Everybody Worships

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:1-5

Worship.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “worship?”

Is it an image of a place? A memory? An emotion? A style of music? A person? An experience?

Worship can be a controversial topic; that’s sad. Churches and Church people have fought over worship; that’s really sad. Except, I think people rarely, if ever, actually fight about worship even when they think they are doing so. Instead, when people “fight about worship,” they are actually fighting about quite tangential (though not unimportant) things like styles of music and practices. Worship, you see, is much deeper than what we see on the outside, something worth fighting for, not fighting about.

Worship is an overflowing from what is inside towards something on the outside, something bigger than us. Worship is an overflowing of our emotions, will and intellect towards what we find most valuable in life. Notice I didn’t say God? I said, “Towards what we find most valuable?” You see, everybody, whether they believe in God or not, worships. We all worship what is most valuable to us. And whatever that thing is, it will shape us. We all find our meaning, purpose, security and hope in the object of our worship. Or, to flip it and look at it from the other side, we all worship whatever gives us ultimate meaning, purpose, security or hope. What we worship becomes our god.

Rebecca Pippert, in her book Out of the Salt Shaker, writes, “Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by acceptance. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.”

Do you agree with this statement? Disagree? Does it confuse you? Do you see this played out in your life? If this is true, what do you worship? Do you see yourself being controlled by things that you never intended to give that much power, things like achievement, family, relationships, approval or status?

This is not an academic exercise. This is hugely important. Worship is serious business, with serious consequences in all areas of your life. God gives us many, many good things, but he alone is ultimate. When we worship him, we change and what we value changes to the values of the Kingdom of God, to the values of Jesus, who alone will satisfy us if we get him and forgive us if we fail him.

A 40 Day Counter Cultural Journey

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. John 17:11; 15–16

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent, a 40-day period (46 including Sundays) leading up to Easter. For some of us those words provides no new information. For others, while we understand the words, they represent an experience or practice unfamiliar to us. When you read those words, are you curious, confused, or complacent?

Entering into the season of Lent is a new thing to me. It was not part of the tradition from which I come. So, for me, it is an exciting time to enter more fully and more personally into the story of Easter. It is a time to look at my finitude, my frailty, my pain and even my death, not in a depressive or self obsessed way, but in way that allows me to intentionally step outside of the cultural milieu where these realities are simply not to be dwelt upon. In Lent, we step into those seemingly dark realities, even as we count each day closer to the approaching light of the resurrection, which once upon us tears away the veil of darkness and shouts, “death, where is your sting, death where is your victory?”

I invite you to enter into the season with me and with the community of Creekside Covenant Church. You can choose to give up some things during this period if that helps you enter into the story. Likewise, you can add things in. We have produced a Lenten Devotional if you would like a daily practice of scripture. Think about attending our Ash Wednesday service tonight at 7:00 at Highland Covenant Church. What other ways might you, your friends or family join together in this season of Lent? Whatever you do, do not let it become a legalism, but allow it to be the grace of seeing yourself through different eyes so that you can move more fully into Easter.

Share your ideas with me and with others so that we might all journey together the journey of transformation into disciples of Jesus.

Peace, hope and love

Doug

Who Told You That You Were Naked?

Who told you that you were naked? Genesis 3:11

Exposed, accused, guilty, shameful; whispered voices, “You are naked.” We are all works in progress, imperfect, often not the people we want to be. It is God’s plan for each of us to move towards our true self, what the Bible calls sanctified. While none of us will fully achieve that state this side of heaven, we are at the same time seen by God as having already attained it – through Jesus’ work on the cross. If you are a follower of Jesus, God sees you as complete, holy, without shame, and clothed.

- Are there voices that tell you otherwise?
- Whose voice might they be?
- Do they ever claim to be God’s voice?
- Whose voice is it that tells you that you are naked?

Take a moment and consider the tragic story of the fall of man and the restorative voice of God in the garden.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31

The LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16–17

The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25

“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. Genesis 3:4

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:6-7

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Genesis 3:8–11

God’s plan is that each of us moves further and further into our true self, further and further into the person He already sees us as, further and further sanctified. He invites us to move forward, yet never condemns us; never tells us that we are naked.

- Who tells you that you are naked?
- What might the voice of God be saying to you instead?

Peace, hope and love

Doug