Shoddy Worship

 

I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

—Psalm 122:1

In these current days, we can all see how the vast majority of Christian churches are struggling to stay alive. Congregations seem to have dwindling numbers and aging members, faithful but stagnant. Meanwhile, Sunday sports events draw crowds of thousands and enthusiasm never seems to wane. Even children’s sports teams that hold matches on Sunday do better with attendance than many churches.

From some 780 years before Christ, we can identify with the observation of the prophet Amos, as he quotes the people in his generation, found in Amos 8:4-6:

“When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath ended that we may market wheat?”—skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.

Does that not sound like the world we live in? If people even occasionally attend worship services on Sundays, they often do so hurriedly, so that they can get back to buying, selling, and attending to matters other than meditation and prayer. Yet, upon a closer examination of the spiritual state of Christians in our society, it appears that shoddy attention to worship results in a lethargy that produces ungodly and sinful work.

May I be so bold as to suggest that what we give ourselves to on the Sabbath—our Sunday—determines the way we manifest Christ’s divine presence in our lives during the rest of the week? Any activity that requires us to forsake the gathering together with our fellow believers distracts and detracts from the effectiveness of our spiritual formation and our spiritual growth.

The prophet Malachi, the last prophet to write before the birth of Christ, had plenty to say about the way people in his generation approached worship. He admonished them for giving mediocre attention to their offerings before God, insisting that what they gave of themselves was far below the standard of excellence that reverence to God requires. In those long ago days, much like today, even the priests dedicated to serving God violated the covenants of the Lord.

Yet, God promised a messenger—a mouthpiece for the Lord—to purify His servants and to call His people back. God’s standard for worship requires the attention of His people to the purity of His cleansing power. Note the Prophet’s words from Malachi 3:2-4:

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.

Perhaps God is preparing His church for His Son’s second coming, as He was preparing the people of Judah in Malachi’s day for the birth of His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need an adjustment to our Christian culture that puts first things first, so that not only do we worship our God acceptably on Sundays, but we also give our devotion, our obedience, and our work the other six days to Him, as well. Out of joy and gratitude, we need to consciously and purposefully strive to please Him in every way.

As we consider all that God has done for us and continues to do for us, may we make necessary corrections to our priorities so that we can say:

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

 

 

Clusters of Mercy

 

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge.”

—Psalm 57:1

One prayer we can always pray and know God will answer is, “Lord, have mercy.” In reading Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great preacher of the 1800s, I came across a devotional that opened up the word “mercy” to me. The definition reminds me of my hydrangea bushes.

When you look at the bush from a distance, you see the clusters of flowers that look like pom-poms, but when you take the time to look up close, you see tiny petals that make up the smaller flowers within the larger blooms. According to Spurgeon, God’s mercy resembles the hydrangea. Perhaps we have to come to the place where we see our need for God’s mercy up close before we truly realize the beauty, power, and depth of it.

Spurgeon first reminds us that the mercy of the Lord is a tender mercy coming from the gentle, loving touch of God. It is a great mercy. Like God Himself, His mercy shows His infinite bigness. God’s mercy is undeserved mercy. We have no right to it. This mercy is also rich mercy. It has efficacy for all our wounds.

God’s mercy is manifold mercy. Here we see the cluster of multitude blessings. God’s mercy is abounding mercy. We can never exhaust it. It is unfailing mercy. God always gives it to us and it will never leave us.¹

As Psalm 23:6 tells us:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy life.

Why would we not call for mercy? We can never live beyond the beauty and breadth of it. When we come to the end of our own resources and those of everyone we know, remember that God makes His mercy available to us. And, His mercy will never fail.

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1 Spurgeon, Charles H., Morning and Evening. McLean, VA: MacDonald Publishing Co., Public Domain. p. 588.

 

 

Watch in the Same

 

“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”

—Colossians 4:2 (KJV)

God has told us to pray. But additionally, Scripture indicates effective praying includes both the anticipation, the expectation, and the perseverance having to do with faith.

