Who or What Do You Worship?

What Is The Chief End of Man? Man’s Chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever!

That is the first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Apply that to your life. Do you glorify God in all you do? Do you enjoy being with him? We attribute worship to what we love.

Today we most commonly think of Christian Worship as only one thing; Sunday morning church service. We have had a change over the last twenty years, like never before, in how the Sunday morning worship service is going to be acted out. We have seen churches split apart over the style of music used in the worship services. We are now seeing a new kind of service, and churches for that matter, that is modeled after what some believe to be the book of Acts model.

But is Sunday morning the only time we are to worship God? Do we worship him in our daily lives and work? Do we give our all to honor him? Lets explore worship and see what it really is.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind (Luke 10:27)

What Do You Worship

Not everyone that says they worship God actually worships Him. We see so many people today that go to church only show up there because they get a good feeling from the experience or out of duty to someone (maybe to God maybe grandma).  They go to a church but do not actually worship the God they go to see.  How do we determine this? Look at the divorce rate or the teen pregnancy rate or the drug and alcohol abuse rate in the church at large.  For every pastor that gets caught with drugs or porn there are ten more that have not been.

So what does this have to do with worship?

Look at the verse above. We worship what we love. We pour or affection into what we love. One of the reasons I say the Church in America has become a laughing stock is because we love the world and all it has to offer and we put God and Jesus on the back burner. When we say yes to Christ we begin a discipleship where we learn from him. If we do not love Him then how can we learn anything from Him?

Let’s go back for a minute. If you came to this lens from the Spiritual Disciplines lens then you know that I asked you to read the 23rd Psalm during the week. Verse 1-3 says:

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (KJV)

How are you going to let someone lead you if you do not love them? How can you read this and worship him for leading you if you do not love him? in verse 4 it says, “thy rod and thy staff comfort me.” How can you say that if you are trying to buck the system and lead yourself.

Worship is about love, we will worship and need what we love and we will shun and deny what we do not.

I Don’t Have Enough Time?? « Dan Miller’s Blog

In this post Dan Miller show how much time we really do have, and while he is talking about finding work you love it can also be true for your spiritual life.  If you can sit and watch t.v. you can turn that t.v. off and read the bible or do a devotional.  Once you have the discipline to start God will give you the discipline to apply what He is teaching you.

I Don’t Have Enough Time?? « Dan Miller’s Blog.

When Do We Grow Up?

I heard the phrase the other day, “Perpetual Adolescence.” It refers to people in their thirties and forties acting like their teenage children. Think about that, people in their thirties and forties worrying about what their friends will think of them if they do not have a certain phone, car, or wardrobe. It is not your job to have every toy on the market. If you continue to buy a new car every three years you need to stop, pay the one off you have and keep it until you need a new one. Think about this. If you put that money in the bank and buy a used car with what you were spending on a new one you can even upgrade to a better car than the one you are making payments on.

Don’t nickel and dime yourself to death. If you are paying outrageous bills every month then it is obvious to you where your money goes. Look at your small bills and begin to write out a budget. We saved ourselves over $600 a year by switching to a pay-as-you-go plan for our cell phones. Instead of spending $100 per month we spend $400 per year. Look at you cable or satellite package. One guy I met had the NFL package on his plan and did not know it.

Where Do I Start?

Two good places to start getting out of debt are Dave Ramsey and Crown financial Ministries. I am not as familiar with Crown but from what I have read of theirs they are a good biblically based company. Dave Ramsey on the other hand has become a household name. While I do not agree biblically with Dave on every aspect he does have a Seven, “Baby Step,” Plan that will help you get on the road to being debt free.

GROW UP, get on the road to being an adult and quit buying everything in site. Put your trust in Christ and focus on God and he will help you because he knows what you need. (Matthew 6:33)

Personal Success – Without Relationships We Have No True Success

Image via Wikipedia

One of the trends I see when I talk to people is fewer and fewer meaningful relationships. This goes unnoticed in the work place because we may have several surface relationships (relationships that are not over an inch deep) but these do not make up for just a couple of deep life sharing relationships.

I remember as a child growing up in rural Arkansas we ate every Sunday lunch with all of our extended family. We cooked out on holidays and people would quite literally come out of the hills (no my family tree is not a telephone pole). What I am getting at is the days of families living in the same geographical area are over for most people. We do not have close relatives to talk to about what is going on in our lives. We are actually turning inward and shutting out personal relationships altogether. This trend was shown in a study done by Duke University and The University of Arizona. We need to begin to cultivate deeper relationships with like minded individuals or maybe even with people we do not completely agree with. Where do we find these people?

I suggest starting at your place of employment. Are there any individuals who you know very surface level that you have thought you may want to get to know more about? If you are not a talker you may want to buy books on cultivating relationships. One of my favorites is Dr. John C Maxwell’s “25 Ways to Win with People.” This just gives you 25 suggestions to build better relationships.

Second, you could join a group of like minded individuals, The Optimist Club, Toastmasters or the Chamber of Commerce in your local area. Maybe you could join a Church or Synagogue. I do not know about synagogues but most churches today offer men’s groups, women’s groups, singles ministries, family and marriage ministries. So they have opportunities for everyone to be part of something. I am starting a men’s mentoring group this fall at my church. I will be doing the same type of coaching I offer my client’s but it will be in a group setting.

My point is this. Take the time to develop deep relationships. You musty make the time. Do not say I will do it tomorrow do it now. You know the saying that tomorrow never will come. Host parties at your house; just do something to get involved with others. I give you this warning, people are still people. None of us are perfect but if you worry about getting hurt you will miss all of the happiness as well. Don’t give up because in the end the only thing we really leave behind are the lives we touch.