Defilement Comes From Within Series

Worship is supposed to come from a grateful heart and mind, focused on how God's mercy and grace has taken us off of the road to hell and by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, placed us on the narrow road leading to eternal life. Our submission to Him as Lord and Savior, along with the desire to obey and follow Him is the hallmark of a life founded on the thanks we owe our gracious LORD for an act of love that He did not have to grant (Romans 5:6-11, 8:31-39). Music, prayer, and the preaching of the Word in Spirit and truth is all considered acceptable worship before Him, but all too often worship becomes in far too many congregations an excuse for rampant unchecked emotional fanaticism, disarray, and a lack of reverence that turns off a lot of people and gives the body of Christ a black eye. On the other side, there is a lack of any kind of reverence and love for God in those churches where the spiritual fire went out a long time ago and the members are going through the motions with no sense of personal interaction with their Lord and Redeemer. Traditions and programs that served a purpose many years ago are still being used lest there be a commotion and outrage over changing or ending it due to the fact that "it's always been this way." Churches have split and even closed because situations like this are not addressed, evaluated, and brought before the LORD to seek His guidance through prayer and the Word and heed His counsel.

Two major sources of conflict when it comes to worship, outreach, or just because it's part of the tradition of the church in question are that of celebrating Christmas and Easter. When I was a boy and up to my young adult years, this was not even on the radar, much less a point of contention. There are godly church members and their respective ministers who see the Christmas season as a celebration of the arrival of Jesus Christ to the earth as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem, the promised Messiah of His people, where we celebrate and honor Him with the songs and specials centered on His Majesty. A lot of brethren believe just as strongly that Christmas is nothing more than a pagan recognition of a fictional character who gives gifts and is nothing more than a symbol of the commercialism that has engulfed the season, and see no reason to give it any due. There is also a sense from most of these folks to all but cast the celebrants into hell for even recognizing the holiday. I handled the issue in my home by telling my children about Saint Nicholas and his Christ-like kindness towards the poor and needy of his time. I have always like the ornament where the Santa figure kneels before the manger, and I believe that it is the best way to balance everything out.

A lot of people get bent out of shape when it comes to the Resurrection season, or Easter. Again, this was not even an issue when I was a child, and I knew that the rabbit was a character of fiction, and we never sang songs about the critter. I quit eating Easter candy when I got horribly sick from chowing down on a hollow chocolate bunny, and that was decades ago. I knew even before I was a Christian that Easter was the time of year where we celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There are people who, again, turn on you like a rabid dog if you even mention the word "Easter" around them and then corner you as they rattle off a history of Babylonian pagan fertility traditions that make the season one of horrendous secular infiltration, or something like that. I have always wanted to ask these zealots if they put that much time and effort into memorizing Scripture or to go out and tell someone about the love of Christ that will not let anyone go if they will but bow to Him and surrender their lives to Him. If this describes you, please calm down, smile, relax, and live the kind of life that makes people eager to hear about the Savior. Oh, and for those of you who sit and debate deep theological issues and make it a point to pore over the different views of salvation, predestination, election, Puritan teachings, ideas of holiness, and admire the design and structure of the fire engine while the building full of people is burning out of control , get your priorities straight and go rescue the perishing like Jesus commanded. You can teach them these things later. I speak from many years of experience and some regret, but that has been confessed and thrown away by the LORD as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103). I do not dig up the dead.