Scripture
“Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religious observance while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way.”
~Isaiah 1:13-14, MSG
Quote
I am not that concerned about what the LORD thought of Judah’s worship: I am more concerned about what He thinks of ours.
~Ya’akov
Trump was the first person to call the media out in public, referring to the news as the “FAKE NEWS.” Trump was right, the news is fake. I caught the Huntsville TV stations in a lie some 30 years ago and I have not watched the news since. If they will lie about one thing, they will lie about another. Trust me, they lied: I was an eyewitness and I know what they reported was not the truth. An older and wiser gentleman told me: “Bro. Jack, they came after a story, not the truth.” I thought about what he said and suddenly realized, he was right. Let me tell you what is sad: the news media has lost all credibility. They have a liberal narrative that they follow, and they skew everything to fit their liberal ideology. Ninety percent of their news is pure propaganda. Now to the really sad: there is a war going on in the Ukraine and we have no one to give us the facts. Yes, you have seen video images but are they real. I know they look real, but do you really trust the media? I don’t think Putin is in the right, I am not saying that, but we don’t know what is happening because the media is unreliable, and this is sad. I heard yesterday that one of the video clips is ten years old. Would our media stoop to such subterfuge? Yes, I wouldn’t put anything pass them. We have an illegitimate President because of them. If only one of the four major networks had reported the truth, the left would have been unable to steal the election.
Why can’t people be honest about their intentions? I have heard that a Calvinist is running for President of the SBC but he is an honest Calvinist, and they are hard to find. I can’t vote anymore but I would vote for him because he is not ‘woke’ and he tells us up front that he is a Calvinist. The convention is full of Calvinist but they do not openly declare their intentions which is not to propagate the gospel but to make the world reform. But unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there: there is too much pretense in our worship. I am about to hurt everyone’s feeling except Michael’s, but our worship is pathetic in my opinion. I am not talking about singing or even preaching, I am talking about our pretending. There is too much sham. We pretend to be better than we are. Why are our altars barren and dry? I will tell you why, no one will confess sin. Why don’t people walk the isles like they did years ago? We are afraid of what others might think. Who gives a rat’s rear end what people think: what about God? What does He think? I can’t worship on the back row; there are too many distractions. I sit on the front row and there are no choirs anymore, so I don’t see anyone but the Praise and Worship leaders and sometimes I close my eyes where I don’t see them. Looking around at other humans during in worship can be harmful to our worship. Just think of the worship leaders and what they see from the stage. While they are singing, people are talking and passing notes or playing on their phone. Our worship is not real because we are playing to the audience. My goal in worship is to see only Jesus. I am not looking at you. You could stand on your head, and I wouldn’t know it. Tune in to Jesus and forget the world. You would think we could do that one hour per week.
Got a little story for you. My mother is law had a little vain streak. She wouldn’t go to church unless June and girls took her to buy a new dress. Don’t think I did give her the business over this issue. Granny, as we called her, did not wear cheap dresses. June buys things on sale but Granny wanted the expensive stuff. I told her, “No one will know the difference. You can wear the same dress for a month, and no one will know.” Finally, I told her I would prove my point, so I wore the same suit for 16 weeks in a row. I told my family not to say anything and that I would wear it until someone noticed. June couldn’t take any more, so I made a confession on week 16, “I’ve been wearing the same suit, shirt and tie for the past 16 weeks and no one noticed.” After church two or three ladies came to me and said, “I noticed.” I said, “No you didn’t. You would have said something to someone if you had noticed.” They said, “We didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Since when has my feelings been hurt over what I wear? I am telling you: people are not looking at you as much as you think. They will notice if you don’t wear enough.
Extra
Today is Friday and my grandkids love Friday. I hear thunder in the background, so I guess we are getting more rain. Keep praying for Clara and Shohn. Pray for peace in the Ukraine.