Bow & Tremble

Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.

Psalm 96:9

The Hebrew word that is translated as 'worship' in this verse literally means to bow down in worship.* So, verse 9 talks about two often overlooked elements of worship: bowing or prostrating ourselves and trembling before the Lord. Most Christians don’t do these very often, but they are appropriate forms of worship. 

You ought to bow before the Lord sometimes. You ought to humble yourself physically before Him, if you are able. And it's fitting and appropriate that you should, at times, tremble before God as well. 

Worship should include many different emotions or feels. Sometimes it should be upbeat, happy and celebratory as we focus on all God has done for us. Sometimes it should be slow and contemplative (possibly even mournful) as we think of the great price Jesus paid for our sins. And sometimes it should be humble, fearful and full of trembling as we think of how great God is and of the judgment that is coming.

Often, we are more comfortable with celebratory or contemplative worship. But when was the last time you trembled before the Lord? If you never tremble before God and bow before Him in some way, then your worship is missing an important element. Don’t let your praise always be about celebration or always be solemn and serious… sometimes you should bow and tremble before your God as well.

* Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.

Call Yourself to Worship

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Psalm 103:1

As fallen human beings, we are rarely as focused on the LORD as we ought to be. We are often disconnected, distracted, or even disinterested in the things of God. So, each Sunday our church begins our worship service with a Call to Worship... a song that is designed to fix our attention on the Lord and stir our hearts with love towards Him. In a sense, that is what Psalm 103 is. 

Notice that the psalmist is talking to himself in verse one. He calls himself to worship. He sets out to stir his own cold heart by commanding himself to praise the Lord. And notice too that the psalmist commands himself to do this not just outwardly or halfheartedly. No! He commands himself to praise God from the deepest part of himself, from his soul, with all his inmost being. This brings to mind Deuteronomy 6:5 which commands us to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” 

I want to encourage you to praise like that. Give your all to praising God. Praise Him from your soul... with ALL that is within you. Don’t just praise Him with your lips. Don’t just go through the motions. Praise Him from your soul, with all your inmost being. Call to mind the many benefits He has given you: forgiveness, healing, redemption, deliverance, compassion, and love… and praise Him with all you’ve got.

And on those days when you don't feel like praising... stir up your cold heart and call yourself to worship.

Blind, Lame and Diseased Sacrifices

When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 1:8

There was a problem with Judah's worship. The law gave very specific instructions for not only what kinds of animals but also what quality of animals were to be offered up to the Lord. Only animals of the highest quality... without blemish or defect were to be sacrificed to God. But Judah had been offering blind, lame and diseased animals. They were supposed to be sacrificing their best and they had been sacrificing their worst animals to God... animals that even their Persian governor wouldn’t have accepted.

This kind of worship was unacceptable to the Lord. In fact, verse 10 tells us that God would rather they have locked the temple doors and not worshipped Him at all, than bring these offensive offerings to Him.

We don’t sacrifice animals to the Lord anymore. But we do bring offerings of our own: tithes and worship and service. Let’s look at each in turn?

First, tithes. Whatever amount you give, do you give sacrificially, generously and cheerfully? Or do you give begrudgingly... not out of gratitude or love but because you feel like you have to? That kind of giving shows contempt for God’s name. It isn’t about the amount, but about the sacrifice and the heart with which your gift is given. (Mark 12:41-44)

Next, what about your worship? Do you worship in such a way that exalts the Lord and brings glory to His name OR when you worship do you look bored, unengaged and unimpressed with the God you are singing about? When people see you worship, does it hurt or help God’s reputation?

Lastly, do you serve the Lord through church or parachurch ministries? When you serve, is your service well-prepared, focused on others and glorifying to God? Or is it lazy? Do you give minimal effort, show up late, and often even miss your commitments? Or perhaps its self-serving? You pretend to serve the Lord but in reality, your motive is to gain attention and feel important. 

Make sure that the offerings you bring to the Lord are worthy of His name. Make sure you bring your best, so that His name might be great among the nations (Malachi 1:11) and so He might be pleased to accept yoru offering. 

Soulless Worship

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24

There's a question of how best to interpret this verse. When Jesus says that we must "worship in spirit" is He referring to the Holy Spirit or to our spirit? If He's referring to the Holy Spirit, then He's saying that in order for your worship to be acceptable to God you must approach the Father through the Holy Spirit. 

Many believe that is what Jesus means, but it seems like an odd interpretation to me. While I do believe that we gain access to the Father only by salvation which is a result of the finished work of Christ and is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit; I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus is talking to the woman at the well both before He died and before the Spirit was sent, so I’m not sure how she could even hope to worship rightly if that was Jesus’ point.

