No More Sterilization of Religion

One simple request if you are a believer in Jesus.  We live in a time where we are educated, dignified
and clean.  When we pray, worship and meet together in the name of the Lord, are we too educated, too dignified and has our cleanliness made us sterile?

Imagine for a moment the cost that God paid for us to be believing Christians.  That cost was to pay a price that we could do to do for us a thing that we could not do.  We cannot set our own selves free.  We can not make things right with God without the sacrifice of Jesus.  That should set up ablaze within.  We should be jumping for joy.

Even though I am not advocating making a spectacle of ourselves, I am advocating we do not become too dignified to worship a Lord that has done such a great thing for us.  I also do not believe we should be cleaned and sterile.  God has cleaned us up by Jesus and it is to create an environment for life.  A sterile environment is to kill all things.  We are to have life and have it abundantly.

So let's just hold on to this truth about what price was paid for us.  Remember what it cost Jesus and never take it casually.  Sing praise to Him with abandoned and get rid of the dignified persona and remember nothing grows in a sterile environment.  

So maybe we can be a little messy in worship, and even sing a little louder in our praise.  We can mess up while we pray... but pray anyway.  Allow ourselves to be moved by the thought of a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son from a place where they were in perfect unity, the Son was praised and adored as royalty and descended to earth to put on flesh to become our sacrifice in order to pay for our sin debt that we couldn't afford to pay.  He did this through the hours of torture and humiliation; rejection by many, the vilest of men taunting Him. All of that led to His agonizing death on a cross to pay for our debt so we may be filled with the Holy Spirit and join in unity with our God and Creator.  That ought to make our hearts sing.

Let's leave the sterilization process at the hospital where it is appropriate. but say NO MORE STERILE, DIGNIFIED, POMPOUS WORSHIP, PRAISE, PRAYER OR RELIGION FOR ME!  That is not what Jesus died to give us.  So do not settle for that.

The world does not need dignified, sterilized religion ...  It needs to know that Jesus loves them and we need to know that too.  We need a vibrant relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

Life is Hard

Life is so hard.  It seems complex and messy.  For example in the physical realm, I clean my house and it is dirty again in NO TIME.  I wash clothes only to walk into my laundry room to find it full of dirty clothes again.  I make my bed and it needs to be made again the next morning.  Anyone exhausted by this other than me?

So as I reload the dishwasher, and throw my dirty clothes into the washing machine, I have to think of the verse that tells me that whatever work I do,  to do it with all my heart, as working for the Lord, not for human.

I get so weary of the repetitive nature of the tasks that are always before me.  I guess it feels as if I am never making real progress.  It feels as if I am forever repeating the same tasks and not making real progress.  But life is mundane like that for the most part.  When I choose to do these task "unto the Lord" they tend to take on a more significant meaning.  When I choose to do this, I am not tempted to despair over the repetitiveness of these mundane task.  He starts to give me a perspective that brings gratitude, thankfulness, and joy.  I start thinking of those that have to wash their dishes by hand and say thank you that I have a dishwasher that I GET to unload and reload.  Thank you that I have running water.  Clean water!  Any way you get the point.

So I similarly get so weary with this in the relational and spiritual side.  I tend to find myself in similar situations.  I am no sure if I just don't learn the lessons and God is having to continue to place me in situations until it is solidified in me, or if the changes that need to be made in me is being perfected thru difficulties and trials.  UGH!  Whatever the case, I just wish I would cooperate with Him and allow the stuff to be done in me.  However, I know I am slow in learning, slow to change, but mostly slow in waking up to all of it.  

In all of the trials and difficulties and even dirty clothes, I choose to walk with a thankful heart today.   I will choose to be thankful for all my dirty clothes, at least I have clothes to wash in a washing machine, with clean running water and electricity which is more than many on this planet.    I choose to be thankful for my home that needs to be cleaned, for many are homeless.  I choose to be thankful for my family, for many are estranged from family.  I choose to be thankful for my friends, for many are very alone.  I choose to be thankful for being in America, many live in fear for their lives daily in their own countries. 

We have so much to be thankful for today.  Will you join me in counting your blessing, name them one by one.  Count your blessings see what God has done!!!!  (Did you sing that as you read it?)

Colossians 3:23 & 24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.…

Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might


Ephesians 6:7
Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,

Hosanna! What does it mean?

