i am an offering

Did you:

• Spend some time in His Word?
• Spend some time talking with Him?
• Listen to some praise and worship music instead of the radio station you usually listen to?

When situations come up that might be slightly irritating to you, will you:

• Take time to stop and think before reacting, making sure your reaction is an accurate reflection of how a follower of Jesus should react?
• Pray for whoever might have irritated you and forgive them completely?
• Admit that you’re really the one doing the irritating and ask for forgiveness?

When you feel jealous of someone else’s car, job, wealth, whatever, will you:

• Realize just how much God has blessed you (warm house, food to eat, a job - unlike many in our world who have none of the above and even less) and thank Him for it?
• Pray to God that those who might have a little more than you would use it to glorify Him?
• Take time to actually tell the people in your life that you are so thankful for them?

What are some other ways that you are worshiping God today?  Feel free to share!

How do you speak to people you come in contact with?  Do you think about the fact that even little things we say can have a huge impact on people?  Paul has two specific ways of worshiping God with the way we speak to people.  The first is how we speak to outsiders, or unbelievers:

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” Colossians 4:5-6.

“Seasoned with salt” is in interesting phrase.  It refers to salt being a preservative.  We are to use our speech to preserve a good attitude towards those we come in contact that don’t know Jesus.  We don’t answer them in judgment or condemnation, but with an answer full of grace.

The second way we can worship with the way we speak is to everyone:

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Ephesians 4:29.

Does what you say to others fit the occasion?  Is it something that is good for building up?  Do you realize that when you gossip about someone not only are you solidifying your bad attitude toward them, but drawing others into that same attitude?

Let’s worship Jesus by honoring Him with everything we say today.  Find a way to build someone up today!

Well, it has been a light couple of weeks of blogging from me and I apologize for that! Family’s been coming first lately as well as getting the house ready for some company this weekend. I hope to get back into the swing of blogging again full-on next week, but there will be a few posts this weeek.

You’ve probably seen this story already, but it was brought up at devotions this morning and man, it’s powerful. While the story doesn’t mention if anyone involved is a follower of Jesus, it’s good for us to see that these sorts of things still happen in the world. It is also good for us to remember that we should be the people that are making these things happen. Enjoy.

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness

Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. - Hebrews 12:10-12

Lately it seems as though God is really working on my heart in a lot of areas.  He’s working on my heart to convict me to have a strong yearning for prayer and time spent with Him.  He’s working on my heart to have a compassionate spirit towards every one I come in contact with.  And He’s working on my heart through many people I love and trust to make me a better leader.

Yesterday, I was gently challenged in how I could improve some areas of ministry to make things better.  To be honest, I’m not quite used to that yet, although I’m very grateful.  In previous ministry experiences I was used to being free to do what I needed to do and then only being challenged about something after the negative consequences had already happened.  If I would have been gently disciplined in these areas before certain things happened, I think those consequences would have turned out much differently!

So, how do you accept criticism, especially criticism that is constructive and meant for your benefit?  Do you get angry and try to justify what you’re doing, or do you say, “Thanks so much for caring enough about me to prevent negative consequences and to direct me towards many more positive ones!”

Take some time today and thank God for the discipline He’s doing in your life, either through His Word or through other people.

A verse that keeps on coming into my head is Psalm 86:11:

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

That’s the ESV version; the NIV says “give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.”

It’s an interesting concept that one thing needs to be united.  Usually the only way you can unite something to become one is if there are actually two somethings!  But our hearts tend to be in two places, don’t they?  We are constantly fighting to get rid of our old nature and fighting to let the new nature prevail in us.  What a great prayer to pray when we are struggling at work, fighting back negative emotions in our family, or struggling with any type of sin, “God, unite my heart to fear your name!”

A blog I’ve discovered recently has a great post on this very thing.  One of the things that struck me was this:

Our loyalties as Christians should never be really divided.  Being involved in worship should go hand in hand with evangelism in the secular work force.

What a good reminder!  And also:

So, as I walk throught  this week, dreading my job every morning, I need to shift my attitudes: worship must occur every day, and although  I am not having the fun of leading worship in song, I can have the joy of leading unbelieving  souls in worship to the Christ that they must know for eternal satisfaction.

Thanks, Milestone Worship, for reminding us how to be an offering.