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May 23

Worshipping God is how you live your life!

Posted on Wednesday, May 23, 2012 in Journey of Discipleship

I was at a funeral today for the mom of a good friend of mine.  It was both a sad and joyous time as we celebrated her life, thanked God for the innumerable ways her life reflected the love of Jesus Christ, and that her pain and suffering from cancer is over as she now is at rest in the embrace of her loving Savior.  In the middle of the sermon, the pastor (my friend and colleague, Pastor Kristine Wenzel) said, “Worshipping God is how you live your life.  It is not just about coming to church on Sunday, but how you give glory to God every day in how you live your life, how you serve others and show others  your faith.” 

And that got me thinking about the summer.  Why?  Because summer is the time when we Minnesotans, who love summer, get busier than ever!  I thought fall, winter, and spring (the proverbial school year) was busy enough.  Summer is just crazy!  And when schedules get crazy, coming to worship on Sunday morning, or even a Wednesday evening for Recharge worship (June 20, July 18, & August 22!), gets bumped off the calendar.  Hey, we in the church even plan for it, by cutting back on our worship services.  Only 30-34% of our members attend worship on an average Sunday during the school year, and during the summer that drops to around 20%.  (We’re about average for churches across America, unfortunately).

But what if worshipping God was more than coming to a worship service?  What if worshipping God is how we live our lives?  That actually makes it much more of a challenge than trying to come to worship 30% of the time! 

When Jesus called us to be His disciples and to follow Him, he didn’t mean just 1 hour a week, or for the average Christian in America, 1 hour a month!  Being a disciple, living as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a 24/7/365 way of life.  And if that is the case (and it is!) then perhaps I/we’ve got some serious rethinking and reimaging to do about what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and how we do church together, worshipping God through how we live our lives!

The paradox is, that as we begin to live our faith this way, coming together with other Christians to hear God’s Word, pray to the Lord, sing praises to God, and to receive the gift of forgiveness and eternal life through the Bread and the Wine, will become way more important than it has been before.  As we worship God with our lives, we need to come to church to be Fed and Forgiven, Renewed and Recharged for living as disciples of Jesus Christ.  We simply cannot do it any other way. 

If you have some thoughts, questions, or ideas to share, I’d love to hear from you, and maybe set up a time to grab a cup of java and sit outside enjoying the summer together as we worship God with our lives.

Bring on the comments

  1. Joe Tappainer says:

    About 5 years ago Carla and I went to our first CMA (Christian Motorcycle Association). There is a lot of fun and learning that happens at the State Rally. (We are planning on going to the National Rally in June) To be a member you just need to be a Christian. It is frowned upon (forbidden is a strong word) to speak about the different “flavors” of Christians. When we gather together and wear our back patch (Colors) we are Christians who speak from the Bible. We have a few two hour meetings throughout the weekend when the National Evangelist and his wife speak to us about the health of CMA and messages from the Bible. Roger gave a really great message Friday evening, Saturday morning was better, but Saturday evening really hit me hard. I guess I had always known it but to hear it…….well the light came on. CMA members are encouraged to join a home Christian church of their choice.
    During the message Roger asked “Why are you here at the rally?” “Why do you attend ministry training in Feb??” The answer is, or should be for fellowship with other believers and training in how to evangelize to the public and people at secular rallies. All true………..but it is also a place to “plug in” to receive the energy of the Holy Spirit. It is also why CMA encourages each of us to have a home church. You go to church for the same reasons………You learn about the Lord, Fellowship with friends, but mostly it is a place to plug in and receive energy from the Holy Spirit. Going to Church, like coming to a CMA rally is not the end all……these are places to charge your batteries to go into the world and spread the word of the Lord. You do this by setting the example by how you live your life. People are always watching you especially if they know you are a Christian. We don’t get in their face and thump a Bible over their head. We talk and we listen and we say we don’t know when we don’t. Listen to the Lord. He will guide you and put the words in your mouth if you let him.
    Service. Secular rallies love it when CMA comes to a rally because they know we will do all the dirty crappy jobs and we will do it with a smile. One time they had us set up our tents off to the side of the campsite, near the woods. In a group they either ignored us or made snide comments but we weren’t there an hour when one person snuck through the woods and asked one of us to talk to and pray for them. And that went on all weekend.
    Church is the same way. Going to church is not the end all. It is a place to learn about the Lord, Learn about evangelism, and to re-charge our batteries. It is also the place where we leave to go into the world and spread the word about Jesus in ways that we are lead. Jesus said you go out and spread the word like a farmer spreads seeds. Some seeds will die but some will take root and grow. You may only get one chance to spread the seeds and you will not always know when they have taken root. How do we do this? We serve one another, we listen, and we live our lives by example. In some cases we are signs to one another from God or as I like to put it………..we are Angels sent by God to someone in need. One story I like to tell, I have many, but I need a Kleenex to tell it, happened about 3 years ago. It was a Wednesday. Pastor Kent had given a sermon on listening to and for God. I was working on that. Emily and I were at Byerly’s in Burnsville at the Caribou getting coffee. I felt a nudge in my heart, so I acted on it. I paid for the coffee of the lady behind me and left. Emily & I were almost to our car when the Lady came running out of the store crying hysterically. She came to us hugged us and thanked us. You see the lady was having a terrible week. A son diagnosed with cancer, someone had lost their job & bills were mounting, this and that and other things. She was at the end of her rope. Her world was crashing down around her. She was ready to give up on Jesus, on everything but she prayed for a sign that she was not forgotten, that Jesus still loved her. She prayed for an angel. That day Emily and I were the answer to her prayers. Buying a simple cup of coffee was an answer. We were the Angels that the Lord had sent to let this lady to let her know she was loved by Him. We are angels to each other, most times we don’t even know it but sometimes the Lord lets you see what He has done through us. I love going to the Blessing of the Bikes. Funny how a lot of people go to “Have their bike blessed” even when they are not Christians or even believers. Blessing of the bikes is kind of a misnomer. Sure we ask everyone who wants to have their bike blessed to go stand by their bike but when one or two of us go to bless a bike it becomes a lot more than that. Getting people to go stand by their bike sets the stage but when we get to the bike before we begin we make introductions all around and then say yes we will bless you and your bike but is there anything else in your life that maybe we could pray with you about? Sometimes they say no, but a lot of times it can be like opening a dam.
    Church is not the end but the beginning. We are all called to go out and spread the good news about Jesus. There are many ways to do this. We just need to be open, listen and go where we are lead. I rather like the vision of CMA “Changing the world, one heart at a time”