Pastoral Musings

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us

Israel's Escape from Egypt, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”” (Psalm 95, ESV)

What was God’s complaint against Israel? The tempted Him. They didn’t trust Him enough to obey Him.

Why did Israel neither trust nor obey God? Because they did not worship Him as they should have. They failed to remember Him as Creator. They failed to recognize His eternal power. They neglected to consider that all of the world is His possession and His domain.

Worst of all, Israel failed to consider Providence. They did not stop to consider the work of God in their own lives.

Israel had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Their feet didn’t even get muddy. Among the hundreds of thousands who departed Egypt in the Exodus, none were in wheelchairs or on stretchers. All were strong and able-bodied.

Israel had seen YHWH provide water out of a rock. They had seen Him send the quail to eat and experienced the wonder of waking every morning to the sight of manna on the ground just waiting for them to pick it up and prepare a meal from it.

Israel did not consider the works of God.

They did not learn His ways.

They did not learn to worship God by trusting Him and faithfully obeying Him.

Israel’s failure was a failure to observe the providential works of God and learn from them how to trust God.

Let us not make the same mistake.

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In the days of Nehemiah the people sought to reinstate the worship of YHWH in Jerusalem.  How did they do so?  They called for Ezra the priest, the scribe, to bring the Word of God.  They stood in the street of the city daily while Ezra and others preached in tag-team fashion.  By that means they learned the will of God and the worth of God once again.  Thus they worshiped.  ( Nehemiah 8:1-18  )

Interestingly enough, Jesus told the woman at the well in Sychar that worship must be Word based.  He told her that worship must be in spirit and in truth. ( John 4:24 )  What is truth?  Scripture ( John 17:17 ).  Actually, it is God in Christ as He is seen in Scripture ( John 14:6;17:17 ).

We need to have a renewed commitment to Scripture in our worship today.  Old, harmful, legalistic traditions bind us and inhibit our worship.  Careless laxness because of disregarding Scripture inhibits our worship.

We must worship in truth, knowing God in Christ through His Word.

Related articles

• Ezra’s Example (freshlyground.wordpress.com)

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Today’s Christians often focus on good feelings.  It seems that many think they have not experienced worship unless they have some sort of good feeling.  Is this how we should be?  Should every meeting with God’s people be a hand waving, hand clapping, shouting, laughing event?

Oh, I know, we are commanded to rejoice.  In fact, I love to read Deuteronomy 26:1-11 where the command is to worship and rejoice.  That resonates with me.   I also read that terrible things are threatened if we do not rejoice in the LORD cf Deuteronomy 28:47-48;Psalm 2:10-12.  There is no doubt that our worship should have a component of joy, and that joy should be a huge part of our worship.

The question I ask first of all is this: Is joy all there is to worship?  Scripture responds with a resounding “NO!”  Paul spoke of being sorrowful and rejoicing ( 2Corinthians 6:10 ).  Joshua commanded Achan to worship God (give glory to Him) by confessing his sin ( Joshua 7:19  ).   Worship includes much more than joy.

Worship includes prayer; or should I say that prayer is worship?  Either way that it is put, there is much truth in the statement.  The first mention of worship is found in Genesis 4:26.  The King James Version tells us that men began to call upon the name of the LORD.  The New Living Translation tells us that men began to worship the LORD by name.  We know, too, that prayer is not always an occasion of joy.  Sometimes prayer is filled with heartbreak and bitter tears.

Both Abraham and Job show us examples of worship in which joy is not seen as clearly as faith in the midst of agony is.

In Genesis 22:1-19 Abraham is called to give Isaac, his son, as a burnt sacrifice in worship to God.  Abraham faithfully obeys and is rewarded both with his son and more promises.  As I put my precious four year old son to bed each night, feel his arms wrapped around my neck, and hear him say, “I wuv you, Daddy”, I can tell you that it makes me take Abraham’s worship much more seriously.  In fact, I am now thinking of worship in general much more seriously.  After all, I cannot imagine having to give him up.  I cannot imagine the faith it would take in the worth and love of God for someone to give up his son.  Abraham’s worship makes many lukewarm Baptist song service look not only anemic, but dead when held in contrast with each other.

And Job?  What can be said about him?  His loss was great, yet his worship was equal to the loss.  In a short span of time he lost all that he had.  The only things left were the bearers of bad tidings and his wife, who told him to give up.  In spite of losing all of his goods and his family, Job worshiped declaring that God had given him all that he had, and that God had taken it all away.  He then said, “Praise the name of God.”  ( Job 1:1-2:10 ).  Job worshiped because he knew that God was more powerful than the forces that took away his possessions and his family.  Job worshiped because he knew that God was sovereign and wise in His doings.  He worshiped because he knew that God was trustworthy.  This is why he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. ” (Job 13:15)

Then there’s Habakkuk, the guy with the weird name.  His worship was a mingling of anticipation, hard times, grief, and joy.  He said, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. ” (Habakkuk 3:17–19)

If we worship we cannot afford to neglect the fact that there will be difficulties and heartaches in life.  The only true worship is that which takes into consideration the realities of life, the sovereign goodness and wisdom of God, and our need to trust Him even when we are weeping.  It is then that true joy is experienced: the joy that comes from the confidence in the continued goodness of God even when we have no idea what pain may hit us next.  This joy is deep, abiding, and strong.  It is worship, because it exalts the worth of God as one who is all mighty, all wise, merciful, loving, gracious, and faithful.

