wonder.

Finally, in The Song Of Moses (Deut 32), you see the man who had once said “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” now captivating an entire nation with his tribute to God’s power and goodness, charging the people to courage, and, despite being prevented from entering the Promised Land, worshiping with all his heart until the day God invited him atop Mount Nebo.

And brought him to an even greater place of worship.

From Moses by Lawrence Kimbrough

To imagine what he was to become, he would have had to see a bush burning in the distance among the shadows of Sinai, and hear a Voice calling to him from the middle of the flame. He would have had to feel the rush of dread that drove him to his knees but stirred a yearning desire for him to draw near to the God of his fathers. He would have had to sense the nervous strangeness of returning to his boyhood home in Egypt, stripped of the raw brashness he had known in his glory days decades before, yet watching raw power flow through him, turning water into blood and setting an entire nation on its ear.

These were the events and emotions that made worship his way of life, the defining moments that cemented his faith, secured his calling, and galvanized his will.

“He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”(Heb 11:27, NKJV)

And so even as the leader of millions – a man who was nearly worshiped himself by the tired, needy masses of Israelites – his genuine heart for worship prevented a power struggle between him and God. He never felt cramped by God’s ideas and began thinking he could make it without His help. He had simply spent too much time with his head in the clouds, face down before God’s awesome glory, to ever take credit for what the Lord was doing through him. Instead, you find him pleading with God from the wilderness in Exodus 33:15: “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (NKJV) As strong and respected a leader as Moses had become, nothing scared him more than making a move without God.

From Moses by Lawrence Kimbrough

With the clear exception of Jesus Christ himself, no man ever enjoyed a more personal, intimate, worshiping relationship with God than Moses did.

“The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex 33:11, NKJV), giving him exclusive access into the “consuming fire,” the “thick darkness” of His glorious presence, not revealing His will through complex mysteries or shadowy visions, but by communicating with him “even plainly,” eye to eye (Num 12:8, NKJV).

Yet if you’d told Moses a hundred years before that he would ever be on such intimate speaking terms with the one true God, he’d have said you were out of your mind.

You might have been able to convince him that he’d one day be a high-paid government official in Egypt. After all, as a young man he was enjoying a life of privilege and learning there, obtaining an insider’s grasp of Egyptian beliefs and heritage. Had he known that not too far down the line he would discover the truth of his parentage, you might have even gotten him to concede he could wind up a fugitive, wasting away in poverty and anonymity on the backside of nowhere.

But never... this...

From Moses by Lawrence Kimbrough

King David said in Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” (NKJV) There was a time in my walk with God when I understood this to mean that if I loved Him, He would give me the things I wanted. When this didn’t happen I was confused and sorely disappointed. I asked God to show me what this verse really meant. How does one delight in the Lord? I discovered that as I took pleasure in Him by putting Him first, everything that I thought I wanted paled in comparison. His smile upon me became my greatest joy. His presence satisfied my deepest longing. His delight was the only thing that mattered to me.

Extraordinarily, He also transformed the desires of my heart. My self-centered desires no longer looked so attractive in the light of His glory and holiness. I discovered that He gave me new desires – designs for good, to give me a future and a hope (Jer 29:11).

As we draw closer to Him, He changes our hearts so that we are in harmony with Him. By God’s grace we are His friends and family, accepted in the Beloved. The truth of who He is and what He has done for us delights and overwhelms us, igniting our worship. Our hearts cry out in adoration,

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Ps 73:25-26, NKJV)

From Friend of God by Kathy Shooster 

The Lord’s yearning for us cost Him everything. In order to bridge the gap between His holiness and our sinfulness, our heavenly Father gave His only Son, to sacrifice His life in order to atone for our iniquities.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (Jn 15:13-15, NKJV)

For friends, there is no substitute for spending quality time together; it is mutual love that makes this a priority. Being together is paramount to everything else. In our fast-paced world we must make it a daily priority to steal away with the Lord. This may sound elementary; however, it is not enough to know about Him from what others say. We must know Him intimately and experience Him personally.

The Holy Spirit discloses a key to living by the Spirit of God in Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” (NKJV) Friendship with God means our hearts are in agreement with His. As God’s friends we are extended the opportunity to unite our hearts with the deepest desires of His heart.

From Friend of God by Kathy Shooster

“I am a friend of God,” I sang in full voice, along with the thousands packed into the auditorium, hungry for the Lord’s presence. As I meditated on this chorus written by songwriters/worship leaders Michael Gungor and Israel Houghton, I was challenged by what it means to be God’s friend. The Holy One of Israel, our Creator and Redeemer, extends to us an awesome, indescribable invitation to be intimate with Him.

