Balance Point will be going live. Beginning March 9, we will be meeting live at 7 pm, each Friday. For those of you in the Los Angeles area, we meet at Light and  Life Christian Fellowship, 5951 Downey Ave, Long Beach, 90805, in the school. We invite you to come join us!

This means some changes to Balance Point:

1. There will be more frequent updates to the site for both text and audio.
2. We will be adding an additional site admin to help with getting things posted.
3. At some point, we will be changing the theme of this site to accommodate the live aspect of the ministry.
4. We have added two new communication channels
1. Facebook Balance Point page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Balance-Point-Bible-Studies/334727416572096
2. Twitter feed:  @daniel_hoyte

About our current study

We are not abandoning the current study in Genesis. We are going to see the study through to thte end. There will be a period of time where there will be studies posted from Genesis and the Friday night meetings.

Once we have recording capability there will be once per month posting from the service that we do at one of our local outreach locations.

This is shaping up to be a great year for Balance Point. As we go forward, we pray that you will grow with us, and that this year, you will move closer to the person that God has designed for you to be.

Wrong Worship

Boiling it down, worship is an attitude.

Worship is not about singing songs. It is not about the place, it is  about our hearts. It is how we choose to do to the small things each day.

True worship rings out when we recognize that all that we are and have comes from one who is greater than we are. True worship happens when we take that which has been given to us and co-operate with God in doing His command to tend His creation.

We show forth the worth of God when we use the skills and talents that he has given us, on the canvas of creation to extend the beauty that is in the creation.

It is strange and awe inspiring to consider that at a level, God expects us to continue the work that He started in bringing order to the universe. The greatest act of worship is to give back to God something that is greater than what He first gave us.

Let us worship today by leaving the world a better place than when we woke up this morning. Leave a smile. Do our job better, today than yesterday.

God expects us to be holy, but He knows that we are frail. Our act of worship, today, should be to take the strength that God offers us and combine it with what we have to create something that sings of the beauty of the Creator.

Let’s worship, today, in the small things.

Related articles

• Created to Worship (jonahzsong.wordpress.com)
• Praise him (pastorayres.wordpress.com)

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Balance point has just passed a major milestone! We have just had our 100,000th page view. Thanks to all of the regular visitors and to all of our new visitors!

Stay tuned as we begin to ramp up the number of  studies available.

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Once, the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the cohort.

“A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied.

“Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort.

“No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.”

Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths – Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.

The passage that we picked up from john 4 speaks of worshipping “in spirit and truth.”  What does it mean to worship that way? The passage gives us some hints that I would like to dig out in this section.

The first thing that is mentioned is that God is spirit. This means that the substance that is God is not made of the same stuff that makes up the universe, as we can see it with our physical senses. The fact that he passage says that we are to worship in spirit implies that there is a part or facility within the human has the ability to touch the reality that is spirit and that we have willful control over that facility.

Now let’s focus on the truth aspect of this passage. There are many elements of truth that need to be considered for there to be true worship.  We have briefly considered the spiritual aspect. Let us consider a few others.

Consider who God is: This is the question of what God are you ascribing worth to. At the end of the day, there is only one true God. Anything less is not God and probably was create by the one true God. The one true God existed before time was and will still be here after time is ended. He is self-sufficient. He needs nothing that we can offer. He is self-contained. He needs nothing of this universe. He is all powerful. There is nothing that He cannot do, if He so chooses.

Consider who we are: We are the created. Apart from God sustaining us, we would simple wink out of existence. We are flawed. Apart from the grace of God, we would be destroyed.

Consider our state of being: True worship is honest about where we are. When we slap a “Jesus smile” on and play church; that is not true worship. We rob ourselves of the chance for God to meet us where we are. We rob others of the opportunity of worshipping God with their gifts and skills of healing the hurt.

True spiritual worship requires that we know the truth in several areas and at many levels.

Next, we will begin to look at some different ways that we can worship.

Related articles

• Worship Part II: What is worship? (hologrambible.org)
• Worship (hologrambible.org)
• Worship Must Be In Spirit and In Truth (savoringscripture.wordpress.com)

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Jesus speaking to the woman at the well:

You worship what you do not know, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. (Joh 4:22-24)

These verses indicate that worship of God has something to do with spirit and truth. This does not tell us what that worship is. It does give up a target to aim for. Let’s see what a dictionary can offer us.

