What would you say if someone walked up to you and asked, “Do you worship?” Some would answer, “Yes, I do,” and then mention a church or a synagogue or a mosque. Others would say, “I don’t worship,” meaning they don’t go to any religious services. Some might even say, “I used to worship, but I didn’t get anything out of it so I don’t do it anymore.” All of these responses reflect dangerous misunderstandings. The first myth about worship is that it only happens during a religious service or in a special place. Actually, the question “Do you worship?” is a misleading one. A better question would be “What do you worship?” We all find something to fix our hearts and minds on. Something is at the center of our lives. Even the secular world recognizes this. David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), a well-known writer and university professor, put it this way: “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable [undeniable] set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.” Wallace was on the right track, but he didn’t realize that just worshiping some sort of spiritual something isn’t good enough. I’ll talk more about that in a minute, but before I do, stop and think about what occupies the center of your life. What fills most of your thoughts? Even worshiping something that is good can crowd God out. For example, it’s good to work hard, but an intense focus on work can become a type of worship that will, in the words of Wallace, “eat you alive.” Some people worship Hollywood celebrities. They religiously follow who is dating who, and they can’t wait to find out the “glorious” details of those good-looking people. It’s also possible to have our affections dominated by sports heroes, by hobbies, by political figures, or even by what other people think of us. I could go on, but I think you get the point. You can be worshipping something or someone, even if you’ve never thought about it as worship before. God created us to worship Him. When we chose our own way and followed sin, our worship, like so many other good things God created, became twisted and self-focused and often destructive. When we worship “the creature instead of the Creator” (Romans 1:25), we don’t find the peace and joy that God wants to give us. The second myth about worship is thinking that we are doing it right if it makes us feel good. Our feelings are not a good guide to knowing what is right. God’s commands are. God-commanded worship is not centered on the benefits we might receive. I’ll never forget an experience one Christian pastor related. After a church service, a woman came to him and said, “I didn’t get anything out of the music today.” The pastor replied, “That’s OK. We didn’t sing it for you.” In other words, when our worship is pleasing and honoring to God, it is successful, no matter what we, or what others, may think of it. The point is that true worship exalts the one true God. God-centered worship does bring joy to His followers, — “ O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation ” (Psalm 95:1) — but that isn’t the goal. Our goal when we worship has to be exalting God, not making ourselves feel good. The difference between godly worship and false worship all boils down to focus. As Pastor John Piper puts it, “If you don't see the greatness of God, then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can't see the sun, you will be impressed with a street light. If you've never felt thunder and lightning, you'll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God, you'll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures.” Since real worship exalts God, what are some things about Him that are worth worshiping? Here is just a small sample. God is the eternal Creator. “ For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land ” (Psalm 95:3–5). Every person who repents of their sin and puts their trust in Jesus will worship God because “ He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins ” (Colossians 1:13–14). Having our sins forgiven and being made new on the inside are our greatest reasons to worship God. “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ … ” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18). You are a worshipper. What you worship is revealed when you discover what you cherish most in this life. Do you rejoice that “ On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God ” (Psalm 62:7)? You can relate to that truth if you have come to Christ. True worshipers “…Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness, is everlasting” (2 Chronicles 20:21).

If you fear reading articles written by pastors, I hope you’ll overcome your fear long enough to finish this article. The clinical list of phobias (or fears) is almost endless. Today I stumbled across a website called “phobialist.com” that lists over 530 different phobias that are mentioned in medical or research papers. You ought to look at the list. The fears that some people have can make you laugh (unless of course, you have that phobia) like Consecotaleophobia--the fear of chopsticks or Pteronophobia--the fear of being tickled by a feather. The things that really DO scare us are no laughing matter, though. For example, if you fear enclosed places, elevators are going to be a problem. Even the rich and famous struggle with fear. Brigitte Bardot a legendary French movie star admitted, “Solitude scares me. It makes me think about love, death, and war. I need a distraction from anxious, black thoughts.” Dr. Samuel Johnson, a famous English writer, and literary critic was always very careful to enter a room with his right foot first. If he ever accidentally entered a room with his left foot first, he would immediately back out of the room and come back in with his right foot first. He was also so afraid of death that he would not allow anyone to mention it in his presence. Julius Caesar, a great leader, and a military hero was terrified of thunder and always tried to be underground when any thunder sounded. Marshal Saxe, a French military hero in the 1700s, would scream in terror when he saw a cat. Peter the Great only crossed a bridge when he had to and would howl out with fear as soon as his foot touched the bridge. We may not have any of those fears, but we all have things that trigger a sense of fear in us. How can we overcome them? Let’s let a little child show us the way. When a child is afraid of a storm, what does he do? That child looks for a caring adult (hopefully mom or dad) who will hold him or her and confidently give assurances that there is nothing to fear. How can you and I find confidence when a storm is shaking our world? The Bible boldly announces the solution: “ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). When we truly love and trust our Creator we will find that fear is gone. David put it this way, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?” (Psalm 27:1). The Bible assures, “ His children will have a refuge” (Proverbs 14:26). The God of the universe has more than enough power to take care of us. When God says, “ Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10), then we can choose to believe what He says. If we don’t trust Him to do what He says, then we are disrespecting (or “dissing” as some people say) God. Who are we to have fear when God Himself has promised to help us? Getting rid of your fear must begin with a conviction that God loves you. That’s important because God’s love is the only love that is perfect. The clearest proof that God loves us is that He became one of us. He was willing to live in our broken world, and then die the death of a criminal on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin. “ We know love by this, that [Jesus] laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). God has proven that He loves you. “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ” (Romans 5:8). Have you embraced it? I hope so. When you do, you can join those of us who declare, “ We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him ” (1 John 4:16). A few verses later God’s Word says, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). I hope 2020 will be the year that God’s love casts fear out of your life.

