The Phone Call

Jesus asks, “what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36). As we look around the world today, we see so many people who spend so much time seeking to gain wealth, popularity, right relationships, perfect jobs, the best education, the fastest computer, the largest CD collection, or whatever else. I don’t know about you, but I for one am guilty of far too many of these inane pursuits. As Christians, are we mistakenly striving to gain the whole world only to end up forfeiting our very souls? Are our priorities misplaced?

Life seems to be going to well and then it comes. The dreaded phone call. Your roommate’s brother was diagnosed with cancer. Your grandfather is having emergency surgery. Your mom’s car was hit by a reckless driver. In a moment of time, our world can be turned upside down. In the light of these things, how important are worldly possessions? “’Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Solomon’s wisdom comes all too clearly into focus and the words of Jesus echo again in our minds. “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world …” How selfish and shortsighted we have become!
Selfishness is common to us all. Paul lists selfish ambitions among the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20. Jeremiah reminds us that, “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). So why must we wait to change until we get the phone call? We have a deep desire to change! Why must we wait? Even though we are ready, willing, and able to change, our body does not want to come along for the ride. Jesus told His disciples, “the spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). So often, we allow ourselves to be ruled by our sin nature rather than by the righteous standards of God’s Word. Must we always wait for the phone call?

True Worship

Who doesn’t want to live in the will of God for their life? In the fourth chapter of John, Jesus reveals the kind of worshipers whom God is seeking. So how do we worship God in spirit and truth?

The answer to this question ties in with Hebrews 13:16 where the author, after urging believers to offer the sacrifice of praise to God, reminds us to “not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” James wrote that “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).

Through the prophet Hosea, God said, “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). Matthew records Jesus’ use of this verse twice when responding to questions from the Pharisees (Matthew 9:13, 12:7). The Pharisees were some of the outwardly most pious men ever to walk the face of the earth. But their righteousness was simply a veneer to cover up their own iniquities. They did all of the right things to be righteous by the standards of the law but, as Paul wrote to the Romans, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

Don’t be as the congregation of Jerusalem, of whom God said, “these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts from Me” (Isaiah 29:13). “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him,” (2 Chronicles 16:9). We should be making our very best effort to please Him in everything that we do so that He will show Himself strong on our behalf!

Worship

What is worship?
This is a question I’ve been asking myself for a while. In the past, I have viewed singing to and before God to be synonymous with worship but I don’t think that’s necessarily a right assessment. Singing to and before God is worship. But to give such a limited definition to worship is where the inconsistencies arise. Two specific groupings of verses have been bouncing back and forth in my mind for the past few months (basically since I discovered them but that’s another story entirely).

These are John 4:23,24 and Romans 12:1,2. There are some rather disparate translations of these, particularly the Romans verses, and so I am going to quote from the Amplified Bible, which gives virtually every meaning of the words involved.

“23A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshipers. 24God is a Spirit (a spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)” (John 4:23,24 Amp.).

“1I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual act of worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect and pleasing will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]” (Romans 12:1,2 Amp.).

I know it’s bulky and it’s not a good leisurely read, but as the cover says, it “unlocks subtle shades of meaning.” Notice in Romans 12:1 the words that are translated in the King James as “reasonable service” (logiken and latreian) are translated in the NIV as “spiritual act of worship.” So it would seem that service to God and worship of God are interrelated. What I get out of this verse with this broader understanding of it is that we are to give God what HE deserves for the very reason that He doesn’t give us what WE deserve! I’ve been quoting this verse since April and it finally struck me tonight what it really means to worship. Rather, I should say I finally took another baby step in my understanding of it.

I was doing a word study on “worship” this evening and this is what blew me away. The Greek word most commonly translated as “worship,” and the same word used in John 4:23-24, is proskuneite. This is a combination of the words pros (towards) and kuneo (to kiss). What a beautiful word picture of how we should treat our worship of God! And the way to worship God, what He is seeking, is in spirit and in truth. The word for the noun translated as truth is alethia, which means “the reality lying at the base of an appearance; the manifested, veritable essence of a matter.”

So it is a blessed thing to be in a spirit of worship. But what God is truly seeking is someone who, in reality, LIVES in the spirit of worship. These two opposites are displayed wonderfully in Matthew 2. We see the “wise men” who came to worship Jesus (vs. 2) and Herod who claimed to want to go worship Him (vs. 8). God is seeking true worshipers, not those who give Him lip service. Proverbs 21:2 says “the LORD weighs the hearts.” “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Before the flood, we read that God was disappointed in what had happened to the men He had created. But we read in Genesis 6:8 that “Noah found grace [favor] in the eyes of the LORD.” Does that mean Noah was pure? No! Four verses later, it says “that ALL flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” (Genesis 6:12, emphasis mine). But Noah found grace in the eyes of God. How do we know he was a true worshiper? In Genesis 6:9 it says he walked with God, but a better example can be found in Genesis 8:20. Immediately after leaving the ark from over a year off of solid dry ground, Noah built the first recorded altar to God. In verse 21, the result of that worship is that God, while acknowledging the evil within us all, promised that He will never destroy all of humanity with waters again. Then in Genesis 9:1, “God blessed Noah and his sons.”

So why do we worship God? Well, primarily because He’s God and we’re not. Also because it is our rational service to Him. We give Him what He deserves because he withholds from us what we deserve. But what is worship?

In essence, worship is living a life devoted to God. Whereas Noah offered sacrificed animals to God, we offer our bodies to Him. Although we may have never done it before, it’s a lot easier to sacrifice an animal than it is to submit ourselves and “present all our members and faculties” to God. But when we are able and willing to do that, the rewards we reap are glorious! God wants true submission of our lives to Him. God deserves true submission of our lives to Him.