Worship Scale - Second Entry

I take my hat off to the people who grew up in church and maintained a Christian lifestyle throughout their childhood and adolescence.  I also salute the young people who currently demonstrate Kingdom living even at their young age; because although I was afforded the same opportunities, I hardly took full advantage of them.  Instead, I mostly hid the knowledge of God or used it when I was in a situation I couldn't push or weasel my way out of.  Of course I now know I wasn't successful in either, but it was the merciful Hand of the Lord that allowed me to exist.  And because of this I recognize that early in my walk, I believe my frequent reflection of those times and how I've moved on promoted my worship.  But I'm thankful that my relationship with God has grown to where I now worship Him for simply His existence; because this is not a given path of progression.

The Best Contract

In several Christian circles, variations (if not the literal statements) of Matthew 18:19 can be often heard; particularly in those branches loosely titled prosperity churches.  In this verse, Jesus Christ states "...if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven."  Without doubt, this is pretty cool.  Still generally, while millions of us believe that a human being who claimed to be the Son of God came back to life after being executed, we don't all think the agreement this man talked about works.  As if resurrection is something that occurs daily, we often shun the possibility of being in full agreement with one another and instead opt out for compromise - the idea that suggests I'm not with you, but to reduce friction I'm with you.  Interestingly enough, the Bible never mentions the compromise ideal when discussing a pair or a group moving towards achievement.  I believe this is because compromise is minimally effective and has no place in the Kingdom of God; where success is maximized beyond mankinds' understanding.  Yet because of pride, many of us would rather deal with this low level of unity as opposed to living in the highest level Christ spoke of, which is agreement.

Worship Scale - First Entry

Brothers and sisters, if you're not already please include in your daily studies Old and New Testament readings.  For while we are undoubtedly under a new covenant through Jesus Christ (which is fulfilled in the New Testament), the Old Testament expands our understanding of why Jesus' act qualifies us to obtain the privilege to have a relationship with and to worship Jehovah.  It also nullifies ideals such as levels of worship; as worship (just like a pleasing relationship with God) is either on or off.  And lastly, the Old Testament provides the information needed to encourage all of us to move past the "for every mountain You brought me over" phase and to the "because of who You are phase".  Which of you parents would want their childs' love for you based on what you gave them for Christmas 17 years ago?

Not Just Anywhere

Some time ago I attended a church where the population is now dwindling.  Myself and countless others actually outgrew the focus of the ministry; while some just left for a variety of reasons.  I don't find this to be uncommon, because if the center of any ministry is not Jesus Christ, then it's time to dip.  But as stated before, not everyone moved on because of that.  And due to the non-Christ reasons for departure, many people went back.  And for a lot of them it wasn't because the Spirit moved consistently in the structure, it's just that they had to go somewhere.  I can't quite get the "go to church somewhere" philosophy.  It's almost like the goal is to be a well-rounded human by gaining a religious component to ones life.  Shallow to say the least.

Hustler vs. Customer

I gotta blow the whistle here.  For a people who are called to be separate and set apart (1 Peter 2:9) from "the world", we sure do act like the rest of these cats.  Without mentioning our celebration of several holidays and the divorce rate, there isn't much difference between the American and the American Christian.  And speaking of family life, that too has become as common as the heathen.  More particularly, we have taken on the very twisted ideals that contemporary society has given us concerning roles of a husband and wife.  For we love to harp on the man not doing his job, but if we read Proverbs 31, we can see it's not a lot of those women around either.  Now this isn't to get the finger pointing started, but it is to say that generally the man and woman who follows Jesus Christ has plenty work to do.