Am I useful or useless to the cause of Christ? A daily question I must ask myself. How do you define usefulness? Let's use this working definition: being useful means pointing ones abilities and ministry only towards Christ and forgetting your involvement in His work. I'll go a little deeper. If we are laboring for Christ and are constantly seeking approval and acknowledgement for what we are doing in ministry we are making ourselves useless, but if we in turn allow God to use us and not know or completely understand how we are being used we allow God to do what we cannot even see. It's an issue of focus. Oswald Chambers says it this way,"It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him." My job and life is in ministry and I need to make all the more sure that it is not about me or my doings but be humbled by what I cannot even see what Christ is doing. Lord help me be useful.
2 Timothy 2:20-21
20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
15 March 2008
12 March 2008
Obedience: the Heart of a Worshiper
In today's culture there is a tendency to be selfishly motivated. Even in the simplest thought of how our world around us constantly effects us and, what we think about things or, how we want to do things. This is definitely a prevalent attitude in today's culture. How does everything effect me? The problem is that this mentality often creeps up on us in our spiritual lives and in our worship of God. We want the "feelings" that go along with worshipping God. We want experiential worship where we "feel" God's presence. This often puts us in the center of worship and not God. Now, I need to clarify that there is nothing wrong with worshipping God and having our feelings sweep us into the experience. Those senses were created by God and are used to bring Him glory. The problem is when we focus so much on the experience that we lose site of the object of our worship. Worship has very little to do with us and has everything to do with God.
So, how do we move from this sense of selfishness in worship towards selflessness? The answer is obedience. A major part of worshipping God is living in obedience. It is not just an experience, it is a lifestyle. It is not just one day a week for an hour, but it is in the other 167 hours a week that we should worship God most.
What does worshipping God in obedience look like? What does God call us to? Christ made a challenge to us in John 14:23, "Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." What an amazing picture of worship. How do we show God love? How do we worship Him? In obedience to His word. And, the result of showing God love is not all that bad: that God will make His home with us. Talk about experiential worship! The God of heaven in all His perfect character living in us! But, don't forget where it starts: obedience. Another passage of scripture that shows us that same image is 1 John 3:24, "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." I ask the question again to reiterate the truth: how do we show God love? 1 John 5:3a "This is love for God: to obey his commands." The answer all throughout scripture is obedience.
There is another point I'd like to make as far as worship and obedience is concerned. Read the following statement carefully: you will worship what you obey and you will obey what you worship. The world worships many things such as money, success, and freedom. They also obey whatever it takes to get more money, success, or freedom. There is also something in believers that wants us to obey it rather than God and it is seeking to steal worship from Him. It is our sinful nature at war within us. It wants us to obey and worship things of the flesh, idols such as wealth, sex, materialism, and pride or self to name a few. Instead of obeying our sinful nature and in turn worshipping things of the flesh, God calls us to obey His teaching and in turn to show Him love and worship. There is hope, even though our sinful nature wages war in us, it has already been conquered. Romans chapter six gives a good picture of this struggle and the hope in it.
"12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
"16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves,
you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness." Romans 6:12; 16-18
We do not have to be slaves to sin. We can be slaves to obedience, showing God love, which leads to righteousness. We ought to obey God in our daily lives to show Him our worshipping lifestyle that is lived in obedience to His Word. Let us strive on for His glory, so that it may be shown through us every day.
So, how do we move from this sense of selfishness in worship towards selflessness? The answer is obedience. A major part of worshipping God is living in obedience. It is not just an experience, it is a lifestyle. It is not just one day a week for an hour, but it is in the other 167 hours a week that we should worship God most.
What does worshipping God in obedience look like? What does God call us to? Christ made a challenge to us in John 14:23, "Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." What an amazing picture of worship. How do we show God love? How do we worship Him? In obedience to His word. And, the result of showing God love is not all that bad: that God will make His home with us. Talk about experiential worship! The God of heaven in all His perfect character living in us! But, don't forget where it starts: obedience. Another passage of scripture that shows us that same image is 1 John 3:24, "Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." I ask the question again to reiterate the truth: how do we show God love? 1 John 5:3a "This is love for God: to obey his commands." The answer all throughout scripture is obedience.
There is another point I'd like to make as far as worship and obedience is concerned. Read the following statement carefully: you will worship what you obey and you will obey what you worship. The world worships many things such as money, success, and freedom. They also obey whatever it takes to get more money, success, or freedom. There is also something in believers that wants us to obey it rather than God and it is seeking to steal worship from Him. It is our sinful nature at war within us. It wants us to obey and worship things of the flesh, idols such as wealth, sex, materialism, and pride or self to name a few. Instead of obeying our sinful nature and in turn worshipping things of the flesh, God calls us to obey His teaching and in turn to show Him love and worship. There is hope, even though our sinful nature wages war in us, it has already been conquered. Romans chapter six gives a good picture of this struggle and the hope in it.
"12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."
"16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves,
you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to
death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that,
though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to
which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness." Romans 6:12; 16-18
We do not have to be slaves to sin. We can be slaves to obedience, showing God love, which leads to righteousness. We ought to obey God in our daily lives to show Him our worshipping lifestyle that is lived in obedience to His Word. Let us strive on for His glory, so that it may be shown through us every day.
10 March 2008
Delight in the Lord
I have been really pondering this concept and command of delighting in the Lord. What does it mean to delight in the Lord?
Psalm 34:4-6
4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light...
What a great passage. Nothing but good things come out of delighting in the Lord. What happens when you delight in something? Maybe you delight in sports. You love to know the latest scores and stats. When the TV is on it is tuned to ESPN. When you delight in sports you can quickly become infused with the whole experience of the sport you are a fan of. You constantly think about it. When your team is doing great you have a big smile on your face and you tell all your buddies about it.
I think this is a good picture of what delighting in the Lord should look like. It is when God is all you can think about. When you are reading or hearing the word you can't help but be totally tuned in. You are constantly pondering who God is and what He has done and is doing. And because of all of that everyone around you knows whose team are for: God's team.
What do delight in more than God? That's a challenging question. There will always be things competing for your allegiance. The challenge is not to let them steal our delight in God. He has so many blessing for those who delight in Him and He cannot wait to delight in us.
Psalm 34:4-6
4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light...
What a great passage. Nothing but good things come out of delighting in the Lord. What happens when you delight in something? Maybe you delight in sports. You love to know the latest scores and stats. When the TV is on it is tuned to ESPN. When you delight in sports you can quickly become infused with the whole experience of the sport you are a fan of. You constantly think about it. When your team is doing great you have a big smile on your face and you tell all your buddies about it.
I think this is a good picture of what delighting in the Lord should look like. It is when God is all you can think about. When you are reading or hearing the word you can't help but be totally tuned in. You are constantly pondering who God is and what He has done and is doing. And because of all of that everyone around you knows whose team are for: God's team.
What do delight in more than God? That's a challenging question. There will always be things competing for your allegiance. The challenge is not to let them steal our delight in God. He has so many blessing for those who delight in Him and He cannot wait to delight in us.