Daily Devotional for Sunday, August 16

How We Should Worship God

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire,” Hebrews 12:28, 29.
In 1804, Thomas Jefferson began to compile, and completed in 1820, what became known as the Jefferson Bible which was an 84-page version that focused on the New Testament. Because Jefferson was a deist, he believed God had created us but that He was not to be prayed to, served or worshiped. Therefore, he went about taking out all the Scriptures that were relevant to the deity of Jesus Christ, His resurrection and passages that referred to worship or serving through the Lord’s church. He only left in the passages that he accepted and which focused on Jesus’ moral teachings and ethical principles.
The Word of God has always given us teaching on morals, honest living and how we conduct ourselves in society. But when we begin to think that God did not give us instruction as to how or if He wants to be worshiped, that simply is not true. When you take out the service and worship of the Lord, you take away from who God truly is and what He deserves; “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chronicles 16:29). God has given us the ways to acceptably serve Him out of our “reverence and Godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). Israel had trouble understanding these teachings and only paid Him lip service, only went through the motions in worship and followed what men taught them because their heart was not with Him (Isaiah 29:13).

JUST A THOUGHT
When people try to tell you not to serve or worship God, but rather follow their way of thinking, then be like Jesus; “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10).

Tim Chambers