Worshiping God

Ex. 34:8 Moses immediately fell to the ground and worshiped.

How do you worship God? Do you stand, sit, or bow down before Him? Most of us sit most of the time, whether it is in church or at home. We like it that way. It is most comfortable for us. Sometimes it is too comfortable and we find ourselves dozing off. We are easily distracted in our comfort. We even complain sometimes because we aren’t comfortable enough. It’s too hot, too cold, the seats aren’t soft enough, or they are too soft. The music is too loud or not loud enough. It’s too modern or not modern enough. The pastor speaks too loud and long or not loud enough or long enough. We like our comfort and have grown to expect it. But, is comfort conducive to worship?

Moses was so overpowered by being in the presence of God that he immediately fell to the ground and worshiped him. When was the last time you were so struck by being in the presence of God that you were driven to your knees? Does it strike you like it does me that rarely do we fall on our knees anymore before God? I remember with fondness those times in worship when you couldn’t do anything else but fall on your knees because God was in the house. What has happened? Has God changed to the point where we no longer need to be awestruck and humbled before Him, or have we changed?

How many churches today even have an altar in which we can come and bow before God? When was the last time a call was given for people to gather together in humility before God? Can we honestly say that we have worshipped if we have not been humbled before God? Isn’t it about time that we return to our knees before God? What will it take for us to be overcome by the knowledge we are in the presence of a holy God? Will we ever see the days again in which we see ourselves as the sinners we are and fall before God in repentance?

When we return to our knees, we will then see a mighty revival sweep over our churches and our land. Revival is not a relic of the past; it is the greatest need of the church today.

The Lord's Day

Ex. 31:12-13  The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses:  “Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever.  It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

We have come a long ways since the Lord gave these instructions to Moses.  And….I don’t think we have helped ourselves at all.  It is no longer widely accepted that there is a need to set aside a day of the week to restore our bodies and souls.  Sunday is treated like any other day of the week.  Somehow we have gotten the idea that as long as we crowd the Lord somewhere into our busy schedules we are alright.  We don’t regard the Lord’s Day as a sign of the covenant between us and God.

God made a covenant with man, that if we acknowledge Him and embrace Him as our God that He would be with us and make us holy.  He would make known to us our sin, convict us of it, forgive us for them when we repent of them, forget they existed, and take up residence in our hearts.  His promise to us is that if we repent of our sins and let Him be our Savior and Lord He would never leave us or forsake us.  God promises us that if we submit to His authority over us that He would take care of us and get us safely home to heaven.

When we observe the Lord’s Day, we are acknowledging these things.  We are declaring that God is our God and we love and respect Him enough to set aside a day in our week when we will focus on Him and all He has done, is doing, and shall do in our lives.  It is a day of soul refreshment.  It is a day of worship first and foremost.

The Lord gives us a day of rest and restoration so that we do not lose sight of Him and our need for Him to have control of our lives.  He desires to make us holy, but before He can do it we have to get away from the rush of life and let Him.  We reap what we sow and our lack of concern to obey God in setting aside a day for Him makes us shallow and an unholy people.  The Lord takes our need to be holy before Him seriously, and so should we.  Observing the Lord’s Day is one way in which we show the Lord that we do.  We can only be at our best when we rest in Him.

Fear the Lord

Ex. 20:20  “Don’t be afraid,” Moses said, “for God has come in this way to show you his awesome power.  From now on, let your fear of him keep you from sinning!”

Do you fear God? A proper fear of God helps to keep us from sinning. Most of us don’t fear God as we should. To fear God means we respect Him, revere Him, and respond accordingly. By the way most professing Christians live, I don’t believe there is much respect for God. We have brought God down to our level. He has become not much more than a superman to us. Because God took on flesh and blood, we have humanized Him. We befriend Him to the point where we no longer understand the majesty and mystery of God. God has revealed Himself to us in the personhood of Jesus, but God is far more than what we know about Him. There is a mysterious aura about God that is impossible to grasp this side of heaven. He is greater than creation in His power, and glory. He is the one who designed creation and made it happen by the mere utterance of His word. He is the one who has given mankind the ability to reason and think. He is the one who knows what He has created, why He has created it, and what He is going to do with what He has created. God knows the mind and heart of man and holds us up to His holy standard. He will hold us accountable for what we do with what we know about Him.  He is the one before whom we will stand to give an account for what we have done with Jesus. We must learn to appreciate just who God is and how to respect Him.

We also must revere Him. We must not go through the motions of worship, but truly worship Him. We must strive to focus on Him. We must look to him as our God. We must seek Him with hearts intent on connecting to Him. We must not let others distract us from being still before God and reveling in His presence. We have confused worship with entertainment. We pep up our services and messages thinking that they are worship. While it is good to be excited about our God, excitement cannot replace reverence. In the stillness of the soul we connect with God. We need to rediscover the value of waiting on the Lord. We need to learn how to be quiet and listen for God to speak.

When was the last time you were still enough to hear God in worship or even in your private devotions?  Is all the chatter and busyness before our worship services conducive to reverence before God?  Do we even think about God before we begin to worship Him?

It is only when we learn to fear God that we will know His power and gain victory over sin. 

A Helping Hand

Ex. 17:12-13 Moses’ arms finally became too tired to hold up the staff any longer. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side, holding up his hands until sunset. As a result, Joshua and his troops were able to crush the army of Amalek.

I have always liked these verses. They speak to me about my need for others in my life. I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to want to do things on my own. I don’t like to admit I need help. I don’t like to call on others to come to my aid. Yet, I do need help. I am not superman. I cannot do all that needs to be done. I cannot do all things.

