Worship

     How do we define worship services?  What qualifies as good and proper worship to God?  Is it a song leader who keeps proper time and sngs well?  Is it a preacher who makes us laugh and feel good about ourselves?  Is it a gathering of people dressed in their Sunday best, acting pleasant to others they see only once a week?  A prayer led by an eloquent and well-respected man?  Perhaps it is the predictable schedule of a song, a prayer, more songs, Lord's Supper, another song, preaching, and a song or two before finishing up with a last prayer?  Do we determine how successful and pleasing our services are to God by these sorts of mreasurements?

     I should hope not.  In Ephesians 5:19 it says, "singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."  It does not mention how well anyone sings, or whether they are following the notes in the book exactly, or whether they keep proper time.  We are told to be "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit," (Eph 6:18).  It is not a matter of how verbose or articulate the man leading the prayer is, as we know that God hears what we cannot fully express in prayer (Rom 8:26).  We observe the Lord's Supper once a week, as instructed in 1 Corinthians 11:17-29.  We are not told that the plates we use must be shiny, nor is it instructed for us to use lace doilies.  It doesn't tell us how many men must be standing in front to help carry things. 

     We as human beings are prone to falling into patterns.  Those patterns reassure us and make us feel comfortable.  We should beware the comfort and assurance we feel when we insist on the way things must be conducted for worship servies!  Such traditions should not be taught as doctrine, nor imposed as law.  Let us carefully examine why we do the things we do, and reaffirm for ourselves the way that God has instructed us to worship Him.  After all, it is all about and for Him, is it not?

Contentment

     If it were possible, I would teach women everywhere how to be content.  The world we live in puts the focus on physical things being the key to contentment.  “When we get a house, I’ll finally be able to be happy.”  “A second child would complete my happiness, fulfill my life.”  Or perhaps, “If we could just pay off this debt, I’d be able to be content.”  These are not wrong things to want, of course!  But making such things the pivotal force in our lives that determines whether or not we are content is the wrong way of going about it.

Paul, through many tribulations and difficult times, discovered the ultimate way to be content.  He says “… I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11-13)  Whether we are content or not is not based upon our circumstances.  Poor or rich, calm or chaotic, contentment is a choice.  Not only that, but it is a choice that should stem from our confidence and relationship with God through his son.

     It is so easy to get caught up in the world’s ideas of success or failure.  We can subconsciously determine how we feel about our life based on outward signs.  What car do we drive?  What kind of neighborhood do we live in?  What school do our children go to?  What job does our husband have?  Do we work outside the home?  If we don’t have the ‘right’ answers for these questions when we meet new people, we feel ashamed or at the least self-conscious.  But these temporary things are not what determine our value or our success in God’s eyes. 

     How do we learn to move beyond the world’s ideas and choose to be content with whatever state our lives are in?  Paul helps us with that in the very same chapter.  He tells us to “rejoice in the Lord,” in verse 4.  He goes on to instruct us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6-7)  Yes, those bills are scary and trouble us.  A bad neighborhood definitely will give you sleepless nights!  Longing for another child can rend a heart with sorrow.  But we must rely on God to help us through such troubled times.  We are reminded to trust in God, to be thankful for what we have, and to rejoice.  Not just rejoice, but rejoice in the Lord!  We are not facing this life alone, and we do not have to bear our burdens in solitary agony.  If something threatens our contentment, God wants us to tell him about it, and then do our best to let go of the parts we can’t change ourselves.

     God wants us to be content.  He’s given us the keys to finding that contentment through him.  As a woman, a wife and mother, I rely on those keys in order to find the peace he promises me.  I hope and pray that all other women can find this peace and contentment as well.

Helmet of Salvation

We are told in Ephesians 6:17 to “take the helmet of salvation” as part of the whole armor of God.  This helmet is also mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, referred to as the “hope of salvation”.  Any helmet, whether it is a motorcycle helmet, a knight’s jousting helm, or a stormtrooper’s helmet, has one key element I would like us to consider.  Every helmet requires a space which the individual can see through.  We as Christians must view the world through this helmet of salvation.  Our actions and our views of the world around us must be filtered by the consideration of salvation.  The people we see need salvation.  How we impact the world around us can ensure our salvation, or be the reason we lose it.

Christ needs to be a part of how we view our daily lives.  It says in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  He should be on our minds at the grocery store, and on our tongues at the office.  Consideration of God’s Word should always be in the backs of our minds, for it is able “to make you wise for salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15).  Are you viewing life through the helmet of salvation?

Constant Change

               “And the Lord turned and looked at ______.  And ______ remembered the saying of the Lord, how he has said to ______, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’  And ______ went out and wept bitterly.”  (Luke 22:61-62)  I would like to challenge each of us to fill in those blanks with our own name.  Each of us has at some time denied Christ, whether in our actions, our words, or the secret intentions of our heart.  Each of us is guilty of the sin that sent him to die (Rom. 3:23).  How would it feel to meet the eyes of our Lord, knowing this?

