It took me lots of courage to confess to God how much wrong that I've done so far. Just, I was really thinking this: "Why other people's blogs receive so much comments although with those craps and worthless stuffs, but when mine which with some "good" posts does not get any?"
It took me lots of courage to ask forgiveness from God for this. And it took me lots of heart and tears to really read and understand this Bible verse:-
Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10
Just simply a verse, but stunned me for a very very long time. To totally understand this, I was really distorted. I felt like crying, knowing how deflected I was. My motive is, just simply wrong. I am sorry. Never will I think like that again.
I want to be a servant of Christ
Qi Hao to God
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day 8: Planned for God's pleasure
Before I start, I just want to thank Stephanie for providing this short clip. Hope it can move you too, as how it has moved me.
A thought that we must know is that God does not need us at all. But still He created us for His own enjoyment. And yes, we all exist for His benefit, His glory, His purpose and His delight. Until we truly understand this thought, we will always feel insignificant. What greater significant you can be, than to be important to God, and valuable enough to be invited to spend eternity with Him?
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.
Ephesians 1:5
With this, it comes to the word "worship". What is "worship"? There are something about this lovely word that I think everyone of us should know.
Bringing pleasure to God is called "worship". So whatever that we do that bring pleasure to God is an act of worship.
Like a diamond, worship is multifaceted.
Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life
Understanding this word - "worship" - is not be easy and often it differs from religious background. As for me, I used to think that "worship" is an act of praising and singing Christian songs for Him. Some will think it is about praying, sermon, ceremonies, communion, healing, miracles, experience sharing... The list goes on, and yes, these are part of "worship". But worship is far more than these expressions - it is a lifestyle.
Worship is far more than music. As I mentioned, it was my past thought about this word; which is only half-right. Often we all have misconception about this word. We thought synonym for worship is music. But, every part of the church is worship - praying, singing, dancing, Scripture reading, confession, listening to a sermon, jotting notes, giving offering, baptism, communion, Cell Group, and even just by talking to other worshipers.
No matter what genre - rock, or pop or other-, volume, tempo, or style of a song, it does not matter. God loves all kinds of music. Maybe you don't like it, but surely God loves varieties. If it is offered to God in spirit and truth, it is an act of worship. And there is no such thing as "Christian" music; there are only Christian lyrics. It means, it's not the music that makes the song sacred, but the words in it. If a song is played without lyric, no one will know whether it is a "Christian song" or not. Thus, the lyrics are far more important than the songs.
Worship is not for your own benefit. Watched the clip? Remember what we've learned? Our goal of worship is to bring pleasure to God, not to ourselves. Nowadays there are a lot of people offering God stale prayers, insincere praise, broken promises, empty words, and many more without thinking about its meaning and significance. I was one of them. And I don't want to join this "group" anymore. I want to worship Him for His glory!
God's heart is not touched by tradition in worship, but by passion and commitment.
Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life
The Lord says:
"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
Isaiah 29:13
Worship is not a part of your life; it is your life. Our worship should be continuously. I felt guilty as I read through this:
Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the morning and the last activity when you close them at night.
Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life
I felt guilty - it was once my habit, which now I
Anyway, everything can be transformed into an act of worship when you do it to praise, to glorify, and to pleasure God. In Scripture it was written that:-
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1. Corinthians 10:13
But how to do everything to the glory of God? It's simple! Do everything as if you are doing it for Jesus. In Bible it says:-
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
Colossians 3:23
This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship - doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus.
Rick Warren - The Purpose Driven Life
Anything can become worship, if we can dedicate it to God and performing it with full awareness of His presence. As how a wife loves her husband, love Jesus our Savior, fall in love with Him, and that is what real worship is all about.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today I played this song more than 50 times. It's like, the theme song of today. It's techno-version of "One Way". Enjoy!
It's just sooooooooooooooo cute, no? Especially the Bridge part.
Vincent
