DAILY BREAD, 2-5-07

DAILY BREAD, MONDAY, 2-5-07

IS IT REALLY A MATTER OF PREFERENCE?
Neal Pollard

I have a friend who is a member of a charismatic-type community church. Once, while we were discussing religion, she observed on the basic of her visit where I preached that "her church" and "mine" were very similar (on other occasions, she or her children had spoken of their "Tuesday healing service," their massive choir, the husband and wife co-pastors, and their rock band). How could she rationalize the vast difference that, in reality, exists between the church of Christ and that megachurch of which she is a member? Her sentiment reflects a dominant cultural view among those in religion today, that there is a church for everyone's "taste."
In kindness, I must say that it is presumptuous of anyone to offer worship or teach doctrine because of what they personally prefer. If everyone can choose to worship in a place that best suits them and makes them most comfortable, who does that make the center of worship? We worship God (John 4:24), not our preferences (Matt. 15:9). We're taught to follow His will rather than our own (Matt. 6:10; Heb. 5:9).
I might better enjoy instrumental music with my worship, a different food or drink with which to remember my Lord's suffering each Sunday, a stand-up comic routine over gospel preaching, or praying to a saint rather than to God. Whatever I personally desire to offer in worship is moot!
My plan of salvation, if I had the option of devising one, would be easier. In fact, I might require nothing of myself to be saved. If it were my choice, why not?
But how I worship and what I am to believe is laid out for me in the Bible. It is the authority. It is the standard whereby I come to decisions about how to serve God in this life. Whether or not I always enjoy it or appreciate why God's will is what it is, I must obey what God has commanded (cf. John 12:48; 14:15).
We must be careful to give God what He wants and expects. Religious division wasn't His proposal (John 17:20-21). Whatever we attempt to do religiously, let's be sure we have a divine seal of approval (cf. Col. 3:17). Otherwise, chaos will result, and God is not the author of that (1 Cor. 14:33). Let us prefer to do what He wants and only that! That is ground that is always safe and can never be shaky!