An Audience of One

Several months ago, as I was trolling the internet, I saw this:

 In worship,  God is the audience.

Wow!  I’d never thought of it quite like that before.  I knew, of course, that I go to church to “worship,” but it was just to show God that I loved Him.  I recognized that each portion of the service was designed to show God that He is loved by His people.

It was a works kind of thing – good, Christian people go to church, right?

But this – well, it put worship in a whole new light for me. 

Now when I sing a hymn or the Doxology, I’m singing directly to Him…

Now when I pray, I’m praying directly to Him…

Now when I recite the Apostles Creed with my fellow worshippers, I’m telling God exactly what I believe about Him…

Now when I read the Holy Scriptures, I am reading them back directly to my Creator…

Now when I hear the choir fill the sanctuary with wonderful melodies of joy, I know those melodies are being lifted up directly to Him…

Now when I hear the sermon, I know that not only are those words for those who are worshipping, but also as a gift directly to God.

I can’t explain why or how I got the idea that worship was more for me than it was for God.  I felt that if I didn’t get something out of it, well, it certainly wasn’t my fault.

But to envision God as the audience, with all of us up at the pulpit and Our Father the only one in the congregation – that struck a chord within me.  I realized how selfish and self-centered I had become.  I was putting my needs way before God’s desires.

And what are God’s desires?

He wants us to know Him…

He wants us to obey His commands…

He wants us to live according to His plans…

He wants us to love Him…

And to worship Him…

I’d better get crackin’.  There’s probably something else I’m not quite understanding.  Ya think?

Are You Listening to Me?

What is the matter with you?  I trusted you to take care of things, to look out for my best interests.  I gave you my one precious vote (or maybe I didn’t, but this is a democracy and you won and I respect that).

I don’t want to appear judgmental, but I think it’s pretty clear that you are all acting like a bunch of idiots.  All that power being shoved around, and you can’t come to an agreement to keep the government going?

Oh, please.  I’ve seen better social skills at a day care center for 2-year-olds.

What gets me is that I have done nothing wrong.  The citizens of the United States have done nothing wrong. 

You, on the other hand, are acting like a highly dysfunctional family at its absolute worst.  If I want to see that kind of behavior, I’ll watch cable TV.

It’s time to knock it off.  To put your big girl panties on and deal with it.

I am ashamed of the lot of you.  Especially those who have been in power the longest.  It seems to me that you would have the most experience in compromising and seeing that things get taken care of.

Just do the job you were elected to do.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

My favorite Bible verse comes to mind.  Maybe it will be of help to you.

Beg as loud as you can for good common sense.  Proverbs 2:3 (CEV)

Calling All Boomers!

We have all heard that the hope of our nation is our children and our youth.  I’m here to tell you that that is only partially right.

I believe that we, the baby boomers, are also the hope of our nation.  We have lived through some of the most challenging and entertaining times in our country’s history: 

From the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

From the polio vaccine to cures for many types of cancer and better treatment for others.

From Elvis shown only from the waist up on the Ed Sullivan Show to the beautifully produced documentaries by Ken Burns on PBS.

From “The Cat in the Hat” to “The Purpose Driven Life.”

We have skills and at least partial answers that we can use to help our children and grandchildren understand how to go on from here, how to make a difference.

I believe we do that by example, our actions agreeing with our words.

And if we are part of the hope of our nation, we’d better get busy imparting some of our knowledge and life experiences to those who need to hear it.

I encourage you to intentionally tell your grandchildren about your life.  Tell them where you’ve been, even if you’ve never been outside of Marshall County.  There are plenty of stories about you and Marshall County that need to be told, and they need to be told by you.

Tell your grandchildren who you’ve been in the past, what you did for a living, what education or training you’ve had.

Teach them how to play a card game, like Hearts or Go Fish.  Watch Bonanza together and relate how you had a crush on Little Joe.

One good way of starting a conversation with a grandchild is to look at photographs from your childhood.  My 5-year-old granddaughter loves to look at the naked baby picture of her Gran!

It’s so important for your grandchildren to know you as a real person, one who has funny stories and serious stories, stories about their parents and stories about the history they are learning in school. 

I remember talking to a babysitter in high school who kept the kids one summer, and I mentioned something about President Kennedy’s assassination.  I said, “Well, you remember that.”  And she said, “No, but I read about it in history.”

Wow!  At that point, it had not occurred to me that anything that had happened in my lifetime, around 35 years of it, could be in a history book already.  But Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and I was talking to her in the late 80’s.  25 years to her was the definition of history.

You are living history.  Spread it around and let us all benefit from it.

 

In Debt

But we, brethren beloved by the Lord, ought and are obligated [as those who are in debt] to give thanks always to God for you...      2 Thessalonians 2:13

Actually, I was looking for another verse when I ran across this one.  What initially caught my eye was "in debt." I had recently been in a conversation about trusting God, and we were thinking of concrete, tangible ways to do that.  Among the several responses, the one I remember most was trusting God to have enough money to pay the bills. 

My brain immediately rewound to 25 years ago when this problem seemed to constantly plague my family.  Through God's grace, we eventually got through that tough time. 

Trust God? 

Very difficult when you're having to figure out just when the paycheck will hit the bank so you can buy as few groceries as possible that will last as long as possible. 

Very difficult when your child wants to do something extra at church or school and you have to say no.

Being in debt is no fun.  So how do we get out of debt?  We pay whatever it is that we owe.   When we pay a debt in full, we feel relief with a little freedom thrown in. 

