April 2013 Articles

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Spiritual Corner

Spiritual Corner True Worship?
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). When I first began preaching, an older black man who was a good friend said, “You know now that you’re a preacher, you can’t just stay in the hills, you gotta go to the hollers.” After some discussion I came to understand he was speaking of what Paul told the Corinthians, “I became all things to all men that I might save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake.” (1 Cor. 9:22-23). Paul did earlier say “to the weak he became weak”, and “while with Jew’s he lived like a Jew,” but he goes on to say that he was always under Christ’s rule and never forgot about the law of God. He never compromised his good standing with God whatever the situation where he was teaching. You may have heard about the latest craze in religion in which worship services are being held in bars. Outreach ministries entitled “Beer and Bibles” started a few years ago at a tavern called the Flora-Bama, named after its location on the Florida-Alabama line. In a recent USA Today article the owner of that establishment said, “If Jesus returned he would probably kick back at the Flora-Bama. It is the sort of place he went to hang out with people. When you can’t get people to go to church, the alternative is to bring church to them.” Those who are setting this trend say they are simply following Christ’s instruction to “go into the world” and save people. They say many of those who need saving are in bars. While it is true that we should always be looking for opportunities to spread the “good news,” and without a doubt those who frequent bars are in need of God’s message, when Sunday worship is held in conjunction with drinking and whatever else is going on in the establishment, that in no way can be defined as “true worship.” Has God not plainly told us that he will not be where sin is, and that it is our sins that separate us from him? In our worship we must separate our hearts and minds to God to the exclusion of all else. It must involve not only leaving the “old man” and its desires behind, but outside our midst as well. When Abraham reached the place in which God had appointed him to offer up his son Isaac as a burnt offering, he told the two young men with him, “Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship.” (Gen. 22:5). Like Abraham, each one of us must say to all our business’s hobbies, and common temporal affairs, “you stay here while we go and worship.” In the best environments of worship, it is sometimes difficult to keep focus on the service at hand. I would dare say there is not one of us who on occasion, albeit only in our imagination, hasn’t finished cooking a meal, conducted a business deal, or let some type of thought, divert our mind away from the worship we are to be partaking in. May we never forget that worship is the place where we can put our souls at rest remembering the great promise that God is in our midst. The Hebrew writer states, “Having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith.” (Heb. 10:22). While the Lord did tell us to “go”, he also says “come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28). I realize there are those who think they can go to the corner bar and wash their worries away, or should I say wash them down. Those same people are now being convinced that while drinking they can find God there as well. On the day of Pentecost Peter tells many who realize they had done a great wrong in crucifying the sinless Son of God, how to remove their worries: “Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38). That is God’s way of removing the filth of life, and it has absolutely nothing to do with a longneck! May God bless us as we do our best to teach a lost and sinful world, and at the same time keep our worship pleasing to Him. Writer: Tommy Bennett