How to spend the day with the Lord?
Thesis: It’s is imperative that we regularly spend the day with the Lord. Why, because as we implement this into our lives we become refreshed and renewed daily!
Introduction:
As I was preparing my sermon one day I ran across a web site dedicated to atheists. As I searched through the site and read what they had wrote I was amazed, perplexed and even astonished at the content. I realized that they were serious about being an atheist, maybe even more serious than some are at being a Christian. So today I would like to read you one of their articles about the day in the life of an atheist.
Opening Illustration: A Day in the Life of an Atheist by August Berkshire [The following events might normally occur in a month’s time. They have been compressed into one day for dramatic affect.]
Shortly after waking up, you sit at the breakfast table reading the morning newspaper. You see there is a "Faith & Values" section, filled with people who are happy because they believe in the supernatural.
This doesn’t bother you, but you wish the atheist point of view was represented more often -- not only because there are atheists in the community, but because atheism has a valuable message: Live life to the fullest, here and now; try and create heaven here on Earth. You agree with the late astronomer and atheist Carl Sagan: the way to find meaning in life is to do something meaningful.
You and your ex-spouse got divorced last year. It was uncontested and relatively straightforward. You’re both glad this isn’t the 1950’s. Because of religion, divorce laws were a lot stricter then. You might have had to charge each other with "mental cruelty." One of you might have had to establish a month’s residence in Reno, Nevada in order to get a simple divorce.
You and your ex-spouse were concerned about overpopulation, and decided to only have one child. It still amazes you that, for religious reasons, until the mid-1960’s birth control was illegal in some states even for married people!
Your ex-spouse has converted to a faith-healing religion. You worry that if your son ever became sick during a visit, your ex-spouse would pray instead of calling a doctor. It’s difficult for you to imagine that most states allow faith healing for children, even if they end up dying from it. Your son could legally be allowed to die.
Your son is staying with you this week. He joins you at the breakfast table. Like you, he has no religious beliefs. He asks, "Can I join the Boy Scouts? All the other kids in school are."
Sadly, you must tell him the Boy Scouts do not accept children who do not believe in a god. You wonder why a group that discriminates like this is allowed to recruit in public schools. However, you do know of cases where they have not been let in, due to their biased policies, and also that some United Way organizations have stopped giving them donations for the same reason.
You know that the Boy Scouts were chartered by the U.S. Congress, and you feel their discrimination is a violation of Separation of State and Church. You wonder why the Boy Scouts can’t be more friendly, the way the Girl Scouts are.
Well, things could be worse. You recall the case of a 9 year old boy in the Minneapolis Public School system. In 1991, his teacher illegally conducted religious exercises in class. Because the boy was an atheist and would not participate, he was persecuted and denied the honor roll certificate he had earned.
Three years later, with the help of Minnesota Atheists and the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, he finally received his long-overdue honor roll certificate. Unfortunately, by then the family had been so traumatized they moved to Wisconsin.
You kiss your son on the cheek and send him off to school. He arrives there just as the "See You at the Pole" gathering is ending, and a few students pester him for not participating in this religious ceremony.
He’ll face the same pressures after school for not joining in the Bible Studies Club. Some students tell him he’s a born sinner -- a religious point of view you find particularly bizarre and hurtful to young people.
Once he gets into high school, your child will take biology class. However, due to pressure from Creationist parents, he will not be taught evolution, because it is too "controversial." You intend to teach him the basics of evolution yourself, and you wonder why other parents don’t seem to be upset that their kids are being deprived of an education. After all, evolution is accepted as a fact in all other developed countries, and is even accepted by the Roman Catholic Church!
Well, by now, you’re on your way to work. You open your wallet to pay the bus fare or the parking attendant. You notice for the millionth time that it says "In God We Trust" on the money. You know this phrase was not originally on U.S. money. It was put on coins in 1865 and on paper money in 1955.
It offends you to have to use this money. The "We" of "In God We Trust" means "the citizens of the United States." You are a citizen, and yet you don’t trust in any god. It seems like a form of religious advertising, and a violation of Separation of State and Church. Some day some Supreme Court will probably agree with you. You know religious people would be offended if it said, "In Atheism We Trust."
