How often do you think about your rescue? Years ago, I pulled a lifeless body off the bottom of a pool. The young man was a friend and a top-notch swimmer who had passed out underwater. I was the lifeguard responsible for the afternoon watch at a large pool at a Y in Miami. I noticed he was laying motionless underwater. The other guards were not paying attention because of this young man’s known excellence in the water. But I knew something was wrong, so I yelled to the other guards, dove in and lifted him up to waiting hands which successfully performed CPR. Over 10 years later I ran into my friend unexpectedly in downtown Miami. […]
Worship
159 posts
Biblical worship is transformational! God doesn’t call you to worship just so you can have a moving experience. He calls you to worship so that you will be confronted with his greatness. In worship you will praise God for his mercy. But will your praise result in you being more merciful? If if does not then your praise is empty and self-serving. He calls you to worship that leads to repentance. He calls you to be merciful as he is merciful. Biblical worship is transformational. You cannot truly worship God and remain the same. God does not treat you the way you deserve. If you treat others as you feel they deserve to be […]
How big is your God? When you go to church you will sing songs that exalt the wonder and power of God. Do you really believe that God is an amazing God? I am confident that the vast majority of you reading this post would answer an emphatic yes. But let me take this just one additional step. If you really believe that God is the wonderful, magnificent person described in the songs you sing and in the Bible you read, could you easily forget him? Again, you say, of course I won’t forget God and his power. In response, I am rebuked by how often I fail to acknowledge the powerful God I praise on Sunday. […]
What if you could see Jesus standing next to you? What if you could physically see Jesus next to you when: you participated in corporate worship? you argued with your spouse? you disciplined your children? you were upset about being treated unfairly? you were tempted to lust? you had the opportunity to read your bible or watch your favorite TV show? well… you get the idea. Would your typical responses to any of these scenarios change if you could see Jesus Christ standing with you? If the answer is yes to any of these then your faith and your belief in the Bible is seriously lacking. These are hard words for me to write because they […]
God’s message for all of humanity: Praise Him! God commands praise from all of the earth, from all of the people of earth. Only God’s love is unfailing. Only God is faithful forever. No one else is worthy of praise! The worship of God is not optional for the human race. This one truth is the foundation for life itself: God is to be praised. In his wisdom the Holy Spirit wrote an entire Psalm to capture this truth. Why not learn it, live it and love it? Bring its message to all of your life. Sometimes we forget that the Holy Spirit is the most articulate and brilliant of all authors. He alone set the literary […]
True worship must be rooted in humility. Worship must be consumed with whom you worship. If your worship focuses upon your experience then your experience becomes the object of worship. This is not only a bad idea, it is an insult to God. True worship must be rooted in humility. You and I are indeed people with unclean lips. Humility is a response to God’s greatness, power and holiness. Worship is a response to greatness. When you consider who God is, you can not help but bow before him. If you are not blown away by the greatness of God, you are thinking too much of yourself. Worship is a response to power. When you consider […]
The Danger of Worship Words God is the heart knower. In fact, he is the only one who knows the content of your heart. But, even with this knowledge, you and I can be foolish enough to come before God with words that mask the thoughts of our hearts. We can speak and sing words that make us acceptable, even pleasing to others, while we hide the reality of our troubled heart. Israel had this same problem. They honored God with his Psalms. They said Hallelujah when they heard his truth. But their hearts were distant. Their hearts were busy with their own desires. Too often we do these same things today. We sing hymns and Psalms […]
Worship is not for the strong!We humans often think we can take care of ourselves. We like to appear as if we have it all together. We don’t want to appear as if we are in need. We like to think that if we work hard we will be fine. We don’t want to be vulnerable in our relationships. However, the truth is that these attitudes will keep us from the worship of our God! When Jesus calls for the weary and burdened to come to him, we tend to think that he is speaking to the poor and disadvantaged of the world. That would be accurate as long as we include ourselves among the poor and disadvantaged. You see, […]
Loving God’s Truth There is a difference between having the truth and loving the truth; only the latter leads to obeying the truth. Dale Ralph Davis
Your unfailing love is better than life! The Psalms never lack for reality. They speak of the difficulty of living in a world cursed with sin. The Psalmists never back away from the desperateness of life’s problems. The language of the Psalms is stark and graphic. We resonate with the truth spoken by the Holy Spirit. We do search for God in the midst of a parched and thirsty land. Yet, it is precisely because the Psalms are in touch with reality that they also bring healing words which reach deeply into your longing heart. The Psalms overflow with the wonder of God despite the harshness of life. As Psalm 63 shouts: God’s unfailing love is better than […]