               Repentance is often thought of as something we do when we first become a Christian.  We know it is one of the steps to salvation, and that is entirely correct.  Repentance is vital to our salvation (Acts 2:38).  However, that does not only apply to when we first make that choice to follow Christ.  Each and every day of our lives, we should be seeking repentance… change!  Change is something we need constantly in order to correct our path so we can continue to follow the straight and narrow, so that we can continue to enjoy the promise of salvation and an eternity with God (2 Cor. 7:10).

               This is what Paul was talking about when he made the analogy with being an athlete.  He said, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  Repentance, or change, is an important part of being a Christian.  We each need it, in order to obtain that imperishable reward.  It is also through this daily habit of changing to follow Christ that we may be able to meet his eyes someday and not be ashamed, but rejoice.

Thankfulness Bible Class - Week Four

Thankfulness: Attitude

Psalms 100

Our attitude should be one of thanksgiving to God with humbleness.

Without him we would not exist.  We should sing praises to him

and always be thankful to him.

            We have already looked at many reasons we have to give thanks.  God has blessed us richly with the good things in life.  However, our times of goodness and bounty are not the only times we should give thanks, even though that is our inclination.  It can be hard to keep a thankful attitude during less than ideal circumstances, but we were given an example of such an attitude in Daniel.  Knowing that difficult times were upon him due to his faithful worship to God, he did not fail to still give thanks to God, even when doing so put his life in peril (Daniel 6:10).

            I am hopeful that listing our blessings on a constant, daily basis has helped each of us to see that even in the midst of a bad day or things going wrong, we always have something to give thanks for.  Not only that, but God has repeatedly demonstrated that he looks after us, and if we give him our lives, he will bless us even in the bad times (Deut. 23:5).  How often have you had a good outcome from a bad circumstance?  It says quite clearly in Romans 8:28 that God looks after his faithful children (Rom.8:31-32).

            So it is that we should give thanks in all circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant (1 Thess. 5:16-18).  It is God’s will that we keep an attitude of thanksgiving.  Perhaps you are wondering, as I did, why thankfulness is so important.  Let’s read Ephesians 5:1-8.  Part of what defines us as Christians is our thankfulness instead of sin.  The two cannot properly coexist.  If someone is truly thankful to God for their blessings, then she would do her best to please that same God, thus avoiding sin.  We should have the attitude expressed in Col 2:6-7.  By “abounding in thanksgiving,” we guard ourselves from the sin described in Ephesians 5.

            We are told to “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with all thanksgiving” in Colossians 4:2.  What should we be keeping in our prayers of thankfulness?  Besides those things we have already discussed, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 tells us to include all people and all governments and leaders.  I notice that it doesn’t specify just those in office whom we approve of.  It says we are to pray for and about them all, so that we might have hope of being allowed to live godly lives as the Lord wishes.  During the time when 1 Timothy was written, Nero was heavily persecuting and killing Christians.  Yet Paul urged that supplication and thanks be made concerning the government!  This is a hard but important lesson for us, even though we ourselves are not being so persecuted.  It is easy to fall into the habit of bad-mouthing those in political office, but this verse indicates that such an attitude is not pleasing to God.

            Having this unceasing attitude of thankfulness is a challenge.  We can find the strength and courage to pursue this godly attitude by working together.  Both Ephesians 5:19-20 and Colossians 3:15-17 tell us to rely on each other for the support and help that we all need, so that we are indeed “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  This is why I am so encouraged and uplifted to have had all of you participate with me in studying what the Bible says about thanksgiving.  Thank you for helping to encourage me to become more thankful in my life, and I hope that all of you also have benefited from our studies together.

Thankfulness Bible Class - Week Three

Thankfulness: Blessings

Psalms 34:1-10

We praise God for all blessings we have from him.  He hears us,

keeps us from our fears, and keeps us safe.  We are blessed to trust in the Lord,

knowing that having faith we can endure all that we go through, good and bad. 

As we remain righteous he hears us and takes care of us during our trials.

            By now we know that there are a great many blessings in our lives; our thankfulness journals prove that!  Every kind of physical blessing comes from God (Deut. 16:17).  Great or small, we must remember to whom the credit goes.  Jesus healed 10 men of leprosy in Luke 17.  Leprosy was, at that time, an incurable and very painful disease.  To be completely healed of it must have been quite a shock, a great and immeasurable gift.  Yet only one man out of the ten took the time to go back and acknowledge the source of that gift and give thanks to Jesus for it (Luke 17:15-18).  How sad that the others did not think to express their gratitude to God as well!

            Similarly, it is important that when life seems to go our way, we should remember to attribute that to the one who bestows all good things on us (James 1:17).  In Genesis 39:2-5 it is clear that Joseph did well in his job due to God’s blessing.  Each of us experiences some form of accomplishment in life, and while hard work is essential, such success is in no way possible without God.

