Day of Praise

Th, 11/13/14, "Day of Praise"

"Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel; remove wicked officials from the king's presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness." - Proverbs 25:4-5

When I was a kid in the 70's, I remember listening to and talking to my father about cars. Specifically, I remember wondering why so many Japanese-made cars, like Hondas, rusted so badly. As I understand it, the reason they rusted so badly is that they were made of lesser-quality metals.

Too many impurities.

Too many impurities create a product that can't withstand the weather and time. At least nowhere near as long as higher quality materials.

God made us all to love to praise the Lord. God made us to love to bring glory to his name. This is our true self.

But in today's Bible verses, God says that it's really hard to praise the Lord and bring glory to his name if our lives are filled with too many impurities, too much dross, too much "wickedness," which God tells us in Romans 14 is anything we do apart from faith in God and his word.

To be sure "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), but God calls us to be who God made us to be and to care whether or not God can build, not Japanese-made cars out of us, but his kingdom!

Yes, we fall short, and God is gracious! But do we want, in our heart of hearts, to be high quality "material" with which God can build his kingdom? Or are we apathetic to the whole endeavor?

In Mark 9:24, we hear a father cry out, "I believe, Lord; help my unbelief." In a similar fashion, God would have us cry out, "I want to be a great servant of your kingdom, Lord; please help me where I fall short!"

Dear God, please, help us! Refine us and purify us by your grace and teaching and discipline to be fine material for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus and the advancement of your kingdom in the hearts of all people. Amen.

Praise God!



Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson