Come As You Are
By Chaz Umamoto, Worship Ministry Support Coordinator
Lately, I’ve been on this journey to understand the heart of God. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t know the God who knows me as deeply as I may think. In these 10 years of my journey of faith, I’ve read and studied and listened to countless sermons, but I still ask myself: Do I really know God’s character? Do I really know what He loves, and cares about? I’m trying to approach reading the Bible through fresh eyes, with childlike curiosity.
In this pursuit, my small but mighty small group has been going through the book of Leviticus. Together we’ve been looking at the Law God gave Moses. So we’ve been deep diving as a group learning about patterns in Scripture, compound word studies, and cultural contexts to inform our reading. It’s been such an amazing and unexpected experience from a book in the Bible I’m sure many would avoid.
This past week I learned that the heart of the Father truly desires our worship. There is nothing in His being that requires it, but He loves our worship. He loves being in a relationship with us, and He doesn’t require us to be squeaky clean to worship Him.
In Leviticus 7:12-14 I found out how God set aside one type of offering amongst many that are specific to worship without any strings attached. The fellowship offering, as some translations put it, is as close to us worshiping God privately or corporately. He prescribes no penalty for worshipping Him, but he does give two simple instructions: that the people were to present both unleavened bread and leavened bread.
In all of the other ritual gifts and exchanges, God had very detailed instructions as well as consequences. The person who is offering any sort of sacrifice would’ve understood that the grain or meat was being given in their place, which is why it had to be ritualistically prepared. But for worship, God said He wants both leavened and unleavened loaves of bread.
Now I could be wrong, but I’m taking this to mean that He’ll take it all. He welcomes everyone who worships Him. Whether you have shoes or no shoes on, long hair or short hair, tattoos or no tattoos, jeans or slacks, Republican or Democrat, He is calling all of us to be in a relationship with Him and to praise Him for being our Papa.
He wants us to come just as we are.
Prayer: God, You are and forever will be an easy Papa to please. Forgive us for taking Your words so lightly and without childlike yearning. Help us to see more of Your heart and Your intentions in the things You do in the world around us. We need more and more of You, and less and less of ourselves. I pray that You would draw us closer with all of our messy baggage, and clear our long list of conditions that keep us from experiencing Your presence, and Your goodness. Amen.
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