Falling Idols

The next morning the same thing happened--Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the LORD. 

I Sam. 5:4

God’s enemies were cheering. They did it! They captured that magical Ark of the Lord. Now success was guaranteed. They could have Yahweh’s power on command. They set God’s Ark beside their idol, Dagon, and everyone went to bed happy. The next morning, old Dagon had toppled over and lay face down before God’s Ark. They stood him up, but the next morning there he was again. This time his head and his hands broke off. Terror struck the city. Who was this God that no other god could stand up against? They couldn’t get rid of the Ark fast enough. Even God’s enemies had learned: Yahweh topples idols.

He topples our idols too. He greatly prefers that His people acknowledge and get rid of idols on our own. But when we refuse, He has to do it for us: The affair gets exposed. The kids turn out horrible. The casino takes all your money and gives nothing back. The spouse you thought would complete you, betrays you. You’re left with a broken Dagon and no way to fix it. When Self has been the idol, the toppling can be particularly painful. Age steals beauty. Popularity dries up. Success succumbs to the plunging Dow, and your overpriced, designer hiding places go out of style. We can rename, replace, and refuse to admit them, but the Lord knows about those other gods and He won’t tolerate them. He loves us enough to topple our idols.

God will not share His glory with idols (Is. 48:11). 

He will topple them, but it’s much better if we do it first.

Is God Jealous?

“…for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD…is a jealous God.”  Exodus 34:14

One celebrity has famously stated that she could never worship a God who is jealous; therefore, the God of the Bible must be rejected or reinvented. The confusion comes because of our misunderstanding of the nature of jealousy. We instantly categorize the word “jealous” with other negative words, like greed, hatred, or envy. But consider it this way:

John paused at the door of his home, fumbling with his house key while juggling the bouquet of roses he’d brought to surprise his wife. He smiled as he pictured her squeal of delight. He’d worked two jobs for the past ten years to pay the bills while she pursued her degree and an internship she loved. He’d stayed home with the kids on his days off so she could enjoy time with her friends, but he didn’t mind at all. He adored her. The love of his life. What a treasure she was to him!

The door opened and he lurched into the silent hallway, trying not to drop the flowers. He wandered into the kitchen, wondering at the stillness, and saw a note on the table: “Dear John, I’m sorry, but I must pursue my own happiness. I’m in love with that prisoner I’ve been writing to, and I’ve left you to be with him when he is released. The kids are at my mom’s. You’re a nice man, you’ll find someone else. Thanks for everything.” He stared unseeing at the note, trying to understand. That prisoner? The convicted rapist? Con man? Married 4 times? What was she thinking? Now consider this—Did John have a righteous reason to be jealous? Outraged? Heartbroken? That’s the way our loving Creator feels when we love ourselves instead of Him.

Do your choices, desires, and affections provoke jealousy 

in the heavenly Father who adores you?

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Offer This

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD.  Psalm 19:14  

Every morning, a gleaming altar waits you. It may look like the floor, your bedside, or your car dashboard, but those will work just fine. Romans 6:13 is posted above this altar: “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  Before you face the day, what parts of your body need to be on that altar?

If your eyes keep seeking seductive images, offer your eyes to God. What would His eyes seek today? If your hands have been stealing money from the cash drawer at work, offer those hands to God. What would His hands do? If your feet carry you to evil places, give them to Jesus. Where would His feet go? If your mouth is filled with crude jokes, foul language, or lies, offer it to God as a sacrifice. Ask that only His words come from it all day long. Is the meditation of your heart off limits to the Holy Spirit? Offer it to Him and see how He transforms those thoughts. When every part of our bodies belongs to Jesus, we can walk in freedom and authenticity. No more double-life or shame, because there is nothing left to hide.

 What parts of your body have been used for sinful purposes? What if you made them an offering to God?

