GREATER OR LESSER WORSHIP? -- Devotional for October 23, from "Good Seeds"

(NOTE TO MY READERS: Again, I've fallen behind. I just returned from our church's Men's Retreat at Mt. Hermon. I did write devotionals at camp, so now I'm busy transcribing and editing them to the computer and eventually, to this blog. I appreciate your reading, and even more, your prayers for me, as I will pray for you, for your growth in the Lord. By the way, though I know of a few who have at least at one time were reading this, I would love to hear from you now, and let me know how I can pray for you, 2) If you have any comments on these devotionals, 3) If you have any ideas for me for future devotionals. email: steveandkaren11@att.net
phone: 209-532-4816 cell: 209-768-2822).

God everlasting is the Creator of the ends of the earth. Men exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator. (Isaiah 40:28; Romans 1:25)

The Bible contends that the best thing you can do for your health – body, soul and spirit – is to worship God. Sadly, only a minuscule number of earth’s population has discovered that fact. Putting it into practice, they prove to themselves and all who watch them that it is true. They start by acknowledging the reality of God by recognizing Him as the Creator of the universe. This same God revealed Himself to mankind in His Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we can come to know this Master Designer as our Heavenly Father – our Abba Father! To worship the Son of God is to worship Father God. Walking with Jesus, filled with His Spirit, we begin to sense God’s presence, bask in His love, and soon we are bowing before His majesty. What are the results of such awareness and worship? Health and wholeness, in every fiber of our being. To worship God as both Sovereign King of the Universe and Lover of our souls is not a sacrifice for us, but rather an investment in our own vitality, and an investment in eternity! Oh that all people on earth would know our God like this! But most do not. Not that they don’t worship, for all human beings worship. A man’s very nature dictates that he must. He instinctively seeks out, identifies and attributes worth to anything he identifies as having ultimate value and beauty. But the health and wholeness afforded to worshipers is not given to those who worship anything less than or other than God Himself. When people first encounter the true and living God they tend to shrink away: “He’s too distant, too ethereal, too altogether other than ourselves,” they say. That’s what they say – but if the truth were known, it is His ultimate goodness and holiness, juxtaposed to their sinfulness, that sends them packing, as far away from God as they can get! But think about it: if a man will not worship God, still, by nature he must worship, so what remains as objects of worship for him? There are only two kinds of people, those who worship the Creator God, and those who worship what God created. Humanists worship man: his works, his thoughts, his pleasures; pantheists worship the earth and its creatures; idolaters worship gods of their own making, usually not recognizing them as agents of Satan himself! Are those engaged in this lesser worship investing in their own welfare, or sacrificing it? The answer is in the payoff: worshipers of anything less than God eventually destroy themselves. Why? Because idols are parasites: they suck the lifeblood from their worshipers; whereas Jesus IS the lifeblood of His worshipers!