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Giving God His Due

January 15, 2013 By 5 Comments
Forming galaxy captured by NASA's Hubble Telescope

I know what’s happening in God’s throne room right now.

Forming galaxy captured by NASA’s Hubble Telescope

And no, I haven’t had been granted a vision of heaven, but the Apostle John got a glimpse and he told us all about it.

God is being worshiped. Continually. Day and night. The citizens of heaven never stop saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,

For you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Revelation 4:8, 11, NIV

God created us to glorify – or worship – Him (Isaiah 43:7). Worship is our earthly purpose and our eternal destiny. Because we were wired to worship God, we can only find true joy, peace, and contentment when we worship Him. People who “serve and worship created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25) will never be fully content.

“Worship” is considered a spiritual discipline we can practice to pursue a godly life. Do you purposefully practice worship?

What is worship?

“Worship” is recognizing the greatness and majesty of the one, true God and responding to Him in a way He deserves. It begins with an inward attitude of repentance, submission, reverence, and honor and can be seen in an outward response of obedience and service. Worship can also be physically expressed with actions such as kneeling, laying prostrate, or raising your hands to heaven.

Worship is the proper response to our holy God. Worship focuses all of who we are on all of who God is.

In his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney makes this connection between worship and spiritual discipline:

“But is we would be Godly, we must focus on God. Godliness requires disciplined worship.”

How can we foster worship?

If worship is the proper response to who God is – to His holiness, then one of the best ways to foster worship in our own heart and lives to is study the nature of God. Although we can never fully comprehend our unfathomable God, we can grow in our understanding. And as our understanding grows, so will our worship.

If you are serious about growing your understanding of God, I have some reading recommendations for you:

How do we practice worship?

God gives us a picture of worship in Isaiah 6. Like John, Isaiah had a vision of God seated on His throne.  When Isaiah saw God in all His holiness, he was impacted with the reality of his own sin. Here’s what Isaiah did to respond to God in appropriate worship:

  • Confession and repentance
  • Submission to God’s will and ways
  • Obedient service

Worship is unique among the spiritual disciplines. To properly practice any of the others we should also be engaging in worship. If worship is “focusing on who God is and responding appropriately,” then we should be worshipping when we’re praying, when we’re serving, when we’re reading our Bible, and so forth.

Let’s focus on God and respond to Him with everything He deserves!

What do your outward expressions of worship look like?

 

 

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Filed Under: Encouragement to Abide, Spiritual Disciplines, Theology Tagged With: ,

Why Bother?

January 8, 2013 By 6 Comments
Spiritual Disciplines: Soul Training theme

Spiritual Disciplines: Soul Training themeOur culture has trained us to expect instant gratification and overwhelming results for minimal effort. Fast food. High speed internet. Movies on demand. “The Easy Button.” We can even “Jump-start” our weight loss. We aren’t used to waiting. We aren’t conditioned for hard work and long-term investment.

So why bother practicing the spiritual disciplines? The disciplines require long-term commitment and hard work – things unfamiliar to us. What in the world would be worth the time, discipline, and self-denial?

Why bother with spiritual disciplines?

Throughout January, here at Do Not Depart, we will be exploring the why of spiritual disciplines. We’ve been told we should, but discussing the why will encourage us to follow Christ in obedience. Today, we’ll look at the disciplines in general. As the month progresses, watch for the why of specific disciplines like prayer, Bible intake, service, and more!

Fulfilling our God-ordained purpose is the overarching reason for practicing the spiritual disciplines. Before God even saved us, He determined that we should be conformed to the likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:28-30). That is God’s ultimate goal for us – to be like Jesus. He wants to refine us, shape our character, mold us like clay in His divine hands.

