THEY THAT WORSHIP GOD

-
It is written for our admonition in John 4:24, 'God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.' In 2016 I decided to examine deeper this verse of scripture by looking at bible characters who were giants in the worship of Jehovah God to see how we could learn more about worship of His majesty. I wrote my thoughts in my book published the same year titled Sunday Devotional Worship (still available on Amazon.com), in which I x-rayed the lives of fourteen bible personalities. Starting from today, here are the 14 excerpts from the book.
1. ABEL
'...Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord . Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering' (Gen.4:3-5 NKJV).
        Have you observed a little boy with something in his hand that you ask for, whether or not you are the one who gave it to him? He either gives it to you wholeheartedly, half-heartedly or says no outright, depending on how much he cherishes that thing in his hand. It does not depend on whether you need it or not. The boy's reaction to the request to give reveals one truth: Givers willingly part with even what they treasure; non-givers refrain from parting with even that which they do not treasure! And there are those who stand between the two extremes: half-hearted givers! Cain was one, and God rejected his offering. That should say something to us. Abel's offering was wholehearted, and God 'respected' it. Why? Abel's offering honoured God.
Note the following:
  • Our offering can either face respect or rejection from God, depending on the heart with which we give it. 
  • A defective offering is not acceptable to God; it must be clean and brought from a clean source.
  • The spirit with which it is given must please God; God loves a cheerful giver. 
  • Offering with life and blood in it is more pleasing to God than a lifeless one; the lamb sacrificed was a type of Christ. 
  • God would not accept offering from the source He had cursed; He only respects offerings from the redeemed. 
  • Abel offered not just one lamb but an unspecified number out of his flock, and with their fat; there are some who give more than the specified ten percent tithe to God! 
  • Abel gave the firstborn of his flock; God wants the first and the best from us, not our leftovers. 
Right from the onset, the Bible is showing us that our acceptable worship to God must be sincere. One writer says, "For worship to be acceptable to God, we must have obedient lives. The ritual is not enough – the attitude is what is most important. God does not want hypocritical worship, people who say He is great but do not act like it...If we are going to say that God is worthy of all worship, then we should believe it in our hearts, and if we believe it, it will show in our actions. Real worship changes everything we do, because it changes who we are. Worship must be in the heart, not just at the place of worship"(Grace Communion International).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

READING. Part 1

-
Image
Good day all and welcome to my blog. Perhaps the best way to start is to talk about Reading, and here is my own story. My earliest memory about myself is that my family lived in the slums of Lagos Island, precisely on Obun Eko street, not far from the palace of the Oba of Lagos. My father worked for one of the establihments in the nearby Lagos Island wharf called Ehingbeti. Some of you are not old enough to know all these. Later my father relocated to Ibadan then sent for us when I was 6 or 7 years old. He was determined to bring us up different from what we were in the slums of so he put us in one of the best schools in Ibadan. Not only that, he enrolled us at the children's section of the British Council Library located only a walking distance from our home. I went there very often and read from the large stock of educative and adventurous books voraciously. It was also a lending library so I took books home and since I always returned the books to time, I was allowed to tak
Read more

READING. Part 3

-
Let's read about Joshua in the bible. God said to him, "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful." (Joshua 1:8 AMP). God did not just say read and prosper, He said read continually, always ponder on what you read, then carefully do what it says; that is His panacea for our prosperity and success. That book of the law is the Bible. It is the manual on the Christian way to a successful life. In it, God our Maker Himself is giving us the formular for success which is reading constantly, particularly His word. Joshua did. He achieved a successful mission, for the bible quotes him, "See, I have parceled out to your tribes these remaining nations, from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the nations I defeate
Read more

QUIET TIME

-
You may already have knowledge about Quiet Time, but this is an instructive piece by a young pastor of mine from his book. Here are extracts from the book. Keeping a successful quiet time Quiet time is a time consciously developed to be with God. It is a time you deliberately develop to tune out all distractions so as to abide in the presence of God. While praying, you talk to God and in reading through the scriptures, you hear Him. Quiet time helps you to develop the most important relationship in life. It is not a time to rush in or rush out of the presence of God. It helps you to develop the habit of spending regular time with God. Quiet time is a time to READ the most important book in the world. Quiet time is your personal school of the Holy Spirit. During quiet time, you increase in the knowledge of scripture and you experience the presence of God. It provides an unshakable platform for spiritual growth. To experience growth in faith, we must continually fellowship with G
Read more