No. To me the second interpreation option make more sense. If Jesus is referring to our spirit, then He is saying that true worship isn’t merely an act of the body. It isn’t going through the motions or performing a ritual. In order for your worship to be acceptable to God, it must engage not only your mind and your body but your soul as well. Worship that is pleasing to God is an activity of the soul.

Looking back at the verse, you'll notice that Jesus grounds this principle in the fact that “God is spirit." His point is that it isn’t where you worship but the manner in which you worship that matters to Him. To worship God, you need to engage the part of you that is most like Him. He is a spirit, so you must worship Him with your spirit. 

If we aren’t careful, we will fail to do this. You can go to church every week and go through all the right motions but do so without engaging your spirit in any way. If you aren’t careful, you can leave the very heart and soul out of your worship and offer up to Him a kind of soulless worship that is only an empty shell of right thoughts and right action. Jesus tells us that is not pleasing to Him.

Don’t make that mistake. When you worship God, worship Him from your spirit. Don’t just think right thoughts and do right actions, worship Him from your heart. In other words, put actual worship into your acts of worship. Offer to Him the worship that comes from deep inside, from your very spirit. That’s the kind of worship He desires.

Unrestrained Worship & Extravagant Love

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Mark 14:3

Verse five tells us that this perfume was estimated to be worth a year’s wages for a day laborer. Jesus and His disciples were itinerant preachers. They lived hand to mouth. They had very little money. They lived among and ministered to the poor. And this woman breaks a jar of this extremely expensive perfume and pours it ALL out on Jesus. That is a year’s wages running down Jesus’ head and beard and on His feet. No one can believe what they have just witnessed. It seems a terrible waste to them. So, they rebuke the woman harshly for doing something that frankly seems stupid to them.

But our love and adoration and worship of God shouldn’t be measured or frugal or restrained. They should be extravagant! Love is sometimes wasteful! And some of us are just too functional for our own good. 

Romantic love is often expressed best through generosity and sacrifice and grand gestures… not through careful moderation or restraint or by making sure to avoid waste at all costs. And the same is true of worship. You ought to express your love and adoration and worship of God in big ways as well. There are no prizes in Heaven for making sure you don’t go too far in your love for Jesus. There's no crown for the person who worships God the most moderately and frugally, who manages to avoid extravagance in their worship at every turn.

The greatest commandment isn’t “Love the Lord thy God as responsibly and reasonably as possible. And never do anything out of your love for God that might seem extravagant to the people around you.” No! The Greatest Commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.” That sounds a bit extravagant by definition to me.

So, don’t be too functional or restrained in your relationship with God. And don’t worry about what other people think about your worship.

Offer Your Bodies

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1‌

I want to focus in on the words “offer your bodies.” The first thing we need to understand is the that the word for ‘body’ here refers to more than just your physical body. It is your whole life. And the word for ‘offer’ probably means to stand by and present or show something. So, the image that we have here is something like this...

Imagine yourself standing before God with your hands open and outstretched offering something up to Him. And what you are offering is your life. Your gift to God is how you live, what you do and what you don’t do and how you go about doing these things. With that image in mind, let me ask... What kind of gift are you giving God right now? What kind of life are you offering to Him? Are you happy with what you are currently giving to God?

As Americans we often think that our bodies and our lives are our own to do with as we please. But 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says to Christians, 

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

It’s important that you understand that your life is not your own anymore. When you became a believer, when you made Jesus Lord of your life, He redeemed you from slavery to sin and bought you with His blood. You became His special possession, His servant. If you are a Christian then your life is not your own. It is a gift, an offering that you make to God. Live your life in such a way that the offering you make is holy and pleasing to Him in every way.

When You Can't Be At Church

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet...

Revelation 1:9-10

The first thing we find is that this letter is written by John. This is, of course, the Apostle John. One of Jesus’ disciples and the author of the Gospel of John as well as books of the Bible known as I,II, and III John. Church history tells us that the wicked Roman Emperor Domitian had tried to kill John by boiling him alive, but John had survived. So Domitian exiled John to the island of Patmos to put him out of the way. It was on this island around the year 95 AD when John received this vision and wrote his book of Revelation.

What I want you to notice is this…look what John is doing. John was cut off from the people of God. He couldn’t gather with them on the Lord’s Day. He couldn’t go to church, but he didn’t let that stop him from communing with God. If you look again at vs 9 and 10 you will see that John was exiled on the island of Patmos but He was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” 

Over the past year and a half it has been more difficult to attend church than at any other point in my lifetime. Even as I write the numbers of COVID cases are on the rise again and church attendance is plummeting as many believers feel that it is unsafe for them to attend. My point isn’t to make you feel guilty about that. Sure, I had hoped that all of this was over, but it obviously isn’t. And now I am hoping that it will end soon and we will be able to get back to normal but what if it doesn’t? What if there are more Sundays that we can’t gather together Or what if your age or preexisting medical conditions put you at a high risk for COVID and you don't feel comfortable gathering in large groups? What should you do then? 

