When God Says Your Worship is Meaningless

God says seeking reconciliation with others takes priority over worship: 

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”  Matthew 5:23-24 

When Christ gave this command, before the New Covenant was put in place by His death, making offerings was a form of worship. Christ was saying that genuine worship requires a heart seeking His truth and obeying His commands. And refusing to seek peace with others makes our worship simply external.

We can sing beautiful songs of praise, lift our hands, or bow in worship, but if we refuse to make genuine attempts to reconcile with others, our worship is meaningless.

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

True faith forgives and loves even when it's difficult (1 John 3:14; John 13:35; Romans 12:10).

Romans 12:14-21 tells us to bless those who persecute us, do our best to seek peace, seeking to “overcome evil with good.”

If someone has something against you and refuses to discuss it, you can do nothing but pray and treat them kindly. But if anyone is seeking to work through relationship problems and you refuse, your disobedience makes your worship of God meaningless (1 John 3:14).

Don't let this happen, Dear Christians. True faith does the hard things out of love for Christ.

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See Weak Faith and Broken Families and Biblical Problem Solving.

And please check out Lies in Disguise. Among other half-truths, it offers insights into some of the half-truths that have encouraged relationship problems.  

 

 

 

3 Lies That Take Our Focus Off God

Many devotions focus on knowing how special we are to God. But I think our real problem is realizing how special God is to us.

These lies encourage a focus on ourselves:

1. I can't love others until I first love myself.
This comes from a false interpretation of Mark 12:30-31. 
See Do We Really Need to Love Ourselves before We Can Love Others?

2. I can't serve others until I feel whole and confident.
Serving others is often the best way to gain confidence and joy (Philippians 2:3-4). 
See Beatin' the Blues.  

3. God wants me happy.
God wants us sanctified and mature, which brings joy, but not always happiness (Hebrews 12:1-3).
See Should Happiness Be Our Goal?

Here are three solutions to these three lies:

1. Focus first and foremost on loving God (Matthew 22:36-40).

2. Treat others as we want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).

3. Quit thinking so much about ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4).
 

Our spiritual health is dependent on our understanding of our Creator, so let's seek to develop an increasing awe and love for Him. 

 

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Full description of the book Lies in Disguise 

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Why We Cannot Understand Everything About God

A reader responded to Answering a Rude Question About God by asking: “Why would a God who doesn't need anyone or anything, create a universe knowing we will rebel, and yet choose to do so, fully planning to kill his son. Why would our Lord, who is all holy choose to become sin?”

As with all questions about God, we must remember that faith is based on trust in God’s goodness even when we can’t see or understand something He does (Hebrews 11:1; 1 Corinthians 13:12).  

We’re given everything we need to trust God and live for Him while on earth (2 Peter 1:3). And it makes perfect sense that finite human beings can't understand every detail about our infinite God. My analytical mind wants to understand every detail, but I'm glad God is perfectly wise, perfectly holy, and perfectly loving because I'm none of those things.

God doesn't need anyone or anything, but He finds pleasure in us (Psalm 149:4). So instead of destroying the universe after mankind's sin, He chose to test and teach and save those who would have faith in what they don’t “see” (Hebrews 11:13).

He loves mankind in general (John 3:16), offering Jesus as atonement for anyone who believes. And He loves His followers in a special, specific, and eternal way (John 15).

But perhaps the ultimate question is why He chose to die for us—our human minds cannot fathom that kind of love!

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In Chapter 8 Lies in Disguise addresses four common questions about God: 1. Why would a loving God send people to Hell? 2. Why did God put the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden? 3. Why did God create Adam and Eve with the ability to sin? 4. Why are we punished for Adam's sins? 

Lies in Disguise is designed to help Christians discern half-truths, but it also offers help in answering these questions you might encounter when sharing Christ. Click the title link to find out more about it and where you can purchase it.

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Our Jealous God

I remember the first time I heard that God is a jealous God. I didn't know what it meant. 

 

“Be careful not to forget the covenant of the Lord your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” Deuteronomy 4:23-24

I'd always thought of jealousy as something bad. But understanding how and why God is jealous is an important biblical principle. 

 
There is an appropriate type of jealousy. For example, a loving husband is jealous of his wife's affection, unwilling to share her with other men.

 

Similarly, God doesn't want us flirting with the “gods” of pleasure, wealth, popularity, selfishness, and lust (2 John 2:15-17), nor with Pagan Influences like Yoga, Reiki, and the Enneagram (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). These things destroy our relationship with God.

 
Human jealousy can be contaminated by pride or envy. But God's jealousy is purely inspired by His love for us. He's perfect, awesome, and never wrong, worthy of all praise, glory, and honor—the perfect Father, Shepherd, Creator, Counselor, Helper, etc.  

We owe Him our ultimate love, faith, and devotion. And the more we trust Him, the more we are blessed by His love, wisdom, and respect.

To have such a wonderful God jealous for our affections is something that should leave us speechless! 

 

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For more insights, see: 

Psychology, Boundaries, Marijuana, or Scripture? 

And don't miss the Bite Size Bible Study: Our Jealous God.

 

 

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If You Have "Beautiful Feet" You'll Avoid the Wide Highway

“When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” ― C. S. Lewis 

Our world is running toward a cliff that drops into Hell, and the road is paved with every sin described in Scripture. The rest areas advertise “Sexual Freedom,” “Reproductive Healthcare,” “Yoga,” “Progressive Christianity,” etc.*

At the service plazas, people can pump lies and propaganda into their think tanks.

They must carefully ignore God's warning signs with His detours back to truth and life.

The wide highway is popular with the majority, and they beckon us to join them. But Jesus says:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  Matthew 7:13-14   

Christians, we must give careful thought to our steps on the narrow road, fixing our eyes on Jesus (Proverbs 4:25-27; Hebrews 12:1-3). 

And we must do our best to share truth with our loved ones heading toward the cliff. If we do this faithfully, God says we'll have beautiful feet (Romans 10:14-15). Check out the Scripture...I'm telling the truth.😊

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* Each quote is linked to a pertinent devotion. See also: 3 Ways of Looking at Popular Pagan Practices.

 

To recognize and understand the many "small errors" deceiving Christians, check out: 

Lies in Disguise. This link offers:

 

✔ Chapter titles

✔ Endorsements

✔ Where to purchase

✔ Important reasons to read it

  

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