I Worship You

Happy Friday!!! I’m so glad the weekend is here. Not a lot planned, but the fact that I won’t be on a clock thrills me.

Anyway, so I was listening to Gospel radio this morning and heard the remix to the old 1980s hit, “Work it Out.” Back in the day we used to jam to that song, especially on the part that says………telephone’s disconnect; waiting for my next paycheck; baby need a pair of shoes; momma got a light bill too; WORK IT OUT. But on the remix---the millennium version (lol)---the same singer talks about the same woes although her baby is now all grown up. But I was listening to the remix, in which I hear on the radio all the time, and there’s one part that baffles me. It’s the part where she says she went out the country with her pastor and her choir, but when she got back home there was a foreclosure notice on her door.

Ok, the last thing I want to bang over somebody’s head is the unfortunate choices we’re forced to make in this recession. Being a Realtor, I’ve seen the crooked deals mortgage brokers do just to get people in homes. Thank God…….NONE of my clients has faced or is facing foreclosure. It’s a serious matter that is almost uncontrollable. And so perhaps this singer was a victim of a mortgage scam. Don't know.

But what baffles me is……..why in the heck are you out the country doing “God’s work” when you have home issues you need to take care of?????????????????????? I always wondered about that. Do you pay your mortgage/rent or do you use the money to do “God’s work”? I promise you that what’s on my mind is not about what we think God wants us to do with our money. I promise you--lol.

What is on my mind is…….doing God’s work.

My Associate Pastor said something a couple of weeks ago that is stuck in my head. Every other hour it seems like I’m questioning motives----mostly mine. What he said was that we, as Christians, have to be careful and cognizant of what and who we are worshipping in ministry. He said that there is such a fine line in worshipping God that if we’re not careful we can begin to worship the things of God without realizing it. I love how he gave the example of music ministries and how if we're not careful we can begin to worship the worship.

I was browsing the web and came across a church ministry that boasted they have the best praise and worship. Wow. So now we’re worshipping…….praise and worship. Wow. Then I was watching TBN the other day and heard the commentator comment on their competing station’s slogan of……. “the fastest growing faith-based station in the world.” The commentator made a valid point that it doesn’t even matter who’s growing the fastest. The question is……are we growing in God?????? I’d hate to think that the competitors are worshiping the Christian station in which God blessed them with, but you never know.

Over the last month or so, the Lord revealed to me how He wants me positioned to fulfill His purpose in me. I’m ecstatic and have been busy, busy, busy making plans and preparing budgets and talking to vendors and so forth. But I had to stop myself. I had to slow down and reassess. Because I felt like I was getting to the place where I was worshipping the plan of God and neglecting my worship time WITH God. I can be very rigid and focused. And so when I am tasked to do something I can barely see what’s outside of what I’m doing. That’s a problem. A major problem. But thank God for His Holy Spirit because this week I started to feel really distant from the Lord and I hate feeling like that. It was as if the Holy Spirit tugged at my arm and said........ummmm, you need to focus over here. So I had to pull back from my task.

I was watching the biography of the Newsboys, a Christian rock group from Europe, the other day. These guys are awesome!!! They make awesome music and have really touched the lives of their audiences. But they gave their testimony of how for years they were on tour over 300 nights a year and how they were in heavy demand. But things were happening individually in their lives. One’s marriage was falling apart, another got hooked on alcohol (can you believe that!!), and another was going through a depression. Because what they found out was that their passion for ministering through music could not fill the void. The lead singer expressed that he had come to the point where he had to stop performing because he was worshipping the ministry God had given him. He said they were so engrossed with “bringing others to Christ through their music” that they were neglecting intimacy with the God.

You know, when we think of idolatry I believe we think of worshipping buddah, or zen, or that lady figure (can’t think of her name). But idolatry is anything that comes before God. It can be as innocent as a loved one----spouses and children and friends. Or the things God have blessed us with like businesses and homes and cars and money. And surprisingly, it can be church and ministry. I see people all the time getting so wrapped in “their” ministry that they lose focus of the Creator. It’s a deep thing when we are worshipping the things of God and not realizing that God isn’t really getting the glory out of it. And I think when this happens we block the way in which God wants to move in our lives---for HIS purpose. And eventually we end up failing. Umph.

“If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.” –Deuteronomy 8:19