Student Q&A part 1

I have been answering some questions with students and I would like to chronicle them. Today's have to do with worship and relationship with God.
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How did worship start?

First we need to define worship as it is put in Romans 1:25. Worship is dedicating most of your time, energy, and money and so on to something. In Romans in the Bible it says that people worship either Creation or Creator or God or stuff God has made that can be something else another person or even yourself. If it isn’t God then you are making what the Bible calls an idol and the word idolatry comes in.

So if worship was a list or a tall pyramid with steps “God” should be at the top. We do that by praying (talking and listening) reading the Bible (a way we understand God and he can speak to us) journaling (writing down what you heard when listening or what the Bible “spoke” to you) giving time to service or ministry or helping out or giving money to God.

So to now answer when it started. It started long before Adam and Eve the first two people. Angels were made to be messengers and are required to worship God or they are finished. God gave humanity the choice to worship Him or not. That is why it is so cool when we choose to give time in praying or reading or journaling or singing. This is done alone or with other Christ followers. It is also cool that we choose to do anything that gets us closer to God than to another “idol” whatever it might be in our life. Worship has always happened since creation was created by God in Genesis 1 along with human beings and worship will go on forever and never end in heaven as Revelation 22 at the end of the Bible tells us. By then we will choose to always put God above all things and there will be no more problem with worship but as Luke 9:23 says we make a daily choice to put God on the top of the pyramid or list or lower him worshiping creation before creator and making an idol in our life.

Why do people think it is good to sin?

There is a story in the book of Genesis where a woman was told not to look back at a city that was being destroyed because of centuries of sin nonstop or she would turn to a block of salt. Even after that and knowing God’s power and judgment on Satan and others who choose to always sin, she still looked back and was turned to salt. Crazy story! But it shows like if you come to a bench with a sign that says don’t touch you naturally want to touch it. You touch it to find that it has wet paint and you sat down already and have paint all over your backside. So sin consumes and feels good for a short while. It feels good to sin! So it’s easy to do it and you do it so much you get comfortable with it. Its like me buying milk. One day at age 8 my mom and I were going home and she stopped at the gas station to pick up a gallon of milk she forgot earlier. She went to get her money and leave and then turned handed me money and told me to do it. As a shy person, the last thing I wanted to do was go talk to somebody and especially do something I never had done before but I also knew what would happen if I disobeyed my mom and I went in and got the milk. I was nervous, couldn’t talk strait, and didn’t think I would make it out alive and thought that the next few times but got better and now I can drive myself to Wal-Mart with 100’s of other people inside and buy milk with my eyes closed. (I would just get hit by a car or cart or a wall or something but it’s all good.) What I’m trying to say is when we do something new it is hard but when we do it more it becomes more comfortable and it is hard to see things any other way. It is good to do this in order to become an adult in different areas but when we sin the first time God the Holy Spirit makes us feel sick or think that we shouldn’t do it but as James 1:14 says it grabs us the more we do it and we become comfortable and we enjoy it and to not do it would make us feel awful. It’s like this because Satan a good angel that quit worshipping God and now wants to take the rest of creation for all eternity in punishment with him wants you to keep sinning and think it’s good. Sinning is not good but what we need to do is use the Bible to show those involved and surrounded and consumed and living in sin the right way to forgiveness and making a complete change in thought Romans 12:2 to God the son, Jesus.

And don’t forget Matthew 11:28 that you can come tired and down from sin and Jesus will help you relax and forgive you and help you get over your strong desire to sin though you will deal with the choice to for the rest of your life.

Is it bad if you get saved and then do something you don’t think you should have?

Good question. I will first say if you go to do something and know you shouldn’t do it, do what James Jesus’ brother wrote in the Bible and just resist and get away from the temptation that it is. The issue here is temptation and 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us God never let us be tempted beyond what we can handle yet even Jesus was tempted. The issue though in Matthew 4 or Luke 3 wasn’t whether he would or wouldn’t be it was the fact he was God yet also a human being and resisted using the Bible. Jesus as an example showed that followers of Him can resist temptation.

Sometimes will still give in and do something we shouldn’t have or “sinned”. Sin was a term used by archers, people who would shoot an arrow on a target like Disney’s robin hood. If you didn’t hit the bull’s eye when you shot it, a guy down by the target would yell “sin!” no matter where you hit it because you didn’t hit the perfect place you needed to be. The bible says in Romans 5:12-19 that we are all sinners because of what Adam and Eve did. It also says in the Bible in Romans 3:23 and the words “the wages of sin is death” that no sin so also no sinner or one who always sins can get into heaven. So now after reading this question you might be freaking out about how I just told you that you are destined to be in darkness alone forever and ever in a place called Hell separated from God because of sin. Let me finish though. Jesus died in the place of every human on this earth and according to Romans 6:23 and 10:9-10, if you believe Jesus did this and make Him Lord (pray and read your Bible and learn from people who have followed Christ longer because the word Lord is master, Jesus is master of our lives) then your sin is forgiven he doesn’t as Hebrews 10:17 says hold it against you anymore.

So now we still need to answer the actual question. You can get cleaned up by God and not be separated by sin but what happens if you give in. John 3, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8 says that God is faithful to forgive you. I might add as Hebrews 3 and 6:4-6 in the Bible shows us that if you keep sinning with the same thing over and over there can come a point where you can loose focus and God can’t get your attention and you choose not to worship Him. A good rule of thumb is if you are worried about it then you’re probably okay.

So now that you have read these questions about worship and God saving us from eternal death, take some time to read one of the gospels, maybe John, talk to God about it, listen write down thoughts from reading and prayer and talk to somebody who has followed Christ for a few years now and just watch at how your journey with Jesus gets more exciting.

Why do some people worship the devil instead of the God?

If you haven’t got this idea yet, God is creator and we worship Creator or creation. Like us, dogs, TV’s, broccoli, and mud...the devil or Satan, God’s enemy is creation, created by God. Satan wants everyone to worship him or another form of creation like a person, place or thing or idea and so on. He wants this because he wants others to suffer as he has since he quit worshipping God. Some worship the devil because they listen to him not hearing God our dad, Jesus or the Holy Spirit because of their shallow relationship with Him. This is why studying the bible and prayer and journaling is not required to be saved but maintains that relationship to be saved from eternal punishment. God has allowed Satan to make cults and religions to worship Him instead of God because God wants us to have the choice the whole beauty of our humanity to have him at the top of our priorities or list or pyramid or not at the top.

So how do you not worship the devil? Once again, the relationship the choice to make Jesus Lord or master of your life with the help of prayer and Bible will lead to a changed life and you will worship or put God any day over the devil.

THANK YOU STUDENTS FOR THESE DEEP, TO THE POINT AND LIFE CHANGING QUESTIONS. MESSAGE ME IF YOU NEED MORE CLARIFICATION AND I WILL ADD TO IT.

Part 2 is coming soon!