Returning the Blessing

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy.  While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head.  The disciples were indignant when they saw this.  “What a waste!” they said.  “It could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”  But Jesus, aware of this, replied, “Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me?  You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.  She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.  I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”  

Matthew 26:6-13

The setting of this event is near the end of Jesus' life and ministry.  The religious and political forces have joined hands to seek his death.  Even within Jesus' own organization, Judas joins the evil plot.  Barely a week before the crucifixion, Mary throws all caution to the wind and bestows a "king's ransom" type of gift on the Lord.  This act of worship causes his followers consternation over Mary's extravagance; it causes curiosity among the onlookers; and it causes Jesus' heart to overflow with gladness.

Which Mary of the New Testament’s several is the one who pours-out this blessing on Jesus is somewhat in question.  The accounts differ in the gospels (perhaps due to separate incidents).  But the question as to which Mary (the prostitute, Magdaline, or the sister of Lazarus)...whichever, we are presented with a beautiful answer as to how our love and worship of the Lord should take form.  Every Mary in Jesus’ life and ministry received life from the Lord.  Magdaline received the gift of forgiveness that changed her whole outlook. 

Jesus treated her (perhaps a common prostitute), with respect, and her life became worthwhile.  Mary, sister of Lazarus received her brother back from the dead.  Either Mary would've given all they possessed to a Jesus like that!  What I love about this account is that Mary is obscured, and Jesus is lifted-up!  That is the true essence of worship – I bow lower, Jesus is lifted higher!  

Fritz wasn't that way.  Fritz was Mrs. Grace's six-toed, twenty-five-pound alley cat.  

Mrs. Grace was an elderly, homebound lady in a church I served years ago.  When you came into the house, Fritz took pains to make sure you knew just who was in charge.  He would demand attention – you can do that when you're the big cat in the house.  He would demand to be scratched behind the ears.  If he didn't get it all to his satisfaction, he'd look you in the eye and dig his extra toenails into your forearm.  When he was done with you, he'd walk over to Grace's chair and sit down in a self-satisfied huff.  Fritz owned the place.  He liked Miss Grace because she fussed over him and fed him…often.  But Fritz worshipped himself!

Mrs. Grace, on the other hand, worshiped God.  She was a prayer warrior, continually lifting all the members of our church before the throne.  When I visited her every few weeks, she was eager to hear "how our church was doing". That took the focus off her, placing it fully on the family of God, and the God of her family.  When she died, it was revealed how extravagant the gift was that was poured out, leaving most of her estate to fund ministries.  She could've afforded a chauffeur and a better home, but she put the resources God had entrusted to her into the work of God.  Truly, this extravagant love was poured out.

For You Today 

You hear often in worship testimony times how God has poured-down magnificent blessings.  Question:  Do we miss times to return the blessing?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

How Much is Enough?

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question: “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him.  “Only God is truly good.  But to answer your question, you know the commandments:  ‘You must not commit adultery.  You must not murder.  You must not steal.  You must not testify falsely.  Honor your father and mother.’”  The man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”  When Jesus heard his answer, he said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done.  Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”  But when the man heard this he became very sad, for he was very rich.  When Jesus saw this, he said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!  In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”  Those who heard this said, “Then who in the world can be saved?”  He replied, “What is impossible for people is possible with God.”  Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”  “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.”                 Luke 18:18-30

The painting of Christ with the rich young ruler reveals the angst-filled pathos of not having a clue when it comes to the destiny of our souls.  The young man asked the elephant-in-the-room question everyone else was thinking…uhhh, Jesus, what’s gonna happen to me in the long run…and what should I do about it?

The men surrounding Jesus are listening intently.  You can see skepticism, fascination, and true holding-your-breath-for-the-answer-honesty in their faces.  After all, you don’t throw-off the question of eternity like you’d discard a candy wrapper.  This was important…even a rich man, with the world at his disposal, couldn’t resist asking for insight on eternal life.

Jesus pointed the young man to what’s written in Scripture about obeying God’s commands, honesty, kindness, generosity, and so on.  But the young man pressed deeper, and Jesus obliged him, and went right for the underbelly of the issue; his answer was, quite pointedly:  What’s the most important thing you wouldn’t want to give up?  The answer welling-up in the young man’s soul made him sad, very sad!  How can you let go of what possesses you?

