Devo 5
9/30/99
"Worship"
Sorry I'm a day late (I'm quite a few dollars short as well), but I have an excuse. I spent all of yesterday decorating my room. Since the people upstairs have moved out, the four of us here will have the entire house to ourselves (as opposed to just the basement). My roommate who has been here for a couple of years has long been itching to get out of the basement and immediately moved to a new room in the attic--and it's taken the last couple of weeks for him to get his stuff out of my room (there are still a few things lying around). But the room is looking more and more my own all the time. That's one reason. The other is that I seemed to have slipped into a kind of spiritual slump. I hadn't picked up my Bible for days, and I got too caught up in things of the world (for lack of a more precise term)--things like playing my computer game, or planning too much of my future without including God in the equation. He got my attention though when something I had been looking forward to for a while didn't exactly happen the way I had expected. I was left wondering if somehow I had caused this by neglecting God and serving my own needs. I don't think God was punishing me in any way, but I do think He was trying to remind me of the hopelessness and confusion that comes from trying to live apart from God--only with the Divine viewpoint on life do things start making sense. Today, though, things are looking up again...but please keep me in your prayers. And now that I've told you everything you didn't want to know, let's move on to today's topic...
Last Tuesday, I got the opportunity to go home to Grand Island for the day. While I was there, I was flipping through a Reader's Digest and happened upon this quote in the 'Quotable Quotes' section:
This caught my attention because it goes along with something John, a friend of mine, brings up often. John is the worship leader of my college group and many times he encourages us to actually listen to the words we are singing because all too often we are just singing a familiar tune while our brain is busy figuring out next week's schedule. It's true for me, it's true for John, and probably true for all of us.
The past four years I've worked at Timberlake, one thing I have always felt important to stress with my campers is that Christianity is fun. I often get the impression that people see Christianity as requiring that you sit through church at least once a week, and spend several hours a week studying a book that is nearly 2000 years old. The sermons are always boring, the book is seemingly filled with meaningless information (who cares who Jonadab's father was!) I don't know about you, but I'm getting bored just writing this. But most, if not all of you know that this is not the case!
Going back to that book I was talking about last week (Becoming a Contagious Christian) Mr. Hybels points out that the Christian life is a life of adventure. Even Jesus said in John that He came to give life to the fullest. King David knew about this in Psalm 51 when he prayed "restore to me the joy of my salvation". And in 1 Peter 1 we read of the "glorious and inexpressible joy" that comes with salvation. Of course the Christian life is not without its trials, but as trite as it may sound, this is where the joy and adventure comes in. Because as Christians, we know that whatever happens to us--no matter how bad--will ultimately work out for our good. Hopefully you are thinking of Romans 8:28 about now.
I read a book once that was set in ancient Britain around 900 AD The main character was a monk from a small monastery off the coast of Britain and he had a special gift--every so often, he would have a vision of what would happen in the future. And one of these visions told him that he would die in the city of Byzantium. Eventually he gets sent on a journey that takes him to Byzantium, but to his surprise he doesn't die. He even visits a couple of more times and still no death. This stirs up a great anger with God. For some reason, he felt cheated and no longer felt he could trust God. In the midst of his spiritual turmoil, he discusses this with a friend and tells him of the vision. He asks his friend whether or not knowledge of one's death is a good thing. His friend replies, "A man equipped with such knowledge would be free to accomplish mighty things...If a man had foreknowledge of his death, it would follow that he would also know all the places where death could not claim him. Thus he would be free from all fear..."
The point of this roundabout illustration is this: As a Christian, our future is clear--maybe not the specifics, but we know that if we put God first in our life, He will do everything in His power to make sure we get what we need to live. With this point of view, even death becomes a good thing (and here you should be thinking of Phillipians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain")
I think that as Christians we have become afraid to truly live a life dependent upon God and instead spend too much time planning our own futures, planning a comfortable life for ourselves and our 2.4 children. Instead, we restrain our worship to non-threatening places like church and Bible study. But even there our daily lives find a way to overpower any true worshiping that may occur. As a result of this hiding, people get the wrong impression of what Christianity really is and are consequently not attracted to it the way they should be.
I think the solution is, like so many things, easier said than done. Start living like you know God is in control, even when everything is going south. Remember "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt. 19:26)