You should follow John’s example. When John couldn’t gather with other believers for worship, he worshipped alone. He wasn’t going to let little things like not having a song leader, or a choir, or pews, or a church building, or even someone to preach to him stop him from worshipping God. John just went right on worshipping God alone. He preached to himself. I imagine he sang songs and prayed prayers by Himself. He drew near to the Lord.

I hope our churches do everything they can to preserve our ability to gather in person, but if for some reason you can’t be with other believers right now, then don’t let that prevent you from being with God. We have technology now that John didn’t have. If you can’t be at church in person, then be there via livestream. And if at some point in the future you can’t even gather with your church by livestream then worship God alone, but don’t let a single Sunday pass without worshipping your God.

Worship Pop Quiz (W.o.W. Rewind)

 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

Psalm 50:7-15

 

 

Have you ever had that dream where you're back in school and you find out that you have a pop quiz or a test that you didn't study for? That kind of sinking, unprepared feeling is the worst. What’s really bad though is when this happens to you in real life! When it's a dream, you get to wake up and be relieved. In real life you have to deal with the consequences. In Psalm 50 God gives us a kind of pop quiz. It isn’t a math test or a history test or even a religion test. It's a test of our lives. It is a pop quiz to help prepare us for the final judgment, or life’s Final Exam if you want to think about it that way.

 

You will need to read the entire psalm to get the full pop quiz, but in verses seven through fifteen God focuses in on the kind of worship (sacrifices) His people offer Him. He finds fault with them because their worship appears to be just an outward show. Faith is absent. They offer sacrifices upon sacrifices but do so only as a ceremony to garner favor with God. They have an “I scratch your back, you scratch my back” sort of attitude toward worshipping the Lord. They think of their sacrifices as a way to “buy God off” or to make Him owe them in some way. But that is not how worship works! Worship isn’t just going through the motions in a ritualistic way without any faith. This isn’t pleasing to God; it draws His reprimand. God has already done so much for us that we could never pay Him back. You owe God so much that He could never owe you! So thinking that somehow by your worship that you could make God owe you something and earn gifts from Him is crazy.

 

But we do this too! We give money to the church, serve as Sunday School teachers or Deacons and then think that God owes us something. We think we have done God a big favor. We sing in the choir or play an instrument, attend church every Sunday, even read our Bible daily but do so only out of ceremony and ritual. We think that somehow God is pleased with us simply because we do these things. We don't do them from a grateful heart. We just go through the motions, because we think that the ritual is all that matters to God.
 

But this isn't the kind of worship that God wants. In verses fourteen and fifteen God tells us what He wants. He says that He wants us to give thank offerings and to fulfill our vows. Now these are two types of offerings that people offered just because they wanted to. The Israelites were never required to offer these sacrifices. So, God says in essence, “I want you to worship me, and serve me, and give me your tithes not because you have to but because you are grateful for all I’ve already given you and because you want to."

 

If God were to judge you today, what would He say about your worship? Are you only obeying God so He will owe you? Are you simply going through the motions of an empty ritual with no faith behind them and thinking that that is all God wants from you? Worship and serve God out of gratitude for all He has done for you. This is the kind of worship that is pleasing to Him.  

 

For further reading...

• Read all of Psalm 50.
• John 4:19-26- Worship God in spirit and in truth.

Too Small a Thing (W.o.W. Rewind)

And now the LORD says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6

Why is it "too small a thing" for Jesus to save only the Jews? Why does God insists, even as far back as this Old Testament prophecy predicting Christ as the Suffering Servant, that His salvation must reach the "ends of the earth?"

There are many reasons. For one, God is no respecter of persons. He loves all the nations and offers forgiveness to all. Here's another, no one people group is any more deserving of God's free grace than another. But in his book entitled Let the Nations be Glad, John Piper draws our attention to a reason that we often overlook. He argues that God is more glorified by saving people from every nation, tribe and tongue than He would be simply by saving a large number from a few people groups. Why is it more glorifying to God to ensure His salvation reaches the ends of the earth?

First, if He is God of all, then He deserves praise from all. How can He be the one true God, the Creator of all the earth if He is worshiped by only one people group? It doesn't fit. The one true God deserves to be worshiped by all. God deserves to be praised in Swahili. He is worthy of adoration in French, Books ought to be written about His greatness in Farsi.