At work, most people know you’re an atheist, and it doesn’t bother them, just as it doesn’t bother you that they’re religious. In fact, during lunch you have an interesting conversation with a religious friend and trade some gentle humorous jabs.
You happen to put a little too much pepper on your salad, causing you to sneeze. A colleague next to you reflexively responds, "Bless you," then "Whoops; sorry!" and laughs. You laugh, too.
You’ve already told him where that phrase originated. In the Middle Ages, people believed that when you sneezed, and had your eyes momentarily shut, the devil could creep inside you. And so it was good luck to bless a person.
However, this reminds a guy at the end of the table that you’re an atheist. He immediately goes into his standard routine about how this is a "Christian Nation." As "proof," he offers the motto "In God We Trust" on the money.
You ask yourself: has this guy ever stopped to think how "Christian Nation" sounds to a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Native American citizen ‹ let alone an atheist?
What really gets you is that you know he’s wrong. Sure, some of the colonies were founded by religious pilgrims, who sometimes put people in jail for not going to church on Sunday. The colonial lack of Separation of State and Church was also responsible for the Salem Witch Trials. But all this changed when we united under a national constitution in 1789 and established separation between state and church.
Most of the founders of the United States were deists, not Christians. They believed in an impartial god of nature, and were skeptical of organized or revealed religion. They took their ideas from the European Enlightenment and the Ancient Greeks and Romans, not the Bible.
If this were truly a "Christian nation," why would the Constitution have no mention of a god? Why would it state that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States"?
Why would the Treaty With Tripoli, negotiated under President George Washington, begin with the phrase "the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion"?
You believe the First Amendment not only guarantees "Freedom of Religion" but also "Freedom From Religion."
Nevertheless, four states, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, still have laws on their books making belief in a god a requirement to hold public office. Well, these laws will eventually be ruled unconstitutional, just like similar laws in other states.
You recall that in 1988, then-Presidential candidate George Bush was asked what he thought about the rights of atheists. He responded that he didn’t think atheists should be considered citizens. As an atheist, sometimes you feel like the last minority.
You believe the U.S. government was established to help us deal with life on Earth. You think politicians should spend less time preaching, and more time filling potholes.
On the drive home, you spot a bumper sticker with the Biblical quote, "The fool has said in his heart there is no god." You recall that the atheist psychologist Sigmund Freud called religious people neurotics. You daydream about confronting the guy in the car, where he’s calling you a fool, and you’re answering back that he’s a neurotic.
However, you dismiss this daydream. Name-calling never gets anyone anywhere. You wish it were possible for more people to understand that atheism is not an act of foolishness, but rather a well-thought-out position on your part.
It’s early December. Seasonal decorations are beginning to appear around town. In front of your state capital, some Christians have erected a creche. In your mind this is illegal, because it gives the appearance of the government endorsing Christianity.
However, courts have ruled the steps in front of the capitol to be a public forum, open to anyone. You remember that last year the local atheists put up a counter-display. However, it was constantly vandalized by religious people. You wonder if free speech really applies to you.
Back at the office they’re already planning the "Christmas Party," complete with a tree, an angel, and a creche. You work for a private company, so this is not illegal. However, you do think it is a bit insensitive toward non-Christians who work there. Why not just call it a Winter Solstice Party, and leave people to interpret it as they wish?
Thinking of the season, it reminds you that you do, indeed, send out greeting cards. You stop at the Post Office to get some stamps. You’d like to get the secular "Season’s Greetings" stamp, but they’re out of them. You have to choose between a stamp with a Madonna, child, and angels on it, or a flag stamp.
You wonder why the government is allowed to blatantly advertise Christianity this way. You take the flag stamps.
Resuming your journey home, your mind drifts to more pleasant thoughts. Over Winter Break you’re looking forward to taking your son to Epcot Center, where he can experience different cultures. This will be a chance for both of you to have fun while learning something together.
Thinking of Disney, you’re glad the company had the courage and humanity to offer employee benefits to gay and lesbian couples ‹ despite the boycott by the Southern Baptists.
Then you start thinking about hotels, and how they usually have Gideon Bibles in them. You wonder why these can’t be kept at the front desk, along with other "holy books," and maybe some atheist books, and be given out only to those people who request them.
