The Eternal Church Service
An interesting thought came to me this morning as I sat in church. I was hearing someone speak about how as they travel they always have the praise and worship music going in their car. I then remember this post I wrote a while back entitled “The Eternal Worship Service” where I discussed the observations of what 24/7 praise and worship radio has done in creating an environment of cheapening the worship experience.
Where I was thinking about the cheapening of worship and intimacy in that post, I thought about how we have made the Christian walk a 24/7 environment of control where we refuse to eat, sleep, drink, talk to, shop, purchase, etc. unless it has the word Christian or Jesus on it. Why have we done this? Because we have to have control and by attempting to re-create a 24/7 church service called life, we gain a sense of control in order to cope with reality by changing our own perception of reality and seeing only what we want to see.
Jesus clearly shows us in the New Testament that he did not spend all his time in ‘the eternal church service’ of constant Scriptures, praise and worship, etc. We read in the scriptures that he was a carpenter in his profession before it was time for him to fulfill his calling in life. We also see in Acts 16:14 a person named Lydia who:
…was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
We also see in Acts 18:2-4 that Paul went to Corinth and met some people and :
….because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers. 4And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
Paul at that time worked at his craft of tentmaking during the week and on the Sabbath, performed his calling. You see, when we enter the workforce and enter a work environment, we are hired for a salary to perform specific tasks to overachieve the goals of the employer for the lengh of time specified in the work week. We are not hired to turn the workplace into an eternal church service in an order to feel in control over something by mass witnessing to others, t-shirt theologies, or displaying your six inch thick Bible for others to see. In fact, if we choose to follow the example of Jesus as detailed in the Scriptures, the example in and of itself will be the light to show others that one is a Christian and is a lover and follower of God.
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“…And you’ll only drink milk
If it comes from a Christian cow…”
– Steve Taylor (somewhere on the Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s album)