God is Not Like Us!

Worship should acknowledge that God is not like us! God is unequal in his splendor, his majesty, his power, and his glory. The Scriptures remind us that his wisdom is beyond the grasp of human understanding and his mercy, grace, and love are inexhaustible and immeasurable. There is nothing and no one like our God.

As believers we are called to worship God. To worship God means to ascribe to him all the praise, honor, and glory he is due. Our worship should reflect our understanding of God’s “otherness.” In Hebrews 12: 28-29 we are reminded that we are to be “grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Classic hymns such as “Amazing Grace” and contemporary praise and worship music like “Holy is Our God” point to the uniqueness of God in a meaningful way. Music is one of the elements of worship that allows the church to focus on God’s “otherness” with “reverence and awe” or at least it should. Human beings can be notoriously self-centered and selfish. We often focus more on our own likes or wants rather than the needs of others or the task at hand. Often our bottom-line for everything is “What about me?”

We live is a narcissistic society where our tendencies of self-absorption are as real on Sunday as they are during the rest of the week So I want to be clear here when I say worship is not about us, what we like, prefer, desire, or feel we require. It is about God and acknowledging that God is not like us. Our focus on Sunday morning should not be on the style of music we desire but on our desire to move closer to God. It should not be on the length of the service but on our need to spend quality time with the one, true, living God.

In Ezekiel 44:16, God instructs the priest to “enter my sanctuary … to minister to me.” Our worship needs to be our offering to our God, not just another opportunity to complain that “our needs” are not being met or that we are “not being moved spiritually.” For we are not here for ourselves, but to worship in reverence and awe, and to acknowledge that that God is not like us. More to follow!

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Christians do not live in someday but today!
    The mistakes of the past are forgiven.
    The needs of today are promised, and
      our hopes for tomorrow are secured,
        all through Jesus Christ our Lord.
                    - M.L. Herring

Just Passing Through ...

Psalm 119:19 reminds me that I am a guest on earth, or as I remind myself, I am just passing through. I have to face the fact that I have no control over the time I spend here. As a guest I must also remember I have no right to a house of my own or posessions. I must receive with graditude what my host provides and not complain.  I am a guest.

As a guest I am subject to the rules of my host, for it is his house that shelters me and his provision that sustains me. It is not my place to disparage my host, interject my own rules, or code of conduct. I am a guest and owe my loyality to my host.

Many today walk this world without accepting the hospitality of its host. They walk in despair and fear, trying to find shelter from the storms of life. They look to their own strength to sustain them instead of looking to its gracious host who has the power to sustain all.

In this world I am nothing more than a guest. I am weak and having nothing of my own. Yet, God himself shares all that he has with me. He has sacrificed his precious Son for me so that I may be accepted as even more than his guest, as an heir. Many on this earth may look upon me as an unwanted guest, weak, with nothing to offer. But to our Gracious Host, the One who holds this world and all who walk upon it in His hands, I am the favored guest.

Through my Gracious Host, I will find my way through this world, my rights in injustice, my support in times of uncertainity, my strength when I am weak, my hope when I am discouraged. Through my Glorious Host I will find my way home.

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

    Christians are made, not born. 
                                  - Tertullian

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Of all things, guard against neglecting God 
        in the secret place of prayer.
                              - William Wilberforce

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing

       to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and 

        temperance, is, by Christian standards, in 

            infinitely higher state than one who 

                is listening to Bach or reading 

                     Plato in a state of pride.

                                                      - C. S. Lewis

Walk As You Have Been Called

What religion are you? I am sure you have been asked this question more than once in your life. Yet I believe it is not an easy question to answer. I often stumble over the word "religion." The word religion can be defined as the observance of a faith or practice of a system of beliefs. It can mean the service and worship of God, a god, or the supernatural.

Yet "religion" that has no practical impact on our daily lives is as useless as the definitions above. Religion can become vague or abstract, it can encourage empty professions of faith, it can become focused on works, loosing its true identity and purpose.

In 1 Corinthians Paul reminds us to "lead the life that the Lord has assigned him, and to which God has called him."(1Corinthians 7:17 ESV) In other words, walk the life you have been called to walk. In your home, in your work, and in your church, walk the walk you have been called to. There is little room in the Christian life for hypocrisy. Too many people today want to seek their own way; they promote their own opinions over seeking the call of God. They will tell you in a very religious tone how important God is in their life and then go on to explain their wants, their needs, and their desires. In the process, seeking God's will and walking as he has called us to walk falls out of the discussion. For these people serving their religion is far more important than seeking the one, true, living God.

Christianity is not, in the truest sense, a religion; it is a relationship. It is not based on a system of steps to follow but founded in a real, life giving relationship. Jesus did not promote a system of works, he reached out personally to those who needed him most.

RefRev