In Every Facet

A nation divided because of a failure to worship properly, not a disagreement over politics, national security, or taxes.

Solomon inherited a united kingdom from his father David. Israel was a nation of 12 tribes united together. God had stated plainly that if Israel did not worship Him alone then the kingdom would be divided. When Solomon died that promise rang true.

Like his father, Solomon had difficulty controlling his lust for other women taking many women from other nations to be his own. These women did not come alone. With them came their pagan worship practices and foreign gods who robbed God of His proper worship as people worshipped those who are not gods at all.

At the moment of Solomon's death, the kingdom divided. As we often do, the division could be seen as the result of heavy taxes or political differences. But the Scriptures state clearly that the reason the kingdom split was due to a worship issue.

Today in our own nation, we often make the issues about taxes, deficits, political differences, political issues, red and blue states, and more. Today in our churches, we often make the issues about the music, preaching style, attire, building aesthetics, and more. Rarely, if ever, do we frame the discussion as an issue of worship.

Israel failed as a nation and a people because worship drifted from God into an eclectic, polytheistic enterprise. The people didn't stop worshipping. Instead, they worshipped more as they multiplied their gods. Sometimes bigger and larger isn't better, especially when there is One God and Him alone should we worship. The failure and division over worship led to the division in everything else.

Worship is still the most important issue for we were made as human beings to be worshipping beings who worship God alone. Only through the door Jesus opened by His death and resurrection can we access God's throne to worship Him properly and as we were created. Are we making worship central to our lives, our family, our work, and our churches? Are we accurately seeing worship as more than the music, preaching, and place of our worship and more about our response of all that we are in light of the revelation by Christ and the Scriptures of all that God is?

Take a Daniel moment:
1.  Worship God for all that He is with all that you are.
2.  Pray that worship (responding to all He is with all we are) will be central in every facet of our lives.

A Choice Will Be Made

Today a choice will be made. You and I, along with every one in the world, will make that choice. It is the choice of who or what we will worship and serve.

Our land is flooded with idols. Hindus may erect idols in their homes and shops with the heavy aroma of incense burned to these gods. Dare we judge and criticize them and others without scrutinizing our own lives and culture.

We may have fashioned our gods of other materials, but they are gods no less. Whether the god of money, sex, pleasure, power, position, relationships or some other, we live with countless gods we have created by our own hands. These we worship and serve as if they are suitable substitutes for the True God. That is by definition an idol—a God substitute.

 God is jealous for His own glory. He permits no substitutes or rivals. He expects complete surrender and whole-hearted devotion.

Joshua came to the end of his days and he implored the people to make the choice.  He said, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

There is a choice to follow Jesus that comes as a conscious act of the will decision in which we place our faith and trust in Him alone to be rescued from sin and restored in relationship to God. Yet every day there must be the decision to worship and serve Him alone. Every day idols must be identified and torn down. Every day my own desires must be put to death so they do not obstruct the path to follow Jesus.

Jesus told every would-be follower the cost was high. “You must deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.”  The choice will be made today and every day. You will make the choice whether purposefully or by default. You will worship and serve Him or you will worship and serve another.

What will you choose today?

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He alone is worthy to be worshiped and served.
2. Celebrate that God is the all-wise and only true God.
3. Ask for God to identify the idols in your own heart.
4. Pray for yourself to be nailed to the cross with Christ that nothing in you would hinder your following Jesus or get in the way of God’s work and mission.
5. Surrender yourself to worship and serve Jesus today.
6. Repeat tomorrow.