Wise Persons Still Worship Him

Have you received a Christmas greeting or seen a bumper sticker that says, "Wise Men Still Seek Him"? It's a popular, catchy saying these days. It refers to the visit of the wise men, or Magi, who traveled from a faraway country to find Jesus, the royal child born in Judea.

But perhaps the bumper sticker should read, "Wise persons still worship Him." We'll see why in this study. First, look at the Bible verses below, taken from the Gospel of Matthew.

What Does God Say?

Matthew 2:1-2 (ESV)
"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'"

Matthew 2:9-12 (ESV)
"After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way."

From the information in the Bible passages above, answer these questions:

• Where did the wise men come from?
• Does the Bible say how many wise men there were?
• What sign prompted them to undertake the long journey to Judea?
• What did they call the child?
• What did the wise men say was their main purpose for the journey?
• What did they do first when they saw the child?
• What hint do you see that shows these were rich and powerful men?
• Why did the wise men take a different route home?

My Thoughts

The Magi traveled for a long time from a far country to find the child Jesus. They looked for Him, not out of curiosity, but because they longed to worship Him and rejoice in His presence. They wanted to celebrate the birth of the King of kings. They came prepared with magnificent gifts because they had learned from ancient prophecies that this child was One like no other and that He was worthy of all their worship.

The old Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, "What is the chief end of man?" The answer is, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."

The wise men from the East desired to glorify the Lord Jesus. Is Christmas, for you, a time of worship, praise and glorifying God? Take a few moments to look up the following Bible verses. Consider how the persons mentioned rejoiced at Jesus' coming.

• Luke 1:39-45--Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist
• Luke 1:46-49-- Mary the mother of Jesus
• Luke 1:68-75-- Zechariah the father of John the Baptist
• Luke 2:13-14-- God's angelic host of heaven
• Luke 2:20--The shepherds of Bethlehem
• Luke 2:25-32--Simeon, an old man of Jerusalem
• Luke 2:36-38--Anna the prophetess
• Matthew 2:10-11--The wise men of the East

Then, rejoice, praise and worship with them!

Yes, some wise men still seek Him but, more importantly, the truly wise still worship Him.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Proverbs 9:10 ESV).

My Part

Make this Christmas a time of worship and praise. Begin the day by reading the whole account of Jesus' first coming recorded in Matthew 1:18-2:23 and Luke 1:26-2:39.

What Does God Say?

My Thoughts

My Part

What Is Your Definition of Worship?

---

By Billy Graham, Tribune Media Services

Q: What is your definition of worship? Our church has just started an alternative worship service (in addition to our usual one) with contemporary music and all that, but I have a hard time thinking of it as worship. Am I just out of date? -- Mrs. J.W.W.

A: When we truly are worshipping God, our whole attention is on Him -- who He is, how great He is, what He has done for us, how much He loves us. Worship, in other words, takes place when we focus our hearts and minds completely on God.

Only then can we praise Him as we should, and only then can we grow closer to Him. Our goal should be the same as that of the psalmist: "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name" (Psalm 103:1). Whenever our hearts are focused on God, then we can worship Him -- whether we are walking in the woods He created, or reading our Bibles to discover His truth or joining together with other believers in church.

If a certain style of worship helps you focus on God, then thank Him for it and ask Him to help you know His presence in a deeper way. If another style distracts you because you aren't used to it, however, don't automatically condemn it or say it must be wrong. God may use it to draw others closer to Himself -- and you should rejoice in that.

We sometimes hear about "worship wars" in churches today -- and that is unfortunate. Let your pastor know you are grateful for the traditional service that helps you draw nearer to Christ -- but be grateful too that your church is seeking in other ways to reach others with the message of Christ.

Pointless Worship

Read Psalm 115:1-8

Psalm 115 tells us about the blessings we have because our God is the living God. He's not one of the "idols of the nations." "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands" (v. 4). How true that is today also. Many people worship silver and gold as their god. They think money can do anything. We do need money for some of the practical things in life. But what good are the things that money can buy if you don't have the things that money can't buy?

The psalmist describes the idols and the pointlessness of worshiping them. "They have mouths, but they do not speak [no promises]; eyes they have, but they do not see [no protection]; they have ears, but they do not hear [no prayer]; noses they have, but they do not smell [no praise]; they have hands, but they do not handle [no power]; feet they have, but they do not walk [no presence]; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them" (vv. 5-). How unlike God. Christians have promises--our God talks to us. We have protection because He sees all that happens. We have prayer because His ears are open to us. We can praise Him. (In the Bible, the smelling of a fragrant offering is a picture of God's acceptance of our praise to Him.) We have power because He has an omnipotent hand.

We become like the god we worship. Those who worship silver and gold become like that--dead, lifeless and hard. Many people are making a god in their own image. But God made us in His image, and He wants us to have an active faith in Him

* * *

Christians have a living faith and serve a living God. The more you read His Word, fellowship with Him and praise Him, the more you become like Him. You have His promises, protection, prayer and power.

Dreading Monday? Take a Fresh Look at Sunday

by Paul Edwards

That Monday is widely considered to be the first day of the week--and Sunday the last--is confirmation of the triumph of the secular over the sacred. That most people dread Monday is confirmation of the seculars' inability to do for the soul what the sacred does.

God designed that we begin our week in repose--in a state of worship, rest, silence, and quiet--with our minds focused on Him as the source of every good and perfect gift. To take God seriously when He says, "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy," is to resign yourself utterly and completely to dependence on Him. Scripture makes clear that no productive labor is to take place on that day, and yet the One who commands us to cease from labor is the One who created us to produce. Contrary to popular misconceptions, the command for man to produce and to reproduce comes prior to man's fall in the Garden, not after. Work--productive labor--is not a curse. Dreading it is.