Reading. Part 5

-
READING AND HEALING Proverbs 4: 20 to 22 says, 'My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh'.     Pastor Derek Prince, the international missionary and great teacher of the word, told the story of his healing. He was bed-riden during world war 2 at a military camp where there were no adequate medical facilities, so for over a year he laid ill in bed. Being a young Christian then, he had the zeal to read the bible right through, so he began reading, underlining passages that caught his attention. When he got to the Book of Proverbs, the above passage particularly arrested his interest. He studied the passage and got a revelation that those words were actually medicine, so he decided to take in those words three times daily and start doing what they say:  He paid attention to what God was telling him the
Read more

FINISHING STRONG

-
Image
'Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.' (Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV).        Jamaican star Usain Bolt was the fastest man on earth, at least till the 2016 Rio Olympic games when he ran the 100 meters sprint in 9.58 seconds. Some call him 'lightning bolt'. At 32 years of age he was already worth $24 billion according to the Forbes Index. Many know him as a sprint star alone, but he is also a footballer, dancer, coach etc. When asked the secret of his success he made these statements among others: "Those seven guys behind you in that track want it much as you want it. So you have to want it more. This is why you train harder." Another: "It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you finish strong. There are better starters than me but I am a str
Read more

BURN YOUR BRIDGE

-
Image
But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62 NKJV)       History tells us that the great General George Washington in his battles at the birthing of America as a nation, employed a peculiar strategy. After the conquest of a battle, he moved on, crossed the river and sets ablaze the bridge on it behind them. First, his own soldiers no longer have the temptation to deflect to the enemy camp; secondly the enemy would not sneak to their camp behind them for a counter-attack!   Moses led the children of Israel successfully across the Red Sea and the Lord closed the sea upon the pursuing enemy Egypt to destroy them. No sooner the people crossed over to the other side after some difficulties than they started hollering to go back to Egypt. Had God not closed back the sea, many probably would have insisted on turning back! God does not expect us to look back with desires to go back to the old sinful
Read more

READING. Part 4.

-
Here is a directive from the book of Jeremiah in the bible, 'The LORD , the God of Israel, said to me: “Write down in a book everything that I have told you..." ' (Jer. 30:1-2 GNB). God often sends messages into our hearts for dissemination to other people singly or collectively. As a matter of fact, this is how His manual for us, the bible was compiled to become the Holy Book. In the same way, God  sends messages to men for the use of other men. In 2011, our church embarked on a mission work at a village outside the city. We started with  regular Sunday fellowship meetings with the people of the village and the surrounding hamlets. As the pastor of the church, I had close interactions with the people and that left with me a pleasant experience of rural village life that I carry till today. At the fellowship meetings in the village, I spotted a particular girl who was raw but gifted in singing. I took interest in her, hoping that I would help her to develop her latent t
Read more

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING

-
Image
'Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” (I Samuel 16:1 NKJV).       One of my cousins, very outspoken, spoke to me at a time we were just recovering from the shock of burying the number one son of our parents in my larger family. He said, "Brother, as the first son presently in our family lineage, it's you we'll all be reporting to now. The King is dead, long live the king. Congrats!" How does one respond to that? Is that the reality of the moment? What sort of statement is that one anyway?  So I replied, stuttering, "What about my senior sister?" He pointedly replied, "You are now the oldest male child in the family." That silenced me then but left me reflecting on his didactic expression. Where did he pick it from? What does it mean? The
Read more

O GOD OUR HELP IN TIMES PAST

-
Image
'So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.' (Deuteronomy 1:15 NKJV).      God in His wisdom installs rulers over the nations, chooses leaders among the people and administers justice, peace and order in each land. Nations rule their peoples as they deem fit for their land - democracy, monarchy, capitalism, welfarism, socialism, communism and what have you, but God rules supreme over all. At the time of the reign of King David, Israel operated the monarchical system in which God chose the king and the king in turn chose leaders to administer the nation under his rule by selection not election (2 Sam. 8:15-18). Some last, some don't. Earlier, God had called Moses to lead His people Israel out of bondage in Egypt to become His own chosen nation. Moses led them out and set them on their way to the land of promise but
Read more