Praise or Worship

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you… Psalm 66:4

We are commanded throughout scripture to praise God and to worship Him alone. The terms are similar, but not synonymous. Praise is easy. We praise people for a job well done: kids for good grades, a neighbor for mowing our lawn, or a spouse for taking out the trash. Praise doesn't cost us anything. It is a reward for performance. Through words, music, or dance, we can praise God for the great things He has done. Praising God is good, but we should not limit our heart’s expression to praise only.

Part of God’s mysterious nature is the requirement to worship Him alone. Worship is the losing of oneself in the adoration of someone or something greater. The human spirit is designed for worship, and if we are not worshiping the Lord, we will worship something else. Sports stadiums and rock concerts are filled with worshipers. Shopping malls and casinos pack in the worshipers every weekend. Worship is where we go to find validation and purpose. In order to worship God, we must set aside our pride and acknowledge His right to rule over us. Worship reminds us that we are not God. We can praise God for what He has done, but we worship God for Who He is. To experience true communion with Him, we need both.

Consider the differences between praise and worship. Are you practicing both in your communication with God?

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Oh, Baal!

 

“If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21

When we hear the names of false gods like Baal, Asherah (2 Chron. 24:18), and Dagon (Judges 16:23), they seem so far removed from our world. In fact, we find it hard to understand why an entire nation would bow down to an ugly idol made of wood or stone. Baal was chief god of the pagan nations surrounding Israel. Other nations credited this hunk of stone and wood for their protection, abundance, sexuality, and procreation. But the Israelites had encountered the Lord God Himself. So why would they substitute the real God for monstrosities made of wood and stone?

Unfortunately, idol worship is quite active in our culture, too.  We just call it by different names. Worship of Baal involved sexual orgies, drug concoctions, self-harm, and infant sacrifices. Does that sound familiar? God’s people wanted to hang on to just enough of the Lord to make themselves feel safe. But they also wanted to party with the pagans. Elijah was reminding them that the Lord does not share his glory. He does not compromise with evil. But He also allows us freedom to choose. If we insist upon chasing the world’s values and idols, then we can also reap the consequences. But if we want the Lord as our God, we must pledge our lives to Him alone and renounce everything associated with Baal.  

                                      

Are you trying to serve two gods? What parts of your life are being dedicated to false gods like money, sex, pleasure, or control? God will not share you. If the world is god, follow it; but if the Lord is God, follow Him alone.

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Open and Shut Case

I wonder why we ever adopted the posture of folding our hands when we pray. 

Maybe it was started by mothers of fidgety preschoolers, and we kept it when we grew up. Unfortunately, that posture often reflects the attitude we bring when we come before God. Many times we approach God with fists clenched, clinging tightly to what we consider ours: our rights, our pride, our relationships, or our dreams.

True worship, true prayer, comes with open hands. Whatever we cannot place in those open hands and offer to God is the source of our problems. What we refuse to offer Him fully will be the very thing that keeps us from being all God created us to be.

Maybe that's why God wants us to lift our hands in worship. He wants us to notice that when we try to lift closed hands... they are fists!

 

Do You Have To?

Someone said: "You only worship God because you have to. Why would you worship anyone who makes you worship him?"

It's true. the book of Revelation describes the living creatures and the 24 elders falling down continually crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." Are they doing it because they have to?

Yes.

They do have to...the way a writer has to write. An artist has to paint. A musician has to create music. They can't NOT do it because it is what is in them. Passion bubbles up from some inner spring and demands release.

If you learned today that you had won 10 million tax free dollars, you would express it. You would scream, laugh, leap around, and tell everyone you knew. You would have to. You couldn't help it.

When a sinner bound for hell is declared perfect before God, baptized in the Holy Spirit, empowered to live in holiness, and basks in the presence of Almighty God---worship results. We can't help it.  Every new revelation from God, every new exploration of His character, goodness, and strength incites more worship. Adoration bubbles up from an inner spring and demands release.

So the skeptics are right. We worship God because we have to. How can we not?

