Missing Masterpiece

On 21 August 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' painting was stolen from the Louvre in France. The Louvre was immediately closed down for an entire week as a mass operation swung into action to hunt down the missing masterpiece. When the museum was finally reopened, thousands of people queued up to see the blank wall space, where the Mona Lisa once hung. It seems crazy that so many people would pay to essentially see nothing. I guess this can be like our church services without the Holy Spirit. We get caught up with the external things - the songs, the sound, the lighting, how the band look, how people are responding. The danger is we judge a successful time of worship by how great the band played and how intense the experience was. All of this can happen without the Holy Spirit. A. W. Tozer once laid down the challenge, “If God took His Holy Spirit out of this world, what the church is doing would go right on and nobody would know the difference.” We mustn't let that happen. Worship without the Holy Spirit is like turning up to the Louvre to see an empty space where the Mona Lisa was once displayed for all to see. It's a challenge to remember that we must keep getting desperate to see God's Spirit at work. To be surrendered to His lead and obedient to His call. To be passionate in prayer and willing to take risks. Only then will we see true breakthrough in the worshipping life of our churches.