TRUE WORSHIP

True worship is not primarily a cultural thing. It is not simply offering to God our sentiments and feelings expressed according to our culture. It is based on a knowledge of the majesty and holiness of God and what He requires in worship. It is not primarily cultural; it is spiritual. Those who know the true God will come into His presence with holy awe and reverence, whatever their cultural background. Africans, it is true, like rhythm and music but so does the rock-loving culture of the West, as evidenced by what takes place in discos or in other entertainment. Our worship should not be an expression of our culture, but of the holiness and majesty of God and of our gratitude for His grace towards us in Christ. A true knowledge of Christ will lead to worship, which is God-glorifying, whatever the cultural background. There will be more putting our hands over our mouths (Job 40:4) and covering our faces (Isaiah 6:2) than there will be hands in the air and dancing in the aisles! When people know the true God, their worship is reverent and God-glorifying, whatever their cultural background.

Bill Clark

GOD WILL BY NO MEANS CLEAR THE GUILTY

“Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7).

If God will not clear the guilty, how can God save sinners? God saves sinners by punishing the guilty and letting the innocent go free. God made Christ to be guilty by imputing the sin of God’s elect to Him. God made His elect to be innocent by imputing the righteousness of Christ to them. Then God fully punished Christ, the sinner’s substitute and let the innocent go free. Oh the wisdom and grace of God in the salvation of sinners!

CHRIST WILL DO!

Horatius Bonar tells of an awakened soul in Scotland who, in the bitterness of his spirit, set himself to work and pray in order to get peace. He doubled the amount of his devotions, saying to himself, “Surely God will give me peace,” but the peace came not. He set up family worship, saying, “Surely God will give me peace,” but peace came not. At last he bethought himself of having a prayer meeting in his house, as a certain remedy; he fixed the night, called his neighbors, and prepared himself for conducting the meeting by writing a prayer and learning it by heart. As he finished the operation of learning it, preparatory to the meeting, he threw it down on the table saying, “Surely that will do; God will give me peace now.” In that moment a still small voice seemed to speak in his ear, saying, “No, that will not do; but Christ will do.” Straightway the scales fell from his eyes and the burden from his shoulders. Peace poured in like a river. “Christ will do,” was his watchword ever after.

How many poor sinners today, under the burden of the wrath of God, think that by committing good deeds, they can atone for their sins. How many miss the way of salvation because they refuse to humble themselves and acknowledge that they can do absolutely nothing to merit the favor of God by their own acts of goodness. “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”

(Romans 4:4,5).