Tag: worship

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Christian Living

Resolutions: A Personal Worship Plan

New Year's Resolutions List for 2014 to focus on a personal worship planWe are a month into 2014, and writing about my reading lists made me think about my other “resolutions.” Did you make any for 2014? Or have you come to the point where you have broken so many that your only resolution is to not make any more resolutions?

Even so, We make all sorts of plans throughout any given year. We resolve to make changes in our exercise, our eating habits, our business goals…. Shouldn’t we also give some thought to resolving to grow in our Christian lives?

Do you have a goal for your Bible reading, prayer life, charitable giving, church attendance, ministry involvement, etc.?

Maybe you are thinking, but why do so, when I so often fail at my New Years’ Resolutions? Should I write down more goals that if I don’t meet, I will feel guilty about?

In one of the most widely read books of all time – The Imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis reminds us – “Each day we ought to renew our resolutions as though it were the first day of our life in Christ. Because as our intention is, so will be our progress; so he who desires godly perfection must be very diligent. We know that even a strong-willed man fails Christ frequently, but what about the man who thinks of Christ seldom or is half-hearted in his attempts to live for Him? We must always have a fixed mindset, especially against those things which tempt us the most. In the morning make a resolution and in the evening examine yourself on how you did, what you have done and thought. Each day, read or write or pray or meditate or do something for the common good.”

And Thomas a Kempis reminds us why we need to do so – “as our intention is, so will be our progress.” Or as we might hear it stated today – “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

Don’t stop setting spiritual goals simply because of possible guilt if you don’t meet them. Instead, be encouraged at what progress you do make, and become re-focused to go even farther tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.

Have you set any goals in your Christian life for 2014?

Next time, I’ll share some ideas you might want to consider in resolving to improve your Bible reading, prayer life, ministry involvement, etc.

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Worship

no other gods

I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other gods before Me.
The first of the Ten Commandments.
How important is this first command?

“Martin Luther articulated that the first commandment appears first because it is the foundation for all the other commandments. He said that if We keep the first commandment, we will keep all the others. And if we break another commandment, it is because we have already broken the first commandment. For example, if you break the commandment to “not give false testimony,” it is because you have rejoiced in something other than God, something that seems worthy of your lies. If you break the commandment not to covet, you have first elevated the thing you are coveting as the object of your affection. You have made it your god.”

Using this same track of thought, we find that Jesus indicated that the greatest commandment in all of Scripture is to love God with all that is within you, and that the next most important commandment is to love others as much as you love yourself. So we really only need to obey these key commands to be fully obedient to God, but because we can be a bit dense at times, God took time to spell out how these primary commandments should be lived out. But all of the commands in the Bible come back to these key commands.

“Luther Wrote, “Under every behavioral sin is the sin of idolatry.” When we sin, We are ultimately worshiping something other than God, placing an idol on the throne of our lives.”

To place anyone other than God on the throne of our lives and hearts, we must first ask God to step down from the throne. This One who we said would be Lord, we boldly walk up to Him and say – Jesus, would You mind stepping off the throne for a while. I need You to hand back to me the royal crown and the royal robes. Just stand over here to the side while I place this idol on the throne to worship for a time. And this One who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, though He maintains all authority in earth and heaven, steps off the throne of your life until you are ready to repent and give Him control again.

Today, when you are tempted to worship something other than Jesus, remember how your worship of lesser things equates to you asking Jesus to step off the throne. Allow that imagery to help you keep Him in His rightful place as Lord and Master of your life.

(Quotes from ‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)

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Worship

Worship Wars, part 2

I had planned to share this about two weeks ago, right after my first “Worship Wars” post, but then I came down with some less-than-enjoyable headcold. And as you know, the last thing you want to do with a congested head is make it try to think! But the head is now clear, and so it is now time to start posting again. The previous post was about our worship of lesser things than God Himself. So here is a bit more on that issue…

Our worship of lesser things leads to worship wars in our hearts. God indicates that He is a jealous God who is not only worthy of worship, but is not willing to share His worship with other lesser things.

Here is part of our problem… too often, “we prefer creation to the Creator.”
We end up worshiping, enjoying, and having a passion for the things He has created for us, instead of worshiping and having a passion for the One who provided these blessings.

“…in essence, sin is a fundamental failure to rejoice in what we should rejoice in. Our worship has to be redeemed and rescued from futile things. Rather than rejoicing in our Creator… we rejoice in and serve shallow, temporary things that are here one moment and gone the next. The reason some of us swing from elation to despair so easily is that we rejoice wrongly. Our worshiping is in the wrong place.”

“God, because He created us For Worship, pursues our worship. The first commandment listed in the Ten Commandments is God instructing His people to worship only Him. He said…: “I am the LORD your God….You shall have no other gods before me….You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” ”

“Prior to giving the command to have “no other gods,” God reminded the people who He is and what He has done. His demand and desire for worship were based on His character and the fact that He had rescued these people from bondage. He was worthy, He said, of their rejoicing in Him.”

And He is still worthy of our rejoicing in Him above all other things – because of who He is and what He has done for us. We were not led out of physical slavery/bondage, but we have been provided freedom from the bondage of sin and eternal death. We have been given the opportunity to experience abundant life through our relationship with Him – a life of joy and peace even in the midst of the difficulties of this world due to His walking with us.

Let us make sure that we engage in an internal worship war so that at the end of the battle, God emerges as the winner and the only One we take real delight in.

