Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Let the king be enthralled by your beauty;
    honor him, for he is your lord.

• Psalm 45:11

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

• John 4:19-26

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

• Romans 1:18-25

“O how big and broad and comprehensive and wonderful is the work of Christ! That is why I cannot have too much sympathy for the kind of Christianity that makes out that the gospel is to save a person from smoking or drinking. Is that all Christianity does, keep me from some bad habit, so I will not play the ponies, beat my wife or lie to my mother-in-law? Of course, regeneration will clean that up, and the new birth will make a man right. Those are the effects of a nature redeemed by the blood of Christ.
“The primary purpose of God in redemption is to restore us again to the divine imperative of worship so that we can hear God say again, ‘So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him’ (Ps. 45:11). The Church Militant conquered the world with their joyous religion because and only because they were worshipers. When the Christian church in any generation ceases to be a company of worshipers, their religion succumbs to mere outer effects, empty works and meaningless rituals.
“When you begin to talk about the Lamb that was slain, and the blood that was shed, and God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, then you are living and worshiping in truth. When the Spirit of God takes over, we worship in spirit and in truth; and that worship exceeds mere external rituals.
“God created you to worship Him. When fundamentalism lost her power to worship, she invented religious claptrap to make her happy. That is why I have hated it, preached against it, condemned it all these years. Claiming to serve the Lord, the only joy they have is the joy that is of the flesh. Elvis Presley was a happier man after he got through with his sensuous music than many Christians are after they have worked themselves up in an emotional frenzy for half an hour.
“For the redeemed, the Well of the Holy Spirit is an effervescing artesian well, and you do not have to prime the pump. The silver waters of the Holy Spirit flooding up and out of the redeemed and cleansed heart of a worshiping man are as sweet and beautiful to God as the loveliest diamond. We need to learn how to worship to please the God who deserves it.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Purpose of Man

The Purpose of Man was compiled posthumously from the sermons and other writings of A. W. Tozer.  This means that his description of the modern Christian church is the state of the church in the 40s through the early 60s in the USA and Canada.  I noticed similar degradation in the late 60s and through the 70s due to the counterculture.

The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 12:2 that we are not to conform to this world but be transformed.  But at the first sign of membership in church dropping or attendance taking a nose dive, the “church” finds ways that are ever more worldly to draw people back into the building.

The secular world is fighting even harder today, putting pressure on the church to celebrate things that are considered sin.  Do we ignore the Bible?  Do we substitute meaningless religious rites and ceremonies for a meaningful relationship with Jesus?

We are at a crossroads, and it is our choice.  Do we conform to this world?  Or do we worship the truth?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.