Peter, (to the left of Jesus in the painting) is standing there with hands unfolded in a questioning motion.  The artist, I believe, is giving Peter’s voice that hopeful edge, as he’s reminding Jesus how he and the other disciples left all they had to follow…was that enough?  Jesus’ answer isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card, a Christian believer’s ID you can present at the pearly gates.  It’s more of a reminder that the final judgment on each of us is in God’s hands.  It is the Father who looks into each person’s heart and judges, repaying reward or punishment with absolute righteousness.

For You Today

The question the rich young man asked is not a bad one if you ask it with empty hands and open heart.  But a better question might be:  Lord, I have decided nothing I have belongs to me…what should I do with it; how can I follow you today?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Unconvinced and More Than Enough

[1] Images:   WikimediaCommons - ©2010 Andrey Mironov   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Let This Mind Be in You

A confirmation message.

[1]

The Scripture that Dylan read a few minutes ago from Philippians, chapter two, what Paul wrote, to let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus[2].  I had a sermon, a WONDERFUL sermon prepared today.  On the way here God changed it; sometimes I hate it when He does that.  But God placed it upon my heart that everything about this confirmation was contained in that one sentence, let this mind be in YOU that was in Christ Jesus. 

The “mind of Christ” – that’s a strange sentence, isn’t it?  When Jesus was feeding the 5,000, what do you think the mind of Christ was doing at that moment?  What was he thinking about?  When he reached out and grabbed a leper by his diseased hand, what was His mind considering?  Jesus did some stuff that, I wonder, if we would ever do. 

Confirmation: the word itself means to make firm.  Have you ever ordered something online?  Yeah, I know; I should have said, during the first hymn, did you order anything online.  We do that all the time, right?  What do you get in an email 7 seconds later?  The Confirmation!  They’re telling you, YES…we got your order, and we are PLEASED to take your money…thank you very much!  That money would be out of your account before you even spoke.  Confirmation means something has happened.

In just a few moments we’re going to have this platform filled.  We are going to be confirming these young people.  We generally think of confirmation in the church as something the church does TO the young people; NO…this is what these young people are doing BEFORE God!  And so will we…we will be answering also (see the answers in the bulletin).  It says, do you, the congregation….  That’s you!  We are reaffirming our vows, but for these young people, for the first time, they’re making firm their vows publicly before God.  If you were here on March 27^th, we had a “wet experience” in the fellowship hall.  We baptized those young folks in the gigantic fish tank.  The early church identified as fish…it was kind of the secret handshake they drew in the sand to identify each other back when Christianity was illegal.  They were saying they were of one mind.  What mind?  The mind of Christ.  That’s what this is all about, they’re making firm their vow before God.

Look at those promises (vows) in the bulletin.  I want you to see that there are five of those promises that these young men will be saying “yes…we do…we will be supporting this church and its ministries by these five ways.  They’re saying what each of you members said when you became part of this church, that these five working parts of the Christian faith is the sermon challenge for each of us…those who took those vows in the past, those who are taking those vows today, and for those who will consider taking those vows in the future.

Let’s look at the first one

1.  We vow our Prayers

What we ask is, are you going to participate in the church’s ministries by your prayers?  We’re asking for that mind to be in Christ Jesus by doing what Jesus did, continually praying.  I had a friend who recently passed, who, years ago gave me an understanding of what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote pray without ceasing.  She told me, Russell, I have so much to pray about I can never say Amen.  I thought, Donna, what in the world are you talking about?  She said, when you say ‘Amen’ that’s the end of the prayer, right?  I never stop praying; I have this conversation that’s going on with God all the time.  That is the issue with the praying promise…are you going to be joining with your fellow believers in this mind of prayer, which is the mind of Christ, and have an ongoing conversation with God…24/7 (I know that will keep you awake at nights, but He will let you sleep when it’s time to sleep).  So, by your prayers you are known.  Then…
2.  We vow our Presence

Your presence is exactly what you’re doing this morning…you’re here!  You’re showing up.  Isn’t that 90% of life, just showing up?  Once you get past that you can see what else (the other 10%) needs doing.  I’m not just talking about showing up in church; I’m talking about all of life.  Are you engaged?

There are two ideas about that business of “presence.”

a.     When you’re in school the teacher takes attendance.  She calls your name, and you answer, present.  That’s presence

b.    But what happens when the lecture gets boring a little later?  You’re not so present anymore, are you?  You kind of check-out sometimes.

To be “present” in terms of this vow is to be engaged in what God’s saying.  The preacher may have a message, or think he does, but God is speaking through the preacher’s words.  The question becomes, are you engaged enough with God in that message that it will go with you when you leave?  If you invite God to be Lord over your life, and not just Savior from spiritual death, He will go with you everywhere. 