Because God created man in His own image, man works just as God worked. Yet God is not dependent upon that which He creates (cf. Acts 17:25 "And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else").

In contrast, we depend upon what we produce to sustain our lives (as any economist will tell you). And so to keep us from becoming too dependent upon that which we produce, God asks us to stop producing for a 24-hour period each week; partly, I think, to prove our dependence upon Him and not upon that which our hands can produce, and partly to keep us from killing ourselves. Our local cemeteries are filled (prematurely) with the corpses of CEOs, managers, sales professionals, housewives, and ministers who ignored the Sabbath command.

The fact that we have honored Monday by moving it to the first day of the week, at least in our minds and attitudes, indicates the priority we place on our own labor. The actual first day of the week, however, is the one on which our Savior was raised from his own Sabbath rest of sorts, having three days earlier finished the work His Father sent Him to accomplish. It is this same first day of the week we honor as the Christian Sabbath. What does it say about our faith that Monday is more important to us than Sunday? After all, the same sniffles that keep us out of the pew on Sunday would never keep us out of the office on Monday!

What difference would it make to our week if we began looking at Sunday as the first day of the week rather than the last, and Monday as the second day of the week rather than the first? Rather than viewing Sunday as the finish line--a goal to be worked toward all week--we would do well to view Sunday as God intended: as the starting line, with everything that follows in the secular rat race that begins on Monday following from, and being shaped by, the way in which we honor God by remembering to keep His Sabbath holy.

At the end of Creation week God not only rested, He also reflected. How much of the curse of dreading the beginning of another work week might be lifted if I used the Sabbath in the way God did: to pause and to look back on all of my productive labor the previous week (done with the strength that He has given me) and pronounce it, "Good"? How much more might I anticipate the opportunity to be productive in the coming week if in dependence upon God I simply paused on the Sabbath to value the productive quality of the previous week, and by virtue of my rest--my ceasing--express my total dependence on God to sustain me, not only on the Sabbath, but every day?

Men in D.C. 'Stand in the Gap'

Held Saturday, Oct. 6, near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., Stand in the Gap 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of the first Stand in the Gap, which brought a million men to the National Mall in 1997. Baptist Press reports the gathering opened with a 200-member trumpet ensemble call to worship. Throughout the day, an estimated 20,000 men moved from standing and raising their hands in unified worship and adoration of Jesus Christ to falling on their knees in corporate prayers of remembrance and repentance. Inspired by the Old Testament's Nehemiah's leadership in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, the gathering featured key "acts" of returning to God -- remembering His attributes, renewing one's resolve to live a godly life and the rebuilding of what is broken in men's lives.

Work Can Be Worship

Work Can Be Worship
by Max Lucado

Jesus's word for frustrated workers can be found in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel. Peter, Andrew, James, and John made their living catching and selling fish. Like other fishermen, they worked the night shift, when cool water brought the game to the surface. And, like other fishermen, they knew the drudgery of a fishless night.

While Jesus preaches, they clean nets. And as the crowd grows, Christ has an idea.

He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. (vv. 2--3 msg)

Jesus claims Peter's boat. He doesn't request the use of it. Christ doesn't fill out an application or ask permission; he simply boards the boat and begins to preach.

He can do that, you know. All boats belong to Christ. Your boat is where you spend your day, make your living, and to a large degree live your life. The taxi you drive, the horse stable you clean, the dental office you manage, the family you feed and transport--this is your boat. Christ shoulder-taps us and reminds:

"You drive my truck."
"You preside in my courtroom."
"You work on my job site."
"You serve my hospital wing."
To us all, Jesus says, "Your work is my work."

Our Wednesdays matter to him as much as our Sundays. He blurs the secular and sacred. One stay-at-home mom keeps this sign over her kitchen sink: Divine tasks performed here, daily. An executive hung this plaque in her office: My desk is my altar. Both are correct. With God, our work matters as much as our worship. Indeed, work can be worship.

Peter, the boat owner, later wrote: "You are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God" (1 Pet. 2:9 nlt).
A priest represents God, and you, my friend, represent God. So "let every detail in your lives--words, actions, whatever--be done in the name of the Master, Jesus" (Col. 3:17 msg). You don't drive to an office; you drive to a sanctuary. You don't attend a school; you attend a temple. You may not wear a clerical collar, but you could. Your boat is God's pulpit.

From Cure for the Common Life
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1998, 2001) Max Lucado

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Worship Before the Wrath

Worship Before the Wrath -- Revelation 5

Some people are embarrassed by worshiping the Lord in
public. They wonder what the person behind them will think of their
actions. But the way we currently show God adoration and honor is
practice for our worship in heaven. Today's passage describes a time of
intense praise before Jesus Christ sweeps the wicked from the earth and
restores His kingdom.

The cause for celebration is the breaking of seals. In
today's verses, John sees a scroll in God's hand with writing on the
front and back and seven unbroken seals. Each time a scroll was used,
the writer unrolled it to a blank section and recorded his message. He
then resealed it with hot wax. This left a trail of broken seals on the
papyrus. There's some debate as to what this scroll of God represents.
But the simplest explanation is that it details events that will take
place after Jesus returns, events that cannot begin to unfold until the
seals are broken.

The book of Revelation is clear about who can break the
seals. Only Jesus Christ, who became a perfect sacrifice for the world,
is worthy to judge those who live on earth. When He takes the scroll
from God's hand, all of heaven will worship.

In John's vision, everyone in heaven honors Jesus for
redeeming the world. Whether playing instruments, speaking praise, or
bowing down, all sing a new song. Believers will be there, singing with
the angels and the saints who have gone on previously. Embarrassment
will be forgotten in the wonder of Christ's presence.

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