You get home from work, lie back on the couch with your favorite beverage, and turn on the TV. The lead story is another religious war taking place somewhere in the world. You don’t mind if religion is used to gather people together, but you shudder when it becomes the basis for war.
Suddenly your doorbell rings. You get up, turn off the TV, and answer it. Two polite, well-dressed people are standing there with holy books tucked under their arms. Your position is that you like to "live and let live." You have no desire to push atheism on anyone else, and you’re tired of people trying to convert you. However, on previous occasions like this, you have invited religious evangelists in and engaged in friendly, philosophical discussions.
But today you’re tired, so you simply say, "No, thanks, I’m an atheist." You’re amused at the wide-eyed look of wonder you see on their faces, so you relent and let them in. After all, this is a chance to let religious people know there is another point of view.
Later, before falling asleep, you read another chapter in a fascinating science book. You wish you were as intelligent as these scientists, most of whom are, in fact, atheists.
You wish more people who were atheists would publicly say so. After all, 20% of the world’s population have no religious beliefs.
You recall that many well-known people are and were atheists, including:
Philosophers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Ayn Rand.
Authors: George Bernard Shaw, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, Samuel Beckett, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and Harold Pinter
Science writers: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Carl Sagan
Science fiction/fantasy writers: H.P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. LeGuin, Gene Roddenberry, Michael Crichton, and Douglas Adams
Film directors: Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, John Sayles, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Steven Soderbergh, and Mike Leigh
Actors: John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson, Donald Sutherland, Jodie Foster, John Malkovich, and William B. Davis
Musicians: Frank Zappa, Barry Manilow, Debbie Harry (Blondie), Billy Joel, Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Matthew Sweet, Andy Partridge (XTC), Bjork, and Julia Darling
Comedians/humorists: W.C. Fields, Jackie Mason, Woody Allen, George Carlin, Paula Poundstone, David Cross, and Andy Rooney Cartoonist: Steve Bensen
Magicians: Penn & Teller and James Randi
Talk Show Hosts: Steve Allen, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Ronald Reagan Jr.
Entrepreneurs: Bill Gates and Ted Turner
Well, enough of this. You wonder what new challenges life has in store for you tomorrow.
You open a book of poems by Robert Frost and read "The Road Not Taken." You fall asleep, having taken the path of an atheist today.
Copyright(C) 1999-2001 August Berkshire
It’s interesting to hear something foreign to our way of thinking isn’t it? This article challenges and even threatens our core belief system. I find it interesting how this individual explains how an atheist spends his day. When I read this I thought, “How should a Christian spend their day?” Truth is we need to really ask the Lord to help us spend the day with him. So I am going to challenge us with the task of making sure we spend a day with the Lord. A couple of others thoughts will help us understand the importance of spending the day with the Lord.
Bro. Robert Brozoski states, "God gave us today, to prepare us for eternity"! This thought sent by Bro. Robert is a sermon in only 9 words. Time is the same for all....Today is a gift for us to use as God intends. To prepare for the future and to help others prepare to meet their God. The question is "How will we spend this time?"
Katherine Kehler gives practical advice on the need to spend the day with the Lord:
Usually our days are filled with the demands of life crying for our attention, ...but today, whether for four, eight or 12 hours, your only priority is to be with your Lord ...to bask in His love, to thank and worship Him, to listen to Him, to intercede for others...to lay your life and activities before Him and let Him give directions. The Bible promises us in James 4:8, "Come near to God and He will come near to you." He is waiting for you! Don’t rush. The objective is to spend relaxed uninterrupted time with God, not to go through a format.
Let’s look at Psalm 92 today and discover how to spend a day with the Lord.
Starting Text: Psalm 92: A SONG. FOR THE SABBATH DAY.
1 It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to your name, O Most High,
2 to proclaim your love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,
3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre
and the melody of the harp.
4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;
I sing for joy at the works of your hands.
5 How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
6 The senseless man does not know,
fools do not understand,
7 that though the wicked spring up like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they will be forever destroyed.
8 But you, O LORD, are exalted forever.
9 For surely your enemies, O LORD,
surely your enemies will perish;
all evildoers will be scattered.
10 You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox;
fine oils have been poured upon me.
11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
13 planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
15 proclaiming, “The LORD is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
Psalm 92 gives us a rough outline of how to spend our day with the Lord and I have also borrowed ideas from Katherine Kehler as well.