OK. So now we need to work out a definition on what worship is. We need this to understand how we are to worship God.

Dictionary.com gives the following definitions:

–noun

1. 1. reverent honor and homage paid to god or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.
2. 2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage: They attended worship this morning.
3. 3. adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success.
4. 4. the object of adoring reverence or regard.
5. 5. ( initial capital letter ) British . a title of honor used in addressing or mentioning certain magistrates and others of high rank or station (usually preceded by Your, His,  or Her ).

–verb (used with object)

1. 6. to render religious reverence and homage to.
2. 7. to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing).
3. –verb (used without object)
4. 8. to render religious reverence and homage, as to a deity.
5. 9. to attend services of divine worship.
6. 10. to feel an adoring reverence or regard.

worship. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/worship (accessed: June 04, 2011).

That is a lot to get our heads around. I think that we can simplify this. We can eliminate the fifth definition, for the purpose of today’s discussion. We will be covering forms of worship in later lesson. That means that we can set aside items two and nine.  Most of the definitions that are left are variations on the theme. For our purposes, I believe that the third definition renders the idea of worship the best: “adoring reverence or regard”. Let’s use this as our basis to build up to our target of the passage in John.

Using this definition of worship, we can see that there are components needed for there to be worship:

1. 1. Actor- worship is carried on by thinking, feeling beings. (ok, I know that creation declares God’s glory, and by the definition that I am using, that is worship. Give me a chance to finish and you will see where I am headed.)
2. 2. Catalyst- Something will provoke the actor to the point of adoration or reverence toward the object of that reverence.
3. 3. Target- this is the person, deity, thing that is being worshiped.

When these three elements come together, there will follow an activity that we can recognize as worship. What this means is worship is not so much what is happening on the outside, as what has happened on the inside.

All that being said, we can see that humans can form worship relationship toward many things, including themselves. We are, now in a better position to get at what is means to worship in spirit and truth. That will be for our next section.

Related articles

• Worship (hologrambible.info)
• The Meaning and Purpose of Worship (inaccord.wordpress.com)
• The Essence of Worship (pastorkevincag.wordpress.com)

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In this series of lessons, we are going to explore the subject of worship. We will begin with what worship is. In covering what worship is; we will define worship, we will explore how our ship defines us. We will look at the forms that worship can take and how those forms can fit into and enhance all aspects of our lives.

This series came about due to a confluence of events over the past two years. During this time, God blessed me by allowing me to return to “leading” public worship. This took the form of being in the gospel choir, being part of the mid-week worship team and being the main worship “leader” for our new church plant.

Christmas 2009, our choir director gave us a book, “We Who Worship”, by Carol Salem. That book sensitized me more to the implications of worship. Though I had unconsciously being living very close to what I will describe in this series, the ideas offered in the book, moved me closer to living out the concept of “total life worship.”

The next trigger was not so much a single event as a series of comments. The comments usually went something like, “Wow! The worship today/tonight was really powerful.” I began to wonder what people, who may not be as steeped in worship as  I am, were doing with the rest of their “worship week.”

The final things that pushed me to put my thoughts down on paper are the fact that I have a class in ministry that will require a project. I may adapt what I am doing here, for that class. Since I am ministering with church plant that is seeking to live out the full truth of the Bible, there is a great need for practical understanding of the concept of worship, within our small congregation. If our congregation is in need of this, and we are a daughter church of a very well taught church, how much more is this needed in the wider body of Christ!

The next section of the series will look at what is worship.

Human society, in fact, animal societies must be organized to function for the benefit of the group and the thriving of the individual. In the human realm, which is fashioned on the spirit realm, the organizational structure used most often is the chain of command or responsibility.

Our power to serve, is directly related to our understanding of our place within the lines of authority that extend from God the Father to us.   Stepping outside of the lines of authority or mis-using the authority given to us result in the blocking of the power to serve and removal from the place of service. Let’s take a look.

A centurion had a paralyzed son. He requested that Jesus heal his son. Jesus agreed to go and heal the son. Here is the response of the centurion from Matthew 8:8-9:

The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my boy will be healed.  (9)  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, Go! And he goes; and to another, Come! And he comes; and to my servant, Do this! And he does it.

