“You must not worship the LORD your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go” (Deuteronomy 12:4).

“I don’t have to go to church to worship. I can worship God in the mountains, on the golf course, on the beach…”

Ever hear that?

It is true you don’t have to go to church to worship…but if you don’t go to church, it is NOT God of the scriptures you are worshiping.

Please read that again.

You don’t get to choose how, when, and where you worship God. God does. Only God gets to tell us how, when, and where we are to worship.

“You must not worship the LORD your God in their way.” This culture worships their children’s soccer games, their leisure times, their outings, their golf trips, their hobbies, their fishing, etc. If you worship God, you get to God’s house.

That’s how it works. That’s what God declares.

This is what it means to keep the Sabbath Day, and to keep the Sabbath Day holy. You do Sabbath the way God calls us to keep the Sabbath.

Our act of worship in God’s house sets us apart from all who do not know God. You are not like those who do not know God. Get in God’s house and worship God.

See you in church or online on Sunday!

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).

“Every good and perfect gift is from God.” God is the giver of all good things.

Be of good cheer, you whose prayers were not answered in the way you prayed it. Be of good cheer, you who’s life didn’t go as you planned it.

“Every good and perfect gift is from God.” God is the giver of all good things.

If your prayers were not answered in the way you prayed it, if your life didn’t pan out as you planned it, it means that God has something even better for you. If there isn’t something better for you, God would have answered your prayers the way you prayed it.

Why? Because “Every good and perfect gift is from God.” God is the giver of all good things.

Can you remember a time when God came through for you by not answering your prayers the way you prayed it?

As Garth Brooks sang, “Thank God for unanswered prayers.”

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).

A Christianity that does not change you is completely foreign to the teachings of scripture.

It is absolutely true that God loves us just the way we are. God loves us even before we confess or repent. God loves us just the way we are.

But a Christianity that saves us from sin, while allowing and even encouraging us to live in that sin is totally false teaching. Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin. Jesus did not die on the cross so we can remain in sin.

Jesus loves us so much, he cannot leave us in sin. Instead, he changes us. He transforms us.

Knowing Jesus changes us. Knowing Jesus transforms us.

On this side of eternity, we will continue to struggle with sin. And that’s exactly it. We must struggle with sin because we abhor sin. We cannot be friends with sin. We cannot be in bed with sin.

Knowing Jesus changes us. Knowing Jesus transforms us.