Pastor David Platt on the American church and following Christ via the New York Times:

The tension between good and plenty, God and mammon, became the central tension in American life, propelling ferocious energies and explaining why the U.S. is at once so religious and so materialist. Americans are moral materialists, spiritualists working on matter.

Platt is in the tradition of those who don’t believe these two spheres can be reconciled. The material world is too soul-destroying. “The American dream radically differs from the call of Jesus and the essence of the Gospel,” he argues. The American dream emphasizes self-development and personal growth. Our own abilities are our greatest assets.

But the Gospel rejects the focus on self: “God actually delights in exalting our inability.” The American dream emphasizes upward mobility, but “success in the kingdom of God involves moving down, not up.”

Platt calls on readers to cap their lifestyle. Live as if you made $50,000 a year, he suggests, and give everything else away. Take a year to surrender yourself. Move to Africa or some poverty-stricken part of the world. Evangelize.

Although you don’t have to go overseas to evangelize or serve the poor.

Jesus has a word for us:

“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

And a story to illustrate his point here.

In fact, the entire twelfth chapter of Luke is worth the read today.

For an antitode, click here.

Things like this shake our faith.  But sometimes our faith needs to be shaken to see if it’s real.

- Jimmy Tower, pastor, Lifeway Fellowship Church, Killean, Texas

HT & photo cred:  USA Today

Moving from adoration to compassion in worship is a stretch for many of us. But the Scriptures tell us that if we love God, then we’ll obey God.

If we really adore the beautiful things in God’s character, then we are to model and practice those things. If our worship is to be authentic, it has to be embodied in very real ways. Worship as compassion is an invitation to demonstrate our love for Christ by loving God’s children.

By making this commitment in worship, we move our theoretical and sometimes rhetorical confessions of God’s love, into a felt sense of anticipation.  Our compassionate worship leaves us anticipating a response. Anticipating the possibility that what we have experienced in our own faith journeys can become real for someone else.

Worship as compassion is also an indictment of our reality, testifying to the pain and vulnerability of our humanity. When we see others unjustly suffering under cruel oppression, we know that it’s not what God intended or designed.

Compassion is what takes us to the next level and compels us to act on what we know.

- Chris Tomlin, What Do We Mean By Worship, FQWorship.com.

Also see what God has to say about worship and compassion for the poor.

“He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well.  Is not this to know me?” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 22:16 (ESV)

(HT:  John Piper via Twitter)

Creation composes a much better song than we ever could and I doubt any of us singers could compare with a choir of angels. But the one thing we can give God that nothing else can is a thankful and fully committed heart.

We should spend as much time “heart planning” this week as we do worship planning.

Jimi Williams, WorshipTogether.

See Psalm 50:7-14.

Great post here by Pastor Rick Duncan of Cuyahoga Valley Church in Cleveland which in part says:

We know that we are not all we should be, but we read our Bibles. At least some. We pray. At least a little. We come to church. Most weekends. We live decent lives. Better than most.

But when we ask God for some favors – for some blessings – it seems like He’s not holding up His end of the deal.

Maybe your thinking, “Lots of stuff around me is broken; broken relationships, broken ministries, broken communities. And I want to see God work through me to restore things, but nothing good happens. So, I’m disappointed with God.”

We have to know that there are times when God is not answering our prayers – not using us as restorers – because our hearts are not right with Him.

Isaiah 58 tells us how our hearts need to change if we want God to use us to restore what’s broken around us.

I hope this is the first post in a series.  Please post a comment and encourage Rick.

“The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

- Exodus 34: 6-8, NKJ

God honors those who honor Him.

An incredible blessing – and the reason God has granted Cross International favor – is in large part because we devote the first hour of every working day as a staff to Him.  We meet Monday through Friday everyday for a staff led devotion, followed by a Bible or Christian book study, mission report, and/or prayer for each other, our donors, and our field partners.

If you are struggling with your choir, worship team, or staff, I heartily recommend regular, daily devotions.  It will hold your team together like nothing else can.

Click here for more details.