I often sing great songs in worship along with other believers in church.  I am occasionally troubled in my soul when I am singing words I really am not sure of its meaning.  Some of the older songs that use words like "fetter" "fount" and even "hallelujah".   I remember several years ago I sensed that I wanted to be authentic and truly sing the words in worship from my heart to the Lord.  I began noticing there were many CHURCHY words that I really had sang for years that I really couldn't get my heart around.  So I would not sing them.  I would go home and research the words and once I could grasp the meaning I could them sing the song unto the Lord!  You could not believe how much deeper and richer my time of praise to the Lord became.  It brought life to my personal time of praise with the body of Christ.

So I was singing a song in church one Sunday and I began to try to remember EXACTLY what I had learned about the true meaning of the word Hosanna.  That morning I looked it up in various places and came across these sermon notes.  I wanted to share it.  I was so encouraged.  I hope you find encouragement as well. 

March 27, 1983
(Palm Sunday Evening)
Bethlehem Baptist Church
John Piper, Pastor
HOSANNA

I know one of the concerns of the children's music ministry is that the children understand what they are singing and that they mean it. And I share that concern for our people. In a moment the choir will sing a song called, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" And after that we all will sing a song which begins: "Hosanna in the highest!" So I want to give a little lesson in Greek and Hebrew to make sure we all know what the New Testament means when it says in three different places, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" (Mt. 21:9,15), or "Hosanna in the highest!" (Mk. 11:9,10), or simply, "Hosanna!" (John 12:13).
You all know that the New Testament was first written in Greek and the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Wherever the word "hosanna" occurs in the New Testament do you know what the Greek word is? Right! It's "hosanna." All the English translators did was use English letters (h-o-s-a-n-n-a) to make the sound of a Greek word.
But if you look in a Greek dictionary to find what it means, you know what you find? You find that it is really not originally a Greek word after all. The men who wrote the New Testament in Greek did the same thing to a Hebrew word that our English translators did to the Greek word: they just used Greek letters (UNABLE TO DISPLAY GREEK CHARACTERS ) to make the sound of a Hebrew phrase ( UNABLE TO DISPLAY HEBREW CHARACTERS ). I know this sounds sort of complicated. But it's really not. Our English word "hosanna" comes from a Greek word "hosanna" which comes from a Hebrew phrase hoshiya na.
And that Hebrew phrase is found one solitary place in the whole Old Testament, Psalm 118:25, where it means, "Save, please!" It is a cry to God for help. Like when somebody pushes out off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: "Help, save me" … "Hoshiya na!"
But something happened to that phrase, hoshiya na. The meaning changed over the years. In the psalm it was immediately followed by the exclamation: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The cry for help, hoshiya na, was answered almost before it came out of the psalmist's mouth. And over the centuries the phrase hoshiya na stopped being a cry for help in the ordinary language of the Jews. Instead it became a shout of hope and exultation. It used to mean, "Save, please!" But gradually it came to mean, "Salvation! Salvation! Salvation has come!" It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board. But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can't keep it in.
So "Hosanna!" means, "Hooray for salvation! It's coming! It's here! Salvation! Salvation!"
And "Hosanna to the Son of David!" means, "The Son of David is our salvation! Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king!"
And "Hosanna in the highest!" means, "Let all the angels in heaven join the song of praise. Salvation! Salvation! Let the highest heaven sing the song!"
Picture a super bowl game, and (believe it or not) the Vikings are three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are on their own 35 and have no more time outs. There are two seconds remaining on the clock. The Vikings' fans are going wild. The Steelers line up, fake a pass to the receivers on the left field line and run a wide sweep around the right end and the quarterback breaks into the open and heads down the right sideline -- 40 - 45 - 50 - 45. The only hope for the Vikings is Willie Teal, the safety, cutting a diagonal across the field. And out of the Vikings' grandstand come two kinds of Hosannas, the old kind and the new kind. One part of the crowd is yelling: "Catch him! Catch him, Willie!" (That's the old Hosanna.) The other part of the crowd is yelling, "You got him! You got him, Willie!" (That's the new Hosanna.) The word moved from plea to praise; from cry to confidence.
So when we sing "Hosanna" now, let's make it very personal. Let's make it our praise and our confidence. The Son of David has come. He has saved us from guilt and fear and hopelessness. Salvation! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Son! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

Adding to this later:  Also, in a Beth Moore study, "Stepping Up", Beth describes this term as  - Oh Lord, save us, Save now and send Messiah. Which was sung in the Psalms of Accent.  These were the Psalms 113-118 that the Israelites would sing on their way to celebrate Passover as they journeyed to the tabernacle.  She noted that it shifted to Hosanna in the Highest, saving is happening NOW!