Only God can cause this spiritual growth and transformation, but He chooses to work through our obedient cooperation. Paul told Timothy to “train yourself to be godly” (1 Tim 4:7) and commanded the Romans to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). The author of Hebrews warns us to “make every effort… to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

Personal Benefits of Discipline

In addition to Christ-likeness, genuine pursuit of the spiritual disciplines yields other personal and exciting benefits:

  1. Spiritual depth – Our culture today teaches us to be superficial. Even Christians today lean toward shallowness. The spiritual disciplines take us beyond ourselves and the selfishness of our lives and plunge us into spiritual depths previously unknown.
  2. Freedom – Scripture tells us that when we die to self, we also die to the sin that enslaves. Obeying God through commitment to the Disciplines liberates us from the weight of “self” and frees us to serve Him.
  3. Intimacy with God – Through the disciplines we can experience and know God in ways and at levels not otherwise possible. They are the means of relating to God. Like Moses on the Mountain, we will be positioned to meet with God face-to-face.
  4. Joy – We will sense God’s pleasure with our obedience. We will live in the glow of His presence. We will find fulfillment in God’s purpose for us.

Are you ready? The beginning of a new year is a great time to make a new commitment to fulfilling God’s purpose for you!

Has your attitude about spiritual disciplines changed? Share your experience with us today.

 

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10 Meaningful Family Activities for Christmas

December 11, 2012 By 7 Comments
Nativity, Christmas activities

The real meaning of Christmas can get lost in the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and decorating. These 10 suggestions will help you and your family focus on Christ and also help you share His message with people who need to hear. You’ll have a lot of fun in the process too!

  1. Christmas card prayers – At the dinner table or at bedtime each night, pray for the families you received cards from that day. Use a basket or some other kind of container to hold the cards and keep it on the dinner table or nightstand.
  2. Play the Christmas story – Use a toy nativity set to act out the story of Christmas with your children or grandchildren. I bought a cloth version for my grandson at a craft show. Fisher Price has a really cute one too. Available at Family Christian Store. 

    Nativity, Christmas activities

    Cloth nativity is kid friendly!


  3. Gifts for needy children – Help your children experience the joy of helping others. Connect with a faith-based charity through which you can help provide for children in need at Christmas. Efforts like Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan’s purse and Angel Tree by Prison Fellowship are two good choices!
  4. Hang The Christmas Nail – Years ago someone gave our family “The Christmas Nail.” It’s a six-inch sturdy spike with a red ribbon through a hole in the top. Here’s the short poem that accompanies the nail:

This is the Christmas Nail. It is to be hung on a sturdy branch, a branch near the trunk, a branch that will hold such a spike without being noticed by well-wishers dropping by to admire one’s tinseled tree. The nail is known only to the home that hangs it. Understood only by the heart that knows its significance. It is hung with the thought The Christmas tree but foreshadows the Christ-tree which only He could decorate for us, ornamented with nails as this.

You can purchase your own nail here. I have also made nails – using spikes I purchased at a hardware store and red ribbon – to give to friends and neighbors for their own trees. Make hanging the nail a meaningful event. Gather the family around the tree and decide how the “hanger” will be chosen. For example, it could be the youngest or oldest. Pray and contemplate Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.

5.  Bread of Life for the neighbors – A yummy Christmas gift can double as a message of life. Gather the family in the kitchen and make an event out of baking small loaves of sweet bread. If the family doesn’t enjoy cooking, you can do the baking and then the family can help wrap the loaves and go together to make the deliveries to the neighbors. Wrap the bread in pretty cellophane and add a tag with John 6:35. “Jesus is the bread of life.” I have a recipe for Pumpkin-Cranberry bread that everyone loves. It’s festive and can be doubled or even tripled!

6.  Musically spread the Good News – We have at least one caroling group stop by our house every year. However, I’ve noticed the groups sing mostly secular Christmas songs. You and your family can share the real reason for the season with your neighbors. Make caroling a festive party by asking a few Christian friends to join you. Gather at your house first for a quick practice session. Make sure your carols spread the Good News by including songs like “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night.” After caroling in your neighborhood, serve hot cocoa and goodies back at your house for the carolers.

7.  Birthday party for Jesus – last week, Patti shared about hosting a children’s birthday party for Jesus. Read more about this outreach event.

8.  Read the Christmas story – We read the entire Christmas story on Christmas Eve. However, if your children are young, break the story up over several nights. I found two great downloadable resources at FamilyReadingBible.com you should check out. One is a Christmas story reading plan that lists readings from December 13 through Christmas Day. The other is a Bible story reading booklet to print!

