Wednesday, December 19, 2007

God's Glee

Jim:

Psalm 50
Zephaniah 3:14-20
A portion of verses 17 and 18 in Zephaniah 3 says, “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival.” What a contrast there is between this image of God and the one of whom Psalm 50 says, “Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me” (verse 8). When the people celebrate it is without real meaning, without real joy. They are simply going through the motions, eager to return to their “normal lives.” By this God is disappointed. But when God celebrates there is joy and exultation, love and compassion. If only our worship of God could contain the same love, joy, and exultation with which God approaches us! How remarkable it is that the Creator of the universe can be imagined to nearly dance with glee!

Titus 1:1-16
Verse 16 speaks to the conflict between what we say and what we do: “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.” This is very much in line with what Zephaniah was warning the people about. It isn’t what you say, the fact that you go through the motions of worship. What God wants are lives filled with faithfulness, with obedience which reaches beyond the worship experience and into the daily life of the believer. In other words, we should “practice what we preach.”

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