Today's readings are 2 Chronicles 29.1-24 and Philippians 3.1-21.
Our reading in 2 Chronicles shifts our attention to the southern kingdom, Judah, where Hezekiah becomes the new king. After a time of neglect, Hezekiah seeks to restore worship of God according to God's command. However, not only was worship neglected, but it would appear that the temple had been seriously misused. We don't have the details, but we are told the priests, a large company of them, spent eight days just getting from the entryway through to the vestibule. Something had been going on in the temple, and whatever it was did not bring honor to God's holy name.
After the better part of a month's hard labor, the temple was ready and the sacrificial rites could once again be established. The way of worship according to God's command was now open to the people of Judah again. It was now possible for them to obey their Lord after years of that being an impossibility.
What stands in the way of God's people worshiping Jesus in spirit and in truth? We may have erected all sorts of barriers. We may have all kinds of rubble and filth blocking us. Maybe our presuppositions about what church is or isn't could be interfering. Maybe our independent spirit keeps us from humbly submitting ourselves along with our fellow saints to the ministrations of God. Maybe we think we need to bring something other than brokenness and emptiness to the divine service, that it is something we do rather than a place and time we receive from God. There are all sorts of hindrances we may find.
Let us do the hard work of consecrating ourselves once again to worship according to the command and will of our Lord and Savior.
Our reading in 2 Chronicles shifts our attention to the southern kingdom, Judah, where Hezekiah becomes the new king. After a time of neglect, Hezekiah seeks to restore worship of God according to God's command. However, not only was worship neglected, but it would appear that the temple had been seriously misused. We don't have the details, but we are told the priests, a large company of them, spent eight days just getting from the entryway through to the vestibule. Something had been going on in the temple, and whatever it was did not bring honor to God's holy name.
After the better part of a month's hard labor, the temple was ready and the sacrificial rites could once again be established. The way of worship according to God's command was now open to the people of Judah again. It was now possible for them to obey their Lord after years of that being an impossibility.
What stands in the way of God's people worshiping Jesus in spirit and in truth? We may have erected all sorts of barriers. We may have all kinds of rubble and filth blocking us. Maybe our presuppositions about what church is or isn't could be interfering. Maybe our independent spirit keeps us from humbly submitting ourselves along with our fellow saints to the ministrations of God. Maybe we think we need to bring something other than brokenness and emptiness to the divine service, that it is something we do rather than a place and time we receive from God. There are all sorts of hindrances we may find.
Let us do the hard work of consecrating ourselves once again to worship according to the command and will of our Lord and Savior.
--
Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com
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