The centurion recognized that Jesus’ power to heal is related to Jesus being under the authority of the Father.  Disease was placed under Jesus authority by the Father.

That is authority in the extraordinary sense. What about day-to-day service. Even there, you will find a chain of command that is put into place. The following passage speaks to the workplace specifically, but there is direct application to the church place.

Eph 6:5-9  Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;  (6)  not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,  (7)  with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men  (8)  (knowing that whatever good thing he does, he shall receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a freeman).  (9)  And masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in Heaven. There is no respect of persons with Him.

The relationship between pastors ad the people that they lead is not one of the master and slave. God has seen fit to have authority flow through pastors.

Maybe a better example would be that of an army: God as the supreme commander, informs his people of their strategic place within His grand plan. It is up to the pastors and teachers to move tactically within those plans.  There are two lines of flow:

• The pastor-teacher is responsible for making sure that the congregation knows where God is leading them.
• The pastor/teacher is responsible for making sure that the members  can carry out their roles in the plans.
• The pastor/teacher is responsible for cleaning up any “bodies”  that fall along the way.
• The pastor/teacher is the covering for the members.

• The members are responsible for carrying out their roles, within the scope of authority and resources allotted to them, for the task.
• The members are responsible to communicating to the leaders, through the chain of command, progress on the task and if there needs to be an adjustment in the resources allocated to the task.

The foregoing describes what should happen in a perfect world. We are not perfect. Is there a path for when things break down?  Yes there is. God graciously gives us a process for dealing with issues in the church. If it is followed by ALL parties it will save a huge amount of grief and pain.

Mat 18:15-17  But if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.  (16)  But if he will not hear you, take one or two more with you, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.  (17)  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he neglects to hear the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax-collector.

What is great about this procedure, is that it allows issues to be de-escalated at the lowest point.  It lets people repent and still “save face’”. It prevents taking sides.

Unfortunately, I have seen the above roles and recommendations violated in many churches. The result is people leaving the church, hurt feelings and inability of people to serve at the same church without sniping at each other. This kind of behavior must stop, particularly when it happens among leadership in a church.

Assuming that it is already past the point of Matthew 18:15-17, what can be done?  God graciously give us the answer.

Mat 5:20-24  For I say to you that unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.  (21)  You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “You shall not kill” –and, “Whoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment.”  (22)  But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; but whoever shall say, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of hell.  (23)  Therefore if you offer your gift on the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,  (24)  leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

For leaders in the church, our sacrifice is our lives to serve the church. We give up fame, fortune, time with our families to serve the need of others. If we are fighting among ourselves and sniping at those who wrong us behind there backs, then our hands are dirty and the  “work” that we do for the Lord is tainted.

At the end of the day, it does not matter who is right, if the sniping continues to take out bystanders. The right thing to do is put a stop to the sniping. Go make thing right and move on.

On the surface, it looks like there are many boxes that we try to put God into. If fact, there are many boxes. There is the box of non-existence. There is the box of unknowable ness. There is the box of divine indifference.

Christians, too, have boxes into which they try to stuff God. There is the box of salvation or revelation periods (dispensation). There is the cannon box. This box says that since we have the Bible, there is no reason for God to act in power, other than for salvation.

All of these boxes serve only one real purpose. They try to keep God at a distance. They serve to prevent mankind from seeing and experiencing that God is a personal being, who can and will be dynamically involved in the lives of His creation.

There are two primary reasons for wanting to put God in a box. They can be found, first mentioned in Genesis 3. (Gen_3:1-12) The two reasons for trying to put God in a box are fear and a desire to dodge responsibility to God for one’s actions.

Fear is easy enough to understand. Consider some of the characteristics of God:
Holy- God is different from us. Because of that, there is a level at which we can never understand Him.
Sinless- God cannot and does not sin. If fact, He is the standard by which right and wrong is judged.
Just- God is perfect in His judgment. He does not play favorites. Once the rules have been set, He judges according to those rules.
Powerful- God speaks and things happen.
Loving- Unlike man, God loves us just because we have been called into existence. He has no hidden motive in loving us.

