At Least ONE Thing I Know About You...

Have you ever stopped to consider that you are a worshiper? Yes, you. And so am I. It doesn't matter whether we claim to be Christian, Buddhist, Atheist or Agnostic. No matter the color of our skin, our socio-economic background or walk of life. There is one thing we can be sure of about each of the 6.5 billion people on this plant - as well as the billions who have lived before us: We ARE worshipers!

The question is never "do we worship?" The question is "which god or gods do we worship?" Worship in its most simple definition is "the act of ascribing supreme worth to someone or something." Some people relate this way to their money - or the stuff their money can buy. Others worship their power, fame or influence. Still others worship their bodies, their egos or their dogmas. And of course, many worship a vast array of competing religious deities.

Perhaps you've never stopped to take a long, detailed inventory of what YOU deem as worthy of ascribing supreme value. There is a Catholic retreat center near where I live that I enjoy visiting a couple of times each year. When I go there, I try to spend at least several hours - if not the entire day - in silence. One of the things I challenge myself with during these miniature silent retreats is to evaluate my worship, because as I already stated, it is not a matter of WHETHER - but of WHAT or WHO - I am worshiping at any given season of my life.

As a pastor, I wish I could boldly state that I live every day in unequivocal allegiance to the God of the Bible. But the truth is, I battle daily against some combination of selfishness, greed, lust, pride, arrogance, judgmentalism, etc. There are so many "gods" in the smorgas-board of life that the battle can seem overwhelming at times. For example, I realize that the greatest things in life are not things - and yet I can easily find myself feeling jealous or coveting someTHING that I wish I had.

Fortunately for the Christian, the God we worship understands our brokenness - and rather than kicking us to the curb, has decided to be patient and compassionate with us, sending Jesus to forgive our countless sins and shortfalls. It's that kindness that makes the Christ-follower WANT to continue on in the journey toward becoming gradually more like Jesus. Living in the confident reality that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more OR less than He does at this very moment takes a lot of pressure off - freeing us to be able to get up and try again and again when we fall short.

It is largely this depth of mercy and grace that drove me to conclude that Jesus IS the God exclusively deserving of my worship. He is the only God I know of who has come to planet earth to rescue us. Many popular religions seek to explain how humanity can reach UP to find Deity or higher consciousness (through human effort, discipline, good deeds, etc.). But in Christ we find the exact opposite. In Jesus we find God reaching DOWN to humanity - loving us exactly the way He finds us - and loving us WAY to much to simply leave us that way.

This weekend at Valley Church, we will be closing out our 6-week series from the Book of Acts called "Vintage: Ancient Values for a Relevant Faith". And our topic is - you guessed it - worship. We will be learning from a CRAZY story in Acts 16 about 2 guys who get the crap beat out of them, are falsely accused, and thrown into prison. Yet rather than becoming bitter or angry, we find them chained in the darkness of their cells...praying and singing songs to God. What gives a person the ability to trust and rest in God on the worst day of his or her life? Come find out this Sunday by joining us at one of our three gatherings...8 AM, 9:30 AM or 11 AM. And feel free to chime in with your thoughts related to this blog!!!