You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve. MATTHEW 4:10
God exists everywhere, but He is not always manifest everywhere. His manifest presence comes to us when He is praised. C. S. Lewis once wrote that “it is in the process of being worshiped that God communicates His presence to men . . . even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men.” Perhaps you have experienced the wonderful presence of God during a special time of worship. As you were singing, praying, praising, and worshiping the Lord, you felt His presence closer to you than ever before! Worship causes the presence of God to be felt and experienced by His people. If you really want God to be in your church meetings, praise Him as best you can. Satan tempted Jesus by asking for His worship, not His service: “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). Satan understands the correct order—the one you worship is the one you will serve. And keep in mind Christ’s response in verse 10: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” - Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening
Even when caught, a child, in most cases goes straight into denial. Many newspaper cartoons and those on television depict children in this way. "It wasn't me! I don't know who did it."
Adults are just as guilty. If this weren't true the legal system wouldn't be as over burdened as it is.
You, my Dear Reader, are among the guilty just as much as I am.
We attempt in every waking moment to serve two masters. Then deny it to each one.
We can't serve ourselves and God too. We can't be selfish and unselfish at the same time.
We cannot live for Christ and live for ourselves too. When we take up our own cross and follow Jesus there's only the ability to hold onto one cross.
When we are with God, in fellowship with Jesus, it's unlike anything else.
His sheep hear His voice and recognize Him. His sheep go and stay where He says.
We all too often don't realize the truth that we indeed are worshipping someone or something other than Jesus.
The Bible says that God is a jealous God. It also says that we were bought with a price.
Our lives are not our own. Says that we, upon salvation, become part of the body of Christ. He is the head that directs the body.
Cells in a body that do their own thing are called cancer cells. Whereas at one point they started out in life as a normal cell something happened and they stopped functioning with the body and began living for themselves. Often with deadly consequences.
The Church isn't immune to cancer cells in the body of Christ. In many places in the New Testament we are warned of false witnesses, false teachers, of backsliding people who are not who they say they are.
We are given key things to be doing in Christ. Prayer and praise, focus and devotion. A goal of being Holy as He is Holy. To rely on the Word of God as the template of life.
We, especially in our sensory overloaded world, have so many things vying for our worship. I didn't say our attention for a reason. Because everything we interact with wants our attention, Satan's goal is to get us to transfer our worship from God to him or ANYTHING else.
Idle minds are the devil's playground it has been said. My own worst times of temptation come when I have not kept alert to what's really happening with my mind.
Believe it or not our world as a whole suffers from idolatry as bad as some of the cities Paul went to in his missionary journey. They just didn't have the instantaneous ability to share it that we do.
Our world is saturated in all forms of idolatry. We cannot devote our lives, we cannot serve two masters. As the Bible says we will hate the one and be devoted to the other.
We were created to serve only God. Our worship belongs only to God.
The price it cost Jesus to obey, to save you and I, is beyond our ability to comprehend.
For all of eternity, up until that moment when all the sin of mankind was heaped upon Christ Jesus on the cross of calvary, He had never experienced full separation from His Father.
Jesus had always had a perfect union with His Father and the Spirit of God.
He gave up everything to endure the cross to save mankind because the love of God is that great. No other person or anybody else could do what Jesus did.
His sacrifice to enable us to live, merits our best efforts to live in regards to how His Word says we ought to live. Serving Him only.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Your faith has everything to do with your obedience. Your faith leads you to listening to your Master's voice. Leading you to a more Christ-like life.
Regardless of world opinion, this world has only just over a thousand years left to it. 1,007 years plus a little more than that to be precise. I know because that's what the Bible says. It's what God says.
Also, regardless of world religions, there's only one way to be saved from the wrath of God to come. Through Salvation in Christ Jesus.
Regardless of what temptations this world offers, we have a mission in life to share the news that God loves people and wants to save all who would call upon Him to be saved.
If we are indeed serving one Master, then we would have that one Master's best interests at the heart of our lives. If our zeal, passion, and life reflects something else...well...then we know whom we are serving.
I indeed have and had dreams of a different life than what I have had in this life.
Some of my dreams were aligned with God’s and I have been blessed beyond measure.
Some I have had to give up because time is short and Christ's return is imminent.
My dreams are not as important as the lives of those people whom God has brought across my path. My dreams can take my eyes off my serving God.
Are you serving only one? Our greatest struggle begins with the battle of who we worship. After the Rapture of the Church, this world WILL turn to worship a world leader. You may laugh at the thought, but then again, you are already doing things forced upon you even in the last year that you never thought you would do.
We cannot serve two.
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