Prayers, Presence, and then…
3.  We vow our Gifts

Stewardship…your tithes and offerings are the gifts we vow.  But there’s another sense in which gifts come into play.  The idea of stewardship is to be found faithful[3] with what you have been given.  This is a favorite theme of mine.  Whatever we are doing, wherever we find ourselves, at school, at home, at work, in the garden, fishing, going on vacation, all diverse ways of spending our time,  are we faithful stewards of the gifts we have been given?  Maybe you’ve been given the gift of discernment – you need to be on guard to look and see what is being said, or what is going on, so you can make discerned decisions and act according to what the mind of Christ demands.  If you’ve been given the gift of preaching, you ought not stay silent.

So, Prayers, Presence, Gifts, and there’s also…
4.  We vow our Service

Service is making sure you are faithful over the resources you’ve been given.  As a faithful steward your presence involves service.  It’s not just “onlooking.”  We are not just “onlookers” observing what happens in the world, we are hands-on!  Your service means you are willing to help other people.

These five words – five things we do as Christians, are the way we exercise our commitment to God, our vow, worked-out in daily life.  These are the true measurement sticks by which we monitor our progress of growing into Christlikeness.  There’s a fifth word…

5.  We vow our Witness

My understanding of “witness” is simply retelling your story, that which has happened to you.  To witness to someone is to tell that person what Christ has done in your life. 

Now, listen, I get the feeling – I get the sense, that, if you get the first four words right, that tells you you’re meeting the criteria for the fifth word.  For instance, if your prayer life is what it ought to be.  You’re in an ongoing conversation with Christ, and He’s talking back to you, speaking to your heart, moving you into serving, you’re going to be the kind of witness for Christ He needs, because that conversation with Jesus is not going to stay silent…it will come out of you. 

What about gifts?  If you are a faithful steward with what God has placed in your hands, to help other people in service, financially, or however God directs, then that, is a witness…is it not?  Where you are on a Sunday morning (presence) is also a testimony (witness) to other people.

Years ago I read a story about an elderly lady who had spent all her life in church.  And it was still going on.  Every Sunday morning she’d get up early, study her Sunday School lesson, get ready and walk the three blocks to church.  And every walk was past the same houses.  One of those houses, there was a guy who never darkened the doorstep of a church.  Each time the lady passed there he’d mutter, there she goes, church lady, goin’ t’ church, every Sunday…church, church, church!  After years of this it was finally enough.  She got up one Sunday, studied her lesson, got dressed and walked to church.  When she got in front of that house, he was at it again, there she goes, that church lady, goin’ t’ church, every Sunday…church, church, church!  She stopped, turned to him, and kindly said, that’s ok, friend…I got my priorities and you have yours; I just want God and everybody else to know whose side I’m on.

And that’s the point about witness.

Truly, I think, the most graphic, the most vivid demonstration of whether you’re on His side is your service.  It’s when there’s no question that, if someone needs an arm around the shoulder, your arm is ready.  It’s when you’re ready to take that five-dollar bill out of your wallet when you’ve only got two of them, and place it in the hand of that one who has nothing.  Offering to bring someone to church.  Offering to help someone rake their yard, or whatever needs doing.

So how do you do all that?  How do you get your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness all in line?  It works something like the picture of that “double tree.”

“Christ likeness” is the goal.  If friends, or a family, church, or even a nation would be unified, enjoying genuine fellowship, then Christ like is what we seek.

A great Bible scholar named A. J. Gordon wrote: 

Two little saplings grew-up side-by-side.  Through the action of the wind they crossed each other.  By and by each became wounded by the friction.  The sap began to mingle until one calm day they became attached.  Then the stronger began to absorb the weaker.  It became larger and larger, while the other withered and declined till it finally dropped away and disappeared.  And now there are two trunks at the bottom and only one farther up.  Death has taken away the one; life has triumphed in the other.

To become Christ-like, is to grow so close to Him that people see Him, and precious little of you.  This is unity, where the spirit of Christ has taken over.

Our goal is to grow into Christ in maturity, to be so much absorbed in Him that when people get to know you, or even just observe the way you live your life, they will become curious enough to ask the question:

Are you a Christian?

And what they’ll mean is…I believe you are a Christian…you’re like a picture of Him.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!  

