How easy it is to get stressed when you are late for "Sunday Worship". We can run over (or run by) our spouse, our children, our friends, the one serving our Sunday coffee or takeout...in our rush, which we mistakenly/deceivingly call our "zeal/love for God", to get on time to worship God.
God reminds me that my life is to BE worship; a testimony to the love of God and the glory of God. Worship to God is more than "lip service", it is to be LIFE SERVICE. If we run over and run by our neighbor in our supposed "zeal" to worship God, show our devotion and our love to Him, we have only come to fail in the end; because we only need to read what God spoke through John in his first letter to see that we cannot love God if we are not loving our neighbor.
May God be gracious to rebuke and remove our self-deceiving blindness; we are not worshipping Him if we are treading on our neighbor and expect we are pleasing in His eyes by the words we speak rather than by the lives we live. Lay (pray) the foundation of humility before building the house of holiness. Only God can bring forth the necessary fruits; look to the Master Vinedresser to help and hone your life to be worship to Him, not just your lips.
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"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." -Hebrews 13:15
"To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." -Proverbs 21:3
"When Jesus heard that. He said to them..."But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice..." -Matthew 9:13
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord , the temple of the Lord are these.’“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt,then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.“Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, ” says the Lord.Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ - Jeremiah 7:3-11 & 21-23
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." ~1 John 3:16-18
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Different Things God is teaching Me
SpiritualWhen God shows His love, mercy, forgiveness, longsuffering, and grace towards you...it shouldn't stop with you. You are destined to pass it on to others and reflect faithfulness and devotion back to Him as the Divine Spouse. Cover Art by Maria Oosth...