What a Waste

Heart pounding, she pushed away from the shadowed doorway and approached the men at the table. Although many sets of male eyes watched her draw near, her eyes were captured in the gaze of the only one who mattered. Voices dropped away and silence blanketed the room as she knelt before this one who had changed her world.

With shaking hands, she caressed the elegant bottle, its graceful neck that her girlfriends admired, the ornate designs that indicated the value of the oil within. She shut her eyes and with a vicious snap, she broke the thin neck of the vial. Fragrance filled the room.

With a smooth movement, she lifted the vial and poured it over the smooth hair of her King. As rivelets ran down his sideburns, her tears coursed down her face. Voices at once rose in protest.

"What's she doing!"
"Hey, that's crazy! That's expensive oil!"
"What in the world...Lady, you're nuts!"

Lips pursed together, she tipped the vial until there was nothing left. The last drop landed on his oil-soaked head and she fell at his feet, weeping. It was all she had, but it would never be enough.

His hand touched her shoulder and gently squeezed. She heard through her weeping the sound of that voice that had called the planets into orbit. "Leave her alone! She knows what she's doing. I'm telling you guys, what she has done will be remembered forever."

So what had she done?

If we're honest with ourselves, we stumble over that story too. It's been estimated that the cost of that alabaster jar of ointment was up to a year's salary. A single woman had very little means of support in those days. And she had just thrown it all away on a man who would be dead before the week was up.

Doesn't your common sense kick and and say, "That really wasn't very smart. Nice, yeah. Spiritual, sure. But not smart"?

We live like that, too. Sure, we're Christians. Sure we tithe, go to church, serve in the nursery, teach VBS, even give to missions. But we live smart. We don't waste ourselves on eternal things if it might cost us earthly things that are more important.

It has been suggested that the pungent nature of that costly oil would have still hung on Jesus' skin as he was being crucified. As he was whipped, slapped, and laid out on rough crossbeams, was it her gift that kept him going? Was it the scent of one woman's sacrifice that helped him make his own? When his best friends had deserted him, his best buddy denied their acquaintance, and his own Father had turned away, Mary's gift was his only companion. The aroma of her love that had been "wasted" on him would still have floated about his head. Maybe that's why he predicted that what she had done would forever be entwined with his death and resurrection. Because for him, that aroma would be forever entwined with it in his memory. His real best friend turned out to be a woman.

So what are you wasting on Jesus?Is your gift to him comfortable for you? 

Sure you are regular at church--unless the big game is on. 
Sure you give--unless bills are a little tight. 
Sure you read your Bible--if you have to.  
Sure you live righteously--if it doesn't clash with what you really desire.
Sure you witness to others--if the mood is right and you're not embarrassed.
Sure you pray--to ask God for what you want.
Sure you pour your oil on him--a few drops.

It is significant that the Bible records that she broke the vial to pour it. Most of us would have taken out the stopper and dropped a couple drops on his head, feeling quite spiritual about it. But when she broke it, there was no going back.

Have you allowed Jesus to break you so that there is no going back? Or do you live with one foot in the world--just in case? When we break our lives over his head, we are all in. And that's really what scriptural Christianity is all about. 

What is your alabaster vial?

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God's Battle Plan

We beg and plead. We pray and fast.

We would rather die than admit it, but despite all our showy attempts to connect with God in the midst of a personal war, we're still as weak as newborn kittens.

What's wrong? Where is the power of God? Why are we still gripped with fear, faint with worry, and terrified of what's ahead?

We've done all we know to do and it seems that God has lost interest in our affairs.
That's when many lose interest in Him.

But there is a principle sprinkled liberally throughout scripture that is often greatly overlooked. We ignore it to our peril.

In these 3 illustrations, see if you can find the secret.

In 2 Kings 3:15, an evil king had come to the prophet Elisha to seek advice. This man was so repulsive to Elisha that he could hardly stand to be in his presence. He could not hear from God in his emotional distress, but he knew what to do.

"But now bring me a minstrel,” he said. "And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him."

Did you see it? The secret is buried in there.