Jesus told a parable of a persistent widow coming to a judge for justice, recorded in Luke 18:1-8. He used the story to teach His disciples that they should always pray and not give up. We read instances in Scripture in which people, tired of waiting on God, took matters into their own hands to solve their problems. Disaster often followed such action.

We see others who just gave up asking, thinking God would not grant their requests. While sometimes God does tell us “no,” most often He answers our prayers in His own way and in His own time—which are infinitely better than our own.

We should live like anglers checking their bait, like bakers checking their pies, like lovers standing watch at the door waiting for the other. We should believe with anticipation that the answer will come. We should put our eyes, not on the object of our prayer, but on the One to whom we pray.

I like the way Puritan preacher Richard Sibbes puts it: ¹

Waiting causes us to focus upon [God.] If we are earnest, we will not go away until we speak with him. Faith remains at the door until he comes. All of us fail in this; we do not wait until we obtain. Let us not blame the Savior whose promise is firm without change. If we would learn to wait, we would hear more from him.

We have this promise from Jesus Himself in Matthew 7:8:

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Don’t you suppose Moses’ mother not only had the little boat created for her baby and cast it in the water with faith mixed with hope? Of course, she did. But, she also continued to watch her little treasure—and set her daughter to watching as well—until God answered her prayer and safely returned Moses to her.

Sometimes, we need to employ others in the process of our prayers. We may run out of steam when waiting seems interminable. But, God has graciously given to all of us someone, or a small group, or a church, standing ready to help us pray and watch.

Let us be encouraged today to persevere, to hope, to believe, and to watch for the “God of the Answer.” He has promised to come to us.

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1 From “Works” by Richard Sibbes, as quoted in Rushing, Richard, editor. Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 330.

 

 

Jigsaw Puzzles

 

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.”

—1 Corinthians 12:12

I like to think of you and me as jigsaw puzzles. We’re made up of many parts that God has placed here. He takes the many parts of us and puts those parts together with the parts of other people to create an even greater, more magnificent puzzle. That greater puzzle becomes the breath-taking reality of His Kingdom, along with the Body of Christ, the Church.

We become small, yet integral, pieces in other people’s puzzles, too. Have you ever considered how God’s magnificent wisdom allows each of us to perfectly fit into the final, truly wonderful picture He is making in this world?

Yes, we can easily see how our parent’s love and care formed a good deal of the puzzle that we have become. Yet, their choice of place to live, the particular year in which we were born, and the friends, colleagues, mentors, teachers, and ministers we have met have helped form us—put together our pieces—in ways we could never have put those pieces together by ourselves.

Trace just one thread of your life back to its origin and see all the people who handled the puzzle pieces for you. How did you get that position? How did you end up in the city, the marriage, the church in which you have found yourself? Who taught you to read? Who introduced you to your chosen profession? Who helped you develop your passion for whatever brings you the most joy?

Psalm 115:1 gives glory to God.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

God’s love saw the final completed puzzle from the very beginning. In fact, God designed it. He saw the finished picture of you, complete and totally unique as a part of His great plan.

Praise Him for the way in which He has placed you in the big-picture puzzle next to others with whom you can share a spot. Thank Him for His wonderful wisdom, far above us all, and for His completed work of art that depends upon and totally involves you and me!

 

 

Lost in Wonder

 

“One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”

—Psalm 145:4-5

My old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines the word “wonder” as “Rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.”

Children seem to catch the wonder of a moment more quickly than adults, probably because, to a child, everything presents itself as something new. However, if we take the time, adults can experience wonder, too.

Charles Wesley, the author of more than 6,000 hymns, occasionally would “borrow” phrases from the hymns of others. One such phrase he used, originated from the hymn, “When All Thy Mercies, O My God,” written by Joseph Addison in 1712. ¹

In this hymn, Joseph Addison looked back over his life and surveyed the way God had cared and guided him from infancy, through youth, in hidden dangers, sickness, sorrows, and “every period of my life.” As he considered all the times and ways of God’s good providence over him, he stated that he got:

“lost in wonder, love and praise.”

