Heaven's Hallelujah Chorus Series

him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up.

Stand up, he said, I am only a man." A gifted man to be sure, and the

one God used to bring Cornelius into the kingdom, but Peter rejected

hero worship and pointed Cornelius to Christ, who alone is worthy of

worship. In Acts 14:11-18 we read of how the people of Lystra were

so impressed with Paul, they shouted the gods have come down to us,

and they began to worship Paul and Barnabas. But they tore their

clothes and Paul said in verse 15, "Men, why are you doing this? We

too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news,

telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God."

These two plus the two times John is rebuked for trying to worship the

angel, make it clear, God alone has the exclusive right to be

worshiped.

All the focus on exalting personalities is a very worldly practice.

The church is not to conform to the world in this matter, but it often

does. We forget that the gifts are from God, and we begin to worship

the person with the gifts, rather than the source of the gifts. The

church has it's cult of celebrities just as Hollywood does, and

Christians debate who is the biggest, brightest, or most beautiful. This

is not all bad, for there needs to be Christians on every level of society

to witness to the lost on that level. But there is risk. The risk is that

the celebrity will develop the Lucifer syndrome, and begin to feel

worthy of worship. The risk for the hero worshiper is that they will

forget to acknowledge God as the giver of the value they receive

through the celebrity.

The Bible has the answer to both of these risks in one

word--Hallelujah! Whenever you feel the emotion of gratitude for any

value in life, don't stop short of the highest, but go right to the top,

and praise the Lord. This does not mean you do not thank the servant

who was the channel of God's blessing. You do! But you praise God

as the source of that blessing. If we could be practicing this one

hundred percent, we would be singing hallelujah all day long. I think

this is what Paul meant when he said, "Rejoice in the Lord always and

again I say rejoice." He is saying, everything of worth that happens to

you is to move you to praise the Lord. May God help us in our daily

walk to be more conscious of God's blessings, and thus, be ever joining

with the choir of heaven in singing the Hallelujah Chorus.