When King Saul had gotten too big for his britches, pride took over and the power of God left him. The Bible calls it "an evil spirit from the Lord." (I Sam. 16) The only thing that calmed him was when David played upon his harp. Verse 23 says that "Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him."

Okay, keep going...

When King Jehoshaphat was told that a great army was coming against the nation of Israel, he was rightly concerned. They were outnumbered, outfoxed, and under-equipped. But the Lord reminded him, "The battle is not yours, it is the Lord's." (2 Chron. 20:15)

Rather than order bigger tanks, more grenades, and fancy soldiers, Jehoshaphat listened and believed the Lord. "You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf." (v.17)

Now, notice his odd battle plan: "He appointed those who sang to the LORD and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, 'Give thanks to the LORD, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.'” (v.21)

Do you see the theme?

The key to spiritual power, the key to God's heart, is musical worship.

But don't we try everything else?

When we're down, locked in panic mode, engulfed in depression or fear, we want to do everything else but worship. We cry and pray, pound heaven's gates with closed fists, pay extra attention to our outwardly Christian duties and hope God is sufficiently impressed.

But worship? Really worship? Lay ourselves aside, our needs, our wants, our agenda and just worship God as He is right at that moment? Before he's indicated how this situation is going to resolve? It goes against everything inside us. It also goes against everything satanic inside us.

Satan cannot stand our worship and God cannot resist it.

When we worship God in spirit and in truth we shake a fist in Satan's face. Darlene Zscheche of Hillsong says, "Worship in the midst of a trial is a proclamation that what Satan intended to harm you will not plunder you."

Are you in the middle of a storm? Have you rattled heaven's gates in vain?

Try shoving all that aside and seek God's face. Worship him with music and singing, simply because He is worthy of worship at all times.

It's not a ploy, an attempt to flatter God and twist his arm. It's because there is power in praise. It pushes aside the darkness, opens prison doors, and sends the demons fleeing.

The battle is the Lord's. He fights the Enemy with your worship.
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Check Your Lyrics

Their sound was polished, the music well-done. But something felt wrong.

The worship band was singing about God, even incorporating Scripture into the songs. The chanting, applauding crowd seemed oblivious to what I was seeing and I noticed that I was the only who had sat down after the second song.

The crowd was on its feet, responding as the band wanted them to, but something was wrong. My spirit began to rebel.

I was attending a Night of Worship with one of my favorite worship leaders, Kari Jobe. I had not known another worship band would be leading off--one I'd never heard of--but I had eagerly prepared to enjoy them too.

I hadn't expected this internal resistance. Spiritual resistance.

"What is it, Lord?" I asked over the noise of the place. "Am I being overly-critical? Maybe they're just not my style."

That wasn't it.

I began to study the lyrics beamed high on the screens. Nothing wrong with them, exactly. Or was there?

Was I being too harsh? I didn't want to be. I had come expecting to worship the Lord with a group of strangers who were my brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead, my heart thudded uncomfortably as the first band charged into their next song, whipping the crowd into a lather.

It wasn't just the first song. Or the second. Song after song, the theme became painfully obvious: The focus of the entire hour was about harnessing the power of God for MY purposes rather than seeking the person of God for His purposes. God was presented as a genie, obligated to respond to my requests because I had faith.

I began to pray against the spirits that were present. Some of them were not from God. I prayed for the gullible people who may never realize the error in their theology until the god they thought they were worshiping let them down one day.

When Kari came onstage an hour later, everything changed. The whole spirit of the place calmed. Her very presence seemed to usher in a new kind of Spirit. Though some of her songs were upbeat and the crowd responded with excitement, the evening was spent exalting the name of Jesus rather than what He could do for us. Her focus was on lifting Him high, worshiping at His feet, praising Him for who He is.

I continued to think about it for days afterward. Was I correct that the first band was not what God had in mind when He commanded us to worship Him in spirit and in truth? Or was I being hyper-critical?

