Mike Keahbone challenged all believers to share their testimony on their Facebook page. I am always glad to share what Jesus has done for me, so here it is—the short version..

I was born and raised in a Christian home. We were a Navy family so we moved a lot. We were not with my dad a lot of the time since we had a home in Mobile, AL and if my mother didn’t like where he was stationed we went home to Mobile. I never went to the same school for 2 full years in a row. When I was 9 years old I walked an aisle and shook the preachers hand and every one took for granted that I knew how to be saved, but I didn’t. So I played church for many years after that, since I went to church faithfully, I knew all the words to use and I was publicly compliant. But there was a raging rebellion in my heart. I married 2 days before I graduated from high school. I had 3 children and still that rebellion was stirring inside me. On more than one occasion I tried to please God with my works but I never found the peace of mind and settling of that rebellion in my heart. I divorced my first husband and broke up two homes to marry my second husband.   What I forgot was that you reap what you sow, and 4 short years later he found someone he liked better than me.   The one thing that came out of that time was that finally called to my heart one day and said clearly to my heart ‘You don’t belong to me!!! ‘  Oh but God I must, I have this long list of works and accomplishments in the church. After a day-long argument with God, I fell on my face and repented of my sinful, rebellion and asked Jesus to save me and change my life. I’m so glad he did. I still had many bad habits and life-choices to work through. When husband number 2 left, I blamed God and entered a tragic 3^rd marriage in pure anger against God and it ended tragically after only 2 years. But God wasn’t through cleaning and refining me. Through heartache, life-changes and difficulties that we don’t have space for, God grew me into a woman who was willing to wait on Him and follow Him. After almost 9 years of singleness God brought me a wonderful godly man and we have shared 26 years together serving God and seeing Him work in and through our lives. It hasn’t always been easy, and we have face many challenges, yet I thank God and praise Him with every breath that I take, that He never gave up on me. And like many of that 60’s generation, I had a hard road getting to the truth and overcoming the lies that grasped our hearts. I thank God for the privilege He has given me to serve Him as a wife, mother, friend, teacher and musician. May all that I do bring Him glory.

Bible Ballistics: Worship or Worldliness Pt. 3 May 4,2014

Continuing our look at Worship/Worldliness, let’s delve into the scripture and evaluate our perceptions of ‘worship’. What is worship? Most of our churches now have “worship leaders”, instead of ‘music directors’. Is music worship? We can worship through music, but in and of itself music isn’t necessarily ‘worship’. The dictionary says worship is “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity”.   If we revere and adore God, would it not follow that we would desire to obey Him. Does His word give us any indication of what is acceptable worship? Real worship is seen in a life lived in obedience to God, and submission to His Holy Spirit—in or out of church.

We’ve written in our earlier articles, that God calls us to be holy, and that God’s judgment will begin with the ‘house of God’ (1 Peter4:17). God will judge us according to His ‘Word’ (Hebrews 4:12-13). He called those who went their own way rebellious, even their leaders. In Ezekiel 22 He also calls us to differentiate between the ‘holy’ and the ‘profane’ ( Profane: to treat something sacred with irreverence or disrespect.) Have we allowed and brought so much of the world into our churches that we no longer recognize that we may be profaning the very God that we claim to serve? Have we abandoned the ‘holiness’ of our God to once again cleave to the things of the world that we were saved out of? And not only cleave to them but actually bring them into His church. Let’s see what Jesus had to say in John 2:13-14,

“And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”

Jesus made a whip and ran the sellers and moneychangers out? He makes it clear in verse 16, that we are not to make God’s house a place of ‘merchandise’ (a mart or emporium). Matthew gives us more insight when he records the second time that Jesus ran people out of His Temple, (and it was His because He is God)!!

Matthew 21:12-13, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Jesus reminds us that His house should be a ‘house of prayer’. Simply put, a place where we commune with God and He with us. Are we betraying the ‘house of prayer’, and seeking to create an amusement park? Are we going our own way and profaning God or seeking His heart and mind in all things?

Have we so focused on making the house of God ‘comfortable’, that it’s foreign and profane to God? Have we been so eager to transform the church into a palatable dish for the world that we have lost the power of God? Do we depend on the latest programs, books or plans to reach people, rather than depending on the ‘preaching’ of the Gospel, and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit? Are we turning our churches into a ‘den of thieves’ ?   Is God honored or profaned in our lives and gatherings? Do people know that we are following Jesus, or have we become so much like the world that there is nothing distinctly ‘Christ-like” in us, or in the church?

Are we honoring the one who purchased us with His own blood? Are we living as those who are forgiven, cleansed and called to walk in God’s way? Or do we go the way of the world? Hard questions that we must answer.

Hebrews 9:13-14, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Saved to serve!!

Hebrews 10:4 & 12,”For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins….But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; “

1 Corinthians 3:16-17, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

We are blood bought, and become the Temple of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we are held accountable. Are we defiling the Temple—our physical body and the corporate body, the church?

We are representatives of God to the world. What kind of representative are we? Are we calling the world to holiness or yielding our ‘holiness’ to be appealing to the world? We must remember that the truth of the gospel is not always, in fact seldom is, appealing to the lost. Conviction is most uncomfortable, but it is the only thing that leads to salvation. Is our corporate worship reverent and godly, or is it fleshly and worldly? Does it call people to know God better, or lull them to rest in their own self-righteousness? Are we patterning our lives and worship to follow God’s Word or popular trends? Are we offering sinners new and eternal life or just temporary relief?

Luke 13:3, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Luke 18:13, “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

The word for ‘merciful’ here is the same word that is elsewhere translated propitiation (payment in full for sin). A repentant sinner bowing before the Holy God and asking for payment for His sin. That should be our goal, to lead sinners to bow at the cross seeking His forgiveness and salvation through the blood of Jesus.

Isaiah 29:13-15, “ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” (Jesus referred to this in Matthew 15:8-9)

Our salvation makes us the temple, the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Is HE at home in me? In my church? Is HE pleased with my choices or ashamed?  What does God say about us? Are we drawing near to God in reality or pretense? You must decide!!! Does God have my heart and my life, or do I just talk about it? Only you and God know the answer to that question.

Bible Ballistics: “BBs”   #56    Worship or Worldliness Pt.2

I’d like to continue in our examination of our attitude toward worship, and search the scriptures for answers.

Ezekiel 22:25-27 says, “25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. 26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.”

I’d like to share two other verses before we comment.

1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Just a few comments:

If I have been born again, I belong to Jesus and our Father God. I’ve been bought with a price.

If I belong to God, then I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.

My life is to reflect Him not my old self.

I am to strive to be obscure as a servant of God not a spiritual ‘super star’.

I am to see and project the holy and know that there is a difference between the holy and the profane,

and walk in ‘holiness’

not profaning God’s name,

His character

or His word.

We are the temple of God and we are held accountable for being a pure and holy temple. And corporate gatherings of God’s people should exalt the holy not the profane—and that would be God/Jesus.

Where are we walking today? Only YOU can answer that question.

We’ll continue our consideration of ‘worship’ on Sunday, Lord willing.

So?  Here’s our shot for the day—????? John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

So?  ?????? Who are we lifting up?

Christ Jesus or man?

Think on these things. Jesus does the drawing, we are to preach/teach the truth and disciple those who heed HIS call.