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June 10 what does God really want from me?
I hate, I despise your religious feasts.
I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! amos 5:21-24 What a wonderful passage that confronts us this morning. Let us use the word of God today as a mirror for our soul. Let us examine ourself and see if there is anything that is not right, that has swayed from the standard of God. But most of all, let us correct any deviations. Do you know the meaning of the word “sin”? It is an archery term meaning “missing the mark”. Some of us keep on sinning (missing the mark) day after day even when we don’t know it. Why? Because we don’t delve into the Word of God enough to reflect and correct ourself. 1st reflection of the mirror – is your Christian life a religion? God hates religion. Religion has done great harm to His kingdom. Religion produces followers who follow rituals that originally was inherently good but many have turned them into empty shells. An example… prayer. There are many wonderfully written prayers recorded by the saints of the past. You can see the passion and deep felt worship that permeates each phrasing. But today, we use them in church or read them monotonously, using them as supposed “gateways” to God and means of worship. They become empty vessels with our hearts void in the inside. They become mere rituals. Another example… Sunday worship. This is supposed to be a time of great rejoicing, of experiencing God and fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Many have turned it into a weekly social gathering. There is no longer a reverence or focus on God. We look forward to the sermon finishing. We look forward to catching up with friends after the service. When we sing songs of worship, our mind wanders to what we will cook for lunch/dinner, what are we missing on TV, etc… Another big one is our offerings. We think that we can “buy” God sometimes. What do I mean by this? Some of us tithe (actually we should ALL tithe but that is another topic.) We think that we have fulfilled our “religious” duty each week when we put our money into the offering bag. See God, I am a “good Christian”. I give you my money, not like all the other people that don’t even give you 10%. In fact, I am giving more than 10%! And what happens after this? Once you step out of church you are no different from everyone else in the world – in your behaviours, your thought life, your ambitions, your anxieties, etc… 2nd reflection - what does God really want from me? Justice. Righteousness. This is what He craves. You are to be a channel into the world of His justice, His righteousness. God doesn’t care about how many rituals you do. How many church meetings you attend. How many Christian meetings you lead. How much time and money you expend for Hm. How loud you sing. God wants YOU. He wants your heart. He wants your surrender so that He can mould you into a being that reflects completely, unashamedly, without distortion His image on earth. Look at your life now. Is justice flowing like a river? Is righteousness a never failing stream? Many of us have become numb to the injustices around us. When we initially see an injustice, we feel a tug in our heart. We know deep down that this is WRONG! We find it hard to shrug it off, it makes us feel uncomfortable. BUT when we ignore this feeling and continue to ignore it over and over again, there will come a day when it no longer bothers us. We treat the injustice as a part of life. That’s normal I can’t do anything about it. Solution? Let us daily jolt ourself awake by comparing what we see around us with the standard of God. This is the same with righteousness. If we compare man with man’s standards… we are not doing too bad at all. Look at the people who rape and murder and steal. I am not like that. But hang on, what standard are you using? This is a common tactic we use to make ourself feel “good”. I am not as bad as…. And we teach ourself that our life is on track. We are righteous people. Right? WRONG! On the day of judgment whose standard are we going to be judged by? God’s! So let us take a moment to re-allign ourself with His standard of righteousness. Let us look into the mirror of His word and correct any sin (missing the mark) we can see in our life.
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