Worship

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There is an inscription that can be found on the American quarter. It’s quite small and you might have to squint a little to find it, but it’s there. It reads, E PLURIBUS UNUM –it is Latin, meaning “Out of many, One”. It describes the possibility of a harmony in the midst of many differences found in America; race, religion, culture, education, economy. A unity among diversity. In the book of Matthew, Jesus eludes to a similar idea when He provides an answer to the Pharisees’ mischievous question on the greatest commandment with a verse from Deuteronomy, saying “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. Three very distinct capacity of mankind, all working together in pursuit of a true relationship with the Creator of heaven and earth. All qualities equally important and equally necessary to attain a true understanding of who God really is. It is this that we are in desperate need of.

We are called to love the Lord using all of our heart, soul and mind-no doubt with our whole inner-being. But it goes deeper than that. As in everything, a balance is the key. It is this balance of mind (knowledge), heart (emotion) and soul (spirit) that we need to seek. One without the other two is useless, and one emphasis more than the other two is unhealthy. “The unity in diversity “ is what we are after. There are those in the body of believers that seek only knowledge, while others who simply follow emotions. Still some become too preoccupied with the “spiritual” that they ignore the first two. God desires us to have a well-rounded foundation of truth. A Truth that can only be found after fully embracing all these attributes. We cannot cater to just emotions (heart) and be lead by what we feel no matter how real it seems, even though it plays a very important role in our Christian life. Sometimes we become captivated with such things like music, songs and inspirational things that stir the emotions from within us, that we feed ourselves with just this “food”. Having an unhealthy emotional relationship with God is weakened when we don’t “feel like it” or at times when God seems “silent”. We must be grounded in the word, “always ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us” (1Pet 3:15). Proverbs states, “ it is not good to have zeal without knowledge…” Along with our emotions, it is this knowledge of the truth that we should long for. Hosea declares, “ … My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge”. However, in light of this fact, we also cannot have such a pursuit of knowledge that we neglect our time to commune with God, ignoring the visions, signs and answers that can only come from a spiritual relationship with Him. In fact there are some Christians who become so “intellectually” learned that they allow themselves to be critical of others, even to the point of looking down on the not-so theologically sound brother or sister. Jesus said, “ you diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you may posses eternal life. These Scriptures testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” In the same note, we cannot simply follow signs, visions and prophesies if we don’t know the truth behind them. Satan himself, the Bible says, masquerades as an angel of light. He seeks to deceive and uses all sorts of ways to fool unaware Christians. An ungrounded Christian is easily uprooted. Even Jesus criticized the sign-hungry people of Israel, saying, “unless you see miracles and signs, you will not believe”.

The church is suffering from a disease of “ selective praise”, where we choose one portion and pay little attention to the rest, or worse, ignoring them altogether. The Body is in a weakened state. We must constantly guard against an unhealthy relationship with God, utilizing the combined and equal capacity for our emotions, intellects, and spirituality, only then can we fully know HIM. The unbalanced Christian is much like a poorly designed boat. One that floats for now, but is bound to have serious problems when storms come. We must seek the different faces of God, and get to know him in the many true ways he desires to be known. In the harmony of His attributes we find the true Him. And though we cannot fully grasp the entirety of God, we can be assured that there is unity in the diversity and complexity of his character, because our God is indeed One GOD.

March M. Villareal
[email protected]

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