I don’t know what gift (or gifts?) you were eager to get for Christmas – and I hope I’m not the first one to break this to you – but Christmas is over. There still may be some hope if you celebrate Three Kings Day, but when the Christmas season is over, so are the gifts. If that doesn’t dampen your spirits, this will. Even if you got all the things you expected to get at Christmas, what you received will eventually wear out or just lose its thrill. Maybe at some time in the past, you were reminded of that truth. You discovered some long-forgotten gift you had stored away because you no longer cared about it. You might even have smiled to yourself as you thought back to how excited you were when you first got it. The same thing is often true about other things we expect will bring lasting happiness into our boring everyday lives. Have you ever felt that you needed better things out of life? At least, you want more than what you have found so far. Maybe you can look back at things, or even at relationships, that at one time you thought would make your life more exciting. That didn’t happen, and you wound up being very disappointed. Some people think that if the gift were just expensive enough, it would have amazing results. Who, for example, wouldn’t want to get some gold coins as a gift? After all, there are some very good reasons that gold is precious. Here are the three reasons why gold is so valuable. First, it is rare ; second, it is durable ; and third, it is beautiful . Take away just one of those three things, and gold would not be very valuable. For example, if someone discovered a way to manufacture a lot of real gold very inexpensively, it would no longer be rare. It would lose its value. You and I may never possess much gold, but let me tell you about something I have found, and something you can have, that is even more valuable. It actually calms our anxious hearts. It never loses its thrill. It is the gift of the first Christmas, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. God the Father offers Him to those who repent of their sin and embrace Him as a gift that is more valuable than all the gold in the world. Let me show you why Jesus is so valuable. The Bible tells us that Jesus (God in human flesh) is supremely rare because He is the only one of His kind. He is unique. As Moses put it, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11) “For this reason, You are great, O Lord God; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears” (2 Samuel 7:22). There is only one true God. We also know that God is valuable because He is so durable . Actually, He is the only one who has always existed. “But You, O Lord, are on high forever” (Psalm 92:8) God has no beginning and no end. Jesus declared, “ I am the Alpha and the Omega, [i.e. the A to Z] … who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). He never wears out. He never breaks down. He never goes away. God is also valuable because He is beautiful . “ The Lord is high above all nations; His glory [beauty] is above the heavens.” (Psalm 113:4) “ Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven ” (Psalm 148:13). God is so magnificently beautiful, that there are special angelic creatures who constantly hover around God’s throne and cry out, “… Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). God is the only gift that keeps on giving. When we surrender our lives to Christ, we will “ Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. [Then we will] give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations ” (Psalm 100:4–5). Here is a great way to start off the New Year. Get out that Bible and begin a journey to find out for yourself how wonderful and beautiful God really is. The Gospel of John is a great place to begin reading. We would love to have you visit us at Bethel Chapel Church. Our mission is to continue learning more and more about our Lord Jesus. We have found His way to lasting happiness, and we’re excited to share it with others.

The Pastor’s Corner – Bethel Chapel Church

Why Worship the One True God?

Who is to say that one type of worship is better than another.

By David|2020-02-08T21:51:18-05:00February 10th, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

Worship Myths

You can be worshipping something or someone, even if you’ve never thought about it as worship before.

By David|2020-02-01T18:09:40-05:00February 3rd, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|1 Comment

Are Phobias Funny?

The things that really DO scare us are no laughing matter

By David|2020-01-25T21:00:38-05:00January 27th, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

How to Make Bible Reading Exciting

At the beginning of the year, many religious people resolve to read the Bible every day. After a little while, though, they stop because they don’t feel like they are getting much out of it. They probably continued to keep the Bible around as a decoration. They may even view it as a kind of [...]

By David|2020-01-18T22:10:04-05:00January 20th, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|2 Comments

Renewing an Old Resolution

As I have often said, “Following Jesus can be really hard at times, but it still beats any other alternative.”

By David|2020-01-11T21:22:23-05:00January 13th, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

How to Get Out of Debt

I’ve never had a large income, so I have had to carefully handle the money that I do have. I thought I would pass on some tips that have helped keep me out of financial trouble.

By David|2020-01-04T20:28:05-05:00January 4th, 2020|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

A Valuable Gift

Let me show you why Jesus is so valuable.

By David|2019-12-28T21:05:20-05:00December 30th, 2019|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

What I don’t Like About Christmas

I may be in the minority here, but I struggle with continuously hearing the same four or five Christmas songs everywhere I go.

By David|2019-12-14T20:43:16-05:00December 16th, 2019|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

Has God’s Peace Failed?

So, where is this peace that the angels promised? We certainly don’t see it the daily news, let alone our daily lives!

By David|2019-12-08T08:02:57-05:00December 9th, 2019|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments

How Many Beans are in the Jar?

If two people believe opposite things about God, can they both be true?

By David|2019-11-30T19:54:27-05:00December 2nd, 2019|The Pastor's Corner|0 Comments