Second, different people groups and cultures worship God in different ways. God is too diverse in His beauty, character and excellence for any one people group to reflect back to Him all the worship He deserves. Piper puts it this way. "More depth of beauty is felt from a choir that sings in parts than from a choir that sings only in unison. Unity in diversity is more beautiful and more powerful than the unity of uniformity" (Piper p.222). Our worship is inherently more beautiful when it is offered by a diverse body of believers. 

Third, it shows the greatness of God's true worth. "The fame and greatness and worth of an object of beauty increases in proportion to the diversity of those who recognize its beauty. If a work of art is regarded as great among a small and like-minded group of people but not by anyone else, the art is probably not truly great. Its qualities are such that it does not appeal to the deep universals in our hearts but only to provincial biases. But if a work of art continues to win more and more admirers not only across cultures but also across decades and centuries, then its greatness is irresistibly manifested" (Piper p.222). 

This means that you and I must do more than simply worship God in the way that best fits our culture and skin color. We ought to pray for the gospel to reach unreached people groups. And we should push the gospel to the ends of the earth by giving to missions, going on mission trips, and encouraging our churches to become more ethnically diverse. Let's make Jesus' name great at home and to the ends of the earth because He is worthy of all worship! 

A God We Don't Fully Know

Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”

He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.”

Judges 13:17-18

When Samson's father asks the angel who foretold his son's birth what his name is, he doesn't realize he is speaking to no ordinary angel but to the angel of the LORD... to God Himself. So when the angel answers that his name is "beyond understanding" it actually tells us something about God. 

The phrase for "beyond understanding" is sometimes translated "wonderful" or "secret." That's an interesting assertion since God had already told Israel that His name was Yahweh which is sometimes translated as "I am the I am" or "I will be who I will be." So what does this passage mean? Is Yahweh not God's name? Is God's true name a secret? Is it beyond our understanding? Or is His name Wonderful?

Well, let's look at the only other time this Hebrew phrase is used in Scripture for help. In Psalm 139:6 the same phrase is used. That verse says "...such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." I think that helps us understand what God is saying about His name in Judges 13:18. His name is too wonderful for us to fully understand. It is too lofty for us to attain.   

This is a powerful reminder that every facet of who God is, even down to His name, is beyond our ability to grasp fully. There is no single truth about God that we understand fully. I have a Master's degree from seminary. I have served full-time in church ministry for over a decade and in a very real sense it could still be said that I don't yet fully understand a single thing about God. I'm not saying I don't know anything about God. I'm saying that even the things I do know about Him, I only know in part. 

1 Corinthians 13:12 puts it this way. "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

There are things we know to be true about God with certainty and confidence, but we must remember that even those things we only know in part. There is a depth to who God is and what He is doing and what He has done that we simply cannot plumb. There is always more of God to know, always more to love, always more to discover and worship Him for. This is part of what makes an eternity spent in Heaven possible. There will always be more to God.

Who could claim to fully comprehend God?! Who has apprehended His love? Who has mastered His justice? Or who could claim to have grasped His perfection or beauty? No one! There is no single truth about God that we comprehend fully or understand completely. And this is cause for praise! 

I praise God that I do not know Him fully, that He will always provide a joyous mystery for me to revel in unfolding. That there are greater depths still for me to plumb. And there is joy upon joy in knowing Him more.

That One Time Peter Told Jesus to Go Away (W.o.W. Rewind)

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Luke 5:8

Everyone wanted to get closer to Jesus. Once, while Jesus was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, the crowds pressed in on Him.  As the crowd inched forward I imagine Jesus' feet finally met the water. Seeing Peter's fishing boat nearby Jesus put it to good use. They put the boat out a little from the shore and Jesus sat down to teach.

When His sermon was over Jesus told Peter to go out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch. Peter knows this breaks every rule of fishing. There is a zero percent chance this is going to work. Yet for whatever reason, Peter did it. The nets were so full of fish that Peter couldn't haul them in by himself. He called his partners over and they filled two boats so full of fish that they were both in danger of sinking. 

That's when Peter looked over at Jesus. This miracle that was tailor made for a fisherman had given him a glimpse of who Jesus really was. So right there in the boat, knee deep in fish. Peter falls down before Jesus and asks Him to leave. 

Peter's response seems odd at first. Everyone wants to get closer to Jesus. The crowds had been pressing in on Him. But here is Peter, enjoying next level intimacy with Jesus and wanting to get away. He's sharing a small boat with Jesus receiving personal miracles, and yet he's telling Jesus to get away from him.

But Peter's response isn't all that odd or unique really. Consider Isaiah's response when he entered God's presence in a vision. "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips..." (Isaiah 6:5). When God first spoke to Moses at the burning bush Moses hid his face in fear (Exodus 3:6). When the people of Israel heard God speak at Mt. Sinai from the midst of the cloud and the fire, they were so afraid that they told Moses not to let God speak to them anymore (Exodus 20:18-21).

