Worldly Worship

Sunday’s Monday

I have had a superb week this week, as God has been busy leading me from glory to glory. I receive a good doctors report, Pat and I got to surprise two of our old friends with a visit and I was able to serve Meals On Wheels with our youngest grandson Adam Findley. Pat and I attended a gender reveal party for our granddaughter (Roxie Stafford) with our third great grandchild, “a boy” and we have another granddaughter (Anna Major) that will soon give us a second great grandchild. God willing, we will have 3 great grandchildren by this time next year. We are surely blessed by a good, good Father!

I sit here once again this morning examining my life verses my spiritual life! I am in awe at how far Jesus has brought me spiritually and at the same time shocked at the age-old battles I still fight. As I was delivering Meals on Wheels this week, I noticed Christmas is just Christmas to a lot of people and what I mean by that is Christmas is just another day. Now for me it’s unthinkable not to celebrate Christmas in some form or fashion, be it worldly or spiritually, it’s always been a special time. Which brings me to one of my biggest ongoing battles! When I’m celebrating Christmas, what are my motives and who is the benefactor of my actions? In simple terms; how much of the world am I allowing to influence my spiritual celebration. The bible tells me in Psalm 29:2 (NIV), Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. It breaks my heart to think back at when I use to set through long meaningless sermons, sing a few Christmas Hymns, give a little extra and turn on that King James charm. I had no real feeling toward or regard for what it all meant. I was going through the motions in an effort to please all sides! I came away from those particular services with the emptiest soul a man can have, void of all feeling, except for the disappointment I had with myself. I was the poster child for worldly worship! I did everything the church expected, while holding my spirit captive. The bible speaks of this in Deuteronomy 18:9 (NIV), When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Here is where things start to change, once I was given the insight to understand what God is saying, it was like Miracle Grow for my spirit. I see two things happened here, even though the words aren’t here. One God gave me the Baby Jesus to make a way for my eternity and the second is God gave me life in this world. He, “God” sent me the most wonderful gift ever given, before I was even born. I’m assured of this in 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV), Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Or as the NLT reads; 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NLT), Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words! Not one of us can escape the jubilation that is contained within this scripture, even if we are not following Jesus, our soul is stirred by the scriptures. Once I learned that Jesus is for me and not against me, because He loves me with the purest of unconditional love. I found Christmas “everyday!” One of my favorite scriptures is 1 Peter 2:9 (NIV), But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Mine because I was consumed by a darkness that was so empty, I could not tell which end was up and God made a way for me to receive His light. My anchor, my joy, my saving grace, come from a scripture that I learned in the first grade of school. John 3:16-17 (NIV), For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. We all need to do ourselves a favor and examine, what we’re doing, why are we doing it and what are our motives! I pray that the majority of you will be shocked, just as I was. Let’s stop with the word play, keep Christ in Christmas and put Him back in our hearts where He belongs! My belief is, as long as Christ is in me, He will always be in my everything! Matthew 28:20 (NIV) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surly I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I pray that everyone will have an encounter with Jesus this Christmas!

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK BY BEING A BLESSING TO OTHERS!

COMMENTS WELCOME…pal249@hotmail.com…12/23/2018