We can worship God in a million ways, not all of them understood by everyone else. We have different styles, different needs, and different ways of expressing our hearts to God. But the end result of true worship is always the same: exalting and glorifying the Lord--not demanding that He bless us, favor us, and demonstrate His power to us when we so desire.

Sometimes we can get a little too familiar in our relationship with God and we start to believe the cart is pulling the horse. We get pumped up on sermons about "faith that moves mountains" and start to worship the power of our faith rather than the Bestower of it. It's a subtle deception that Satan enjoys, because it robs a Holy God of all the adoration due Him.

Have you found yourself caught up in this switch-game? You thought you were worshiping God, but now that you think about it, your worship was directed at yourself and all you could be when God finished gifting you.

Are you singing joyfully along with lyrics that command Almighty God to reveal Himself to you? Bless you the way you want? Increase your profit margin? Is the God of your worship being depicted as a genie-in-a-bottle, there for your personal use?

Satan is the father of lies and will not flinch at inspiring well-meaning musicians to weave a few into their lyrics if it means robbing his Enemy of the glory due Him.

Check your lyrics. Do they present the God of the Scriptures as He really is or as our egos want to perceive Him?
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Come, now is the time...

Another re-run from last year. Be back soon.

I've been an active Christian for over 40 years. (Please, do not do the math!) But there is an element to Christianity that I never truly understood until recently.

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I won't give you all my credentials, but they include Bible college, mission work, countless seminars, faithful church attendance, Sunday school teacher, etc. I only mention that to underscore the curiosity of what I'm about to say.

I believe there is an aspect of modern Christianity that is grossly understated, to the detriment of millions of professing Christians. It has been abused in some circles and avoided in others, neither of which is what God intends. I'm talking about true unrestrained worship of our Lord.

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Worship, by its very nature, requires a giving up of oneself to the majesty of another. Oddly we have no difficulty offering unrestrained worship to the winning team, the hottest rock star, or a Hollywood celebrity within our reach.

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But when it comes to worshipping the only One we have the right to worship, we are suddenly full of reserve. We stand sedately, hymnbook in hand, muttering obscure words and hoping we're not going to do all five verses. Even in so-called "contemporary" services, often the emphasis is on how good the worship team is or whether the songs make us feel good. None of that has anything to do with real worship. Worship forgets about me and makes it all about God.

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Scripture is packed with models, enticements, and outright commands to worship our Creator with everything we have. With instruments, with dancing, with the lifting of our hands. That in no way implies chaos, disruptions, or theatrics. Scripture is clear about that too. And worship is not an emotional hemorrhage that looks spiritual but leaves nothing changed on the inside.

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So why is personal worship of God not more emphasized in American so-called "worship services?"

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There is a natural resistance in the human heart against the giving up of self to the authority of another and that's what worship is all about. Worship requires me to let go of my pride, my self-sufficiency, my achievements, and offer everything I am and will be to the control of Christ. It reminds me that He alone is worthy of the best I have.

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Worship takes us directly into the throne room of God where we cast off anything that doesn't belong there. Worship shines a spotlight on the ugly blotches still present in our hearts and gives us the opportunity to confess and get rid of them. If we refuse, the light dims and the object of our worship is no longer so accessible.

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Unlike prayer, worship is God-controlled. Many times, our prayers are merely lists of items we need to discuss with God, while the items He wants to discuss with us are left unchecked.

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But don't confuse worship with praise. Praise is important and goes along with worship, but the two are separate. Praise thanks God for what He's done. Worship adores God for who He is.

In worship, there's no one else in the room. Through lifting our voices, our hearts, our souls as an offering to Almighty God, He is able to release in us His presence, His peace, His joy which we've kept bottled up in a box in the corner, wondering why it isn't working for us.

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Worship opens the box. Worship reveals the majesty of God anew every time you enter into His presence---and who wants to go through a day without seeing God?

What about you? Have you learned to come before His presence in real worship or are you tied to your traditions, your background, your denomination?