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[1] This sermon is transcribed from video, with minor edits for clarity

[2] Philippians 2:5

[3] Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.  1 Corinthians 4:2  

Deeply Rooted

 

Friday, November 12, 2021

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.  Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.  Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.  For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.  So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.  Colossians 2:6-10

Following anything closely creates roots; just ask a drug addict, or a sports fan.  It works positively in a person’s life just as certainly as it can have a negative result.  If you follow good directions, you wind up where you wanted to go.  If you hear good directions, but decide to ignore what you heard, your chances of winding up in the place you want to be diminish exponentially.  At the very least, the trip becomes harder and depletes more resources.

Paul was encouraging the Colossian believers to follow Christ.  Indeed, Paul’s advice was not just following, but following closely enough to let the roots of their lives become entwined with the Messiah.  In contrast Paul warns them to be cautious of empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking. 

This short paragraph explores the possibilities of living the surrendered life of a follower of Christ from the sublime to the ridiculous in 78 words.  That is precise direction-giving!  But truth be told, you don’t need a lot of words when you’ve just pointed at the gold standard.  (Boy…you don’t know how hard it was for a preacher to write/speak those words about needing less words!)

For You Today

In the matter of checking how deeply your roots are becoming grafted-in to the Master’s, start here:

          1.    Go over your checkbook to see where your stewardship has rooted

          2.    Look at this year’s calendar to see where your feet want to go

          3.    Ask…do I want to meditate on Scripture, or snap on the TV

          4.    Try to dredge up the last time you shared Christ with a perfect stranger

Those are only a few suggestions…but how the roots are progressing has a lot to do with the kind of soil in which they’re planted.  And as a Christian, you will never be fully-mature in Christ unless He has all of you…down to your root ball.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this theme see “Where Are You Going?”

 

The Offering of Love

 

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings.  Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them.  Here is a list of sacred offerings you may accept from them:  gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread; fine linen and goat hair for cloth; tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest’s chestpiece.  “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.  You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.  Exodus 25:1-9

It strikes me as odd that some people never seem to get it just how important it is to make our offerings to God sacred.  I know there are those who have been disabused by huckster-type (so-called) preachers.  When someone spends the lion’s share of time building the bank account we ought to be suspicious at least.  But God’s own holy word tells us that God wants offerings from the heart. 

The one picture in my mind is the ring I gave to Elizabeth when we got engaged.  By any stretch that ring was not from Tiffany’s; he didn’t go to Jarod’s.  But, for an eighteen year old, whose only job prospect was the draft notice he’d recently gotten, it was way more than he could afford.  And yet, I was so excited to put this ring on her finger I could barely keep the secret long enough to get down on one knee.  It was an offering of the deepest love I knew how to express.  And that is sacred.

A brief look at the list of suitable gifts for God’s temple in today’s Scripture is all you need to understand just how seriously God takes this.

I learned a term for a non-sacred offering from a friend many years ago; missionary tea bags.  It seems there were some skinflints in the church of her youth.  Some of the ladies made a practice of saving their used tea bags to send to those poor missionaries.  Somehow it never occurred to them that, perhaps, the sacrifice of using their own tea bags two or three times, so they could afford to buy new packages of tea to send to the missionaries, would move tea bags into the sacred range.  The point is not missed here; anytime you give God second best (or worse), you’re acting like that’s what He deserves.

For You Today

Offering less than your best is no way to propose marriage, do a day’s work, or raise a child.  It certainly doesn’t come into acceptable range in Heaven, when you give less than your best to a God who gave you the very best of what He had, Jesus!  That was God’s sacred offering of love to us; should we do less?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Putting Money in Its Place

 

Monday, May 10, 2021

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.  But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.  Fight the good fight for the true faith.  Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.  1 Timothy 6: 9 - 12

There are four thoughts that are frequently on my mind when it comes to money:

1.    There are many examples of the wrong use of money, all fueled by greed, one of the seven deadly sins.

2.    The Bible, particularly the words of Jesus, and his apostles, condemns greed because of the harm it eventually does to the one who is greedy.

3.    There are a lot less preachers who preach on money than there should be.

4.    There are too many people who get it wrong about why preachers talk about money.

The reason preachers speak about money is because Scripture speaks about life, and everything connected with how we are to conduct our lives.  How we think about and use the resources God puts in our hands is a big part of that.  Granted that the examples of preachers who want to transfer your money from your pockets into theirs are many, but those hucksters are, I’m convinced, still in the minority – by a far margin!  Most preachers, when they speak about money, are concerned with helping us develop strong, spiritually-based habits concerning money which will bless our lives, families, communities and God’s Kingdom.