I. We should start off every morning Praising the Lord
a. “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High” (Psalm 92:1).
i. Put praise music on right when you get up and sing with it to the Lord.
ii. Praise Him for a new day even before you get out of bed!
b. Proclaim his love for you and his faithfulness in your life as you praise him
i. Psalm 92:2, 3: “To proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.”
ii. Praising God is a refreshing way to get started in the morning.
II. When you go through the day give thanks and be glad for what the Lord has done for you.
a. Psalm 92:4, 5: For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O LORD,
how profound your thoughts!
b. Use you voice and give thanks - Psalm 100:4 tells us, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise."
i. Thank him for His agape (perfect) love.
ii. Thank Him for His patience and forgiveness.
iii. Thank Him for His presence in your life.
iv. Thank Him for what He has done in and through your life in the last week.
v. Thank Him for being faithful to you.
1. Take time to list what God has done for you.
2. Be specific.
a. Think through every dimension of your life.
b. Be glad that He has saved you from death and the curse.
III. Make sure that everyday you check your heart by recalling what happens to fools
a. Psalm 92:6, 7, “The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.”
b. Take the time each day to ask God to search your heart.
i. Psalm 139: 23, 24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
1. Confess any sins the Holy Spirit reveals.
a. Psalm 19:12: Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
2. Remember the certainty of forgiveness.
a. 1 John 1:9: 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
3. Make certain you are walking and praying in the Spirit.
a. Ephesians 5:15-20: 15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. Make sure you take the time to become still before the Lord and remember he is going to be exalted soon.
a. Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
b. Psalm 92: 8, 9 “But you, O LORD, are exalted forever. For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered.”
i. Consider who God is at a point in time each day.
1. Psalm 103 helps to show you how to do this.
a. Take the time to read it this week.
V. Recall the blessings He has poured out to you in your life.
a. Psalm 92: 10, 11, “You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.”
i. Also remember to Praise Him for His attributes. Psalm 145
ii. Also rejoice in your fellowship with Him and that He delights in you.
1. Proverbs 15:8: “The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.”
VI. Take time each day and think about how God rewards the righteous.
a. It’s important to continue to remind ourselves that God does and will reward the righteous.
i. I find that the devil likes to discourage us by telling us that God does not reward the righteous.
1. So encouraging ourselves with the truth will help us press on through the difficulties each day.
b. Psalm 92: 11-15: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”
VII. Also take the time to read his word each and every day.
a. Read passages of scripture and pray them back to God.
i. Psalms 146-150 are great Psalms for doing this.
ii. Ask God to reveal the world to you from His point of view as you read His word.
1. Note Psalm 33
iii. Ask for understanding as you read an entire book of the Bible.
1. Remember don’t just read for the sake of reading – pay attention to the points and the context.
iv. Record the insights God will give you as you read His word.
VIII. Take time to intercede for others each day.
a. You can do this at red lights, while you are driving. Use you spare moments to pray for others.
b. Pray your way around the world with unhurried, detailed intercession for others some time in your day.
i. Begin with your non-Christians, friends, relatives, neighbors and others the Lord puts on your heart.
ii. Pray for those in authority - federal, provincial and municipal government leaders.
1. 1 Timothy 2:1-4: 1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
iii. Pray for Christians using Paul’s prayers in Philippians 1, Colossians 1, Ephesians 1 and 3.
1. "By intercessory prayer we can hold off Satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them. No wonder Jesus put such tremendous emphasis on prayer!" -Oswald Chambers
IX. Inquire of God what He thinks of your life and wait for his response.
a. Listen for His answer and don’t be in denial.
i. Be truthful with yourself and be willing to change.
X. Evaluate the use of the time, talent, treasure, education and experience God has entrusted to you.
a. Are they glorifying to God in all you do?
b. Do you need to change some of the ways you do things?
i. "The greatest answer to prayer is that I am brought into a perfect understanding with God, and that alters my view of actual things." -Oswald Chambers
XI. Concluding Your Day with God
a. Praise and thank God for the fellowship you had today.
b. Schedule the next "Day with the Lord" as well.
Conclusion:
Spending a day with the Lord is never wasted. It always brings forth renewal and refreshment. So do you feel overwhelmed? Then spend the day with the Lord!
