We have started our softball league and some days it has been a doozy. I have a wide array of girls. Some that has played four years, and others who have never played. Last week I became frustrated at a practice. I literally would show them exactly what to do and say okay now it’s your turn. They would turn and do the complete opposite of what I just said. So we repeated this process over and over. Although I didn’t expect them to get it exactly right, I wanted to see them mimic a little of what I was showing them.
I was reminded of this verse from James 1:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and
Widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I am sure God has felt about me, the way I was feeling on the field. How many times does the Bible model it for us, and yet we still do not get it? I was so frustrated because the girls on the field were not mimicking my instructions, but God convicted me of how many times do I not follow his. There are lots of things to look at in this verse, but the one that stands out would be how and what we are serving. In verse twenty-six he speaks of bridling your tongue and religion that is pure and undefiled. The word religion here is “threskeia” (Greek) and its meaning is not so much the outward ritual ceremony of worship, but the practical worship (service) in your personal life. So many churches in the Bible got so caught up in the structure of the service, or the building they had neither time nor money for practical service outside the church. This still proves to be a problem in our modern day churches. I have seen more arguments, more discussions, more worry over things such as moving the time of an event, changing the style, or heaven forbid the order of service. So what does this really say about us as Christians? Does it say we love the Lord so much we can worship him anytime, anywhere or does it say it has to be our way or we won’t worship at all? Does it say that we are so caught up in the process that we forget the Holy God we are suppose to be worshiping? Some of you are probably thinking this would never be me. So let’s just give a hypothetical scenario. Your church discovered a very large group of people that lived very close to your church. This community of people didn’t speak English. The church decides in order to reach these people they would start holding a worship service simultaneously with the current service. This would take both people and financial resources. Would you be upset? Here is another scenario. Your church decides that instead of holding a Bible school on your campus, they are taking 4 Bible schools out into the community this year. What would be your reaction? The point is to understand that doing cannot just be in the church walls, but it has to extend outside the walls. Our whole purpose is to be doers for Christ so that the lost will know the Lord. Think about Jesus’ life and what he modeled for us. Did he go to the temple? Absolutely, but think of all the miracles and the parables he told, where did they take place? They were on the streets, in people’s homes, at the market, in the mountains. Basically wherever the lost were, so was Jesus.
I like what William Barclay says: “This is by no means to say that it is wrong to seek to offer the noblest and the most splendid worship within God's house; but it is to say that all such worship is empty and idle unless it sends a man out to love God by loving his fellow-men and to walk more purely in the tempting ways of the world.” Is our Worship sincere? Does it send us out different, or is it idle and empty, leaving us unchanged and uninspired to do?
I was reminded of this verse from James 1:
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. 26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and
Widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
I am sure God has felt about me, the way I was feeling on the field. How many times does the Bible model it for us, and yet we still do not get it? I was so frustrated because the girls on the field were not mimicking my instructions, but God convicted me of how many times do I not follow his. There are lots of things to look at in this verse, but the one that stands out would be how and what we are serving. In verse twenty-six he speaks of bridling your tongue and religion that is pure and undefiled. The word religion here is “threskeia” (Greek) and its meaning is not so much the outward ritual ceremony of worship, but the practical worship (service) in your personal life. So many churches in the Bible got so caught up in the structure of the service, or the building they had neither time nor money for practical service outside the church. This still proves to be a problem in our modern day churches. I have seen more arguments, more discussions, more worry over things such as moving the time of an event, changing the style, or heaven forbid the order of service. So what does this really say about us as Christians? Does it say we love the Lord so much we can worship him anytime, anywhere or does it say it has to be our way or we won’t worship at all? Does it say that we are so caught up in the process that we forget the Holy God we are suppose to be worshiping? Some of you are probably thinking this would never be me. So let’s just give a hypothetical scenario. Your church discovered a very large group of people that lived very close to your church. This community of people didn’t speak English. The church decides in order to reach these people they would start holding a worship service simultaneously with the current service. This would take both people and financial resources. Would you be upset? Here is another scenario. Your church decides that instead of holding a Bible school on your campus, they are taking 4 Bible schools out into the community this year. What would be your reaction? The point is to understand that doing cannot just be in the church walls, but it has to extend outside the walls. Our whole purpose is to be doers for Christ so that the lost will know the Lord. Think about Jesus’ life and what he modeled for us. Did he go to the temple? Absolutely, but think of all the miracles and the parables he told, where did they take place? They were on the streets, in people’s homes, at the market, in the mountains. Basically wherever the lost were, so was Jesus.
I like what William Barclay says: “This is by no means to say that it is wrong to seek to offer the noblest and the most splendid worship within God's house; but it is to say that all such worship is empty and idle unless it sends a man out to love God by loving his fellow-men and to walk more purely in the tempting ways of the world.” Is our Worship sincere? Does it send us out different, or is it idle and empty, leaving us unchanged and uninspired to do?
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