Don’t Play Out The Script; Put Meaning Behind Your Worship!

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.’ (Amos 8:11)

This verse (Amos 8:11) again came up in my mind today, and it seemed familiar and I figured I had mentioned it before in previous posts, and I was correct; three times in the past to be precise.  This means the beatings will continue until morale improves, or more properly put, the Lord believes we haven’t yet got this to stick. The context of this verse comes from God giving ‘Famous Amos’ a comparison between a bowl of ripe fruits and Israel; a reckoning was about to come to ancient Israel in the reigns of Uzziah (Judah) and Jeroboam (Israel) in 760 BC.

The reckoning for Israel and Judah would be through a great earthquake and later the Babylonian invasion and exile of the Israelis out of the Promised Land.  There would a famine of food and water, as the Lord told Amos the waters would rain down in one area but not in another, but this came from the lack of preaching and teaching of the Word. 

The prophecy of Amos is that worship became a ritual without meaning.  Israel/Judah had been in ‘good times’, and now as things started to unravel for them, after turning their backs to God, many figured ‘I’ll just toss a couple of bucks into the local synagogue’s offering plate, sacrifice a dove or two, and get my blessing, to cover my bases’.  But God does not want lip service but actual sacrificial service to Him and His cause.  The Israelites found lip service was not working, that their priests were also ‘playing along’ with a script and although they read Scriptures, there was no meaning behind it.  Why would the Lord honor play-acting?  If there is no ‘soul’ behind the preaching or the service, God is not honored by it. 

Many Christians, including many pastors and priests, today fool themselves into the same act.  I caught a scene from the movie ‘Gran Torino’ where Clint Eastwood’s character was in confession, and after confessing, the priest threw out something like ‘say ten Hail Mary’s, five Praise Jesus’, or in my paraphrase, ‘take two aspirin and go sin no more’, without thought or prayerful consideration (and of course the Hail Mary part, unless it’s a long-bomb pass into the end zone at the end of a football game, is meaningless).  The priest in the scene showed no commitment or resolution to his work, but was doing what he thought Clint’s character (and the audience) expected to hear; in other words, he was ‘playing out the script’. 

Placing an offering into the plate without consideration of the blessings one has with what God has given is ‘playing out the script’.  Showing up to church so one can check the box is ‘playing out the script’.  Don’t just play out the script!  Jesus Himself in Revelation 3:16 warns the Church of Laodicea about this, “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  Don’t go through the motions, don’t lip-sync, and don’t be empty in your worship – have it mean something when you worship your Lord, Jesus!

Why is America in turmoil right now?  Too many are playing out the script, and others have quit playing out the script entirely and don’t even pretend to worship at all, as it has no meaning for them.  We are seeing America as the ‘ripe fruit’, the good times are ending and things are starting to unravel for us.  We may yet turn things around.  Yes, we have a new President, and some things are swinging toward what we consider to be common sense, but there is still considerable resistance against common sense.   

Put the ‘soul’ back into your Worship of Jesus; pray with purpose and meaning, realize that the Lord has given you many blessings – whether you consider yourself rich, poor, or in the middle.  If you have hot water, a refrigerator, a car, a phone in your pocket, food to eat, and a church you can freely walk in and out of, you are blessing as the Lord provides you all these things that many others in the world do not have. 

Read Scriptures and pray with purpose; the purpose of learning the Word to be better prepared to act upon the Gospel message and not just check a box.  We will have tough times ahead, but we will get through this with our hearts and minds properly set on what the Lord can do for us and what we can do for the service of our Lord.  The Lord will honor sincere and heartfelt Righteousness in our true Worship of Him.