9.  Watch “The Nativity Story” – The biblical Christmas story comes to life right in your living room when you watch this beautiful movie with the family. Rent it at your neighborhood video store, Netflix, or iTunes, or buy it at Amazon to watch every year!

10.  Celebrate the advent – Anticipate the celebration of Jesus’ arrival by adapting traditional advent activities for home. Focus on the Family has some great resources.

I’d love to know how these work for you. Also, feel free to share your suggestions for meaningful activities with us!

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Filed Under: Encouragement to Abide, Finding the Word in Christmas Tagged With: , ,

Thankful for Fellow Believers

November 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Thanksgiving in the Word

Thanksgiving in the WordIn our 29 years of marriage, we’ve moved seven times with my husband’s job. Probably the hardest thing about each move has been leaving our local church family. However, the greatest thing about each new place is knowing that God already has a church family waiting for us there.

Thankful for God’s Church

This month we are focusing on thanking God for His tremendous blessings in our lives. His church should be near the top of our long list. The apostle Paul constantly thanked God for his fellow believers and left us a good example to follow:

  • Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.  Philippians 1:3, NLT
  • Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. Ephesians 1:15-16, NLT
  • We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:3, NLT

Specific Things to Thank God For

God works through local believers to love us in concrete ways. They are His hands ministering to us. Here’s a sampling:

  • To teach us God’s Word (Romans 15:14)
  • To comfort us (2 Corinthians 13:11)
  • To serve us (Galatians 5:13, 1 Peter 4:10)
  • To restore us (Galatians 6:1)
  • To bear our burdens (Galatians 6:2)
  • To build us up (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
  • To do us good (1 Thessalonians 5:15)
  • To exhort us (Hebrews 3:13)
  • To encourage us to do good deeds (1 Thessalonians 4:18, Hebrews 10:24)
  • To meet our physical needs (James 2:15-17, 1 John 3:17)
  • To pray for our healing (James 5:16)

I encourage you to use this list as a prayer guide today. As you read through this non-exhaustive list of the way God loves us through His local church, thank God for a specific people and particular ways He has loved you through His church.

I’d love for us to share some specific ways God has blessed you through His people. We can write them as a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

 

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Share the Love – Unshakeable Faith 8

November 5, 2012 By 6 Comments
Unshakeable Faith Bible Study

Unshakeable Faith Bible StudyThis is the last lesson in the Unshakeable Faith Bible study. It has been a privilege to share it with you! The devotional is below. Access the 2-page Quick Study here.

Every Christian belongs to God’s family. When God saves us, He saves us into His family. We can never experience all God has for us apart from a local body of believers. Jesus made it clear to His disciples that God designed the Christian life to be lived in the context of community.

Unshakeable Faith trait eight: Connected to a local church body with love and service

Peter spent roughly three years learning from Jesus how to live in a community of believers. This group traveled together, ate together, and did life together. But Jesus didn’t merely teach about love and service. He set the example.

Read John 15:12-13. What command did Jesus give His disciples – then and now – on the night He was arrested?

How did Jesus ultimately show His love for us?

Our friend Peter learned what love looks like from Jesus. In his first letter, Peter encouraged his readers to also love like Jesus loved.

Read 1 Peter 3:8-9 and 1 Peter 4:8-10. List all the characteristics and behaviors that describe how we Christians should love one another.

Peter used the Greek word agape to describe the kind of love Christians should have for each other. According to the The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, “agape love is capable of being commanded because it is not primarily an emotion but a decision of the will leading to action.” Agape loves deeply, unselfishly, with the other’s best interests at heart.

God loves His children through His children. He cares for us, comforts us, provides for us, and encourages us through our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Do you know of a need right now in your church family that needs your love in action? List some concrete ways you can show your love.

God’s purpose for your life includes a vital connection to a local church body. He has designed this interdependent relationship to benefit each of us. When trials hit, God will use His body to hold you up and He will use you to encourage someone else. If you are not fully connected to a local church, don’t wait any longer!

Let’s talk! Let’s share today some of the ways God has loved you through the local church.

I’d also love to hear how this study has encouraged you in your faith!

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