His knock at my heart’s door created a deep spiritual hunger in me which provoked me to search for Him. Before I was a believer in Yeshua (Jesus), I was challenged by the Patriarchs’ intimacy with God. Abraham was called God’s friend and Moses spoke with God “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Ex 33:11, NKJV) When Moses returned from spending forty days and nights with God upon Mt. Sinai, his face shone so much that the people of Israel couldn’t look at him! Psalm 34:5 says, “They looked to Him, and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed.” (NKJV) I longed to be so close to God that His presence would supernaturally change my countenance. How I yearned for that special bond with God!

From Friend of God by Kathy Shooster

I looked up and down the list of those we were praying for... all of them praying right back for the others on the list. Not a single one of us had our act together. We were all just in need of God’s help and of the prayers of the saints. A lyric began to be born in my heart and mind, a song about broken people praying each other through this life.

While a big part of our worship is praising God and telling Him how amazing He is, another part of it is simply saying, “I trust You, Lord. I believe You are who You claim to be. I believe You’ll do what You say You’ll do. I believe You are good. I believe You are loving. I believe You are in control.”

This is worship: a circle of broken people, loving God, loving each other, lifting up each other’s needs to the Father because we believe He can and will answer.

From Circle of the Broken by Sue Smith 

We continued to pray. If it is possible to cry with people over the Internet, that’s what we did. I could actually feel the profound compassion people had for Sarah and her whole family. It was partly because Becky is a writer herself and would share with us in great detail what it was like to walk this road, armed only with an unwavering faith that God is good and that He is in control.

Throughout the summer we prayed. Of course, Sarah wasn’t the only prayer request on our list. There was a family losing their business and faced with crushing financial problems. There was a church with a pastor who had left his family. There was someone’s grandmother who had been abused in a nursing home and a friend whose children were having a rough time in school. We prayed for all of them.

Time after time I would see Becky’s name on each discussion string. She wrote more than just “I’m praying for you.” She wrote thoughtful, personal messages of love and encouragement, and I knew beyond any doubt that she was lifting up each name faithfully in her prayers.

I have to admit I wondered about that. If I had a child with cancer, would I spend any time praying for others, or would I spend every single second on my knees praying for her? Maybe that sounds selfish and even foolish, but I was constantly humbled and astonished by Becky’s prayers for other people...

From Circle of the Broken by Sue Smith 

I knew a little of Becky’s story. She and her husband Steve had traveled and sung full-time with their son and daughter until about four years ago when their six-year-old, Sarah, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a deadly form of cancer that attacks young children. Sarah had gone through rounds of chemo and radiation and a bone marrow transplant, and as Becky posted on the board in her bio, they were rejoicing that Sarah had been in remission since last year.

One day during the summer, Becky asked us to pray for her daughter. Her teacher had noticed Sarah limping at school, and then she ran a high fever without any other symptoms of the flu or a cold. These were the very symptoms that preceded Sarah’s original diagnosis. Dozens of people promised their prayer support, and we waited each day for Becky to post the latest on Sarah: her visit to the doctor, her tests at Duke University, waiting for the results of blood work and bone scans.

There was a very sad day when Becky let us know that the tests showed that Sarah had relapsed. Children who relapse with neuroblastoma, Becky said, are basically living on borrowed time. There is no cure. It is not a question of whether they will die, but how quickly...

From Circle of the Broken by Sue Smith 

‘I go to church to worship’ is a statement most of us have said or would agree with. However, when we go to church to worship, our experience often depends on the song choices, the ambience, the volume, whether the pastor is there, or some other expectation we have. Have you ever been to the mall just because? If so, you’ve probably bought something you didn’t need and felt like you wasted your time and money. However, if you’ve ever been to the mall to purchase a pair of tennis shoes or a belt your experience is probably much different, right? You know which store or few stores you’re going to visit and you probably already have a price in mind. The difference is focus.

Through the years, as I’ve attended church to worship I often left feeling like I hadn’t really worshiped. My mind was some place else. My heart just wasn’t in it. The songs had too many words. I was coming off a busy week. The pastor was out of town. You get the point!

However, as I’ve learned more about becoming a daily worshiper, my experience with church has changed.  Becoming a daily worshiper brings focus. Becoming a daily worshiper means I walk in church wanting more of Jesus. That means the songs don’t all have to be on my top ten favorites list. The senior pastor could be on Sabbatical and that’s okay. Worship is my responsibility and privilege every day. So I decided!

I’m not going to church to worship anymore!

Now I go to church with worship instead of to worship. This simple principle has allowed me a greater opportunity to experience God’s powerful presence rather than expecting a song or someone to do something extraordinary for me to find my way to worship.

If you want church to become more than a place you visit once a week toworship, try practicing worship throughout your week. Allow it to become part your every day. You may find, like me, that you’ll start going to churchwith worship and that will change church forever.

What are some ways you’ve found to worship throughout your week?