Category Archives: Devotional

True Worshipers

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It’s far less important where we worship than that we worship – and it’s also important how.  A Samaritan woman once brought up to Jesus the issue of location.  Christ responded as follows, de-emphasizing place altogether:

Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father … But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth‘” – John 4:21, 23-24 (NKJV)

The fact that worship may be valid in all places at all times does not automatically mean that we can worship in any old way we want.  God gives us two prerequisites:

  1. The first is worship in spirit:  This excludes all worship in the flesh.  Every church musician knows what it’s like to focus more on his music than on his Maker, more on the sound than on the Savior.  Examples like these touching all of us could be multiplied.  It’s really rather easy to focus on the creature more than the Creator during praise, but this we should never do.
  2. There’s also worship in truth:  This implies that there is such a thing as false worship – worship that is fake, make-believe, hypocritical.  And since Jesus is “truth personified” (John 14:6), true worship also excludes all worship that excludes Him. 

Worship the Lord often today, wherever and whenever you can.  And may the Father find a true worshiper when He looks at you.

God’s Plan for You

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Finding God’s perfect will for our lives is not an exact science.  Many people seem to constantly spin their wheels seeking “His Will”, all the while pursuing what amounts to a search for the Holy Grail or the Lost Ark of the Covenant.  In the meantime they are accomplishing very little, as anyone observing them can often see much more clearly than they can.  I know, because I’ve searched for this pot of gold myself, but never quite made it to the end of the rainbow. 

The message the Lord has for Jeremiah seems instructive:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” 
                                                     – Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)

God had made His plans for Jeremiah well in advance.  One day, however, He decided to reveal to him that special calling, that role this young priest was to play in the unfolding intentions of the Almighty.  There is no indication that Jeremiah was really seeking this.  In fact, He argues the point a little, implying that God’s ideas were all wrong. 

Here’s where we find a great lesson – visible in Scripture and frequently reinforced by our own experience:

We don’t discover the “Will of God” by directly pursuing it. 
He reveals it to us through daily submission to Him. 

Some days that will seems pretty ordinary: You get up, get to work, and dutifully fulfill your duties.  This is God’s will and you can rest in peaceful contentment with it.  At other times it’s more dramatic: The whole course of your life can be altered through a career change, relocation, a death, a birth or a marriage.  But each of those big things normally happen step-by-step, or through something you never, ever had the opportunity to control. 

A balanced, daily combination of the Bible, prayer, examining your own desires or circumstances, and a bit of godly counsel will usually do the job.  If your heart’s desire is truly to become and remain submitted to God’s desires, God’s will cannot remain elusive for very long.

Solomon and Effort

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King Solomon was very clearly a man who knew how to get things done.  It all started with the temple in Jerusalem.  His father David gathered most of the materials, but it was Solomon who oversaw the actual construction.  Then there was his own palace, along with more work in and around the city, the building of a powerful military, and his vast commercial enterprise empowered by a fleet of ships.  People came from all over just to hear his wisdom or receive his counsel.  He might easily have made a fortune as a consultant – well, if he weren’t already a king.  A man like Solomon should even have some solid advice for us to help in our endeavors – and he does.  We find it in Psalm 127:1-2:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
   They labor in vain who build it;
   Unless the Lord guards the city,
   The watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,
    To sit up late,
    To eat the bread of sorrows;
    For so He gives His beloved sleep.
                         – Psalms 127:1-2 (NKJV)

Solomon is not advocating laziness, merely pointing us to the reality that anything we mere mortals do is subject to futility – if the Lord isn’t in it.  Take some time this day to ask God’s blessing upon your work.  We need His Holy Spirit’s empowering in all our efforts. We need His mercy, His grace and His guidance.  With His hand upon you, you will never “labor in vain.”

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. – 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV)

Who’s the Best?

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Those silly apostles. In Luke 22 we see Jesus about to be betrayed, arrested and crucified – approaching the climax of His mission and ministry here on earth. Sadly, His closest followers seem oblivious. They are so self-centered they get into something of a fight.

“I’m a better Christ-follower than you, Peter, ” says one.

“You are not,” the burly fisherman strikes back.

“Wait a minute! I’m the disciple Jesus really loves,” says John, the beloved disciple.

“He’s just trying to make you feel good because you’re such an idiot.”

And so Jesus, with endless patience, interrupts.  He takes a conversation about greatness and makes it a lesson about our willingness to serve others. It’s a lesson we need every bit as much as they did:

Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves. – Luke 22:24-27 (NKJV)