Yesterday I had lunch at the Pizza Ranch in Tea, and drove back roads to get there.  In the process, I past 57th and Western, where Bracco and many other new places have popped up, and 69th and Western, where there is also a lot of new developement going on.  Also, on the East side of town, groundbreaking for two huge “lifestyle center” projects is going to begin soon.  It really excites me to see our city growing, and see the building that is taking place.  But even though it’s exciting to have new options for shopping, eating and entertainment, these buildings won’t last.

Look at these words from 1 Corinthians chapter 3:9-17

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.  Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”

So often we tend to build kingdoms of our own.  We build bigger houses, we crave ambition for bigger business, sometimes we even hope to build bigger churches in the hope that we will be noticed.

But Paul clearly says that the building that we need to worry about is our own body.  We are God’s temple, the building which houses the Holy Spirit, and we need to depend upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

What kinds of foundations for your life are you laying?  Are you building upon the foundation of Jesus, or upon a foundation that will crumble?

One of the greatest definitions of worship that I have heard is to “give something more worth than anything else.” In this way, we could worship money, by giving worth to ambition more than anything else. We could worship fame, by giving the desire to be known more worth than anything else. These are things we could worship, but we should not.

What we should worship, and give more worth to than anything else, is Jesus Christ our Savior. To be an offering, we give up what we want as humans and give our Savior more worth than our human desires.

Peter gives so much practical application in this chapter of his first letter that it would take me a whole week of posts to get through it. So, I’m going to break up the chapter each Wednesday, and give a little bit at a time.

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.” 1 Peter 2:1.

One sentence is all it takes to floor us. That’s how God’s Word works.

The term ‘malice’ (which Webster defines as “desire to cause pain, injury, or distress to another”) is not a term we see every day, but Peter tells us to get rid of it. When we have thoughts of hurting others, we need to give more worth to Jesus and His compassion than the thoughts of hurting others.

We are called to get rid of deceit. We are called to give more worth to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life than to deception that leads to personal gain.

We are called to rid ourselves of hypocrisy. This one is especially hard for people who publicly lead worship. If you are in front of a congregation and you have sin in your life that you are not confessing or letting God take care of, you are being hypocritical. Of course, by our very nature, we all struggle with sin, and there is no way to be rid of it this side of Heaven, but if we are in front of a congregation calling for them to live a certain way, yet we are living the very way we are calling them out of and not asking God for His help, we are disobeying God’s Word. We are called to give more worth to Jesus and His integrity than living double lives.

We are called to get rid of all envy. This one is hitting me particularly hard lately. Sometimes, as worship leaders or members of a tech team, our work goes unnoticed or not thanked, and we get jealous of people who seem more appreciated. We are called to give more worth to Jesus than the approval of men.

And finally, we are called to get rid of slander of every kind. We are called to give more worth to Jesus and His love and grace than to discussing problems about people behind their back.

I know for a fact that I struggle with each one of these issues, and I am praying that God would continue to change me in these areas. Would you pray for me and yourselves as well?

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I thought I came across a blog on worship and music.  Why in the world does the title have to do with downtown parking meters?”

I chose this title because today the parking meter in front of Mrs. Murphy’s Irish Gifts ate my first quarter I tried to put in it.  At first, I was really frustrated.  I was frustrated with the parking meter, I was frustrated with the city’s maintenance of the meters, and I was frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to have any time in the meter to park.  But then I thought, “Try another quarter.”  And it worked.

There is a passage from Phillipians 2 that Paul wrote that deals more with worship than we realize.  The passage is this:

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” Phillipians 2:14-16

We can worship God through doing things “without complaining or arguing.” First of all, there was no need to complain about my quarter.  I’ll forget about it in two days.  There is no need for us to complain about small stuff that doesn’t matter in the eternal scheme of things.  There is no need for us to argue about trivial things, when we could be advancing the Kingdom of God.

Secondly, as teachers, like Paul, we would like to say of our students, disciples and worship teams that they indeed “shine like stars” as they “hold out the word of life” so that our labor is not in vain.

We exist to be offerings first of all to Jesus, our God and Savior, but secondly to be offerings to those we lead and serve.

I hope this blog can help us all do that just a little bit better.