Is Singing All that There is to Worship?

Not at all. Joining with God’s people to proclaim the wonder of Jesus is important. But probably the most sincere worship is how we live our life after we disperse from the church building.  Romans 12:1 makes this point: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Apostle Paul tells us to use our bodies to do latreia, worship or service. The word can mean doing religious rituals, but it is also doing acts in the world that make God’s character concretely visible. The word is used to refer to a monetary gift that was collected for the Jerusalem Christians when famine hit, and also for Epaphroditus’s delivery of the gift for Paul from the Philippians. So when you serve people out of compassion or grace or love or kindness or justice, you are doing worship. You are glorifying God, making God’s glory, his character, visible.

In the Book of Isaiah chapter one, the Lord got angry with Judah. They were going to church, singing songs, spreading their hands in prayer, even giving tithes. But the Lord wouldn’t receive their adoration. The rest of their life wasn’t glorifying to him. They needed to do whole life worship and not just a few hours one day a week. So God commanded them to remove the evil of their deeds from before his eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause as acts of true worship. God is right – serving people in the name of Jesus and in the character of Jesus is the most satisfying form of worship ever.

From Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions

By Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

(Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois), 2007. Page 178

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Try Commending Others

I read a story, a great story it is: an old gentleman used to stop by at an antique shop to sell furniture. One day after he left, the antique dealer’s wife said she wished she had told him how much she enjoyed his visits. The husband said, “Next time let’s tell him so.” The following summer a young woman came in and introduced herself as the daughter of the old gentleman. Her father, she said, had died. Then the wife told her about the conversation she and her husband had after the father’s last visit.

The young woman’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, how much good that would have done for my father,” she cried. “He was a man who needed to be reassured that he was liked.” “Since that day,” the shopkeeper said later, “whenever I think something particularly nice about a person, I tell him. I might never get another chance.”

What a story! Let us make it a habit to find something in others that we can commend on. “There are some great people who make others feel small,” writes G.K. Chesterton. “But there are other great people who make others feel great.” Let us be humble and yet be great at making people feel appreciated and liked. Let us give more praise to others. Let us never tired of commend others when we see the good things that they have done because we might never get another chance again.

“I will speak evil of no man…

and speak all the good I know of everybody” (Benjamin Franklin)

God helps us. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.