Yesterday we defined worship as giving worth to God, or in other words, acknowledging he is at the center of our lives, or we want him there if he isn’t.

Worship is about practicing God’s Presence.  We can forget God is there in our busy lives, and something tangible can help.  A friend of mine mentioned Elf on the Shelf on Facebook.  Elf on the Shelf is a small elf doll that parents are supposed to hide somewhere in the house every night, claiming he is a “scout elf” who reports back to Santa.  The elf becomes a visible symbol for small children who might forget that Santa is watching.

Worship is meant to be a visible symbol for those of us who might forget God is watching.

In the busyness of our everyday lives, we cannot always remember that God is with us.  In spite of our best intentions we may find ourselves living and acting without regard to the fact that God is present in every aspect of our lives.

Sometimes we think something in our lives is coincidence, but God is actually doing something incredible.  Sometimes we will find resources are suddenly supplied that we needed, and will think it was luck or our skills, when it was in fact God’s provision.

We want to develop an increasing sensitivity to God’s presence with us. We know that we develop skills and get better at things by practicing: an old saying reminds us practice makes perfect.  It would be more truthful to say that practice reinforces, but in this case reinforcement is good enough. We need a way to reinforce our awareness of God’s presence in our lives.

Question: When have you seen God working in the last week?  What seeming coincidences were there?

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

Ryan Sim - June 24, 2013

Monday - A New Idea - Influences

Sermon on the Mount

When the iPad first came out, it was revolutionary, first of its kind. Sold 2 million in the blink of an eye. But within days of its release, its first virus was released. It was malicious software masquerading as a product update…something that claimed to make an iPad even better! But this update would actually destroy it. We are coming to the end of studying the Sermon on the Mount, and something similar is happening. Jesus has just released something incredible into the world. It's still widely regarded as the greatest moral teaching ever. The sermon was a detailed description of his kingdom, and how his followers are to practice kingdom living. But naturally, Jesus knew, there would be people waiting in the wings, pretending to be his followers, but planning to twist and take advantage of his words…claim to be speaking for God like real prophets. These are the Wolves in sheep’s clothing. Not people with innocent questions, or doubt. This was active opposition. Jesus says guard against them, and you will know them by their fruit. We'll study four "fruit" to watch for. They will be: Attractive Lack of Results Short Lived Wrong Motives Look at each of these through the week. Question: When have you seen someone undermine good work? How could you tell? See you tomorrow. Or at Coffee hours on Wednesday. Live C101 in fall. Or just get in touch.

From Series: "Sermon on the Mount"

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