The Wrath of God Revealed

Romans 1:18-32

Introduction: Have you ever wondered about the evil that is in the world? Have you ever wondered why people are as they are? Do you ever ponder and ask yourself about the eternal destiny of those who have never heard of Jesus? Today we shall attempt to answer these questions. The answer in a nutshell is that man has descended. Darwinism says that man descended from a common ancestor, but is ascending in power, knowledge, wisdom, and goodness. Scriptures speaks of man descending from a common ancestor as well, but also descending from the pure worship of the Creator to the degrading and defiling worship of self and created things. For this reason the wrath of God is revealed.

:18-22a Wrath due to suppressed knowledge

:19-20 Knowledge of God evident in to all men in all ages Psalm 19:1-3;Acts 14:17;John 1:1-4,9

:21-22a Vain, worthless thoughts and darkened minds. Professing wisdom, yet becoming fools.

Why? The downward spiral of intelligence due to rejecting truth. Psalm 111:10 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise… In other words, beginning at the wrong starting point and taking the wrong road, man arrives at the wrong destination. It works that way every time one rejects the truth of God. It is inevitable.

:22b-32 The progressive revelation of God’s wrath

:22-25 the first exchange-the first abandonment by God. Exchanging God’s glory for the non-glory of idols. Exchanging truth for lies. Acts 17:22-28 Often this passage is spoken of as simply referring to Gentiles and their failure to honor God. This view neglects two things: 1. That it treats all of humanity since the fall. Following the fall, man became very wicked, so God sent the flood. Well before the establishment of Israel as a nation, even during Abraham’s day we find Sodomites and idolaters. 2. Israel was guilty of idolatry cf Exodus 32; Jeremiah 2:11 Having abandoned the truth of God and worshiping creatures, God abandons man to worship creation even more through sexual degradation. “Lusts of their hearts” James 1:14 cf Jeremiah 17:9 Man is abandoned to do as his heart desires Ephesians 2:1-3 ALL of us…

(It is here that we find the reason that the ignorant heathen are damned. It is because they are not ignorant of God. They know He is there, and they know He is eternally powerful and Divine, yet refuse to seek Him.)

:26-27 the next exchange- the second abandonment by God. Man continued in his worshiping of creation instead of the eternal God who is to be praised forever. Because of this, God abandons him to more degrading passions. “Burned” cf. The amazingly strong desire of the Sodomite men in Genesis 19 who, though stricken with blindness still try to find the door to Lot’s house so that they can gang rape Lot’s male guests. Ephesians 4:17-19 abandoned themselves to work all uncleanness… It should be noted that homosexuality is more than a matter of “plumbing” or “love” , but a matter of misdirected worship.

28-32 the final exchange- the final abandonment by God. They refused to approve the knowledge of God in their consciences, so God abandoned them to unapproved minds. What an exchange! They traded the knowledge of God for the absence of God. Without God in our hearts and minds our thinking is futile. There’s simply no worthwhile knowledge. Psalm 14:1-4a It’s not that there’s no knowledge of good; it’s simply that the knowledge one has will always tend toward evil in some manner or another. Consider Genesis 6:5 and the continual goal of wrong in their thoughts.

Finally, they are filled :29-31 cf Galatians 5:19-21 Though they know God’s righteous decree, they not only practice these things, they approve, encourage, applaud, and take hearty pleasure in others who do these things.

(The reason that we see so much evil in this world is that man is an idolater. Whether the idol is money 1Timothy 6:10;Colossians 3:5, fame,pride,etc 1John 2:15-16 , man works evil due to his own lusts James 3:16.)

Romans 1:16-18 This condemnation is why the gospel is necessary. It is why the gospel is good news. It is why God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel- we have none apart from faith in Him.

‘Freedom of Worship’ Worries | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction.

Freedom of worship means the right to pray within the confines of a place of worship or to privately believe, said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom and member of the commission. “It excludes the right to raise your children in your faith; the right to have religious literature; the right to meet with co-religionists; the right to raise funds; the right to appoint or elect your religious leaders, and to carry out charitable activities, to evangelize, [and] to have religious education or seminary training.”

The Everlasting Gospel

I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

(Rev 14:6,7) KJV

The elements of the everlasting gospel are these:

There is a God who has made the worlds.

This God is also judge.

You say, “There is good news in this?”

Yes! Emphatically, “YES!!!!”

“How?” You ask.

Consider Paul’s sermon to the Athenians on this subject:

“Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31) KJV

“Where is the good news in this?”
God raised the judge from the dead…………..this implies that the judge died.

“So? Everyone dies.”

The judge was raised from the dead. That means that death (the result of sin) had no hold over him (See Rom 6:9,10). He was victor over sin and death. He was sinless, yet He died. Why? As a substitute for sinners (See 2Cor 5:21).

The good news is not simply that we shall be judged, but that the one who is judge bore our judgment for us.

Yes, we must change our mind about our faulty worship and worship the One Who gave His all for us and was raised from the dead to acquit us at the judgment (Rom 4:24,25).

Just musing………..and worshiping…