Focus, Focus, Focus!

Scripture

Give to the LORD the glory he deserves! Bring your offering and come into His courts. Worship the LORD in all His holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before Him. 
~Psalm 96:89, NLT

Quote

“Before Jehovah’s awesome throne, Ye nations, bow with sacred joy: Know that the LORD is God alone; He can create and He can destroy.”
~Isaac Watts

Intellectually, we know that God is infinite, that He is beyond our comprehension. We know that He is transcendent, He is above us and beyond us. Isaiah said it well in Chapter 55 of his prophecy, For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” The question is: how does a finite creature give an infinite Creator the glory He deserves?  The Jews stood to praise and to pray but they bowed to worship… Comelet us worship and bow downLet us kneel before the LORD our maker. [Psalm 95:6] Couple that with the verse above, Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor. Let all the earth tremble before him.” Do we bow down when we worship, do with tremble in reverential awe?


Of course you know the answers to these questions: we do not bow, we do not tremble and we do not give the LORD the glory He deserves. So my next question is why? Intellectually we know the truth but we don’t respond in kind, why? Paul said, “Now we see things imperfectly, like a puzzling reflection in a mirror but someday we will see with perfect clarity.” [I Cor. 3:12]  One of the things that happens during the aging process is your eyesight deteriorates and so does your hearing. I can still hear, the problem is–I can’t understand. Sometimes I hear sound but not words. It’s the same with vision. I can still see, I can see 92 million miles. I am peeking out my window right now looking at the sun which is almost 93 million miles away. The problem is not seeing, the problem is focus. I have to have bifocals to read. Reading would be impossible for me without them. Without glasses the words are jumbled and the letters are unclear. I saw someone the other day from a distance and she saw me. I thought I knew who she was but I’ve made that mistake so often that I remained silent. From a distance, her face was fuzzy. She was much younger and with good sight.She knew who I was and she started toward me, as she got closer, I recognized who she was. The closer she got, the better I could see those her face. You aren’t going to believe this: I can’t remember who it was but that isn’t the point. The point is, the closer we get to Jesus, the better we see Him. The better we see Him, the more natural it is to worship Him.


Psalms 96 is a Messianic Psalm [all Psalms are Messianic in a sense] and it speaks of Christ return to earth to judge and to rule. When Jesus appears these Adamic eyes will see Him clearly. When we see Him clearly, we will have no problem bowing. We will bow instantly and it will be as natural as breathing. We will not only bow down, we will tremble in reverential awe. At present, our eyes cannot see with true clarity the living Savior but we do have the Word which enables us to see Him by faith. Our praise and worship will be enhanced by the visible return of Christ but in the meantime, we can improve by drawing near in our daily worship and by focusing on HIM in corporate worship. True worship is theocentric. The problem with our worship is that we are more focused on others and what they think than we are HIM. In real estate it is location, location, location. In worship it is focus, focus, focus!


 

 
  • I had a fun day at Enon; I don’t know about them. I got to preach three times: at 8:30, 11:00 and 6:00. I will be going back to Lebanon this Sunday.
  • Indians win 18 in a row. Just two games from the record. Also Rayne Dakota Prescott and the Cowboys won. June and I have become Dallas fans since Jerry makes his players stand for the national anthem and because they support Blue Lives Matter. Also Dak is a Christian.
  • We are hoping Irma will fizzle out soon.

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