I have discovered it is okay to admit I am sometimes helpless to help myself. Whether it’s in the church or in my personal life, I am much better off and find I can do much better in life, if I simply humble myself and asked for help. Wisdom tells us that many hands make for light work. It also enables far more work to get done.

At the root of why we sometimes are so independent is our lack of trust in the ability of others to do things like we think they should be done. We think we are the only ones capable of getting things right. It’s much easier to just do it ourselves. Yet, experience teaches us that it’s just not true.

Pride also gets in the way.  When we get the idea that we are just fine and don’t need anyone’s help, we have a false impression of our worth, let alone our capabilities.  No one is beyond the need for a helping hand.  There are simply many things others can do better than we can.  It is good for us to rely on others to help us get through whatever we are dealing with in life.

Sometimes we need help from others, and sometimes we need to be the ones doing the helping. It is good when we reach out and help someone in need. It not only helps them, it helps us as well. 

If you have a problem with trusting in the abilities and integrity of others or are to proud to let others help you, perhaps you need to take it to the Lord and ask him to help you overcome your mistrust and pride. We hinder what God wants to do through us when we try to go it alone.

Stay in the Light

 

Ex. 14:19-20 Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to a position behind them and the pillar of cloud also moved around behind them. The cloud settled between the Israelite and Egyptian camps. As night came, the pillar of cloud turned into a pillar of fire, lighting the Israelite camp. But the cloud became darkness to the Egyptians and they couldn’t find the Israelites.

What a difference there is in being in Christ’s protective care and not being in Christ! When we live in Christ, he is there to show us the way to Him. When we are not in Christ, we live in darkness and cannot see our way to God. God does not leave his children in the dark. What may appear to be darkness to the world is indeed light to God’s children.

Also, what may appear to be darkness to us who are in Christ is really no darkness at all. It is an opportunity to see what the Lord can do and what we can do in Him. It is good for us to go through times of darkness so that we can grow in our confidence in God’s love and ability to help us.

We live in a world surrounded by darkness. Those who are a part of the world are groping around trying to find their way. They have no idea where they are going. They are clueless as to why they are here or even who they are. They are grasping for something that makes sense of the life they live. They are troubled by us who are not like them. They cannot see what we see. They don’t understand what we understand about life and eternity. They reject us and rebel against us because misery loves company and we do not keep them company. Those in the darkness don’t come into the light because they don’t want their deeds to be exposed. Deep down they understand that God is and they fall short of the glory of God. They know that He is holy and they are not. They are driven to justify themselves and thus they reject God.

Stay in the Light and you will never have to wonder where you are at or where you are going.  He is the Way and He will show you the way.  He is the Truth and He will make it known to you.  He is the Life and as long as you stay in Him you shall live.  Christ is our pillar of cloud and fire and no one will ever find their way to God apart from Him. 

The Shedding of Blood

Ex. 12:13   “Then the blood you have smeared on your doorposts will serve as a sign. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. The plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

“When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.” Growing up as a kid, we used to sing that song a lot. It still ministers to me. God in his mercy and love for his people provided a way out of certain death. God had had enough of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. He had had enough of the suffering of his people at the hand of the Egyptians. The day of judgment had come. All of the first born sons in Egypt would die. Only those who were covered by the blood would be spared.

It is the shedding of blood that saves us. God instilled life in the blood of all living creatures. It was in the shedding of Christ’s blood that eternal life could be given. His blood was not tainted by sin so his death was accepted by God as sufficient for our salvation. Only those whose souls are washed in the blood of Christ can be saved. When God looks upon our souls, he looks no deeper than the righteousness and holiness of Christ. Jesus is our shield from God’s wrath. For our protection, we must never step out from behind our Shield. If we do, our sins are exposed and we become objects of His wrath.

Notice that in order for the blood to protect the Israelites from certain death it had to be applied in God’s prescribed way.  In order for the blood of Christ to save us, it must be applied to our hearts in the way God prescribed.  We must confess our sins, seek Christ’s forgiveness, give Him permission to change us any way we need to be changed and then live for Him. 

“Thank you, Lord, for your life-giving blood. Thank You for giving up your life on earth on the cross that we might be saved. Thank you, for shielding us from God’s wrath with your righteousness and holiness. And, thank You for never stopping to be our Protector and Savior.”

An Angry God

I am going to post my devotionals here for awhile and see how it goes.  I welcome your comments.

Ex. 4:14a Then the LORD became angry with Moses.

This short statement causes me to pause and think. God became angry with Moses. Why? Moses kept making excuses as to why he couldn’t obey God’s call on his life. God had prepared Moses for this moment of service. He had 80 years of life under his belt. He was ready to step up to the plate and lead the Israelites out of Egypt because God had made him ready. But, Moses tried to convince God that he was not the man. Instead of trusting God, he let his fears control him. I wonder if we too make God angry when we try to find excuses for not obeying him.

What do we do to make God angry? God makes it clear that he gets angry over sin. Do we make Him angry when we chose to delve into sin? Do we make Him angry when we take him for granted? Does He get angry when we show him so little respect? Is He angry over our futile attempts to “worship” him? Does He get angry when we so freely toss His name around, like He was one of us? Does He get angry over our lack of interest in pursuing holy lives? Does He get angry when we let the allurements of sin captivate us instead of Him?  I wonder to what extent we make God angry.

Living in relationship with God requires much from us. We have to work hard to keep ourselves properly connected to Him. God is with us, but He is not one of us. We must never forget that. God is holy, Jesus is holiness personified, and the Spirit is holiness empowered. We must fight the tendency to lose respect for God. We must fight the tendency to not revere Him. We must fight the urge to sin against Him.  We must fight the fears that would cause us to not obey and serve Him.  Let us resolve to give the Lord the best of our hearts and lives. Don’t give God just cause to be angry with you.