04-01-2019, 08:30 PM
*THE LIVING WATER*
*DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE*
*Monday, April 1, 2019*
*TOPIC: ENTERTAINMENT OR MINISTRATION?*
*Read: Colossians 3:12-17*
*MEMORISE: _Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord_ (Colossians 3:16).*
*EXPOSITION*
The church is seriously bedeviled by perilous times! *(2 Tim. 3:1ff).* Going for church services nowadays by various people has many undertones. While many attend church services to be “taken out” of their unpleasant moods, some attend in order to “dance away” their ‘sorrows’. Whereas some go to church to be fully “entertained” with rib-cracking jokes/comedies and other phony frivolities in and around the church. Only negligible few really attend church services to be ministered to! Are our churches and the activities really entertained or ministering?
In Jewish worship, drums and noisy instruments were not permitted in the synagogue. The place was strictly meant for worshipping Yahweh and reading the scriptures. Dancing and fun faring were only permissible outside the temple. Hence, King David rolled out the drums, celebrating the return of the Ark of Covenant with the people, but not in the temple area. Why they did this was perhaps because of the sanctity and awe they felt for Jehovah.
In our dispensation of grace, we are allowed to praise God with all musical instruments and with dance *(Psa. 150:1ff).* However, the pertinent question is: “Are these meant just for entertainment or ministration?” Is there any difference between our church drama and Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood movies? Are our choirs and pulpit preaching really ministering or entertainment? Enough of the different state-of-the-art instruments in our churches that fail to minister life into people’s lives! So pathetic is how people laugh off the messages from pulpits done with passivity, frivolity, other unscriptural charisma, and/or ‘holy’ rascality!
If sinners cannot turn saints at hearing our messages, listening to our musicals and watching dramas, we had better have a rethink. If they can only succeed in providing the ephemeral entertainment without ministering life to listeners, they can be dropped! Be an agent of positive change in your assembly, today and always.
*PRAYER POINTS*
*1.* Lord, forgive us where we have turned hearts of the people to ourselves rather than to You, in our churches and services.
*2.* Lord, stop this madness in our churches where comedians make jest of our Lord Jesus Christ for a pay.
*3.* Father, restore apathetic Gospel ministers from their spiritual slumber and coldness, to save churches from laughing to hell.
*EXTRA READING FOR TODAY:* Deuteronomy 32:2 – 33:13; Luke 5:18 – 5:39
*Author: CAC WORLDWIDE*
*Remain Blessed!*
*DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE*
*Monday, April 1, 2019*
*TOPIC: ENTERTAINMENT OR MINISTRATION?*
*Read: Colossians 3:12-17*
*MEMORISE: _Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord_ (Colossians 3:16).*
*EXPOSITION*
The church is seriously bedeviled by perilous times! *(2 Tim. 3:1ff).* Going for church services nowadays by various people has many undertones. While many attend church services to be “taken out” of their unpleasant moods, some attend in order to “dance away” their ‘sorrows’. Whereas some go to church to be fully “entertained” with rib-cracking jokes/comedies and other phony frivolities in and around the church. Only negligible few really attend church services to be ministered to! Are our churches and the activities really entertained or ministering?
In Jewish worship, drums and noisy instruments were not permitted in the synagogue. The place was strictly meant for worshipping Yahweh and reading the scriptures. Dancing and fun faring were only permissible outside the temple. Hence, King David rolled out the drums, celebrating the return of the Ark of Covenant with the people, but not in the temple area. Why they did this was perhaps because of the sanctity and awe they felt for Jehovah.
In our dispensation of grace, we are allowed to praise God with all musical instruments and with dance *(Psa. 150:1ff).* However, the pertinent question is: “Are these meant just for entertainment or ministration?” Is there any difference between our church drama and Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood movies? Are our choirs and pulpit preaching really ministering or entertainment? Enough of the different state-of-the-art instruments in our churches that fail to minister life into people’s lives! So pathetic is how people laugh off the messages from pulpits done with passivity, frivolity, other unscriptural charisma, and/or ‘holy’ rascality!
If sinners cannot turn saints at hearing our messages, listening to our musicals and watching dramas, we had better have a rethink. If they can only succeed in providing the ephemeral entertainment without ministering life to listeners, they can be dropped! Be an agent of positive change in your assembly, today and always.
*PRAYER POINTS*
*1.* Lord, forgive us where we have turned hearts of the people to ourselves rather than to You, in our churches and services.
*2.* Lord, stop this madness in our churches where comedians make jest of our Lord Jesus Christ for a pay.
*3.* Father, restore apathetic Gospel ministers from their spiritual slumber and coldness, to save churches from laughing to hell.
*EXTRA READING FOR TODAY:* Deuteronomy 32:2 – 33:13; Luke 5:18 – 5:39
*Author: CAC WORLDWIDE*
*Remain Blessed!*