Joshua Lesson

In my effort to read the Bible in a year I have found difficulty in reading Joshua. Much of the middle of it, chapters 13 through 21, deals with the divisions of the towns, and villages and pasturelands for the clans. Perhaps some day I'll see a significance in it. But right now I would much prefer to read about something historical, or an epistle, something I can reflect on and allow the Lord to show me how it applies to life.

And then I read chapter 22 and I found some interesting observations.
1. Joshua first "preaches" and reminds the tribes of all that the Lord has done for their people (vv 1-13). He glorifies God, and it is an encouragement to them.
2. Then Joshua rebukes the tribes. He says, "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. (v 14)
3. He publicly declares where he stands. He says, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (v 15)

There's an interesting response from the people which I think we can all relate to.

4. The people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!". But it is evident they were still sinning by reading v 23, "Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Isreal."

So, even though the people believed they had the right knowledge and the right attitude they were still sinning; specifically, they had foreign gods among them. My understanding of this passage is that the people didn't realize their error. But Joshua knew it. He did not assume the people would do the right thing when they simply said, "we will serve the LORD". He specifically told them, "throw away the foreign gods."

I have a couple take-aways.

1. Most Christians today don't point out specific sins in our lives lest they be called harsh and judgemental. So we must ask ourselves, "Am I really living a right life, what is the evidence? Or do I think I'm serving the LORD while subconciously holding onto sin (secret or obvious), or an idol?". Jesus has pointed out, take care to remove the "plank" from our own eye. And don't stop there, then you can see clearly to remove the speck of sawdust from your brother's eye. We are still our brother's keeper.
2. For the spiritual leader, take care to call out sin for what it is and tell people to do what's right. But not before taking a stand in your own life and living out the verse, "But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

There's a bit more to this chapter I can go on about. Perhaps on another blog post.

As the Word points out the spirit of the antichrist is among us, and that love of most has grown cold. So it is time to serve the Lord. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Lifting Up and Growing

Once a month we hold a men's prayer breakfast as a ministry for the men in our church. Although, this morning it was a very intimate group of only 4 men. Despite the small size, the Lord proved to be faithful. We discussed the needs of the church and prayed for about 30 minutes as the Spirit led. What an amazing way to serve God, by simply lifting up the bretheren and the needs of our church in prayer.

I hope our church will grow. Not necessarily in numbers, but in growing to be better leaders among the men, and better servants for our families the community around us. And to grow in courage to live in a Christ-like way.

Worship Noise

I enjoy reading another blog titled Three17 updated by a pastor in Ireland. And in his most recent post he realized he was addicted to noise after reading a Seattle Time article. You can read his post here.

Someone else commented on his post to further assert that church services in America are generally noisy. He objects to electricity in worship but more generally he objects to a loud and noisy worship service. Here's a quote from it.

What is it in American evangelical churches that compels so many to combine most of the worst elements of pop culture with worship? How is it that the great myth of "a little is great, a lot must be greater" became the dominant paradigm in Christian ministries? How is it that people can worship worship, and yet fail to worship God? How is it that silence has become so dead to so many Christians, and electrified noise the very essence of God's voice?

You can read the entire blogpost here titled, "When God is Lost In The Sound".

I cannot judge another man's heart, but for myself I rarely worship with a lot of noise going on. From what I understand what true worship is, for me it's usually when I'm in a deeper meditation of God's Word in front of me.

Lord, help me to see what is good, right, and true in this matter.

Quality vs Quantity

I say, "huzzah to the small church!" Of course, I'm supportive since I go to a small church myself. The following article from Christianity Today describes some advantages to the small church.

Here's a good quote:

"Second is a shift to the relevance of small churches. One of our most surprising discoveries is that (while there are some notable exceptions) the bigger a church grows, the worse it becomes both in quality and in its capability to reach new people for Christ. In few ways is the bigger church a better church."

But it seems to me this article attributes quality music with true worship of the Lord.

"In a crowd of 5,000, to sing worship songs and to have higher quality music is more inspiring than being together with eight other people and a guitarist who can play only three chords."

Just because the music is of higher quality it does not mean the ability to worship the Lord is greater. Indeed, Van Halen plays high quality music.

In general I hope the reader understands that the power of the church comes from our Lord Jesus, regardless of the numbers.

May God be praised!

Worship

What does it mean to worship?

During "worship time" at most evangelical Christian churches we sing songs. But are we worshiping, by definition?

Definition. Worship: The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.

And we sing "praise songs". But what is praise?

Definition: Praise: offering words of homage as an act of worship.

Homage? That's a fun word. Let's look at that.

Definition: Homage: Special honor or respect shown or expressed publicly.

So looking at book definition, worship is not necessarily singing songs to God. Rather it can be any act in which we devote solely to the Lord. Perhaps personal time in prayer, or time spent reading the Bible, or and act of obedience in an area of your life despite your personal desire. But it could include singing praise songs.

I've notice that songs we sing in church lately are loosely, if at all, praise songs. It seems to me few contain words that would be showing respect to the Lord. Rather they seem to be more inspiration -- like encouraging others to look to God. Or they are a witness to others -- like saying, hey I believe in God. Not that these are bad things but what deepens our relationship with our Lord?

I remember being part of a college-n-career church group and the leader would have us sing a variety of songs. Some were inspiration or affirmation of faith, but we always ended with a song that was purely praise by definition of the word.

In a church service I see it is the responsibility of the leader to lead the congregation in corporate worship. But also, it is the responsibility of the congregation to follow, to take on the act of worship.

There is an entire series about worship taught by TruthForLife which is probably worth investing in. In a description of what the series is about it says:

There can surely be no more vital theme for the church to consider than worship. This series of studies challenges the presuppositions and preoccupations of the "me generation" and lays out the biblical framework. Only when we are captured by an overwhelming sense of awe and reverence in the presence of God, will we begin to worship God in spirit and in truth. Then, and only then, may we expect visitors to our services to exclaim, "Surely God is in this place!"

Why is this important? It's what the Lord wants. In the Gospel of John we read about Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well and says, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23,24 NIV)

Let us worship our Lord in spirit and truth.