(Quotes from ‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)

Categories
Worship

Worship Wars

This phrase – “worship wars” – is often used to discuss the ways that people argue about church music, but truly that battle over church music is really just a “music style war” – arguing over the style of music I want in my service (so serving “I” & “my” becomes the focus instead of “we” & “Him.”)

The truth is that a real worship war is taking place at a much deeper level – in the heart of each of us. Each of us has to determine what or who we will worship – and often that turns into a battle… a worship war!

” … even those men and women who don’t enjoy worshiping their Maker can sometimes be seen with their bodies painted in team colors, becoming emotionally affected for hours, sometimes days, by how the game went…. They’re ready for worship any day of the week… But, their hearts are yielded to lesser things.”

This isn’t to say you can’t enjoy watching a game, but when does it turn into worship? Is your heart yielded to “lesser things”? Do you ever find yourself putting way too much emphasis on things that aren’t eternally significant?

“Because we humans are worshipers, we are rejoicers. It’s what we do. Every single person, whether religious or irreligious, actively worships. They have identified something bigger than themselves that they believe is worthy of their money, time, and the meditations of their hearts…. It comes naturally…. Easily. Enjoyably. But in our sinfulness, this tendency to worship things other than God is an exercise in disappointment. It offers us nothing but temporary satisfaction…. Since we are worshipers by God’s design, the problem is not that we rejoice but rather that we rejoice wrongly.”

It is so easy to fall into the trap of worshiping the lesser things. There are so many things vying for our attention. There are so many competing voices out there, and each one is shouting “worship me!” I’m not sure that I can draw for you exactly where the line is between enjoyment and worship, but I definitely think that if our allegiance to and passion for ______ (fill in the blank with your own personal worship war word or words!)… if our allegiance to and passion for those things are greater than our passion for God, enjoyment of His Word, and devotion to His church… then we’ve gone too far and crossed the line.

What do you find are the biggest worship war dangers for you/us today?

How do you make sure that your worship of God is stronger than your other passions & devotions?

When you realize that your worship for lesser things has become too strong, how do you re-orient yourself?

(Quotes from ‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)

Categories
Christian Living

Choosing To Stand With God Will Separate You From Others

“The man who really loves God can do as he chooses, for if he really loves God he will choose to do the will of God.”

The problem is that if you choose the will of God, if you stand with God, you can quickly find yourself put outside some of the circles of people in which you were previously included. The issue is that your new ethic of living morally condemns others without you saying a word. Even though you don’t look down on others, even though you don’t condemn them with your words, nor attempt to persuade them to follow your choices, just by simply living for God many people will feel uncomfortable being around you. It is because they are already convicted, but they have been able to silence that still small voice. But now they find that when they are around you who no longer engage in the same behaviors, it makes it clear to them again that they are not living properly. So they pull away and no longer include you. It has been that way from the beginning.

“Men always view with suspicion people who are different. Conformity, not distinctiveness, is the way to a trouble-free life. So the more early Christians took their faith seriously the more they were in danger of crowd reaction. Thus, simply by living according to the teachings of Jesus, the Christian was a constant unspoken condemnation of the pagan way of life. It was not that the Christian went about criticizing and condemning and disapproving, nor was he consciously self-righteous and superior. It was simply that the Christian ethic in itself was a criticism of pagan life.”

It is still this way today. As you set yourself apart in holiness and your light shines more and more brightly, those who have actions that are “dark” will shrink away from you. You find that you are no longer included in some of the water cooler talk, because they know that you won’t laugh at some of the off-color statements. You no longer get invited to certain events after work, because they know that you won’t join in with some of the activities. But remember that as you stand strong in your faithfulness to Christ, when someone encounters a crisis of belief and look for an escape from ungodly living, they will know who to come to – You!

You can help turn the world upside down, just as the early disciples did. “In Rome, Caesar worship was made universal and compulsory for every person within the empire…. On a certain day in the year every Roman citizen had to come to the Temple of Caesar and had to burn a pinch of incense there, and say: “Caesar is Lord.” When he had done that, he was given a certificate to guarantee that he had done so….

“Caesar worship was primarily a test of political loyalty; it was a test of whether or not a man was a good citizen. If a man refused…he was automatically branded as a traitor and a revolutionary. Exaltation of the emperor, then, created a problem for the Christians. They had not failed to pray for the emperor, but they would not pray to him in private or in public. How could a Christian compromise with this?

“Who was worthy to ascend the throne of the universe and direct the course of history? Caesar, or Christ?
Thus, Christian worship and Caesar worship met head-on. The one thing that no Christian would ever say was: “Caesar is Lord.” For the Christian, Jesus Christ and he alone was Lord. To the Roman the Christian seemed utterly intolerant and insanely stubborn; worse, he was a self-confessed disloyal citizen. Had the Christians been willing to burn that pinch of incense and to say formally, “Caesar is Lord,” they could have gone on worshiping Christ to their heart’s content; but the Christians would not compromise. That is why Rome regarded them as a band of potential revolutionaries threatening the very existence of the empire.”

We still seem that way to those whose lifestyles do not honor God – utterly intolerant and insanely stubborn. But we need to stand strong and not compromise. Christian worship and Caesar worship met head-on… and we know who won! As we stand strong in the morality of God, we can also cause a revolution that turns the world upside-down for Christ!

(quotes taken from Bruce Shelley, Church History In Plain Language)