Everything Has Import
“The prize-winning Irish poet Evangeline Paterson sums up her life: ‘I was brought up in a Christian environment where, because God had to be given pre-eminence, nothing else was allowed to be important..." – as quoted in RUMORS OF ANOTHER WORLD by Philip Yancey, p. 71
Philip Yancey worked for 10 years as an Editor and then Publisher for Campus Life magazine before beginning a career as a freelance writer in the 1980s. He has written over 20 books and is among this generation’s most respected Christian authors.
Even such a clear truth can be misapplied and turned into a negative thing. Paterson discovered this distortion and corrected it, writing, "I have broken through to the position that because God exists, everything has significance.” Has the reality of Who God is made everything else in your life more meaningful?
"And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy" (Colossians 1:18).
Reckless With Our Praise
Did you know it is possible to be reckless with our rejoicing and praise? Consider the fate of this poor LA Dodgers fan who accidntally blew off most of his hand while celebrating their 2024 World Series victory.
A World Series celebration Wednesday night turned tragic for one Dodgers fan ... who blew off their hand while lighting a firework in the streets of L.A.
The horrifying incident happened in downtown just minutes after the Dodgers beat the Yankees in Game 5 -- and it was all, unfortunately, captured on video. ...
The explosion caused a fireball that engulfed the man ... and moments later, he could be seen stumbling away from the smoke in what appeared to be a state of shock. ...
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Dept. tells TMZ Sports ... first responders got to the scene at 2:30 AM Thursday -- and found the 25-year-old conscious and alert, but suffering from bilateral hand wounds. ...His injuries have been described as debilitating, but not life-threatening.
A UK media outlet, UNILAD, put it this way:
Seeing your favorite sports teams win is a sense of pure euphoria, and there are many different ways fans can celebrate the occasion.
Whether it be a pint in the pub with your pals after the big game, or going the extra mile and making a night out of that all important victory that puts your team on the right path.
Setting off a firework to mark a victory is certainly a new one on me, however, with one Dodgers fan doing such as he celebrated their World Series MLB victory over the New York Yankees.
WARNING: The graphic video is very hard to watch.
Looks like this poor Dodgers fan was pretty reckless with praise ...
Earthly joy and celebration are all part of the gift of being human. Such experiences, can, as the journalist above observed, bring us a sense of pure euphoria. Yet such experiences were never intended to be our sole, or even primary object of our praise and celebration. That role is reserved for God alone.
So don't be reckless with your praise! Enjoy this life and all its joys, all while recognizing that all praise, all glory, all "real" celebration, belongs to your Maker.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2: 9, ESV).
"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!" (Psalm 150:1-5, ESV).
"Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods" (Psalm 95:1-3).
Mysteries on the Walls of our Faith and Worship
One of our young woman recently baptized asked for help to solve a mystery that perplexed her to no end. Among the towels, garments, and other items in the baptismal changing room, she noticed two black, curly wigs hanging on the wall. “Why are those wigs hanging there?” she asked. The answer was unclear, but it was suggested that perhaps they'd been put there a long time ago, for women who didn't want to be seen with stringy, wet hair, or for the modesty of older women with thinning hair who might appear balding coming up out of the waterr. Definitive? Nah. Plausible? Sure. Nevertheless, the mystery remained (as did the wigs hanging in the changing room).
Sometimes we have “wigs” hanging around. They may be traditions that were started in other times for specific reasons. For example, you may have seen communion plates covered by runners or tablecloths going back to times when buildings didn’t have air conditioners and the cloths were used to keep the flies off the elements. The circumstances changed, but the cover remained.
There are many traditions we honor that are fine and acceptable, but which are only expedients and may be a mystery to our young, new Christians, visitors, and the like. That is not to disparage them, but it is to say that we should be ready to discuss them.
Whether that is standing before a song or Scripture reading, leading a specific number of songs before prayer, having an invitation at the end of a sermon, having the Lord’s Supper before the sermon (or vice versa), ending worship with a prayer or a song (Matthew 26:30), the way those leading in worship enter the auditorium, or any number of habits and customs congregations settle into, we should never let these simply settle into our subconsciousness.
Periodically, it’s good to explain and discuss these habits and traditions, whether in brief form during the course of our services, at greater length in a Bible class, or certainly in one-on-one conversations.
It is also good to ask if and how we might vary or alter some of these customs, periodically or even permanently. There are acts of worship we are commanded to engage in each Lord’s Day (Acts 2:42; 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), but for how long and in what order? The Word of God is to be reverenced, but does standing inherently do that? What the people did in response to Ezra was spontaneous, and they followed it up by bowing low with their faces to the ground (Nehemiah 8:5-6).
These traditions may be good, or at the least neutral.
But the point is to keep them from becoming mysteries hanging on the walls of our faith or our worship. Let’s continually ask what we are doing and why!
"And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others" (Mark 7:13, NLT).