Tag: worship

Write It On My Heart

NOT A COPY

JESUS PREACHED IN THE SYNAGOGUES.  THE PEOPLE CALLED HIM RABBI. 
As a Jewish teacher, it was more than probable that he followed the  Ritual of Worship traditional to their time including incense as did Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist. The Psalmist writes,  “May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭141:2‬ ‭(niv)

The burning of incense AND the lifting of hands were symbols of remembrance and glory to The Holy God.  Those who worshipped false gods “copied” those who worshipped the one and true God.  


Those who are worshippers of “the false” take what is good, right and required, driving it into the ground, or over emphasizing it in their attempt to delegitimize the true and ordained. 


Do you want to really know Him?
Do you want Him to communicate with you?
Do you hunger for that secret place where you know and are known?


Throw away those old ways that muddy your conscience, that cause grief to Him, THEN YOU WILL “HAVE CONFIDENCE to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, … let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:19-22‬ ‭(niv)

Write It On My Heart

The Future of Religion

JUST SAYIN’ – There are a few articles addressing the topic, “THE FUTURE OF RELIGION.” If I am allowed to inject my insightful opinion – 😄😄😇 – (hold your seat): taking the position that religion will [of course I don’t agree] decline and ultimately disappear from the human stage 4 million years from now, the reasons, in my humble opinion,  would be:

1. Narcissism – worship of an objective deity will disappear because people will be too consumed asking,

“Whataboutme?!”

Whataboutme!?!”

2. Gradually, religion as it is now constituted will become more and more a shadow without substance.

3. Religion will morph into a quasi political philosophy. In Jesus’ day, His disciples were so busy following Jesus they didn’t have time to put their energy into clamoring for more political influence.

4. Then there will be “wars, wars, and rumors of wars.”

THERE ARE THOSE OF YOU WHO WITH KEEN ANTICIPATION DUTIFULLY READ MY MISSIVES, therefore, you know that I am of the opinion that Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship. Those who know Him are believers, “born anew,” followers of Christ, The Way.

HOWEVER …

5. The more Christian preaching, teaching and music turn into a “whataboutme” entertainment venue, the more Christianity, church-goers, and followers will seek out Christian-oriented programs and services that tickle our fancy with a positive twist like our vodka martinis. 😳

“You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you —keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.”

2 Timothy 4:3-5  🎼🎶

“Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh! to be like Thee.

Oh! to be like Thee,

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, Come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image       deep on my heart.”

(Thomas O. Chisholm)

Write It On My Heart

Are We Warthogs?

IF THERE IS NO GOD,  NO HEREAFTER, NOTHING MORE THAN THE PHYSICAL floating through millennia of transmutation, why do we sometimes hurt deeply in our soul?  Why don’t we die like a dog or mosquito or a fish in the ocean?  What’s the big deal!

Why is it that for the last 6,000 years human beings have yearned for a supreme being making gods of wood and gold?  Who put the hunger in our heart for love, purity, moral conscience, for order?   What about that yearning to live forever?  If we are animal only with no hereafter what, then, is the big deal about dying – we just disappear, rot away in the dirt?  To the dialectical materialist/Left/communist crowd, you and your family are only economic animals to be manipulated for what they would interpret as the good for the whole of society.  Are human beings possessor of some kind of strange spirit that other creatures don’t have; or, does a dragonfly have what we have?  A cow, horse, warthog, grasshopper?   If we are no different, why not feed the hungry with human meat?

NO! A thousand times NO!

“In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people. But God’s mercy is great, and he loved us very much. Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace.”

Ephesians 2:1-5 (ncv)

 

To the eternal God the writer of Hebrews wrote: “‘You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.’”

Hebrews 2:7 (nlt)

 

“Now we did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit that is from God so that we can know all that God has given us.”

1 Corinthians 2:12 (ncv)

 

“I want [you] to be strengthened and joined together with love so that [you] may be rich in [your] understanding. This leads to [your] knowing fully God’s secret, that is, Christ himself.  In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are safely kept. I say this so that no one can fool you by arguments that seem good, but are false.  “When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins.”

Colossians 2:2-4, 13 (ncv)

 

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:24 (ncv)

You are not just a piece of evolutionary meat roaming the desert of confusion.  You are a spirit longing to join the Spirit of God Almighty.  Your spirit is that something God put within you that gives you the ability to have an intimate relationship with God through the redeeming sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for the penalty of your sin and mine!