Heritage Southern Baptist Church

I have encouraged us to begin to put more of the scriptures before our eyes this new year. I read Proverbs 4:20-23 this week and felt it might be a good scripture for us to think upon. "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."  'Life's issues' are handled much better when we have hidden God's Word within our hearts. When doubts and fears arise, we have that special something, God's word, that the Holy Spirit can bring forth in our minds which we can rest upon. Of course, if it is not hidden in our hearts, then we stay in our doubts and fears.  Now, which seems the best for us?  We know the answer to that question, so let us seek The One whose promises to his people are always kept.

One of the visions that God gave the prophet Ezekiel is recorded in that book in chapter 9, verse 16. "And he (God) brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east." We all know that people were to go to the temple to worship God where his divines presence dwelt, and yet we see men preoccupied with worshiping something else. Their hearts were divided and had not settled on the purpose for which they went to the temple. God asks this question in the next verse; "Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?" We can readily see the sin in what they did, but can we sometimes see ourselves in this same position? We come to "worship God" in word, but we are ever tempted to think about things that have nothing to do with worshiping God. When we leave a worship service with no difference spiritually than when we came, then our hearts are divided. No one ever was in the presence of God and walked away being the same. Do you leave a worship service with a voice of praise for what God has done or do you immediately begin to talk of other 'trivial' things? God is serious about the worship of Him in his house, am I? He calls it an abomination.