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Worship cuts through all that. It's not confined to our human tradition or limited by our understanding. Worship keeps our pride in check, our priorities in perspective, and reminds us Who is in charge.

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If God has seemed far away lately, check your worship meter.

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Raising My Ebenezer to the Balm of Beulah...

Another rerun due to extreme busyness. Be back soon.

There is a quiet but often strongly-felt division among Christians in the area of worship music.
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With the upsurge of worship/pop bands---many of whom have taken the concept of crossover music to new lows---some worshipers (especially those over 50) have turned away from the whole concept of contemporary worship music and elevated anything written before 1800 to holy status.
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On the opposite side are the younger people who cannot relate to antiquated verses and plodding tempos and leave the church altogether in search of something that speaks into their lives.

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So who's right? What does God want to hear?

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In a recent church debate over this very thing, one well-meaning lady commented, "Well, I may be a martyr for this, but I love the old hymns and we just need to stick with the Bible. That new rock stuff distorts the truth of God's Word."

. Really? Is it as cut-and-dried as that?

. If it were, I think a whole lot of us would flock to her side. . In the early '70's when contemporary Christian music first tiptoed onto the scene, it was as shallow as a summer puddle.
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"Jesus...ooooh, yeah. Jesus, ooh-ooh, yeah."
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That was about it.

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But in recent years, praise and worship music has exploded with a variety rivaling that of secular. The choice of current praise songs is unending and high quality, both Scripturally and musically. Many are Scripture passages set to music and you can hardly be more Biblical than that.
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I remember as a child, standing in the pew with hymnbook in hand, some of the mental images that flitted through my mind as we sang all five verses of a song I didn't understand were not remotely spiritual.

• "Raising my Ebenezer" always sounded slightly pornographic and it certainly wasn't something I wanted to do in church.

• I had no clue where Beulah Land was, but was certain I didn't want to go there, and as for marching to Zion, it wasn't even lunchtime yet.


• The Balm in Gilead reminded me of war and I wondered who we were blowing up.

Now before you get any hotter under the collar, let me assure you I love the old hymns too. Many were written by stellar heroes of faith under the most adverse of circumstances. A study of the history of some of those songs gives them all the more meaning.

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However, why must we make everything an either/or situation? Hymns were once the "new songs" of their time and many people objected to them as well.

. The answer is clearly compromise. It won't hurt the under-25 set to learn some of those comforting hymns, and those of us past a certain age can learn a lot from the new music as well.
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Times change, people change, customs change. What is appreciated by one generation is often discarded by the next. The key is what's in the heart. If the goal is to show off your new electric guitar and the key changes you've mastered, then it doesn't matter what you're playing. It isn't worship music.
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Likewise, if you insist on leading all five verses of a Gregorian chant, you're going to lose the majority of your congregation to boredom. Pretending we're all still living in the 1600's just won't cut it with the Nintendo-crowd. Outdated concepts and terms don't speak into the lives of the ones singing them and leave the impression that God is also out-of-date and out-of-touch.
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So what's the answer? Many churches have gone to two or more services to try to appease the different tastes, but I hate to see that. If we're all worshipping the same God, there's no reason we can't do it together. If the younger crowd can't worship without blaring synthesizers and screaming vocals, there's something wrong there. It begs the question: Exactly what or who is being worshipped?
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On the flip side, if the older folks get their hackles up because some of tonight's songs will be sung with guitars, they need to loosen up. Where does Scripture dictate a piano and organ? If you want to really rile some feathers, mention that Psalms also instructs us to "praise Him with the dance!"
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The bottom line is that worship is a personal thing between you and God. Jesus said it must be done in "Spirit and in truth." Without that, you may as well be singing "Boomer Sooner."
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When we start dictating how another must worship the Lord, we've just gone legalistic. King David's wife, Michal, was mortified to see him dancing before the Lord.

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I wonder what some of us would think if we saw the same thing?

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Is Your Song New?

Sing to the LORD a new song.

