Judson Cornwall - Let Us Worship

It was one of those gorgeous fall days with a clear blue sky and crisp clean air that makes the New England states such a delightful place to visit. A Christian friend was driving me from the hospitality of his home in the foothills of Maryland into Washington, D.C., where I was to speak at a conference. Sitting in the back seat and enjoying the morning scenery, I was startled to see what appeared to be a large turkey farm in a corn field. As I was about to remark on it, I realized that what I was seeing were not turkeys, but hundreds of Canadian geese.

My host explained to me that modern methods of harvesting leave much grain in the fields and these Canadian honkers had stopped by on their migration south to take advantage of a free feast.

Seeing this field almost blackened with feeding geese reminded me of the many times I had stood gazing into the heavens watching the giant V formations of geese responding to an inner urge to fly south in the fall and north in the spring. For those who scoff at miracles, let them explain, if they can, what mysterious, unseen force of nature triggers twice a year the migratory instinct in thousands of these geese. For the young gosling it is a call to a totally new adventure into a vast, uncharted expanse of sky. For the mature goose it is another exhausting flight of thousands of miles fraught with hazards and hunger. Still, each goose must answer this unseen, unheard and, so far, unexplained call.

Similarly, there are times when Christians sense an invisible yet indisputable calling to draw near to God in worship. For the uninitiated, it is as threatening and challenging as the first migration is to the gosling. The intimate, personal, one-to-one relationship with God is a vast unknown to millions of people in todays generation, and yet the urge to attain it is beginning to surge through Christendom. Though latent and undefined, it is unmistakably there.

For many believers these are days of unrest. In spite of all that God has done in our generation, there is in some an underlying dissatisfaction which is really an anxious anticipation of something new on the horizon. God is moving by His Spirit and we are anxious to know what will happen next. This has created an ideal atmosphere for the religious opportunists. False prophets have arisen amassing millions into their cults. Because of this unrest and craving for the unrevealed, proponents of these so-called new doctrines have found eager, gullible audiences. Others, who have insisted that new forms and structure are the only hope for the Church, have had little difficulty in getting adherents. Those who have joined cults, especially young people, have been duped into raising huge sums of money, often at great personal cost, as a substitute satisfaction for an inner craving.

These inner stirrings are so real that they cannot be ignored, yet most of our attempts to satisfy them are futile. Consequently, frustration replaces inspiration and seeking replaces rest. We simply do not recognize that God is causing this unrest. He is drawing us unto Himself.

As a boy I enjoyed playing with a horseshoe magnet from a model T magneto and using its invisible power on a plate filled with metal filings. These tiny pieces of steel would shiver and quake as the magnet was lowered; then they would crawl over one another as though alive in response to the magnetic attraction. As I would gently move the magnet closer to the plate, the filings would make a chain reaching upward until finally the chain bridged the gap between the filings and the magnet. Upon contact, all of the small pieces would come together by the power of the magnet, and each particle became as magnetic as the magnet itself.

Isnt this descriptive of the Churchs present condition? God is drawing His people closer, very much like a magnet. The unrest and uneasiness we feel are merely the response of our spirit to Gods presence. Our dissatisfaction with the present status quo is merely a byproduct of the attraction of Gods nearness. It is not ingratitude that is motivating us to abandon our present positions; it is the magnetism of His person that is precipitating change. The pull is upward and we are powerless to resist.