The key to understanding Peter's response is in the second half of verse eight. Peter asks Jesus to leave him because he is a sinner. When Peter got a glimpse of who Jesus really was it made him more acutely aware of his own sinfulness. Far from a rejection of Jesus, Peter's statement is a form of worship. It's like he was saying, "I am unworthy to be in Your presence." 

When was the last time you felt unworthy of God? How long has it been since you were so moved by a passage of Scripture or so overwhelmed by the power of His presence in some place that you said to God "I am unworthy of You. I don't deserve You." This is the appropriate human response to entering God's presence. If we don't occasionally respond to God in this way then we have a problem. Either we think too highly of ourselves, we think too little of God, or we simply aren't seeing how good God really is. Take some time today to fall down before the holy God and declare yourself unworthy.

A Primer for Praise

On that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the Lord:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord! 

Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; 

Talk of all His wondrous works!

Glory in His holy name; 

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

I Chronicles 16:7-10

Upon bringing the ark up to Jerusalem and establishing the worshiping order of priests, David gives them this psalm to sing. I wonder if that means this was the very first psalm in the Hebrew psalter we now know as the book of psalms? If so it would have been a very good place to start because it walks God's people through all the basic methods of worshiping God. It's like a primer for praise. 

First we give thanks. What a simple but effective way to begin worship! Everyone knows how to say thank you, plus by fixing our mind on the blessings God has given us we are naturally led into other forms of praise. 

Next, we're urged to call on God in prayer which we should never forget to do. Then we give Him glory among the nations by telling of all His glorious deeds. Following that we lift our voices in songs and conversations of praise. Finally, we lose ourselves in worship, seeking nothing from God, but only God Himself.

Verse 10 serves as a powerful reminder of how different God is from other gods. Whether we consider the idols worshiped in King David's day or the idols of Hinduism and Buddhism worshiped today, these gods are all pursued as a means to an end. Worshipers pray to them and offer sacrifices to them to get something from them. They seek a good harvest of crops, or a child amid infertility, or more success and prosperity. We seek all of these things from God as well, but they are not the core reason why we seek Him. God is the only god who is good enough and worthy enough to be sought not as a means to something else but as an end in Himself. We come before God in worship to seek Him, not just gifts from His hand. 

So, use this pattern of praise to seek God's face today (v11). He is worth it, and you'll find a joy like no other in His presence.

Finding God's Glory

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

                                                      Psalm 19:1-4

Each day you're greeted with a powerful reminder of who God is and just how glorious He is, if you'll only look up to see it. The heavens declare it in their own silent way every single day. On many occasions the sight of a sunrise, a sunset, the twinkle of stars at night, or the beauty of fluffy white clouds set against a backdrop of bright blue has been enough to bring me to worship. It's as if the human heart is programmed to respond in worship to these small glimpses of God's creative power.

But we all know that there are days when God's glory is hard to see. Days when a thick, dark cloud of gray descends on the sky (or on your life) and obscures God's glory from your view. Days when it seems as if Heaven itself has disappeared. What are we to do on these days?

Psalm 19 reminds us that there is another and more perfect revelation of who God is: His Word. "The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul" verse seven says. The psalm goes on to describe God's Word as trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, firm, and more precious than gold. Nothing in all the world compares to God's good Word revealed best in Christ and without error in the Bible.

So, when you feel a dark cloud descending, when your worship has grown cold, and especially when His marvelous creation is hidden from view: read the Word. Memorize it. Meditate on it. Cherish it. It perfectly reflects who He is, and it has the power to lift your gaze from all the troubles of this world and cast it upon your Perfect Father in Heaven. Only then, when you see Him rightly, can you praise Him truly. But will you stop to look? 

The Unavoidable Result of Exalting God

Exalt the Lord our God
And worship at His footstool;
Holy is He.
                            Psalm 99:5


It is a simple and unavoidable truth that exalting God inherently means humbling ourselves. We cannot lift God up and make much of Him without ourselves being brought low. The higher God is lifted up the lower we are in relation to Him. Look at today's verse. Once God is exalted, where is the worshiper left? At his footstool. The word for worship here carries the idea of bowing down. So the image is of God being enthroned on high while we worship Him from a position at or below His feet.

This is what proper worship does; it exalts God and humbles man. You cannot make much of God and make much of yourself at the same time. True worship doesn't work that way. If you are not willing to decrease, then you have no part to play in Christ increasing (John 3:30).

So are you willing to decrease? Are you ready to be humbled? To be thought less of? And to think of yourself less? If not, then you need to stop and ask yourself, who am I really trying to lift up, God or myself?

