A Daily Devotional – Sacrifice – The Eternal Word (5)

A Daily Devotional – Sacrifice – The Eternal Word (5)

Comment: Over the recent days gone by I have exhorted myself and the readers of these devotionals to be alert of the current trend of worship in churches in our nation. There is little need to identify any specific church or denomination since there are no perfect churches. Jesus Himself is aware of every church throughout the world; see Revelation 2 and 3. While there is NO perfect church, there remains but ONE opportunity to purify and make holy our services of worship and that would be ‘fervent PRAYER’, James 5:13-18 this will identify and cleanse our meeting houses of today.

Devotional: In the gospel of John, the fourth chapter, John recalls the Words of Jesus/Messiah while He is talking to the Samaritan woman. In the conversation Jesus, knowing the woman’s past, her religion and her future; directs her attention to WORSHIP and He says – “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the FATHER. You worship what you do not KNOW: we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. GOD is a Spirit, and those that worship Him MUST worship in spirit and truth – verse 21-24.

Jesus is concerned for His church, just as He cleansed the temple in Jerusalem (John 2:13-22), He finds the modern-day church in the similar condition of the temple of His day. We do not have a proper sacrifice when our celebrations mean more to us than the ‘whole counsel of God, Acts 20:27’. Churches spend valuable hours in worship and praise services that have little to do with worshipping God in the context of John 4:21-26; Messiah is coming again and He will speak to us again.

Today, many churches are ‘mountains of emotionalism’ these celebrations do not glorify God, but they do elevate man to heights of self-gratification and this is an abomination to God. Sadly, these churches reflect the secular trends of entertainment and commercialism found in the world, not in the Spirit. Like the temple of Jesus’s day many churches are involved with selling and promoting the entertainer and the leadership calls this a sacrifice of worship and praise.

Like Isaiah, I say that our tables and altars are filled with vomit, no place of worship is clean. See Isaiah 28:7-10 and if you feel the need pray in faith that God will allow this nation and it’s churches an opportunity to repent, do so. Even so “COME LORD, Jesus/Messiah”.