            Greater by far than these passing temporary physical blessings are the spiritual blessings God has planned for us from the beginning (Eph. 1:3).  Through Christ we have the gift of the gospel, a blessing from which we can gather all other blessings of a spiritual nature (1 Cor. 9:23).  God did not come up with his plan as a solution for an unforeseen problem, but as a gesture of love and hope towards us, something he intended long before Christ was born on Earth (Rom. 16:25-26). 

In Isaiah 12:1-2 we are reminded of the forgiveness that is provided by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In giving us the ability to choose to do right or wrong, God also knew we would thus need to obtain forgiveness, for we are all guilty of sin, as is noted in Romans 3:23-24 as well as chapter 7:24-25.  How grateful I am that sin is wrapped up in forgiveness, even as David is quoted to speak about in Romans 4:6-8!  That forgiveness is accessed through our obedience in a conscious choice to follow God’s plan for our salvation (Rom. 6:17-18).  Making that choice removes our fear of death and replaces it with victory in eternal life (1 Cor. 15:56-57).

            Thus, because of the grace and love of God, we are able to find joy and delight in thankfulness to him for both learning as well as teaching others (1 Thess. 3:6-10).  The soft and open hearts of others accepting and following sound doctrine is reason to rejoice and give thanks (1 Thess. 2:13).   This is not an accidental side-effect of teaching others! Their addition to the church makes us all stronger, which is how God intended for the church to work (Heb. 12:28).  If we do not teach others, we will be unable to give thanks for such things, and we ourselves will lose the benefits of adding to the church.

Bountiful and immeasurable are our spiritual blessings!  Many more things could easily be considered spiritual blessings, but it would take many weeks indeed to cover them all.  I hope that we each will seek out and acknowledge the spiritual benefits we enjoy as Christians on a day-to-day basis, and remember to thank God for each and every one.  May we seek an attitude of gratefulness for them all and be glad!  In our last lesson, we will look at how to obtain and maintain such an attitude for all good things on an on-going basis.

(Questions that went with this lesson are available upon request.)

Thankfulness Bible Class - Week Two

Thankfulness:  Prayer

Psalms 30:1-12

We cry out to God, being thankful to him for hearing and helping us

in all our trials and tribulations, realizing that without him by our side

we would be nothing.  We should give thanks to him forever.

            Thankfulness is closely bound with prayer, as we find in Philippians 4:6.  It is through prayer that we ask of God and thank God both.  God does want us to request the things we need and want, but he also requires us to express gratitude for what blessings we have.  (1 John 3:21-22.)  We must find a balance between supplication and thanksgiving.

            There are many examples of what to be thankful for, but two things in particular are repeated often enough, they bear looking into with a little more depth.  We will be addressing other blessings next week.  For this week, let’s look at the aspects of thankfulness in prayer at mealtimes, as well as thanking God for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

            In Acts 27:33-36, we find Paul just before a shipwreck, encouraging those on the boat with him to eat.  In verse 35, it says, “he took the bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat.”  Today it is tradition to say a prayer before a meal, giving thanks for the food.  It is easy to fall into the habit of doing this, making it an automatic series of words we say without thinking.  However, sincerity in prayer is essential.  Jesus addressed this problem, as we can read in Matthew 6:5-8.  They lacked the sort of sincerity that God looks for in our prayers.

            Our country’s wealth makes meals a given for most families, which can incline us to taking it for granted that we will have food on the table.  In previous eras, this was not so.  There have been times even in our own country when families have been deeply grateful for whatever was on the table.  However, our thankfulness should not be driven by lack or abundance (Phil. 4:11-12).  Let us remain mindful of what exactly we are thanking him for, guarding ourselves against giving insincere thanks.

            God gave us our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to strengthen us and build us up, as well as to teach and guide us.  The gift of our relationship with other Christians is essential to our spiritual health.  This is why we are told we should not be “neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another” (Heb. 10:25).

            The word “brothers” is used 46 times in Acts alone in referring to those who are not actual family.  Some of these are when the Jews are being spoken to, but predominantly it refers to fellow Christians.  This should indicate to us how important such a close relationship to each other is, and how much we have to be thankful for in one another.  Paul often gave thanks for the brethren to whom he was writing, once when he was in particular need (Acts 28:15).  God should be thanked often for the blessing of our brethren!

            Besides giving thanks in prayer for our brethren, we also need to have an attitude of thankfulness towards our fellow saints.  In Romans 16:3-4, Paul expresses strong gratefulness for a couple who had put their lives on the line for him.  This should not be the only reason we thank one another, though!  We should follow Pauls’ example by being thankful to and for others, including acknowledging their work in the Lord.  We should feel a sense of brotherly love for each other and a desire to show our appreciation (Rom. 12:10).  This applies to the church in general, to the Christians we know in our own congregation, and includes those Christians we may have briefly met or heard.  We should be grateful to meet a brother or sister from another state or country, and should thank God upon hearing about a faithful congregation, even if we ourselves have not yet been there.

            Let’s not take each other for granted!  In prayer, let’s remember why we are thanking God, and what for.  Next week we will find more examples of what to be thankful for, keeping in mind that we should thank God for all our blessings.

(Questions that went with this lesson are available upon request.)