As for Charles Wesley, in 1747, he borrowed this phrase for use in his well-known hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” ² Wesley wrote this as a corporate prayer, asking God to work in His Church—the Body of Christ—to make us, His people, like Him in His love. He asks for Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father Himself to invade the hearts and minds of God’s people with His awesome character. We find the “borrowed” phrase at the very end of the hymn, where He concludes:

“till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.”

Taken together, we see that God fills our earthly life with the wonders of His grace. And yet, we look forward to even greater wonders when “in heaven we take our place.” What a wonderful meditation from two godly men of the 18th century.

Let me suggest that you click on the following links “When All Thy Mercies, O My God” and “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” to read the words to these two hymns. Then, meditate on them, and use them as a means of worship and praise. Lose yourself in the wonder of our gracious and glorious God!

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1 Addison, Joseph. “When All Thy Mercies, O My God.” Public Domain.

2 Wesley, Charles. “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” Public Domain.

 

 

The Player Piano

 

“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

—Psalm 126:5

Before television came to our home, my sister and I entertained ourselves by the hour at an old player piano. This piano had been purchased by my grandfather in 1934 and it came with 85 player rolls for $35.00.

The player piano rolls contained songs from Chopin Polonaises, to Joplin Ragtime, to Gospel hymns, to Sousa marches. My sister would pump the pedals while I “danced” and I would pump the pedals while she “danced.”

The rolls were cleverly created by machines that would stamp the holes and slits in just such a way as to play the correct notes in the right rhythm. What an ingenious idea to provide for “live” music in every home.

As I think about the way in which God wants our lives to play forth songs for His glory, I think of the confusing array of cuts and holes that He allows our lives to experience. The stamping and punching, in a pattern that only He can read, comes from His wise and overarching wisdom and love.

God wants to bring out the music in us! He punches and slices in just the right places and in just the right time to complete in us the song He is writing. Not one extra hole ruins the sound. Not one slice comes at the wrong time.

God has perfectly engineered the pains, losses, and disappointments to come together so that they make something beautiful. Praise God! He knows just the number of gashes we need to make the music come through to His glory.

In Philippians 1:6, the Apostle Paul told the Christians at Philippi that he wrote to them with joy:

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Though the painful process continues in us, God will achieve the purpose for which He has made and called us—to cause the music of our lives to praise Him!

 

 

A Place at the Table

 

“Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was crippled in both feet.”

—2 Samuel 9:13

Have you ever arrived late at a large party or reception wondering where you will sit, only to find someone you know waving a hand in your direction and inviting you to a place near them? I admit to having experienced this moment of discomfort, and then immediate relief. What a blessed feeling to know I had a place to “belong.”

In King David’s day, he wanted to remember his good friend Jonathan, who at various times had intervened to save David’s life from Jonathan’s father King Saul. Jonathan, humble and with no designs on a future as king himself, had given his full allegiance as a true friend to David.

Upon his death, and that of Saul, David asked whom he might honor of Saul’s family. When introduced to Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, David immediately bestowed on him the royal treatment. And, David promised to continue this treatment for the rest of Mephibosheth’s life. David was offering Mephibosheth a place of belonging at the table of the king—a place of great intimacy.

When God looks at us, he sees friends of Jesus. And, because of Jesus—not for who we are or what we might have done—God finds a forever place for us at His table.

Here’s how the authors of one book described this amazing gift: ¹

When we walk into the crowded excitement of the wedding feast of the Lamb, with the sound of a thousand conversations, laughter and music, the clinking of glasses, and one more time our heart leaps with the hope that we might be let into the sacred circle, we will not be disappointed. We’ll be welcomed to the table by our Lover himself. No one will have to scramble to find another chair, to make room for us at the end of the table, or rustle up a place setting. There will be a seat with our name on it, help open at Jesus’ command for us and no other.

No doubt Mephibosheth had physical features like those of his father’s that reminded David every day why this poor, disabled soul sat at his table. It was because of David’s love for Jonathan. And because, through faith, we carry the resemblance of Jesus, God the Father saves us a place at His table.

If we have accepted the covering of our sins through faith in Christ, we can be assured of a forever place there—a place of belonging through no merit of our own. Praise His holy name!

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1 Curtis, Brent and Eldredge, John. The Sacred Romance. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997. Pp. 182-183.