The backlash against preachers who talk about the use of money is deserved when the motive that spurs the preacher is of greed, like Paul warned Timothy.  But it is radically-lopsided in my experience.  Over the years I have seen some numbers of news cycles focus on some spectacularly greedy public personality.  That’s when the wash of public sentiment becomes disproportionately hostile to the other 99.5% of honest preachers.  And the honest ones wind-up preaching less about the use of our financial resources for fear of driving away the congregation. 

Does that remind you of anything?  It should, because it smells like smoke, right out of the pits of Hell.  That “news cycle syndrome” inciting public outrage, based upon the ludicrous and godless actions of either unbalanced, or just evil persons, destroying the genuine leadership of those acting with good motives, and honest effort, is the Enemy’s method of destroying God’s people from using resources for Kingdom purposes. 

Unfortunately sometimes it works, and primarily because of watered-down preaching that never gets to the heart of the right use of money, or (so-called) saints, who are too stunted in their spiritual growth to recognize the news cycle for it’s ratings-grab, just another yardstick for measuring greed.

For You Today

Money needs to be placed in its rightful place, the hand of generosity, controlled by the Spirit’s guiding.  And God’s people need to remember to encourage their pastors and teachers to teach the Scriptures, helping all of us use God’s resources wisely, and effectively, exhibiting true Biblical stewardship for all the world to see.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Heart Worship

 

Friday, July 17, 2020

Psalm 86:11-13

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth!  Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.  With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.  I will give glory to your name forever, for your love for me is very great.  You have rescued me from the depths of death.

With the exception of miracles, the physical laws God set in place as He created the universe…are indisputable; that is, the rules of how stuff acts cannot be altered.  One of those laws was articulated by Sir Isaac Newton this way:

For every action there is an opposite, and equal reaction.[1]

According to the Psalmist, the idea of heart worship is similar to that; true worship is the extreme response of the heart, mind, and soul to love God, and live in such a manner as to please Him. 

The one fly in the ointment, in saying that our worship of God is an equal and opposite reaction, is the “equal” part.  There is no worship any human can offer that is equal to how God loves us.  God is without peer.  In the same way a watch is not equal to the watchmaker, nor a house greater than its’ builder, no created being is greater, or even somewhat equal, to the Creator.  God is God…and we are not.

And, so, what worship pleases God?  How is it that we give to God worship that is acceptable?  In the New Testament Jesus affirmed to the Pharisees, the answer to that question, found in the words of Deuteronomy 6:5.

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  Matthew 22:37

Now, with Scripture, there are no words which are insignificant, or without the full force of what God meant.  Both Old and New Testaments affirm that, when it comes to the worship that comes from our heart, soul, mind, and anything else we might have available, the key word is ALL! 

“Proper” worship of God means you offer it with everything you’ve got, strength, words, resources; even the breath in your lungs at this moment, and if God gives you another.  What’s the cost for worship?  Well…what have you got?

Hold on, preacher…you just want me to write a bigger check for the offering.  Well, if you can, then you’ve got a decision; if the smaller check means you’ve worshipped with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength, well, then…NO. 

Hold on, preacher…you just want me to give up my vacation to go on some mission trip to help build a school for some third world kids.  Well, if that week at the gambling tables in Las Vegas occupies a bigger place in your mind, heart, and soul, as opposed to the kids that would attend that school…well, then…NO…have a nice trip.

See?  It isn’t something a preacher, your wife or husband, or some wise man on top of a mountain can answer for you.  It’s all about your heart, your mind, your soul, and the strength God has put in your hands.  Because worship isn’t about what the preacher says in his sermon, or the music coming from the piano and choir.  It isn’t even about perfect attendance ribbons, or positions held, or whether your giving is 5% or 75%...worship is all about your heart, and whether God has full access to every last bit of what you consider yours, finances, strength, time, relationships, habits, and willingness to go where He sends, do what He wants, and readiness to drop everything else when He calls.

That is heart worship.  And it is pleasing to God.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, so often we refer to MY time, or MY car, or MY family, or My bank account, or so much of what we deem our possessions and entitlements.  We are so much like children who ‘own’ stuff their parents have provided…we think we have earned, and, are therefore entitled.  Teach us to know how that turns worship away from Heaven, and towards us; teach us how that means we’re making ourselves God, and how it makes our lives barren of worship and unoccupied by Your presence.  Lord, in Your mercy…

For You Today

Sir Isaac Newton was an inventor, as well as a mathematician.  One of his valuable discoveries was the reflecting telescope, a system of mirrors that reflects light to project an image.  Let’s let today’s thoughts be trained on our hearts, like that telescope, to see what kind of “worship” is really going on in there.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO                                                                                                                  

Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on this text:  Reaction Time

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[1] Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law