Who Do You Worship?

Did you know that we are created to worship? When God created man He created him to worship and obey, and not only that but God told Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply"(Gen. 1:22) meaning to fill the earth with worshipers! Did you ever look at it that way? We are to have children and to make disciples of them, talking with them about God "when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." (Deut. 6:7b) In other words what we say and what we do show our kids how much we love and trust God. What does your actions say? Getting back to the point, we are created to worship and most of us worship without ever knowing it. We choose to worship ourselves by chasing money and fame and our lustful desires and put God on the back burner. If you are living a life of self worship you are called to repent (change the way you are living) and worship God only! Stand up like Joshua and shout out "as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!" (Joshua 24:15b) Now is the time to start and its never to late to return, run to King Jesus and choose to worship Him!

The Consequences of Sin

Sin, if we get right down to is nothing but selfishness! We act in a way that is pleasing to our self with no regard to those that our sin will effect. But the sins that we commit don't only hurt us but those around us as well. Many times in my past I have committed sins that "rocked" my whole household, at the time I acted on these sins I was only thinking of myself and not the ones that were innocent but yet suffered. There is a clear outline of this in 2 Samuel 11, here we see selfishness rise up in king David.
The Sin
It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant. (2 Sam 11:2-5)
Wow this wonderful man of God has fallen into the trap of selfish sin. And his sinful behavior would effect everyone around him. After David tried to cover up his actions he murders the husband of Bathsheba, and the child that was conceived as a result of the sin was also effected with death. What had David done? What could David do? Well from time to time we all find our self in David's position, it might not be as bad as committing adultery, but we all will find that our sins lead us down a path of separation from God. David did what we also should do, he returned to the loving arms of God. Psalm 51 records David's prayer after he had sinned with Bathsheba.
In his prayer he pleads to God to wash him clean from his sins, and to restore in him a clean heart. This is what we need to do, we don't just say "I'm sorry" and go on like nothing happened. We must return to the loving arms of King Jesus, he is waiting for you. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Running the Race

I am not a big fan of running, but I know lots of people who do enjoy it. I do know that when someone goes out to run they do not load up their pants with weights and run in heavy boots, instead they wear light weight clothes and light running shoes. Why? Because the lighter you are the faster and longer you can run. The writer of Hebrews talks to his readers about running the race, listen to what he says, " let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily enslaves us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:1b-2) What is weighing you down as you run the race? What sins are enslaving you? Do you know that we have freedom from the bondage of sin through Jesus Christ? We are called to live holy lives, meaning lives that are different from the world and here in this text we see that we are to look to Christ as our example, we are to strive to be Christ like!