Useless Worship

In Malachi 1:6-14, God is addressing the corruption of the priests of the day. He had been blatantly disrespected in His own house with what He calls 'unclean food' sacrificed by 'useless fires'. There was a lack of respect for who God really was and their defiance only spurred on more anger by Him.

One thing that I love about the book of Malachi is how throughout the whole book, God is referred to as 'The Lord All-Powerful' (NCV). In a way, I believe that God is placing His power in front of them because of their flippant attitude toward the things of Him.

Then I really started thinking....

What have my offerings for worship been to God lately? Am I offering lame and blind offerings and disguising it as true, honored worship to my Creator? How many times have I stepped on the stage as a worship pastor and given a half hearted portion of myself and called it true 'worship'? How many times have I allowed my title to come before my position in God's sight? How many times have I offered a useless fire as an offering and walk away shocked when nothing changes?

In this new year, let this be a challenge to you to....obedience will always precede success in God's sight. Offer your best and you will have all you can handle from the The Lord All-Powerful.

The Day God listened to a human

Joshua 10 (New Century Version via www.youversion.com)

The Israelites were defending Gibeon (a people whose lives they had recently spared and made their servants) against armies from 5 different kings. God had big plans for them to continue their domination to claim dominion over the promised land. So, here is Joshua leading an army into battle and not only does God show them favor, but He actually steps in by chucking hail from the heavens (He actually took out more than all of the Israelites combined).
Joshua was kicking butt and taking names and knew that darkness was quickly approaching, so he stood before the people and said to the Lord: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon. Moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon." It worked. The bible actually says that the sun stayed up and the moon waited until the fight was over. It has never happened again.

What struck me about the passage wasn't the fact that time basically stood still until all of the work was done, but it's what was said after the fact in verse 14....."That was the day that the Lord listened to a human being." Both God and Joshua's focuses were aligned and Joshua was doing EXACTLY what God wanted Him to do and was well on the road to fulfilling the destiny given to him by His Creator. Joshua had to have known that his God was fighting with him and that there would be few things off limits. When we live like there are no limits in our lives, God will begin to speak and we will be both willing and eager to listen. What are your limits?

sucking it up and missing the mark

Mark16: 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;

18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”


I grew up in a Pentecostal Assembly of God Church right smack dab in the middle of Jackson, Mississippi. The tongues billowed freely and the 'anointing oil' flowed like wine....well, maybe not wine because of the STRICT 'no drinking' policy. There happened to be the occasional Jericho march and if the pastor didn't get to preach, it was just a sign that you were having 'real' church. I did see God work in miraculous ways healing people and releasing others from lifetimes of addictions. All of these things have their time and place, but my God...we missed the mark.

Fast forward to adulthood.


In a way, I had a choice in the matter...in a way the choice had already been made for me. Whatever the path that led me there, I had become a full time worship/youth pastor at an incredible, rising, technology driven church that was gradually teaching me to establish and develop relationships as a way into the hearts and lives of new people. I was great at starting them up, but would seldom forget my reason for building the relationship in the first place....in a way it became more worldly and sound rather than magnetic and flowing. Then all of the sudden, one day, I stopped caring at all. I became a mindless drone of 'getting the job done' rather than someone who had a relationship with God and used that relationship as a catalyst for transferring it into my everyday relationship building. I still had the same skill level that I had before, but I was missing a key component...and I missed the mark.

Rewinding back.

I grew up believing that all it would take for our church to explode would be to have a true 'revival' where people come from all around just to be a part of this 'move of God'. All of those things are a great foundation in building a successful church, but the problem that we always ran into was a lack of community. I can count on one hand how many times that we had new couples over to our house for whatever reason. It's not that we didn't care, but there was a lack of outside community and the new people that showed up never felt invested because we were such an inward focusing group of people. After all, what WAS Jesus REALLY saying when he said 'casting out demons'? Are you specifically limited to physically laying hands on people who are 'possessed' or 'oppressed' by a demon or could it be something right in front of your face like helping a single mother with groceries, or taking someone into your home when they fall on hard times? Isn't that expelling just as many demons in that person's life than prayer alone? In short, I was missing action....I was the missing REaction...the Spirit is willing, but the flesh has so much room to suck it up.

So now I'm at a crossroads where I'm having to learn how to balance the Spiritual with the practical while exercising both to their fullest potentials. When was the last time that you DIDN'T have to apologize for being 'Too Spiritual'? On the other hand, when was the last time that you just opened up your eyes to realize that the answer you'd been "Praying so hard for' was right in front of your face the whole time? It's time to get back to the basics of our faith...I think that the early church of Acts 2 says it the best:


Acts 2:42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

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