Tag: Worship

Worship and Surrender

Leave a comment

In this fourth part of our series, Pursue: Chasing God in a Godless World, we move in a direction that is perhaps unexpected given the assumptions of our culture.  When Asa and the people were busily moving in the direction of God against the grain of the culture around them they did something most people wouldn’t have done then or now.  As for what this is and what it means for us, keep reading to find out.

 

Worship and Surrender

Have you ever used a Chinese finger trap?  Unless you’ve spent the last 30 minutes stuck in it and are waiting to get loose, grab the one you were handed this morning as you came in.  Go ahead and stick your fingers in it.  Now, try and pull them out.  The natural reaction when you stick your fingers in and can’t immediately slide them back out is to pull harder.  But, as perhaps you have already discovered, pulling harder won’t get your fingers out of the trap.  There are times in life like that, aren’t there?  Times when more pressure isn’t going to get the job done.  There are situations in which we have to learn to stop fighting if we’re going to manage to get anywhere good. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 2 Chronicles 14:2-4

Leave a comment

“And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.”  (ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

Here at the beginning of the description of the reign of King Asa of Judah, as is the usual custom, we get a kind of summary statement. In the following verses and chapters we get more details as to what exactly this looks like. I’d like to walk through those with you if you’ll let me. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: 2 Samuel 6:14

Leave a comment

“And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever gotten so wrapped up in a moment that you forgot about yourself and were totally and purely enjoying it? Have you ever gotten so excited about something that you forget about all the masks and behavior filters you usually wear that you let yourself show all of the excitement you actually felt? It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is unfailingly an interesting experience. Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Psalm 50:13-14

Leave a comment

“Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High…”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the mistakes the people of Israel were making all the time was thinking that God was like the gods of the various nations around them. They were guilty of a confusion of categories. And, we shouldn’t be so terribly surprised by this. All the gods ever invented by people have been basically the same. Sure there have been differences in detail and form, but they have always been a reflection of the people who made them and people are people. But God is different. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Matthew 6:24

Leave a comment

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever had two bosses?  How did that go?  Unless it was a truly unique situation, the odds are that on some occasions you were happy with one, on other occasions you were happy with the other, and only rarely were you happy with both. Read the rest…