The Color of Worship - Purple

 THE COLOR OF WORSHIP - PURPLE 

OFFERING

Exodus 25:4 "And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair."

This verse is part of the offerings that The LORD told Moses the people needed to give willingly, from the heart (V. 2). The purple yarn was used to decorate the linen curtains as God ordained, according to His design.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God Is one LORD. And thou shalt love The LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Mark 12:30 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

Deuteronomy 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does The LORD your God require of you, but to fear The LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve The LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Matthew 22:37 "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love The Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

     All worship must be from our heart to God's heart. It must be real. It must be sincere. It must be willing. And you cannot hide your heart from God, because that is where He looks when He is looking for worshipers. 

     When our hearts are filled to the brim with love and adoration for Him, we simply must praise and worship The LORD our God. We bring an offering of praise. We bring it willingly, lovingly, obediently; according to His Word.

RICHNESS, ROYALTY

       The seashell pictured here is a murex. The yellow liquid that is excreted from the seashell turns purple when exposed to sunlight and this purple is what is used to dye fabric purple, just as in early Bible times.  

Because small amounts only were able to be obtained in this manner, this purple dye, also known as Tyrian Purple, was extremely costly and only the very wealthy could afford to wear it.  

MAJESTY

On the breastplate of the high priest the tribe of Gad is represented by amethyst. Gad was the fifth son Leah gave Jacob through her handmaid Zilpah. It is the twelfth foundation of the wall around the new Jerusalem.

The worship we give to God will also be costly. Because the born-again believer's life is a life of worship, a life that is sanctified, set apart unto God, the life we live will be more than different. To the world around us, which includes our family and friends, we will be seen as crazy or extreme or fanatical. It is not that we exclude them from our lives, merely the opposite: they exclude themselves.

We who are living a different lifestyle after we get saved and Spirit-baptized know from our studies that we no longer 'blend in'. Now we have a target on our backs. This target keeps us near the throne of grace and close to God. What happens the closer we get to God? The more our hearts pour out in worship. We love Him and only desire to tell Him so. 

Every time we come to God we bring an offering of praise. An offering is going to cost us something, whether we purchase it from another to give to God, or whether we draw out of our own wealth to give it to God. But we know that Jesus paid the debt we owed to God, therefore to be in God's presence is to know and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

And in order to stay there, for ever in God's presence, we need to know and acknowledge this fact now, while we still draw breath in this life. For after death it will be too late. Yes, you will still be able in death to know that Jesus Christ is Lord, but it will be too late to proclaim it. Now, today, is your day of salvation. 

“Weeping and gnashing” in Luke 13:28 describes the condition of those people who will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets when they die, but they will not be able to cross over into their presence, because while they still lived, they did not believe. So those who will then know that the prophets spoke The Truth, but it’s too late for them will weep. And those who still do not believe The Truth will gnash their teeth in their struggle to escape the hell into which they have gone. 

A Pharisaical attitude and lifestyle will not save us. Nor will a Sadducee attitude. Only faith in Christ Jesus as Lord of All will turn a sinner into a saint. Both the Pharisee and the Sadducee attitude deny that The Messiah is Jesus Christ. While the first says Christ is yet to come, the second says there is no resurrection. Both of these ideologies are wrong. Jesus Christ is not only LORD, He is THE RESURRECTION, as well. 

What do you need to do to be saved? Acts 16:31- "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."  And because we who have heard The Word spoken to us, we bring those within our households, both family and friends, strangers and foreigners, to Jesus, with the hopes that they, too, will believe after hearing this Word spoken. 

Worship God with our lives, lift Jesus up wherever we go and whatever we set our hands to do and every time we open our mouths. This worship sets apart from all other religions, as well. Because The Spirit of God is working on us, sanctifying us, making us holy, we will be outcasts in the religious atmosphere of our towns and cities and nations. 

This worship is rare and beautiful and glorifies God.