| March 14
Worship for Generations
Often we believe that our
worship is a personal decision. In society
today especially, it is acceptable to be
"religious" but it is a personal decision and no
one should impose their views upon another
person. It is true that we are responsible
for our own faith. We can't make a
decision for anybody else despite how much we
would like to or how much we prod them in a
certain direction.
While we can't make decisions
for anyone else we do carry a great amount of
influence with us. Our children and
grandchildren are closely watching what we do.
The Israelites saw the way that worship of God
was mixed with idol worship and they followed
suit.
Worship can also be cyclical.
While this is a broad generalization, many
people went to church in the 1950's as a
patriotic thing because Americans weren't like
godless communists. The next generation
saw through a worship that was shallow and just
going through the motions. They rebelled
against it and we had a generation of hippies.
The following generation saw that the hippies
activism got them nowhere and so they stood for
nothing (Generation X). Finally our
current generation has swung the other way and
is into social issues and tries to be
responsible citizens of the world.
Regardless whether the next
generation will emulate us or see through what
didn't work, we have a responsibility to show
them authentic worship. True worship will
move people and be carried on to the following
generation.
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