True worship

I fall give into the tempation and I would suspect you do to.

It's subtle.

It's deadly.

It's the tempation to view God as the one who solves our problems—the one who wins our battles. If you come to Jesus, your life will be full of victories, God will help you, defend you, promote you.

You say, "what's wrong with that?" Well, nothing, as long as we realize that God doesn't exist for me, I exist for God.

There's a blog I have recently come across called StuffChristiansLike.net.

It's a journey into the church subculture, and it's pretty funny.

The guy behind it, Jon, writes posts about what he observes in the church—things that Christians like.

Here are a few examples:

#116: Using "Let me pray about it" as a synonym for "no."
#235: Confessing things around campfires.
#9: Comparing the movie Braveheart to Christianity (I did that last Sunday)
#240: Kirk Cameron.
#176: Giving open flames to children on Christmas Eve.
#59: Watching Jon & Kate Plus 8.
#11: Thomas Kinkade paintings
#216: Precious Moments
#46: Super Happy Shiny Christian radio
#437: Living "better"

About this last one—"Living 'better'"—Jon writes:

"My bookshelf is littered with self help books about focus and attitude and purpose and drive. I think a lot about changing my thoughts and trying to fix the way I look at the world and how I can improve myself. …

I want [God] to slightly improve me or enhance my existing life. … Sometimes I act like the Bible is a self-help book. I treat it like a self-help book for a better marriage, a better attitude at work, and an easier life."

Jon captures how many Christians think about God. God is the "Almighty Improver" —the one who helps make life better.

He's the "I'm only here to help you" God.

When we worship that kind of God we come in late to worship. We watch other people. We judge the style of worship. We mimic those on the platform in our minds. We just "want to sit down." In short, we don't take the worship time seriously. It's just another time to hear some good tunes (if we like the style) and kind of get some warm fuzzy before the teaching.

I am to worship God for who he is and not just for what he can give me.

He's awesome.
He's powerful.
He's real.

In C. S. Lewis's book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" Mr. and Mrs. Beaver take the children to meet Aslan. If you're familiar with the story, you know that Aslan is a great lion, the king of Narnia. He represents Jesus in Lewis's story.

The children are surprised when they learn that Aslan is a lion.

Lucy says:

"Oh, I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without the knees knocking, they're either braver than most, or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Our God is good, but he is not safe. Let's worship accordingly.