“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.” – A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

GOD

What do you think of when you see those three letters crammed together? Whatever pops into your head at the sight of those consonants says scores about you, your life, values, dreams, visions, expectations, hopes, fears, and how you will spend all your years.

What about these four letters…

YHWH

Anything? Any pop or sizzle? Any fear or feelings of grandness? Bigness? Yahweh, the personal name of God, is so massive (and so personal) we are in big danger if we domesticate him.

The domestication of Deity is silly. We can’t break God of the things we don’t like. God cannot be altered, conditioned, or trained to obey our thoughts, wishes, and commands.

That’s a big no-no.

The Potty Trained God

Sadly, the prosperity “gospel” does this to God. (Or tries to anyway). They potty train their version of God to release the blessings on their command, at their words—and to keep the metaphor, a potty-trained anything, well, they aren’t releasing blessings.

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The million dollar question about eternity:

Will we play football in Heaven? What about baseball? Soccer? Fishing? Dance Dance Revolution? (Oh, I hope not)

Worship Is More—Way More—Than A Song.

People love Heaven—and they are, honestly, a little nervous about it. “So, uhm, we are going to sing all of the time?” When it comes to the after-life, a lot of Christians don’t know what to think.

And it’s not their fault. We perpetuate this idea in our church culture.

We are confused about the after-life because we are wrong about this life.

We equate our heavenly home as a choir den because we think singing is all worship is. Wrong answer. Worship is more than a song. Way more.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)

There is a whateverness to our worship. True worship is glorifying God in all of life—to the perimeters and edges of life. Sunday hymns aren’t the only means of glorifying God. The Risen Christ demands that our whole self be devoted to him. Food, leisure, money, work—are aligned to glorifying Jesus Christ.

I’m positive we don’t fully obey Romans 12:1–2, the laying down of our bodies as a living sacrifice—which is our spiritual worship, by singing on Sunday. Now, that’s a part of it, but it ain’t all of it. Worship is the transforming and renewal of our minds, evidence in not living (more than singing) like the world.

God is glorified by football—when done in a God-exalting way. God is glorified when you enjoy a perfect steak and thank him. He made it. He made the cow. Yummy.

Worship is a life. Is that how Jesus lived? That’s how Jesus worshipped the Father.

We Will See Jesus. We Will Be Like Jesus.

Don’t be nervous about eternity. It’s going to be way cooler than what we have now. As Lewis says, the joys are going to be more solid. Sure, we will sing—and it will be like we’ve never sung before because you will see King Jesus. You won’t be able to contain yourself.

And remember, what is Jesus like? What do we see Jesus doing after his resurrection?

The Glorified Jesus, after his resurrection, was he in a 24/7-singing-mode? Nah. He walked, talked, grilled fish. If we are going to be made like Jesus, we are also going to act like Jesus. We will be glorified men and women, who actually fulfill 1 Cor. 10:31. In the heavenly home, all of our eating, drinking, and whatever God lets us do, will glorify him.

Feet on Streets of Gold

I’m sure we will throw a pigskin around. We will walk, maybe fly (that’d be cool), around the New Jerusalem. We will worship God on Earth.

We aren’t going to be in a never-ending music festival.

Why have streets of gold if we are never going to walk on them? I’m sure the old ladies at the mall will get in some sweet walking time.

Christians need courage. It’s not natural. By Adam’s sin, we are weenies (see him hightailing it in Eden, hiding behind some shrubs). But Jesus gives us boldness. Jesus is courageous. Jesus is a Lion. He is the King. And we are his people.

We need the right kind of boldness.

As our culture becomes more twisted, calling things marriage that aren’t marriage—it won’t be long before people advocate and raise funds, for the right to say that 2+2=5. Hey, you can say whatever you want, but it doesn’t make it true. The church of Jesus Christ, is the pillar of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), and he is The Truth (John 14:6). So, we do have that going for us.

But as our nation (and world) continue to deceive themselves, and love every second of it, we are going to need an extraterrestrial boldness. The right kind of boldness. Bad boldness is hardwired into us. It’s easy to be a punk, a jerk, or an arrogant proclaimer of truth. We need a lot less of that going around on Facebook.

It does take a dash of boldness to call a spade a spade. It’s no small matter to say that homosexuality is a sin.

And it takes Holy Spirit style boldness to call a sin a sin, and then invite people to repent of their sin, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, and receive a new and eternal life—all in the same love that Jesus displays in the gospels.

That’s what we need.

We do need to stand for truth.

And we must point people to The Truth.

We need to be more than spade-callers. We call people to follow Jesus.