8. True worship…
The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Isaiah 29:13
It is usually difficult to pick a counterfeit – a piece of art, a forged banknote, a phony preacher. Was the fish you had for dinner really barramundi? The Oxford dictionary defines counterfeit as: “made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or defraud”. We are surrounded by scammers who would have us believe something is what it is not, and the church is no exception.
More and more we are seeing those who profess to be Christians openly speaking untruths. They are like the Pharisees of Matthew 23. Clean on the outside but full of greed and self-indulgence on the inside:
Like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside, are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Matthew 23:27-28
We may be fooled by the fake worship offered by such people, but God is not because he looks on the inside, to the heart:
The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
What is going on in our hearts? Are we merely following the rules or even making up our own? Are we honouring God with our lips but not from our hearts? Are we governed by the desires of the flesh and not the heart?
Putting this into practical terms – do we turn up for church on Sunday in our best clothes, on our best behaviour, say lovely things, sing our hearts out, give our offering and then on Monday hassle our colleague for the $5 they owe us, gossip behind someone’s back, speak profanities? Are we Sunday Christians only, can anyone tell the difference between us and a non-Christian?
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
Romans 8:5
Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name, drive out demons and in your name, perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!”
Matthew 7:22-23
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27
As I meditated on these words, I felt God saying to me:
“Don’t get tangled up in the robes of the world as you dance with me for they will trip you up, they will break the dance. Put on the garments of grace, of praise, of true worship that cares for the widow and the orphan.
Then you will be able to dance with me. Don’t worry about the rules of the dance that the world imposes – be free, enter into the movement, be guided by me, let go…”
Prayer: Lord, it is so easy to get caught up in rules and regulations and to think that these are what you require of us. But you have told us that all that is required is to believe in you, the one sent by God, the Father to bring salvation to those will choose you. Give me the strength, the wisdom, the courage to stand against those who would tie me up in legislation, in “do nots”.
Amen
Action: Today, dance with Jesus, freely, through your day. Let him take the lead.
Journal your thoughts…
