This week, we’re exploring how a church community should be committed to connectedness to God in worship.
Humans will never be more connected to God than in the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. The Bible includes the book of Revelation, which recounts John’s vision of the kingdom of heaven. Here’s what he described about angels, and then humans:
Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE Lord GOD ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS, AND IS, AND IS TO COME.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4:8-11)
Even in the kingdom, there is worship. The word may not appear in this reading, but the core meaning is there. Worship means “to give worth to something.” And the words “you are worthy” are right at the beginning of the words the elders say in their heavenly worship.
You can tell what someone values by how they spend money, time. You can see what’s worth their limited resources. Worship is spending our limited time on God. It’s an expression of love.
In our Marriage and Parenting courses, we introduce the five love languages. Some communicate and receive love through words, touch, acts of service, time, and others through gifts.
In the same way, we can show love to God through various “languages”. Worship includes prayer, and music, confessing sins, asking forgiveness, reminding ourselves what we believe, reading the Bible together, and more. All aspects of how communities of Christians worship.
These are all ways to communicate God’s worth in our eyes. You can see it in this reading. The elders say, “You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power” but then they tell him why: he is the creator of everything.
He knows all this, of course. But this is a time for humans, mortals, to feed that back to him. To acknowledge he is at the cetner of our lives, not the periphery, and we’re not going to deny it.
Question: How do you know someone values you? What do they say, do, or not?
Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.
Read the Bible in Sync Today
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This week we’re trying to see the difference between a follower of Jesus, and someone else, in terms of how we see and use money.
Maybe you’ve seen a video going around the Internet with Kevin O’Leary, of Dragon’s Den, saying it’s just fantastic that the richest 85 people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest. He says it’s fantastic because it will inspire the poor to get rich themselves.
We’ve attached it if you’d like to watch.
The Bible thinks quite differently about the relationship between rich and poor, in the passage that immediately follows what we read yesterday:
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV)
Paul uses the same language Jesus is known for using – he refers to storing up treasure in heaven.
When we are generous, sharing with those in need, we are actually doing something of real value and eternal value that Paul calls a good foundation for the future. That is truly life. When others hoard, they are missing the point. They are living a false life with limited value and longevity.
Finding that balance is of course always hard. How much is enough to gain, save, and give? Yesterday’s reading set a low bar: But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
I have always liked a sermon preached by John Wesley centuries ago on the topic of money, that could be summed up as: Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. In isolation, each part would bring destruction, but together they make sense. You have to make money to be generous, but if you pursue making too much, you will crash or lose faith. You also have to save money to give money – wisely spending to have some left over, and by having stability in order to help others.
Question: How else do you think a follower of Jesus looks at money differently from someone else? How does gaining/saving/giving all you can impact retirement, debt, etc. Why?
