“Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it (Haggai 1:5-6).”

If worship is the investment of our time, talent and energy (our physical equipment), our belief, trust and faith (our spiritual abilities), then its practical definition---practicing…

When people you know don't get the picture, the point of why we believe what we do about God, we can help them along the way with some things to think about. What really makes people tick? Why are we like we are? What causes the world to be like it is with all the problems we have? Why am I like I am inside? We need to identify where we are and encourage some personal sharing. It can be in the store or a party or whenever the opportunity presents itself. It starts may be with identifying…

It's one thing to believe, it is another to trust and still another to act. This is why Paul tells Timothy to get immersed in Scripture because it is not only good for teaching (it prepares the mind) but also for rebuking and correcting, which deals with the key target, the sin-conditioned heart. When the heart is redirected by the Word it follows that our spirit can be trained for righteousness (acting in faith) by the Holy Spirit.

A while back I was watching one of those doctor…

Skillful worship begins with the mind. The mind is where we develop belief. The mind processes life and passes it on to the heart. The heart processes the person from whom belief comes to measure the person's trustability. What the heart is willing to trust will influence the spirit of the person to act in faith. This process is true in every level of human activity. This is why everyone looks for a leader whose ideas and character touch the heart and inspire faith to follow and act. This is…

Which ditch are you willing to die in? All of us who are parents have probably faced that question with our gray hair producing teenagers. Was it the long hair, loud music, makeup, dress, language, or that really annoying rolling of the eyes look? Each of those ditches is how they test your value system, what you consider worth standing up for, who and what you worship. Worship is a built in ability. We were born to worship. If you really think about it we worship…

Aren't you glad when you pray that you don't get the usual automated phone voice that says, “Thank you for holding. We value your call. Your call is special to us and we will be with you in just a moment. So please remain on the line and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.”? That's not just once either. It continues on for many minutes until a real person gets on the line. Access to the Lord is instantaneous, in the Spirit and heard in spite of our imperfection…

Walking back into our memories can sometimes be fruitful not only for ourselves but for our younger generation as well. They will of course have to travel their path to becoming adults but we can be ready at times to share with them the difference between this world with its definition of being free and God's understanding in Jesus. Follow the thought here and be thankful we have a Savior and Lord to worship and share in every next moment.

Graduation night is a big night regardless…

Pinnacle, summit, peak, top, crest, apex, height, roof, tip, brow, point, apogee, zenith, capstone, climax, ultimate, optimum, acme, eminence, crown, supreme, cap, head, tower, vertex, loft, ceiling, meridian, spire are all words that describe the place beyond which there is no other. For those who believe in God it is He that populates every one of those words. Every language has their own set of words to describe absolute perfect superiority. All of them point to the essence of their…

'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only (Mt.4:10).”

When you are worshiping God you are serving Him and when you are serving God you are worshiping Him. It's that spiritual. It's that personal. It's that relational. It's that dynamic. Can you see the Cross in this verse? From the very beginning of the appearance of Jesus in the flesh there is this sense of the vertical and horizontal. The prophecies about Him, the Virgin birth, His constant references to the Kingdom of God, His…

"Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average (Garrison Keillor-Prairie Home Companion)."

You probably recognize that closing from Keillor's shows on PBS. Those words and his programs caricatured the images of small town America with its historic ethnic roots in which people looked at the TV depicted life of glitz and glamor outside their towns as bizarre and fleeting. Even in caricature it…

Olympic Gold. Lombardi Trophy. World Cup. Those three symbolize the crest of achievement in the world of sporting endeavors for individuals and teams. Imagine the dedication demanded in setting a performance goal, a rigid tiring training regimen and concentrated daily practice held in the vision of standing on the podium receiving the world's highest honor. That is human worship in a nutshell.

Now shift your gaze to the every day individual like each of us in the massive sea of images…

“Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only (Mt.4:10).”

We're going to look at this verse as we dig deeper into the subject of worship. This is the bottom line answer to the three temptations the devil throws at Jesus (Mt.4). Those temptations sum up all the daily invasions that are launched against us as believers. If you'll notice it's not the huge circumstances that face us every day. It's the seemingly small nuisance variety that get to us. These are the ones that point to…

One of my jobs when I was a chaplain to prep school students opportunely allowed me to coach track among other sports. I had two extremely gifted runners that I spotted as future collegiate athletes. The rules of the school didn't allow us to take students farther away than the local town just a mile away. It was especially difficult to train them in the Winter with no indoor facilities. The closest indoor track was at Dartmouth College, 40 miles away. They were too good not to train and…

It's really hard to leave this theme of worship. Again, worship is involving yourself in what you consider the most valuable thing in your life, what is worth giving your time, talent, money and energy to embrace. Worship is where you place your devotion, what has the most worth to you, worth-ship, worship.

Yesterday (2/5/14), I watched a TV spectacular. The Seattle Seahawks, winners of the 2014 Super Bowl, rode in a parade attended by over 700,000, a crowd larger than the city's…

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Those recognizable words from the program Star Trek give us a feeling for where the Sermon on the Mount is leading us. If you can see yourself as a spiritual being having a human experience then you are a spiritual being created to explore what lies behind the physical…

The following is an article from Jay Haug by James Emery White well worth reading and doing a bit of personal research as a follow-up.

"After the umpteenth email, tweet or call saying, “Could you say a few words about why they are myths” following my “25 Myths” blog, I gave in. Fortunately, most wanted just a few lines that could be used in general conversation, not an entire apologetic.

So here we go: "

Christianity is clearly anti-intellectual.

If Christianity is…

In this series on worship our aim is to see worship as a flaming arrow shot into the midst of all the distracting issues and problems we face in our families, schools, churches, communities and nation. Worship ignites an internal explosion, a confrontation and restoration of who and what is really important for us as disciples of Jesus. Distractions are whatever or whoever diverts our attention and action from the personal presence of the Lord. He and He alone can give direction as to how…

Remember the old saying, “Home is where the heart is?” We know that Heaven is our true home and getting hold of that is a heart thing. The Lord Jesus came to bring His people home and how we prepare is worship as has been displayed in this series. When God gets the glory we have a taste of home. Paul tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1Cor.10:31).” He says this after covering a series of interpersonal issues in the Corinthian church.…

To sum up what we have said about worship,---worship is believing, trusting and practicing God's worth, 'worthship.' That means every next moment offers us the opportunity to glorify His presence in praise, ministry and mission.

So far we have established that worship happens in three forms, as persons, in small groups and their assembling…

What was Jesus' view of congregational worship? Wasn't personal worship, the small group worship, the synagogue, enough? Was there more to worship? Is there a form that He blesses? The answer is yes and no.

Jesus did start a movement built on a heritage of groups and assemblages for study and worship but He did not start an institution for men to control. The…