That One Time Peter Told Jesus to Go Away

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Luke 5:8

Everyone wanted to get closer to Jesus. Once, while Jesus was teaching by the Sea of Galilee, the crowds pressed in on Him.  As the crowd inched forward I imagine Jesus' feet finally met the water. Seeing Peter's fishing boat nearby Jesus put it to good use. They put the boat out a little from the shore and Jesus sat down to teach.

When His sermon was over Jesus told Peter to go out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch. Peter knows this breaks every rule of fishing. There is a zero percent chance this is going to work. Yet for whatever reason, Peter did it. The nets were so full of fish that Peter couldn't haul them in by himself. He called his partners over and they filled two boats so full of fish that they were both in danger of sinking. 

That's when Peter looked over at Jesus. This miracle that was tailor made for a fisherman had given him a glimpse of who Jesus really was. So right there in the boat, knee deep in fish. Peter falls down before Jesus and asks Him to leave. 

Peter's response seems odd at first. Everyone wants to get closer to Jesus. The crowds had been pressing in on Him. But here is Peter, enjoying next level intimacy with Jesus and wanting to get away. He's sharing a small boat with Jesus receiving personal miracles, and yet he's telling Jesus to get away from him.

But Peter's response isn't all that odd or unique really. Consider Isaiah's response when he entered God's presence in a vision. "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips..." (Isaiah 6:5). When God first spoke to Moses at the burning bush Moses hid his face in fear (Exodus 3:6). When the people of Israel heard God speak at Mt. Sinai from the midst of the cloud and the fire, they were so afraid that they told Moses not to let God speak to them anymore (Exodus 20:18-21).

The key to understanding Peter's response is in the second half of verse eight. Peter asks Jesus to leave him because he is a sinner. When Peter got a glimpse of who Jesus really was it made him more acutely aware of his own sinfulness. Far from a rejection of Jesus, Peter's statement is a form of worship. It's like he was saying, "I am unworthy to be in Your presence." 

When was the last time you felt unworthy of God? How long has it been since you were so moved by a passage of Scripture or so overwhelmed by the power of His presence in some place that you said to God "I am unworthy of You. I don't deserve You." This is the appropriate human response to entering God's presence. If we don't occasionally respond to God in this way then we have a problem. Either we think too highly of ourselves, we think too little of God, or we simply aren't seeing how good God really is. Take some time today to fall down before the holy God and declare yourself unworthy.

Too Small a Thing

And now the LORD says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:6

Why is it "too small a thing" for Jesus to save only the Jews? Why does God insists, even as far back as this Old Testament prophecy predicting Christ as the Suffering Servant, that His salvation must reach the "ends of the earth?"

There are many reasons. For one, God is no respecter of persons. He loves all the nations and offers forgiveness to all. Here's another, no one people group is any more deserving of God's free grace than another. But in his book entitled Let the Nations be Glad, John Piper draws our attention to a reason that we often overlook. He argues that God is more glorified by saving people from every nation, tribe and tongue than He would be simply by saving a large number from a few people groups. Why is it more glorifying to God to ensure His salvation reaches the ends of the earth?

First, if He is God of all, then He deserves praise from all. How can He be the one true God, the Creator of all the earth if He is worshiped by only one people group? It doesn't fit. The one true God deserves to be worshiped by all. God deserves to be praised in Swahili. He is worthy of adoration in French, Books ought to be written about His greatness in Farsi.

Second, different people groups and cultures worship God in different ways. God is too diverse in His beauty, character and excellence for any one people group to reflect back to Him all the worship He deserves. Piper puts it this way. "More depth of beauty is felt from a choir that sings in parts than from a choir that sings only in unison. Unity in diversity is more beautiful and more powerful than the unity of uniformity" (Piper p.222). Our worship is inherently more beautiful when it is offered by a diverse body of believers. 

Third, it shows the greatness of God's true worth. "The fame and greatness and worth of an object of beauty increases in proportion to the diversity of those who recognize its beauty. If a work of art is regarded as great among a small and like-minded group of people but not by anyone else, the art is probably not truly great. Its qualities are such that it does not appeal to the deep universals in our hearts but only to provincial biases. But if a work of art continues to win more and more admirers not only across cultures but also across decades and centuries, then its greatness is irresistibly manifested" (Piper p.222). 

This means that you and I must do more than simply worship God in the way that best fits our culture and skin color. We ought to pray for the gospel to reach unreached people groups. And we should push the gospel to the ends of the earth by giving to missions, going on mission trips, and encouraging our churches to become more ethnically diverse. Let's make Jesus' name great at home and to the ends of the earth because He is worthy of all worship! 

