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Posts Tagged ‘worship’

Worship in the Flesh

Posted in Time Up to Pentecost, tagged , , , , , on May 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

John 4:23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

So, if worshiping in the spirit is what the Father seeks, apparently, there’s a lot of worship in the flesh. What does that look like?

Most of the definitions for worship include words like reverence, adoration, homage, and veneration. If a person is doing these actions without an authentic intent… if he or she is just going through the motions… it is a lie. A person can go to church every week, stand up, sit down, kneel, sing, and recite and yet, do it without an ounce of reverence, adoration or homage.

In order to revere God, we must acknowledge our relationship with God. It is one of the reasons that other scriptures [e.g. Proverbs 1:7] speak of “fearing God.” I am not advocating that we become so afraid of God that we can’t enter into a relationship with God. But we must recognize that God is sovereign.

I believe I have gone through the motions more often that I would like to confess. I catch myself in church, while the pastor is praying, thinking about my schedule and what I must do after church. I catch myself, while singing, thinking about the worship leaders. I catch myself, even during communion, analyzing the quality of the disks and juice. Neither my heart, my mind, nor my spirit is in a state of attention, must less adoration.

Worship in the flesh is just going through the motions. God forgive me. Worship is a choice to be transparent. Worship, by its very nature, must be authentic or it simply isn’t worship at all.

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Customized Temptations

Posted in Time Up to Pentecost, tagged , , , , , , , on April 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Matthew 4:1
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

The only desert temptations we hear about are the ones Jesus must have told to the disciples. We will never know if there were more. But Matthew’s report is that there were at least three and they are recorded as happening after his 40 days of fasting in the desert. The three temptations were 1) turning stones into bread for food; 2) throwing himself off a parapet (of the temple) to be saved, “hopefully,” by angels; and 3) earthly power and authority in exchange for worshiping Satan.

I believe these three temptations are specific to Jesus and what He could expect to encounter again and again in his ministry: the challenges of the body, challenges of faith, and challenges of power (or simply put, temptations of the body, soul & mind). I think it’s foolish to think that this was the only time Jesus encountered temptations. And the same is for us.

We are confronted in these same areas, but the temptations may look slightly different. In my own body, I struggle with body image, food, and aging. In my soul, I struggle with my faith in the face of difficult circumstances, self-condemnation, and hardness of heart (secret places of the heart). In my mind, I struggle with control, judgments of others, and disappointment. My “enemy” is more than happy to provide specific, customized temptations in each of these areas. It is one reason God calls us to daily prayer to prepare our bodies, souls & minds for the assaults of the day.

Keep me mindful this day, Lord, that you alone are worthy of worship. I trust your love. I give thanks for your Word.

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