Desiring to dodge responsibility is really born out of the fear.  After all if we own up to where we are in relationship of God, He would be justified in, to use the King James term, smiting us.

Let’s look at how the various boxes show themselves:

• Atheism box: God does not exist. I don’t have to fear Him. Since He is not, I am not responsible for my actions except maybe to the society at large. There are no major consequences to my actions for good or evil.
• Deist box: God is out there, but He just spun out the universe and left it to be. Responsibility towards Him is minimal. The chances that God might take interest in what is going on is very low.
• Nominal Christian box: God is involved to save. There is lip service to His involvement in the affairs of mankind. He is convenient to pray to when we get into trouble, but we don’t seriously expect anything to change after the prayer is done. God is kind of viewed as the tottering grandfather. He will probably forget whatever we are doing.
• Moderate or Evangelical Christian box: God stopped doing miracles in the first century AD. God is involved but He tends to be aloof. He is just as likely to ignore us as answer. If he does answer we are uncomfortable, because then we are responsible for our part in the exchange between God and ourselves.
• Charismatic Christian box: Often it sounds like this, “gimme, gimme, gimme, waaaah!” OK, that was probably a little harsh. The reality is that often that is how we sound. We come across like babies just asking and asking. In a way that is an improvement. At least we are asking God to move.

Ultimately, if we choose to seek God and His kingdom, we become responsible for the knowledge and light that He has given us.

• Adam and Eve were given an amount of revelation about the will of God. They were held responsible for that knowledge. (Gen 2:15-17)

If God is truly still active in the realm of salvation, in all aspects of the word, when we become aware of those activities, we will be held responsible for what we do with that knowledge.

The questions becomes, “Does willful ignorance of the truth constitute release from responsibility?”

I am reminded here of a quote from Mark Twain on the Bible. Here is my paraphrase: “What I do not understand from the Bible does not nearly bother me as the parts that I do understand.”

As I understand more of the fact that God has not changed His dealings with mankind; as I understand that God is still in the supernatural business; as I understand that God expects me to be in the supernatural business, I am overwhelmed with the sense of responsibility to both God and my fellow humans.

I can understand why groups would want to dismiss God or even dismiss the supernatural acts of God in the 21st century. It is easier to play dumb. Unfortunately I don’t have that luxury. Those of you who are regular readers of this site don’t have that luxury. Those who take seriously the Word of God do not have that luxury. We all will be held to account for the knowledge that we have. (Luke 12:48)

If you have that in your mind, I  want you to try to put the airplane into a shoebox.

Now, put the shoebox into your closet. Can’t do it? Can you? At best, you might be able to get SOME of the rivets into the box.

That is how mankind tries to treat God. One the one hand, God is holy, so holy that no man can look on Him, let alone approach. (Exo 33:18-20) Yet we are made to be in relationship and proximity to the God who made us.

Mankind’s solution to this problem has been to put God in a box and keep him at a distance. This is nothing new to humans. It goes back the the very beginning in the garden. (Gen 3:6-10) When God the the Israelites the Ark of the Covenant, as point of contact, they reduced it to a mere fetish to be used as a “lucky rabbit’s foot.” (1Sa 4:1-5)

Unfortunately, even today, we treat God like he is a lucky charm. We run to Him when the times get tough, but we are nowhere to be found when times are good. We treat him like the old grand-father that we have to visit on Sunday. We go and put in our couple of hours, so that we can feel good about ourselves the rest of the week.

THIS IS NOT HOW GOD WANTS IT TO BE!!!!!!!

God wants to have intimate relationship with us, in all areas of our lives, ALL DAY EVERY DAY!! If you need proof, here it comes. Go all the way back to the beginning:

Throughout the Genesis one account of creatation, God uses the phrase, “Let there be” when He creates. This is true until you get to the creation of man, where the phrase becomes personal, “Let us make.”

In other words, the creatation of the physical universe and the animals are carried out by the order of the king. He spoke and it happened. When God made man, He spoke, but then God went further. (Gen 2:7) God made the man out of dust, then God breathed into the man.

For God to breath into man, brings to mind the image of God choosing to come near to His creation. This is much like when one does CPR. He chose to interact with the works of His speech.

In this part, we looked at some of the proof that God wants to be involved in our lives. Next time we will look at how we put God in a box.