Let the Nations Be Glad!

Today we got to do a little something different and go to the chapel and read. I really loved this! It was fun to go on a little adventure to the chapel :) but also to be able to be in a place that is so big and open and I just found absolute peace being in there. It made me feel so rested and peaceful being in a place that I go to to worship Christ! We read an article by John Piper about worship being the ultimate goal of the church. "Shout to the Lord all the earth!" Here were a few of my favorite parts of the article: When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God's true worth, the light of missions will shine to the darkest peoples on earth... RELENTLESS PURSUIT... Mark 10:45....and God is pursing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So those were a few of my favorite parts. What I wanted to focus on in this blog was worshiping God! I think that our lives should be reflections of worshiping Him! Joshua 1:8 says "This book of the law shall not depart form your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it;" Some of you may be thinking, "Courtney, I don't know how to meditate, especially not on God's Word." Or maybe you thought, "Meditating, do I have to like turn on weird music, cross my legs & close my eyes?" Both of these thoughts are normal and understandable. So let's see if you meditate and don't even know it! I wonder if you know the latest People magazine from front to back. You know the best and worst dressed from TeenVogue. You have the new gossip girl book glued to your face. You know every new song put on iTunes the moment it goes up. You know the rankings of all of the football teams. You have Facebook Mobile so you can check your wall at all times. Meditating, surely not? What in your day do you think on, look at every day? You spend time with your history book or you study for hours from your science book. (Which please continue to do. Studying = good). I just wonder if you even realize all the things you know and meditate on in your day, week, or month. You most likely check your email at least two times a day. You get on Facebook in the morning, right after school, and before bed to see all the new happenings. You hit Skype or ichat every chance you get to see what everyone at your school is typing about today. In all reality you meditate on a lot of things, and you do it well! So why in the world when it comes to the most prevalent, most translated, most popular book in the world are we so hesitant to meditate on that? if you claim to be a Christ follower, your heart should be like a huge Post-It note block as you flip through verses you have written on your heart. I wonder if 30 less minutes on Facebook could be spent in Psalm 30. Or 15 minutes texting Paul, your new crush, could be spend in Paul's text of how to live a passionate life for Christ. Meditating simply means soaking up the Word of God and pondering those things in your heart. It means to read James or Philippians and not just see truth but to write truth on your heart. So when your Facebook friend posts something mean on your formspring, you can flip through your Post-It note heart of God's Word and be able to react as Christ would have to bring glory to Him. So you know how to meditate, now you just need to prioritize what you are meditating on. I think this is a major part of worshiping Christ like this article says!