Tag: worship

Priorities – 09.13.2024

When I get caught up in delivering a message (or the details of a picnic), I often leave out written illustrations or quotes I had intended to share during the message.  These two are so poignant I thought they were worth printing here.

On Sunday, I made mention of the casualness with which the people of Judah were approaching Temple worship.  It was so bad that God called their offering worthless and their mere presence in the Temple a “trampling of My courts” (Is 1:12).  It was in light of this irreverence that God showed His prophet WHO He was (Is 6).  

The two quotations below, which may be familiar to some readers; are both calls to be less casual about God and our relationship with Him!   ~Blessings, Pastor Scott

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

― C.S. Lewis

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…..Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.  For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. …”

― A.W. Tozer (The Knowledge of the Holy)

Pray First – Jun 21, 2024

There is a great story in 2 Chronicles 20 of Moab’s raid on Judah when Jehoshaphat was king.  Jehoshaphat wasn’t the general David was, but he knew Who God is.  And he threw himself and his people on God’s mercy.  I love the closing line of his prayer, after reminding God of His victory over Egypt, etc. Jehoshaphat says, “O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You” (v. 12 Emphasis added).  It reminds me of Paul’s teaching in Romans 8 that The Holy Spirit intercedes for us because we don’t really know how to pray either!  

So then why pray?  Because it’s a necessary acknowledgment of our humble dependence on God.  James says, we have not because we ask not.  Peter says to cast all of our cares upon Him. Paul says to Timothy as he repairs the church at Ephesus, “First of all gather them and Pray!”  And The Son Himself when He was walking this sod, would get up early just to get alone with the Father and pray.  Pray draws us closer to God and He is the God of all flesh, there is nothing He can’t do!   We have access now, though the blood of Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16); let’s not allow it to be our last resort.

A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel.

In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The lad dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With no little bit of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. (He was a very small boy and the rock was very large.) When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.

Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought, he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved-but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers. Finally he burst into tears of frustration.

All this time the boy’s father watched from the living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?”

Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

After Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple he quoted Isaiah 56 “My House shall be a House of Prayer!”  Let’s make sure this House – WOGF is a “House of Prayer!”

Pastor Scott