Worship 201: God as Center and Circumference

MONDAY As our Center, God Demands our Attention...

Read Matthew 22:37-38. What must you do to make God the center of your life? Your heart, soul, mind and strength is to be used to love God. Do you demand anything less from a spouse? Our emotions (heart), soul, thoughts (mind) and physical nature (strength) is to be focused on our love for God. Does God love us with anything less? Read Romans 8:32. Has God held anything back from you? Write Romans 14:9 on an index card and memorize it. Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God!

TUESDAY As our Center, God Demands our Focus...

Read Phillipians 3:8-9. Have you abandoned your dreams for the sake of knowing Jesus? Have you stopped looking after material gain for the sake of knowing your Savior? Have you gotten rid of situations, jobs or other distractions that get in your way of knowing Jesus? Read Luke 8:14. What is preventing this seed from maturing? Can you identify times in your life when distractions hindered you from maturing in your faith and thus hampered your growth in Christ? Can you identify the particular attitude or distraction you had? Now read Matthew 18:7-9. What attitude does Jesus teach you to have about things that cause you to loose your focus? Isn’t this a radical way of looking at things!!!??? But isn’t this the same thing that Paul is saying in the first passage you looked at today? Write Phillipians 3:8 on an index card and memorize it.

WEDNESDAY As our Center, God Demands our Zeal...

People who are married understand that the commitment in their relationship is 24-7. I don’t think that you would consider a potential mate who’s pledge to you would only cover five days of the week. When you get married you promise to have no other spouse, no other commitment, no other distraction from your mate. You are to dedicate yourself to each other through good and bad. When the Lord says: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”, He expects the same wholehearted zeal from you. Consider King Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:6-13. From verse 8, was Asa accustomed to relying on the Lord? What happened later on in his life? What happened to his zeal? Look at Hanani’s point in verse 9. Check out Romans 12:9-21. These encouraging snippets all come from a heart that is fully committed to the Lord¾not lacking in zeal (verse 11). Our zeal and devotion to Jesus must be consistent! See Luke 9:62. Write this passage on an index card and memorize it.

THURSDAY As our Circumference, God Demands Discipleship...

Yesterday’s memory verse touched upon the importance of keeping your focus on Jesus to be able minded for God’s Kingdom. Not only has God saved you but now He prepares you to serve effectively in His Kingdom. His desire for you is to have no other distraction than being of service to the Kingdom in every way God enables you to be. “Jesus calls you for more than mere following; He asks you to imitate His unreserved commitment to the Kingdom of God.” ¾Shelly Read Luke 14:25-35. The events surrounding the next scene seem to happen because of the great multitudes following Jesus. It is interesting to see here that Jesus was not just interested in numbers, He wanted committed people. He wanted people who were going to be committed to Him from the heart. People who would make Him their Lord. The discipleship that He seeks goes beyond superficial religious ritual and consumerism. Jesus desires for your discipleship to be a continuous examination of your consciences in light of how you are loving your brethren, even our enemies. Verse 33 again depicts the importance of having no distractions aside from God Himself¾“You shall have no other gods before Me.” Write Mark 8:34 on an index card and memorize it.

FRIDAY As our Circumference, God Demands Total -Life Obedience...

Discipleship in Christ cannot take place during your own time. You cannot fit God’s plan for you within your schedule. As your center and circumference, God recruits you for His plan and demands your life as a worker in the Kingdom. The God of the Bible is too big and too all-encompassing to be sitting in your shelf of life. You need to view yourself sitting on God’s Shelf ¾ His Kingdom. The Hebrew writer painted the picture of reality that is the Kingdom of God in Hebrews 12:18-29. What a picture!! What a sense of awe! Can you not see that the same God who spoke from Mt. Sinai to the Egyptians is the same God that has rescued you from eternal damnation?! Even though your physical eyes can’t see the legions of angels in joyful assembly, your spiritual eyes should be able to appreciate and see the majesty of God’s grace. What new appreciation and respect have you learned from the first commandment?

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