• Dene's Blog
  • About Dene
  • Contact Dene
  • Dene's Recipes
  • Dene's Books
  • Dene's Classbooks
  • Gallery
  • Recommended Sites
  • FAQ & Tutorial
  Flight Paths

Monday Morning

12/31/2012

0 Comments

 
It’s another Monday.  Am I ready for the week ahead?  If I assembled with my brethren yesterday, and our assembly accomplished the purpose God meant it to when he ordained it, I should be not only ready, bur “revved up and rarin’ to go.”

On a Monday, you ask incredulously?  Maybe you did not get out of Sunday what you were supposed to.  So what is the purpose of our assembling together?  It may not be what you have always thought. 

I think our best verse is good old Hebrews 10:25, only forget the way we always use it, shaking our fingers in the faces of those who miss services.  Start with the verse ahead:  let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works... exhorting one another... 

Too often we focus all our attention on the assembly as if that is the whole of our service to God.  What it should be is refueling, so we can go out and continue to serve during the week.  Romans 12:1 is key to understanding this: ...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  You probably have a version that says "spiritual service," but that word can also be translated "worship,” and sometimes is.  The way I live my life, if I live it as and because God wants it, is a type of worship to God, not just those few hours a week.  By compartmentalizing our religion to a certain day, time, and place, we are giving God those lame sacrifices Malachi talks about in Malachi 1:8.  God expects our all, all the time--not just on Sundays.  And he has given us our brethren to encourage us and keep us on the right track when we meet together, provoking one another to love and good works as we go about the rest of our week.  "One another" means we are all doing that, not just the preacher.  Did you do your part yesterday, or did you go just to be entertained?

Somehow we think rituals are the only things that qualify as worship.  Many passages in the Old Testament mention the people praying, or singing, or sacrificing, and then "they worshiped," almost as if those other acts were not worship (e.g. 2 Chron 29:29,30).  And maybe there is a point there:  we can do all those things, at the "right time," in the "right place" (translation:  on a pew inside a building with a certain sign over the door), and still not be worshiping.  Worshiping is prostrating the heart before God, not the body, and he expects us to do that all day long, every day.

So am I ready to worship God again this week, all week?  If I refueled myself, drained out and changed the old dirty oil and filter, and vacuumed out the grime and dust of life, I should be able to serve God with all my might—whatever level that is in my stage of life at this particular time--and make it through another week in a world that should be foreign to my nature, instead of comfortable.  And then I will be anxious for another day of replenishment next Sunday, because the need will be so obvious to me.

Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually but to do good and to communicate forget not;  for with such sacrifice God is well pleased.  Heb 13:15,16

Dene Ward

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Author
    Dene Ward has taught the Bible for more than  forty years, spoken at women’s retreats and lectureships, and has written both devotional books and class materials. She lives in Lake Butler, Florida, with her husband Keith.


    Categories

    All
    A Wives Series
    Bible People
    Bible Study
    Birds & Animals
    Book Reviews
    Camping
    Children
    Cooking Kitchen
    Country Life
    Discipleship
    Everyday Living
    Faith
    Family
    Gardening
    Grace
    Guest Writer
    History
    Holiness
    Humility Unity
    Materialism
    Medical
    Music
    Prayer
    Psalms
    Salvation
    Trials

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly