Lenten Devotions - Day 04
“Then Joshua told the people: Worship Yahweh, obey him, and always be faithful. Get rid of the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived on the other side of the Euphrates River and in Egypt.” Joshua 24:14
Joshua's words did not come at the beginning of his ministry. He is not speaking to people to whom Yahweh was a new name, a new understanding of God. This was a people who had already lived under the leadership of Moses. They had been rescued from Egypt under Pharaoh, crossed the Sea of Reeds, and been lead to victory over kings during their wilderness wandering. God had fed them with manna, given them water in an arid land, and entered the Promised Land on dry ground amid the waters of the Jordan River. They had seen the victories Yahweh had granted them. Regardless of all this, they were still not wholeheartedly serving Yahweh.
We may often be surprised at how long it took this nation to trust Yahweh and Yahweh alone. Too often, however, we fall into the same trap. As these Hebrews, we look to the traditions and culture of our families with greater attention than to the words and instructions of God. We look to those things our forefathers held dear as the tried and true ways to make our way in the world. Sometimes those ways and values have indeed coincided with the will of God. Too often, they have fallen short.
We have looked to the idols of “might makes right”, “wealth is proof of God's approval”, “the pursuit of our happiness is our divine right” (and therefore God’s will) and other idols that advanced our private welfare and causes over the needs and circumstances of others. We have allowed our self-centered interests to interfere with hearing the gospel preached by Christ Jesus.
What happened to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”? Where have we found room in our lives for “if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him to drink”? What have we done with “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”? How have we allowed the mind of Christ to be in us, “who did not consider his station as God something to which to cling, but emptied himself, taking up servant form by being born a human being”?
Rather than live to serve Yahweh and Yahweh alone, as the Hebrews before Joshua, our allegiances are mixed. We serve self and seek to use the means given us by our society to center our lives on our personal gain, our advancement at the expense of others, and the increase of our welfare with little to no thought to the welfare of two billion people going to bed hungry tonight. We claim to love God, yet John declares that we cannot love God and hate our brother. Ignoring the plight of billions cannot be an expression of love and worship, can it?
True worship requires putting aside those idols, values, and ideals that keep us from serving God as God would be served. Find a way to express in action that God is important enough to place personal concerns aside and live more fully aware and involved in the ideals of Christ Jesus.
“Lord, help me to see where I fail to worship you, that I might lay aside all that which impedes me from a true and wholehearted worship.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
Joshua's words did not come at the beginning of his ministry. He is not speaking to people to whom Yahweh was a new name, a new understanding of God. This was a people who had already lived under the leadership of Moses. They had been rescued from Egypt under Pharaoh, crossed the Sea of Reeds, and been lead to victory over kings during their wilderness wandering. God had fed them with manna, given them water in an arid land, and entered the Promised Land on dry ground amid the waters of the Jordan River. They had seen the victories Yahweh had granted them. Regardless of all this, they were still not wholeheartedly serving Yahweh.
We may often be surprised at how long it took this nation to trust Yahweh and Yahweh alone. Too often, however, we fall into the same trap. As these Hebrews, we look to the traditions and culture of our families with greater attention than to the words and instructions of God. We look to those things our forefathers held dear as the tried and true ways to make our way in the world. Sometimes those ways and values have indeed coincided with the will of God. Too often, they have fallen short.
We have looked to the idols of “might makes right”, “wealth is proof of God's approval”, “the pursuit of our happiness is our divine right” (and therefore God’s will) and other idols that advanced our private welfare and causes over the needs and circumstances of others. We have allowed our self-centered interests to interfere with hearing the gospel preached by Christ Jesus.
What happened to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”? Where have we found room in our lives for “if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him to drink”? What have we done with “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”? How have we allowed the mind of Christ to be in us, “who did not consider his station as God something to which to cling, but emptied himself, taking up servant form by being born a human being”?
Rather than live to serve Yahweh and Yahweh alone, as the Hebrews before Joshua, our allegiances are mixed. We serve self and seek to use the means given us by our society to center our lives on our personal gain, our advancement at the expense of others, and the increase of our welfare with little to no thought to the welfare of two billion people going to bed hungry tonight. We claim to love God, yet John declares that we cannot love God and hate our brother. Ignoring the plight of billions cannot be an expression of love and worship, can it?
True worship requires putting aside those idols, values, and ideals that keep us from serving God as God would be served. Find a way to express in action that God is important enough to place personal concerns aside and live more fully aware and involved in the ideals of Christ Jesus.
“Lord, help me to see where I fail to worship you, that I might lay aside all that which impedes me from a true and wholehearted worship.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
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