{"id":848,"date":"2015-04-03T03:24:46","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=848"},"modified":"2015-04-03T03:24:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T03:24:46","slug":"wired-for-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=848","title":{"rendered":"Wired for Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.\u201d
\n<\/em>\u2015 C.S. Lewis<\/em><\/h4>\n

I submit to you that human beings are created with a need to worship that is as real and fundamental as the need for food, water and air. \u00a0It’s because we’re made in the image of God — because we have souls and all that goes with them — that we crave transcendence.<\/p>\n

\"Sunrise<\/a>

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He has risen, just as He said.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Our corrupted state makes this yearning even more intense. \u00a0The apparent randomness of life deepens in us the desire to connect with One who is bigger than we are, and who is able to change our circumstances, or at the very worst to redeem them. \u00a0We can take comfort in the knowledge that the world is in loving and all-powerful hands.<\/p>\n

But even if you don’t worship this God, or any name-brand god, you worship something. \u00a0It could be money, sex, power, approval, your hair, your physique, your reputation, your kids or your career. \u00a0You know you worship whatever it is this way: \u00a0It is where your thoughts, your time and your money go. \u00a0You make decisions around it, because it holds the place of preeminence in your life. \u00a0Sound familiar? \u00a0As Bob Dylan sang, “You gotta serve somebody.”<\/p>\n

Skeptics, Sign In<\/span><\/h3>\n

If you question whether mankind is made for worship, consider that the God of the Bible — that is, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — takes this as a given. \u00a0When God gave the law to Moses, He began with the ten commandments. \u00a0If you’re familiar with them, you’ll notice that the first four commandments deal with man’s obligations toward God. \u00a0Here are the relevant verses from Exodus, chapter 20:<\/p>\n

\n

And God spoke all these words:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cI am the Lord<\/span> your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.<\/span><\/p>\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou shall have no other gods before\u00a0me.<\/span><\/p>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.<\/span> 5\u00a0<\/sup>You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord<\/span> your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,<\/span>6\u00a0<\/sup>but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n

7\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou shall not misuse the name of the Lord<\/span> your God, for the Lord<\/span> will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.<\/span><\/p>\n

8\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cRemember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.<\/span> 9\u00a0<\/sup>Six days you shall labor and do all your work,<\/span> 10\u00a0<\/sup>but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord<\/span> your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.<\/span> 11\u00a0<\/sup>For in six days the Lord<\/span> made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord<\/span> blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Note that the Creator is mindful that His creatures are going to worship something — he provides His law to instruct fallible people to maintain their focus and worship Him exclusively. \u00a0We also see in the law the practical rationale and the benefits of obeying the law of God.<\/p>\n

The object of our worship<\/span><\/h3>\n

If we’re in agreement that man is a worshipping creature, then we must next determine what is or should be worthy of our reverence and our obedience. \u00a0A common mistake I’ve observed — and made in the past myself — is to try to encourage people to worship God without establishing context. \u00a0If God is one deity among many, he might as well be another brand of toothpaste on the drugstore shelf — and deserving of about the same loyalty.<\/p>\n

Similarly, beware of slapping a label on some collection of personal preferences and calling it “God.” \u00a0That’s like your mom making a gingerbread man and calling it by your name.<\/p>\n

It’s much easier to worship God when you know Him, and it is easier to bow before His majesty when you’re convinced of His supremacy. \u00a0Otherwise, I’d offer what I imagine to be a helpful suggestion, to which you’d reply with a shrug and a “Says you.”<\/p>\n

Let me introduce you<\/span><\/h3>\n

If the God of the Bible is the one true and living God, He would have an absolute claim on our devotion and our worship. \u00a0The Bible speaks of God as the creator of everything that exists. \u00a0The creator of a thing is usually the owner of that thing, and the owner is uniquely qualified to evaluate — to judge — his work. \u00a0Similarly, if the owner doesn’t share ownership, he alone is sovereign over his creation. \u00a0This means his preferences and his will are law.<\/p>\n

And if the Creator’s character and reputation are of perfect love and perfect justice, He would be correct and consistent to punish wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

So in the pages of scripture we meet God, the creator of the cosmos — one God in three persons — who is infinite, personal, loving and just. \u00a0He made mankind in His image and likeness and granted them the freedom to love Him or not, obey Him or not. Our original parents, Adam and Eve, violated God’s one and only rule, corrupting them and the whole of God’s creation. \u00a0Every woe in c=the world traces its origin to this tragic exercise of free will.<\/p>\n

Rather than abandoning these rebels to their just punishment, God instead set in motion a plan of redemption. \u00a0First he called out a people to Himself. \u00a0He made a covenant with them to be their God forever. \u00a0He gave them His law to instruct them, but also to prove that not one of them was good enough often enough to earn God’s favor. The standard is 100% perfection. \u00a0No human being could pull that off.<\/p>\n

The plan culminated in God’s taking on human flesh and living a perfect sin-free life, fulfilling the law of God, and ultimately satisfying the claims of divine justice. \u00a0Jesus, the only son of God, was fully God and fully human — and only He was able to make a satisfactory payment in full for the sins of all mankind by dying in our place — a substitutionary atonement.<\/p>\n

Spoiler alert<\/span><\/h3>\n

The story of this God is remarkable, but it gets even better. \u00a0Because three days after Jesus died on the cross, he resurrected and appeared to hundreds of witnesses. \u00a0Since death was a consequence of rebellion against God, Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates\u00a0his mastery over death – and proves his authority to forgive sins. \u00a0That is a God who is worthy of our worship!<\/p>\n

In early 21st century America, we like stories about rascals who beat the system. \u00a0We may shake our heads and marvel at their gall, but we don’t necessarily admire them or want to be like them. \u00a0Unlike these types of characters, Jesus submitted to the will of God the Father, and endured the humiliation, the torture, the agony and the separation from God that our sins deserved. \u00a0He went through it, rather than around it — and all because He loves you. \u00a0Now I\u00a0want to encourage you to worship Him.<\/p>\n

Happy Easter! \u00a0He is risen!<\/p>\n

So how about you? \u00a0In what ways are you in need of a spiritual tune up? \u00a0How do you intend to worship God this Easter? \u00a0Add your comments below.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,19,44,46,56,73,58,55],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-god","category-grace","category-jesus-christ","category-law","category-motivation","category-ten-commandments","category-wisdom","tag-easter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}