Worship - Sidetracked and Hijacked

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence, Colossians 1:18 (NKJV)

There was only one perfect person that ever walked this earth and He was put to death on a cross two-thousand years ago. We certainly are not. But as I was reading the news and watching all of the protests concerning the Martin/Zimmerman verdict I was appalled to hear so many churches that took to the pulpit to use it as a soapbox to proclaim their rage either against or for the verdict in the public trial of George Zimmerman. Again we are not perfect like Christ, but we are to strive toward it, Col. 3:14; Phil. 3:12.

First off I want to say I understand frustration when things do not go your way; but I also understand that the Lord's day is a day of worship, praise, and adoration of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sin of this past Sunday was in allowing emotions to override our worship of God. Christ did not have preeminence (first place) this past Sunday in many congregations across the land. May we repent of our penchant to allow other things to mean so much that He is relegated to mean so little. I know there will be many who will not see my point and some even offended, but let's be real, is the church pulpit a place to rent out to the fury of our frustrations or when our feelings are hurt? Or to the other groups on Zimmerman's side, the pulpit a place to express our glee?

Where is the Lord Jesus in all of this? If we would keep our eyes focused upon Christ and His love and forgiveness would there have been a place for anger?? Some may say that Christ in righteous indignation overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple. Yes He did. But it was because the purpose of the temple, which was pure worship, and the witness of the Jewish man or woman toward the outsiders was being profaned. God was not a money changer nor a scam artist etc... But to the casual onlooker it must have looked like He was. To be sure, they were probably very confused about who God was. Jesus' righteous judgment was to awaken the masses to how far they had strayed in worship and purpose.

The articles online today about various churches and the content of their worship, even if it was only a small portion of the service, received big news this Monday, July 15, 2013. Remember, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This was evidenced in the comments from the lost because of the media's portrayal of what was going on in our churches on July 14th. Once again shame and ridicule has been brought to the name of Christ. Will we ever understand that the lost love to make fun of the church at every opportunity, today was no different. Maybe it is because in reality, we do not care what they think of the Christ we are supposed to represent! Honestly, we should be ashamed of giving place to satan, (little "s") especially from the pulpits of churches that are supposed to be teaching the great love and forgiveness of God and how it is He who is working out those things within us. Instead I saw rage and that same rage spreading amongst church members, pew-to-pew. Discipleship at its finest! Oh how the heart of Jesus must be grieved!!

Remember the words of Jesus the next time you decide to rent out the pulpit:

"For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops," Luke 12:2-3 (NKJV)

The world sees and hears how we Christians carry ourselves. Let's make sure we strive to bring Glory to God in all we do, especially in God's assembly.

God Bless

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