Idle Worship

We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 2 Thessalonians 3:12 (NIV)

Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” Matthew 9:37 (NIV)

Imagine if you will, your bank calls you up and tells you every morning at opening you will be given 86,400 pennies. They give you one stipulation: You must spend it all in one day or lose it. You can not save it for a rainy day, it must be spent or lost. This will be done everyday. Spend the money or lose it. How would you spend that money?
A recent survey once asked: What is the one question you would want God to answer if you are standing in front of him?
34% What is my purpose?
19% Is there life after death?
16% Why do bad things happen?
12% Don't know what to ask
7% Is there life elsewhere?
6% How long will I live?
94% of the answers were shown.
The question that I would ask: How may I serve you better?
To paraphrase President Kennedy, “Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God.” The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. Why are there few workers, because people aren't willing to do the work. We allow various excuses to enter into our minds to prohibit us from doing the work that God has called us to do.
What stops us from serving God?
1. Fear. We are afraid of what other people will think. We're afraid that we'll do it wrong and that we'll be judged harshly by others for it. We apprehensive that it is actually something that we should do. We won't do anything unless we get approval from others. We are afraid that we won't be accepted by others for doing the work that we are doing. We are afraid that we would teach it wrong.
2. Ignorance. We don't know how to do it. We don't understand our own capabilities and what we are capable of doing. We feel that only a Pastor can serve God. Since most Christians aren't Pastors, they don't serve.
3. Shame. We are ashamed of our past sins. We feel that we can not serve God, since we are sinners. We are ashamed of the actions of other “Christians” that we don't want to be known as a Christian, because we don't want to give the appearance of being those “Christians”.

How then do we serve God?
We have to devote time to God. How much time do we spend in the Holy Scriptures on a daily basis? Just like a car, we need to be refueled to be able to go. Just that our refueling is a daily basis. By spending time in God's word, we will be prepared to serve God in the capacity that He wants us to be in.
We need to spend time in prayer with God. I pray five times a day. I'm not boasting, I'm more ashamed of that number. I know that I should spend more time in prayer than I do. I have noticed that when I pray more times than just the eating times, I have a more blessed day. I get more done for God than I do when I only pray at meal times.
Most importantly though, we need to be a better witness for Christ. We need to always be prepared to give an answer for our hope that we have in Christ. By spending more time in God's word and in prayer, we are preparing ourselves to give an answer. We are growing in knowledge of Christ.
We need to act like a Christian. The best way to be a better witness for Christ is not by what we say, but by what we do. As Francis of Assisi said, “At all times preach the Gospel, when necessary, use words.” We are known by our fruit. If our words and our actions don't measure up, we are called hypocrites by those that don't know us. If our words and our actions do measure up, we are called Christian.
We must refrain from “Idle worship”. Christians get comfortable in their own salvation and fail to tell others about God. We are warned against being idle. The Thessalonians were being idle. They felt that since they had received the gift of salvation, then they don't need to do anything else. Yet, we are commanded by Jesus to spread the Gospel. We must not become complacent in our own salvation, but we must lead others to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior.
We need to set aside our own fears and let God work through us. We must not be comfortable being back row pew sitters. We must move to the front of the sanctuary and raise our hands and say as Isaiah said, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)
There are many ways of serving God than being an evangelizer. Some people are gifted in mercy and are able to listen to people. Some people are gifted with the ability to write poems, or songs. Some people are good at exhortation. Whatever your gift, use it for the glory of God. Don't get involved in idle worship.
We are given 86,400 pennies on a daily basis. Only it's not in monetary form, but it is in seconds. God has blessed us with time. How are we going to use the time that we have on a daily basis?
This year, we are given an extra day. Who are we going to serve with this extra day? Are we going to serve our own wants, or are we going to serve God's needs.

Have a blessed day
Daniel

Today (Feb. 29th) is my nieces first birthday. Don't let my brother fool you into telling you she's four. Last time I checked, this is the first 29th of February that we've had since she was born, therefore she is 1.

America & Ancient Israel Pt 4: Romans

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God —the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1-7)

“Those who don't know history, are destined to repeat it” Edmund Burke

Four hundred years after the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland from Babylon captivity, the nation of Israel found itself being occupied by the Romans. The Romans were a polytheistic nation, yet an intelligent nation. They knew, the best way to assimilate a conquered nation, was to allow it to continue certain aspects of their culture. One thing that the Romans did, was to allow the nation to continue to worship the way that they saw fit. The Jews, therefore, prospered during this time and even traveled throughout that Roman lands, without fear of destruction. One of the major cities for Jews to congregate was the capital of Rome.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was common to spread the Gospel of Jesus, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Rome became a place of contention among the Jewish Christians. Some Gentile Christians were bringing their pagan practices into the synagogue, while Jewish Christians were demanding the Gentiles convert to all the Jewish practices. Paul wrote the letter to the church in Rome to encourage both sides and to help both sides to accept the others.
In the opening chapter, Paul shows the wrongs of Roman paganism. These practices by the Romans, eventually led to the demise of Rome. He writes how God will judge the wickedness and godlessness of Rome. In America, how much of this godlessness is true today.
Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” It has been established through history that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, upon Christian ideals, for Christian to worship peacefully. As a nation, do we continue to glorify God?

Romans 1:22-24 “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” There have been many people who claim intellectual superiority yet bow down to other things. There is a resurgence of New Age philosophies, which incorporate ancient religions and mythologies. Wicca, (based on the ancient druidic religion) unheard of thirty years ago, is gaining acceptance in society. The Babylonian religion centered around Mithras is growing, as is the Egyptian religions concerning Horus. Amongst these religions is the teaching that Christianity stole their ideas from these ancient religions, so they can denounce Christ to gain their own followers. These religions teach freedom of sexuality and lust. Some of these religions have held “breeding parties”. Sexual promiscuity is accepted and taught as normal. They teach there is no sexual sin.

Romans 1:25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” The education system of the United States promotes the teaching of evolution as fact, yet denies the teaching of creationism as a viable option. They have exchanged God's truth for the lie of the Big Bang and evolution. (Why don't people point out that Darwins teaching of evolution includes the teaching of the subhuman race known as the African people. Yes, Darwin taught that those who are descended from people from Africa are not fully human, they are a subhuman species. Yet, they will hail Darwin as a scientific genius? I will pass on that bit of racism.)
The good thing about this opening, even with all the bad things Paul has opened with, he still pauses to praise God. Something we all should do, stop and praise God.

Romans 1:26,27 “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” The purity and satisfaction of sexual relationship within the confines of God order, became profaned. Women began unnatural relationships and men turned away from “natural relations with women” and turned to other men. Something that God called an abomination (Leviticus 18:22), something that Paul said is indecent and unnatural.

Romans 1:28 “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” Because the turned their back on God, He allowed them to sow what they would soon reap. He allowed them to give into their depraved mind, knowing that what they do, they shouldn't do.

Romans 1:29-31 “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.” This is pretty much self explanatory. Crime, especially violent crimes, have increased over the last 40 years. Corporate greed is running amuck in our capitalist society. People will do anything unethical to get ahead in the business world. Marriage promises are being broken daily. There is a complete lack of forgiveness in our society, people would rather give up than work it out.
The part of this passage I want to focus on is “invent new ways of sinning.” Watching the news, at least on a weekly basis, someone will say, “I never thought a person would ever be capable of doing this.” Parents are drowning their children, child predators are becoming more sly, pregnant women are being murdered for their babies, or worse, pregnant women are murdering their babies and told nothing is wrong with that. God despises the death of innocents, especially the death of children.

Is America becoming a second Rome? Remember Edmund Burke.