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 This week we begin worship with:

Proverbs 3:19-20

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.

In this verse the Psalmist marvels at creation and the design that went into it.  Wisdom (ḥāḵmâ), understanding(tāḇûn), and knowledge(daʿaṯ) are ascribed to the LORD.

I had always wondered about the details in the creation account concerning separating the waters that below from the waters that are above (Genesis 1:6-10).  But a few years ago science caught up to scripture and the following scholarly article was published:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180309170700.htm

A more readable popular version is available at: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01077-z.pdf

And now just this past week, another discovery was published in a scientific journal concerning the ambipolar electrostatic field and how it increases the height of our protective atmosphere.  The scholarly article can be found here;

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07480-3.epdf

and a more readable version is available at:

https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/nasa-discovers-planet-wide-electric-field-around-earth-thats-shooting-bits-of-our-atmosphere-into-space#

Indeed we served a great God, who designed all of this!

 

Worship

This week we begin worship with:

John 4:23
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

The reason is given in the following verse.

John 4:24
"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

The physical worship of the Jews must be transformed because God is spirit.  Paul wrote:

Romans 9:4
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

The"worship" (latreia) or "service" (KJV) was the sacrificial system of physical worship and atonement. Paul then wrote as the capstone verse of Romans:

Romans 12:1
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

In this "spiritual worship" (logikos latreia) we become the sacrifice.  We become every Burnt Offering, every Grain Offering, every Peace Offering, every Sin offering, and every Guilt offering (Leviticus 1-6).

So one must ask oneself, how am I sacrificing myself today?  For this is how we worship Him in "spirit and truth.".

Name

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 124:8

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Contrast this with when the Psalmist was seeking the answer.

Psalm 120:1-2

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the LORD,

who made heaven and earth.

You have to know the name.  God is not anonymous.  He does not act under any pseudonym.  If you do not know the name you are without help.  You have no one on whom to call.

humble

This week we begin worship with:

1 Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

This proverb is recorded also in James 4:6 and is a reflection of Proverbs 3:34.  Because it is in James, and the Book of James is an anthology of the teachings of Christ, it must have been a constant message from our LORD, an example of which is the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Luke 14:7-11).

The previous verse spoke to the relationship of elder and those that they shepherd:

1 Peter 5:5

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The verse starts with "Likewise" and mid-verse Peter switches to "all of you".  Humility is for all of us.

Only God does not have to be humble.

That said, consider our example:

Philippians 2:5-8

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Fulfill

Today we begin worship with:

Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

This verse leaves out from whom we are asking, on whose door we are knocking, and for what we are seeking.  It is a general statement built off the truisms that if we don't seek we will not find.  If we don't knock, no-one will open.  And if we don't ask, no-one will respond.  The verse simply encourages us to become connected and interdependent.

Matthew 7:11

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! 

Yes, one of those connections is God.  For His charity is that of a Heavenly Father to His children. And by this we are encouraged to be dependent upon Him.

Matthew 7:12

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

But the passage concludes with our human connections in a way that summarizes not only the previous three chapters, but all of scripture.

Matthew 5:17

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Without those connections we cannot fulfill the purposes of God.