Jesus, Mary and Judas...and the disciples

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

John 12:1-8

Note three responses to Jesus in this passage. Mary shows Jesus extravagant, sacrificial love. Judas responds to Him only with deceit and greed for personal gain. The rest of the disciples recline at the table and maintain "business as usual" little knowing that the time they have left to honor Jesus before His death is slipping away. 

Mary's act of love is extravagant, almost gratuitous. The perfume was worth a year's wages. It was doubtless the most precious thing she owned. In all likelihood it was her life's savings. What's more she used her hair to wipe Jesus' feet! To grasp the power of that act you must understand two things. First, in that culture a woman's glory was her hair. Second, many of their roads were dirt roads and animals were used for transportation that would often leave droppings behind. This meant that people's feet were especially dirty at this time in history. Mary could have chosen to wipe Jesus' feet with a towel. Even this would have been lowering herself to the place of a servant to tend to His needs. But Mary takes her glory, the most treasured and clean part of her body and uses it as a rag to cleanse his feet. It's hard to imagine how shocking this was to those present. It was truly an act of deep commitment and astounding love for her Savior.

Compare that to Judas. He offers up no worship for Christ. Instead he attempts to deceive Him. His aim is not to exalt Jesus but to profit off Him, to steal from Him. Judas hides his greed behind fake piety. He claims to care for the poor, but his true care is lining his pockets. We see in this story the seed that gives sprout to Judas' later betrayal of Jesus. Judas' god is money. Already he was willing to lie to Jesus and steal from Him in order to get more money. Soon enough he will find himself selling Jesus' life for 30 pieces of silver, an amount that was only worth about four months wages. Even in his betrayal Judas sells Jesus short. 

Lastly, consider the rest of the disciples. In John's gospel they are silent. Other gospel records (Matt. 26:6-13 & Mark 14:3-9) indicate that they agreed with Judas (although apparently from pure motives) that this was a wasteful use of resources. They thought more good could have been done by giving this money to the poor. These men are faithful to Jesus. They serve Him every day. They love Him. Indeed, they have left everything for Him. But today is merely "business as usual" for them. Little do they know that Jesus will soon be taken from them. Before long they will wish to be back in Jesus' presence again but be unable to be with Him. There is no sin in their lack of action, just missed opportunity. 

Don't miss your opportunity today. Sure, today is just a normal Wednesday. But Jesus is still our Savior. He is still risen from the dead. He is still worthy of all praise and every honor we can bestow on Him. So let's pull out all of the stops and bless Jesus in a special way today. Who knows? It could be your last opportunity. So take the step of faith to share the gospel with that coworker. Make a big gift to your church or to a missions organization. Dedicate a large chunk of your precious time today to getting alone with God and worshiping Him. Do whatever God leads you to do, whatever is the natural overflow of your heart; but do it extravagantly and do it from love.    

Repeating Yourself

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

 Give thanks to the God of gods,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who alone does great wonders,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who by understanding made the heavens,

    for his steadfast love endures forever; (Psalm 136:1-5)

I don't know about you but I hate repeating myself. And now that I have kids I get to do that A LOT. There are only so many times a person can say "Don't touch that!", "Sit up in your chair", "Eat your food", or "Put your pants on" before they start to go crazy.

Thankfully God isn't like me. He doesn't mind repeating Himself for His children's benefit. He understands that we sometimes need to hear things over and over again before we get it. He also understands that sometimes we need to repeat things over and over again ourselves before they sink in. And that's what we find in Psalm 136. 

The phrase "for his steadfast love endures forever" is repeated in every verse of this psalm. That's twenty-six times! Nearly half of the psalm is the same six words repeated over and over again. The phrase is utilized as a type of refrain. Each verse consists of two lines. The first line reminds the people of who God is or of the great things He has done, while the second responds to that truth with the familiar phrase. The first lines function as proof of the second. They prove how good and enduring God's love is for His people!

Remember that the psalms were written to be sung. My hunch is that this song was probably sung responsively, so that a lead singer sang the first lines and the congregation took up the popular refrain in response. Either way we know that when they sang Psalm 136 God's people would have sung about God's love being steadfast and enduring forever twenty-six times. And you thought modern praise songs were repetitive!   

Why all this repetition? What is God trying so hard to tell us? He's telling us at least two things. 

First, He wants us to know what kind of love we can expect from Him. God isn't fickle or unfaithful. We can expect that His love (His goodness, kindness and faithfulness toward us) will never end. It will continue on forever. As Scripture says, "He will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). There is an amazing sense of security that comes from knowing that. Thank God that we need not worry about Him turning His back on us. We can expect an unending stream of good things from Him (James 1:17). Notice that I didn't say an uninterrupted stream of good things. We will still suffer in this world, but we know that God works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).  

