Background
Recently, one of the boys in my cell group complained that church was 'boring', and that the worship was 'insincere'. I thought deeper into it, and realised that these were surface excuses. The main issue was that he was not interested in God at all. If he was, he would have found church exciting - a person chasing after God would look forward to the outpouring of thanksgiving during worship, the thirst for God's Word during the sermon, etc. Attitudes bear out in Actions Similarly, attitudes matter in how engaged we are in our ministries. Years ago, several musicians were late for a rehearsal led by a pastor in my church, who then talked about how it could be due to two reasons i) valid reasons, e.g. traffic jams, or ii) a poor attitude. A poor attitude doesn't arise because the person 'just happens' to not feel like going for rehearsal. Rather, it arises because the 'spark' and interest to serve and worship God isn't there. Conversely, consistent sloppiness is often a sign of a poor attitude. Hence, although there is often a tendency to look at the action (e.g. coming late), what really matters is the underlying impetus and passion to serve. After all, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Sam 16:7). This bears out in Numbers 14. Prior to entering the Promise Land, the Israelites rebelled against God when they heard negative reports from the spies. God, however, did not touch about the act of rebellion, but addressed the underlying attitude, which is a lack of faith: "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?" (Num 14:11). Cutting-Edge Ministries My church's senior pastor constantly challenges us to to engage in 'cutting-edge ministries'. This bears out in Col 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. What is working for God like? Put it this way - I put a few mins to give inputs to my colleagues at work, and maybe about an hour for my director. Butrecently, our Ministers (i work in the civil service) had a question - i poured sweat over it for days! In the same vein, the effort that goes into serving God multiplies a thousand-fold as compared to serving Men. Putting the Two Together having high standards is an act of worship to God, an effort to bring worship that is deserving of His glory. On a practical note, this bears out in e.g. being punctual, preparing in advance, and practicing on your own. But these will never happen without a thirst for God's will to be realised, without a love for God, and without a passion for pleasing God because "whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31). Admittedly, we can never offer a standard worthy of God, but as mentioned earlier, ultimately it is the heart that counts, and this is borne out in our constant desire to raise the bar, and in our discipline in preparation and punctuality. Article derived from http://guitarpraise.blogspot.com
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AuthorWarren Jhun Ocampo Archives
September 2017
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