Of course, we worship the Lord. Who else?
A contemporary entertainer was quoted as saying, “I was raised in the Church, but 85 percent of the people who attend are nonbelievers. They go because it’s socially acceptable.”
That’s just one man’s opinion, but the statement hits hard. Why? Because it has a ring of truth to it. It exposes the lack of faith found in today's churches. It's often easier to find faith in science, hard work, and a dependence on ourselves.
There’s nothing wrong with science. It gives us our modern day comforts, explains much of the world around us, and enables the Church to broadcast the Gospel around the world. As far as hard work? Even the Bible supports that.
It’s dependence on ourselves that destroys the faith God wishes us to exemplify.
Jeremiah 22:14 asks:
“Who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion?”
Much of the Lord’s work on this earth is completed by the labor of our hands. The nonbeliever can raise up great institutions to do great good, just as the Church can. The difference is found in the giver’s heart. The 85 percent who attend but don’t believe, their offerings help support the work of the Lord, in spite of who places it in the offering plate.
Whom do we worship, God or man? Do we trust in the supreme intellect of an almighty Creator, or do we place our future in our human abilities?
Isaiah 41:19 states:
“I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
Even those of us who attend regularly need to reassess our lives and search our hearts and our motives. Why do we warm the pews each Sunday? Is it because others expect us to be there, or have we truly shown up to worship God? The pew will be warmed one way or another. Our offerings will fund God’s work either way. The difference is in our hearts.
Matthew 2:11 reveals:
“And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.”
They fell down and worshipped him. With their hands, they offered their gifts. We can do the second without the first, but we can’t do the first without the second. In the presence of the Lord, we have no other option.
Our proof of our love for Christ is in the works we offer unto him.
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