That phrase is repeated more than a dozen times throughout the Bible. We read right over it, sing it glibly in choruses, but have you ever stopped to wonder what it means?

If you've been singing songs and hymns all your life, does that mean that they are used up? Should everyone be a songwriter? Is a 300-year-old hymn less valuable to the Lord because it's not a new song?

I pondered that phrase this morning and asked the Lord what it meant.

I thought of the prolific songwriters who bless us frequently with their new songs, their skill with lyrics, their twist of a phrase that lends new meaning to age-old thoughts. They have no trouble singing new songs, but what about the rest of us?

Would you like to know what He said?

Just as His mercies are "new every morning," so is our relationship with God. As we learn to love Him more, gain understanding of His ways, experience highs and lows, and develop a deeper trust and faith, old things take on new meaning. Scripture verses you've read a hundred times suddenly leap off the page and right into your soul. Worship music seems written just for you. Lines of song slip through your ears and take root in your heart as you sing them back to God.

Depending on your particular struggle at the moment, different songs reflect your heart as you offer the "sacrifice of praise." God takes pleasure in our songs. He loves music, loves for us to sing to him when it comes from deep inside. Rambling through nine verses of a hymn while simultaneously criticizing the pianist and wondering what's for lunch is not music to God's ears. He wants a new song.

So what are you singing these days? Are you offering lip service and calling it music? Does your attempt at praise and worship feel like it's stuck in the past?

If your heart hasn't crept toward God in a long time, then you're not singing a new song. It's not God's favorite kind of music, so you might as well save your breath. He's told us clearly the kind of music he likes. He wants to hear new songs, the ones ripped from your soul and offered to him. Whether penned by Isaac Watts or Hillsong, a new song is one that has captured the passions of your heart in lyrical form and made them acceptable to God.

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Forget the tired mantras that describe someone else's journey.

Offer to to God a new song!

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Are You Mary or Martha?

The Bible story about Jesus' friends Mary and Martha has taken on new meaning for me these past few months.

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To be honest, I was always on Martha's side. I understood her: working her fingers off, trying to make everything nice, doing what needed to be done because nobody else was doing it.

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I thought Jesus was being a little insensitive when he praised Mary instead--for just sitting there! I can see Martha's hands on her hips, her forehead gleaming with sweat, her chest heaving with exertion from juggling bread dough, boiling pots, and a clunky oven all afternoon. I can see her lips tighten as she, for the first time, questions her dear friend's judgement.

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For the past 30 years, I have been Martha. "Just tell me what to do, Lord, and I'm there. I'll stick with it until they peel my rotting corpse off the job! I'll stay the course if it kills me!"

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And it almost did.

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Several months ago, the Lord finally got through to me. He jerked me out of the kitchen and sat me at his feet, where all the strength is. I just didn't know it.

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At first, I tried to protest. "There's so much to do. I'm wasting time just praising you, listening, reading...I should be..."

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"No," he would say. "This is the better way. I need you to be Mary for a while."

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Now I get it. He was right all along. He wasn't scolding Martha. He just saw right into her heart and knew there was no joy in her. She was doing everything right, serving, working, obeying. But she had no strength because she hadn't spent enough time at Jesus' feet. She was about to poop out if she didn't figure out where the real strength came from.

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What about you? Are you a Martha, too? Are you caught up in believing that what you do matters more than who you are inside? Has it become natural for you to ignore your own spiritual dryness as long as you're performing accurately? If you're keeping all the balls in the air, accomplishing good things for God, your family, your community, then isn't that what matters? Isn't that what we're called to do?

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Ask Jesus. He didn't think so.

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Sometimes we don't even realize we're operating under our own steam. It takes Jesus jerking us out of the kitchen before we understand how much we needed it.

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If Jesus came for dinner at your house, would you be in the kitchen preparing a banquet? Or would you serve him nice leftovers and spend every minute you could at his feet, basking in his glory, learning his heart?

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I think he prefers leftovers.

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