Few things in life bring passion to a southerner's soul as football in the south. Football is not merely a sport here- it is an event, a way of life, almost cult like in its fervor. If Sundays are reserved for the religion of church then Saturdays are devoted to the religion of college football.
There is something special about strolling around a college campus on gameday. The smell of food on the grills, the ambient noise of people tailgating under their team canopy tents, and boys and girls off in the distance running around enjoying the festivities of the day are sure signs gametime is just around the corner.
Sure the mass of humanity and snarling traffic is enough to test one's spirit but nothing will ruin this day for it is sacred and we the spectators will treat it as such. We're willing to endure much because we know the game is upon us.
Entering the stadium it is easy to be overcome with the mystique of the event. The field is bathed in brilliant sunshine. The other spectators arrive and soon you are surrounded by over 100,000 of your closest friends. So close it is almost uncomfortable. The glorious spectator is crammed into a space so small that even the most petite of person would defy its space limits. Yet, we’re eager to be here. We’ve come to honor our team whom we love.
The band plays, the players sprint on to the field and we the glorious spectators yell, jump, celebrate for hours for people we really don't know. The game ends. The spectator has given his best. Win or lose, the spectator did his part. Spent after a long day of revelry, the spectator says goodbye to his friends and journeys to his home where he will assume his other life of quiet reservation until next Saturday where he'll pick up his worship of football once again.
Right worship...wrong God.
The single greatest thing we do and become is centered in this thing called worship. Jesus said the greatest thing a person can do/be is worship-"To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind is the greatest commandment"(Matthew 22:37). Our worship is not relegated to a time, event, or location. It is not focused on a style but on a substance. It is not focused on what I receive but what I give. It encompasses my entire being-my affections, my attentions. Worship is life. And as I value more and more this thing called worship, my life and everything in it changes from the inside out.
God doesn’t seek after my worship. He seeks after worshippers-me and you (John 4:23). God will be praised. His glory will be exalted in all the earth. The question is- as He pursues you, will you be a glorious spectator of a game and give your love to another or will you be an active participant and worship the Lord Most high?
Game on.
Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worship. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Substitute Saviors
Life today is consumed with idols; substitute saviors. Sometimes these substitutes are hard to recognize, but if we look long and hard in our hearts, they are there. Probably not miniature graven images sitting on our mantles, but we have them. Stuff, status, sports (insert college football here if you wish) self, sanctimonious religion - these substitute saviors that bid for my love; these are the idols with which I struggle.
At the heart of idolatry is substituting the devotion and affection that rightly belongs to the One who is jealous for us. In a sense, idolatry is a worship issue. What you worship is what you idolize.
There is a sobering reminder of this in Exodus 32. Moses has been with God for sometime on the mountaintop while the people in the valley waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, in their impatience, they approach Aaron and demand new gods (idols) be made and thus the descent into destruction began.
Idolatry happens when God is reduced :1. In His apparent “delay”, the people forgot who God was. Their view of God changed. It is easy for us to condemn these poor people but we aren’t much different. Think about it - we casually approach a holy, transcendent God that we worship on our terms and when He doesn’t respond on our timetable, we spiritually whore ourselves out to any substitute that takes us. In effect, we reduce God to the same level as the other gods in our life.
Idolatry happens when God is reformed :2-4. Since God wasn’t behaving like they thought He should, the people took it upon themselves to form something they could control. After all, it’s easy to control something when it has been reduced to a containable level.
I am convicted by this for I see myself and the American Christian in this. I, like the people in Exodus 32, like a convenient and comfortable faith. I want to worship the One, true God and live in His light and love, yet how often I conform Him in my image to fit my life and my demands. Instead of God reforming me, it is I who feebly attempts to reform Him.
Idolatry happens when God is replaced :5-6. The final step of this progression is that God is replaced. He is put on the shelf. When God doesn’t fit our terms, doesn’t fit our timetable and doesn’t meet our demands, two things will happen. We will either break and return to Him in a love relationship or we will find a substitute savior that will act according to our demands. Inevitably, He becomes our mascot and when, or if we ever need Him, we return to the shelf where we’ve placed Him along our other substitute saviors.
Thankfully Moses, after been made aware of his people’s arrogance, pleads to God for their salvation. If the shelves of your heart is riddled with substitute saviors, practice what Moses did as he interceded for his people.
He appealed to God’s Greatness :11. Moses reminded and confessed to God how He had acted in the past and how He had shown Himself mighty before. One of the first steps in renouncing idols is having the right view of Who God is - He is GREAT! He appealed to His Goodness :12. God is good. Though He has the right and power to wipe us out, He is good. We also need to appeal to that characteristic. He appealed to His Grace :13. Finally, Moses reminded God how gracious He was in choosing these stiff necked people to be His own. It is His grace that takes us back, cleans us up and restores us to right relationship. Don’t cheapen that grace by cheating on Him; bask in His overwhelming and relentless love He has lavished on you - you won’t find anyone or anything else that will take His place.
At the heart of idolatry is substituting the devotion and affection that rightly belongs to the One who is jealous for us. In a sense, idolatry is a worship issue. What you worship is what you idolize.
There is a sobering reminder of this in Exodus 32. Moses has been with God for sometime on the mountaintop while the people in the valley waited…and waited…and waited. Finally, in their impatience, they approach Aaron and demand new gods (idols) be made and thus the descent into destruction began.
Idolatry happens when God is reduced :1. In His apparent “delay”, the people forgot who God was. Their view of God changed. It is easy for us to condemn these poor people but we aren’t much different. Think about it - we casually approach a holy, transcendent God that we worship on our terms and when He doesn’t respond on our timetable, we spiritually whore ourselves out to any substitute that takes us. In effect, we reduce God to the same level as the other gods in our life.
Idolatry happens when God is reformed :2-4. Since God wasn’t behaving like they thought He should, the people took it upon themselves to form something they could control. After all, it’s easy to control something when it has been reduced to a containable level.
I am convicted by this for I see myself and the American Christian in this. I, like the people in Exodus 32, like a convenient and comfortable faith. I want to worship the One, true God and live in His light and love, yet how often I conform Him in my image to fit my life and my demands. Instead of God reforming me, it is I who feebly attempts to reform Him.
Idolatry happens when God is replaced :5-6. The final step of this progression is that God is replaced. He is put on the shelf. When God doesn’t fit our terms, doesn’t fit our timetable and doesn’t meet our demands, two things will happen. We will either break and return to Him in a love relationship or we will find a substitute savior that will act according to our demands. Inevitably, He becomes our mascot and when, or if we ever need Him, we return to the shelf where we’ve placed Him along our other substitute saviors.
Thankfully Moses, after been made aware of his people’s arrogance, pleads to God for their salvation. If the shelves of your heart is riddled with substitute saviors, practice what Moses did as he interceded for his people.
He appealed to God’s Greatness :11. Moses reminded and confessed to God how He had acted in the past and how He had shown Himself mighty before. One of the first steps in renouncing idols is having the right view of Who God is - He is GREAT! He appealed to His Goodness :12. God is good. Though He has the right and power to wipe us out, He is good. We also need to appeal to that characteristic. He appealed to His Grace :13. Finally, Moses reminded God how gracious He was in choosing these stiff necked people to be His own. It is His grace that takes us back, cleans us up and restores us to right relationship. Don’t cheapen that grace by cheating on Him; bask in His overwhelming and relentless love He has lavished on you - you won’t find anyone or anything else that will take His place.
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