so, who?

so who will worship God alone? who will live by justice and fairness? who will reject ego and lift up the name of Jesus?

i want to be in that group, in that place — a place that says, “God is worshiped here! Jesus is our King! we follow no man! we follow Jesus!”

if i can’t find it, i’ll build it myself.

personality driven

in today’s church, we don’t often worship God. sure, we slip up once in a while and it just happens, and boy, are we amazed. “the Spirit really showed up today!” like it was an accident or a freaky car crash or something. but we’re regularly and totally down with worshiping principles for more-effective living, especially if we’re presented with a cool number of them, like 7, and they all start with the same letter. love that. and we’re encouraged that it’s ok, because these principles are all in the Bible, if you look closely enough. of course, giving all your money to the poor, and raising people from the dead are in the Bible, too, but i don’t see too many people jumping on board with those. not so catchy, i guess.

we’re also dang quick to worship the teachers of these wonderful principles — the clever heroes who come up with the catchy phrases that are so easy to remember and quote later to the guy or girl behind the counter at starbucks — making us feel really good about ourselves, like we’ve done our spiritual duty by sharing the knowledge. isn’t God pleased with our goodness. we’re so cool.

but it’s all just idol worship — whether the principle itself, or the teacher of it, or ourselves for brilliantly retaining the knowledge — we’re still not worshiping God. anything or anyone but God, it seems. sad. tragic. stupid. offensive to God.

“who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

who may stand in His holy place?

he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift his soul to an idol.

he will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from his Savior.

such is the generation of those who seek Him … the God of jacob.”

— psalm 24:3-6

more reasons …

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.

I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

when was the last time you sang to Me?

do you know what I want?

I want justice—oceans of it.

I want fairness—rivers of it.

that’s what I want.

that’s all I want.”

— God, amos 5:21-24 (the message)