Second, God wants us to know that it is well worth it to take time to pause and recount all the ways that He has shown His steadfast love. Not only will this strengthen your confidence that he will be there for you when you need Him in the future, but it will drive you to worship. Doesn't God deserve to be praised for all the good He has done for you? Doesn't He deserve to be thanked? Of course He does! 

So pause for a moment and do this. You don't have to count out twenty-six ways, but maybe you can count at least five ways God has shown His steadfast love for you. Thank Him and praise Him for all He has done and rest easy in the certainty that He will continue to do the same.

Water at Sea

On May 27, 1943 a B-24 bomber named "The Green Hornet" went down in the Pacific Ocean while flying a search and rescue mission. Louis Zamperini was on that plane. He and another crew member survived the crash and for 47 days fought for survival on the open seas in a small inflatable raft. They had very few provisions and went as many as six days at a time without drinking water. Water became one of their most precious resources. They prayed for rain and perfected techniques of capturing as much as they could.* Imagine the irony of literally being surrounded by a sea of water while you are dying of thirst. As far as their eyes could see in any direction there was only water, yet none of it was able to quench their thirst. In fact, because of its high saline content, this water would only dehydrate them more.

This is the spiritual situation we all find ourselves in. We are dying of thirst for something spiritually real, something that satisfies, someone who can put us right with God. And we are surrounded by a sea of options that purport to be able to satisfy this thirst. We are tempted to turn to horoscopes to give us hope for the future; to other religions for a more palatable view of God; to love to give us self-worth and meaning; to entertainment to provide rest, and to nature to explain our origins and give purpose to our lives. But just like saltwater none of these solutions satisfy our thirst. They leave us worse off than we were before. Only Jesus satisfies!

Jesus highlights this aspect of His mission at the Festival of Booths. This festival is a celebration of God's provision for His people as they wandered in the dessert. No small part of that provision was that God provided water for so large a group of people in a dessert setting. Thus, Jesus stands on the last day of the celebration and says in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37-38)

Whether you are in a dessert or an ocean, you can't live very long without water. Water is one of the most basic human needs. Jesus is telling us that He is much more than one helpful bit of spiritual nourishment among many options. He is the only one that truly satisfies, that meets our needs. It is easy to forget this though. You would think I would have this figured out. I'm a believer and a pastor, but still I sometimes forget that only Jesus satisfies. He is the one source of living water.

In so many ways I am like Martha. Remember the sisters Martha and Mary. As Martha swarms around Jesus busy with the details of hosting an important teacher and His disciples, her sister sits at Jesus' feet idly taking in His precious presence. So often I am like Martha- lost in a swarm of activity and missing the blessings of Jesus' presence. I'm starving over here, working my fingers to the bone because I think it's what Jesus wants me to do. But what does Jesus say? "Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)

Help us all Lord to choose the better portion. As we drift in this sea of false hope and false gods, gently remind us that only You satisfy. Only You solve our real problem, the problem of sin. Only You can truly give us the hope of Heaven. Draw us to Your feet through Your Word and through prayer. Help us Jesus to feast on Your presence today.

For further reading...

• John 6:32-40- Consider also Jesus' statement that He is the bread of life. 

*Details taken from the book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

Carry Them Up the Mountain

Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Matthew 15:29-31

With what difficulty they must have climbed that mountain to see Jesus! For many of the lame, the crippled and the blind it was a trip they could not make on their own. They had to be carefully guided or even carried up the mountain. The passage clearly states that they were brought to Jesus by the crowds and laid at His feet. Those needing healing are not the actors in the passage. They are being acted upon by their good friends. They had friends who exerted great energy to bring them to Christ. Oh, but with what ease these same men, women and children must have gone skipping back down the mountain they had been carried up! Upon meeting Jesus their eyes were opened, their deepest hurts removed, and their injuries healed. Take careful notice of the outcome on the people as whole: worship. The crowd was in awe of Jesus' power and they praised God!

The Bible tells us that sin has an amazing power to blind and deceive us, so that people who are still lost in their sin do not know to come to Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). They do not know that healing can be found in Him unless we tell them, unless we bring them to Him.

Who are you working to bring to Jesus right now? What friend or family member are you inviting to church? Who are you telling all that Jesus has done for you? You must bring people to Jesus. When you do, the powerful working of the gospel in their lives will lead to greater worship for the Lord both now and in eternity. 

I know that sometimes it feels like pointing your friends to Jesus is an impossible task. Sometimes it may feel like you are carrying them up a mountain, but press on! Don't give up. Continue to encourage your friends to turn to Jesus, for if they will look to Him in faith He will surely heal their every hurt and pour out on them the life that only He possesses.

For further reading...

• Mark 2:1-12- A better known story that presents the same principle.
• 2 Corinthians 4:3-4- Blinded by sin.
• Matthew 28:16-20- The great commission.