In the verse above, Paul said we are obligated to give thanks.  The Amplified Bible added “as those who are in debt.”  Are we indebted or obligated to give thanks?  Yes, because God did the very thing that would free us all and give us eternal relief from the debt of this world. 

Love Him, trust Him, obey Him, and all with great thanksgiving.

He loves us so very, very much.

 

Quiet!

I used to have a quiet time first thing in the morning.  This was way back in the day when my kids were growing up.  I had a full-time job so I had to cram all of my home time around my job.

To accommodate the quiet time, I got up an hour early to pray.  I had a small notebook with pages upon pages of people and situations to pray for.  Once you got on my list, you didn't get off.  Even dying didn't take you off, because then I prayed for your family.

And being a dutiful pray-er, I would ask God what he wanted from me.  Most times I would go on and on about how I wanted to be used by Him, suggesting different things that I was interested in. 

But sometimes – sometimes – I would shut up and just listen.  Be still.  Try not to think of anything.  Well, of course, I would have these random thoughts go through my head. 

"I wonder if Alice ever found her other shoe." 

"Surely Mark has finally picked up his room." 

"I need to tell David about that funny noise the car is making."

Or people's names would float through my mind or their circumstances.

"I hope Mable is feeling better." 

"I wonder if Randy got that job he applied for." 

"The preacher looked a little pale last Sunday.  I hope he's okay."  

And I would try my best to ignore them all.  They were intruding upon my quiet time, and we couldn't have that, now, could we?

One day it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, those thoughts were the answers I had been looking for.  I had asked God to use me, and then I ignored his directions to me! 

Perhaps I thought of Mable because she could use a call from me or a note to cheer her up.  I could call Randy and ask about his job situation.  I could stop by the church office and look in on the preacher. 

I came to call those thoughts "holy thoughts."  They are not mine.  I'm not that bright. 

But God is.  And He loves us so.



Radical

This should have occurred to me long before now, but the more I study the Bible, the more I'm aware of how radical Jesus was during his time on earth. 

Being a Jew, he was, of course, born into a hand-picked Jewish family who was dedicated to their Lord God Jehovah.  In those times, and for thousands of years before that, the temple was their church.  There were all kinds of feasts and observances and sacrifices made to clean up each family spiritually. 

The priests did everything in God's name.  For example, if a man brought a certain animal or bird and had the priest sacrifice it, the priest would pronounce the man and his family clean of all sin.  The priest was the highest person in the church or temple hierarchy.  This is the culture Jesus was born into and was a part of for 12 years.

And then he did something that truly surprised everyone present:  he stood up in the temple and spoke.  Usually the speaking was done by adults or the priests, well-educated and highly respected men of the community.  Jesus explained parts of the scripture that day – something the priests normally did. 

Later in his life, Jesus said he was the Son of God and had all the authority he needed to forgive sin.  How bizarre would that be?  It would be like a modern day Christian saying he was taking people to heaven on the next rocket ship out of here.   We wouldn’t believe such a claim.  Too radical.  Goes against everything we have learned throughout our lives.

And yet Jesus continued to be radical, knocking ancient Jewish law around a bit, worrying the Pharisees to the point of murder, and forgiving sins all along the way.

This was a big change for the good Jewish people waiting on their messiah.  Some couldn't make the change.  Some did boldly and some did so timidly.   

Jesus' radical style doesn't really come into play for us.  We have always known of his love and salvation.  We have always known that we don’t have to have a priest to be forgiven.  And we have no sacrifice to make to earn God's favor. 

Jesus took care of all of that.  Come to think of it, that’s pretty radical, even during our time.

Treasures Old and New

I heard a Sunday School teacher say recently that it is absolutely imperative, no getting around it, you have to memorize lots of scripture to have a deeper relationship with God.  That was upsetting to some because they find it impossible to memorize much of anything.  The teacher said it had to be done, period.  He encouraged everyone to try.

I don't think he is right.  I don't believe God is playing word games with us.  I believe that we should keep scripture close to us, and one of the ways to do that is to memorize it.  But there are other ways, too. 

How about memorizing just for a day or two, just for an hour or two?  I'm thinking God would be more pleased with that than someone fretting over it.

Would He rather hear you say a verse or two, maybe even paraphrase it (making sure not to change the meaning of it) while you go about your day? 

Would He rather hear you read it from an index card or a sticky note and then think about that scripture and what it means to you? 

God wants us to talk to him.  He knows what's in our hearts.  He knows how we struggle to understand.  He is pleased when we keep trying.

My youngest grandchild is almost 2 years old.  He talks a lot!  What is he saying?  God only knows (and I mean that literally).  But we don't care!  We think it's cute!  We encourage him to make whatever noise he wants to make!

Is it possible that, because we're God's children, He might take the same approach?  He's happy to hear from us.  He wants us to know Him better.  He doesn't care if we can quote Him exactly.  He wants us to do our best, and, even more, He wants to help us do our best, whatever we're doing.

Please don't misunderstand me.  I am not saying memorizing scripture is not important.  I believe it is extremely important to closely study God's word.  I believe that for those who can, memorizing scripture is a good thing.  But to those who can't, it might be a stumbling block that I don't believe comes from God.

Ultimately, it all revolves around God and His love for His children.  It's not really about memorizing scripture; it's taking scripture a little piece at a time and reading it, saying it out loud, looking at it from all angles, asking God what He thinks about it. 

He doesn't care if our words are not perfectly spoken.  Just as I do with my grandbaby, God will take anything genuinely given and rejoice over it.

So he (Jesus) told them, “Every student of the Scriptures who becomes a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like someone who brings out new and old treasures from the storeroom.”            Matthew 13:52 (CEV)