Stand Up For Jesus

Man what a great day in the presence of the Lord. Today my little study group met early today to pray for some fellow youth pastors having some difficult moments. It was awesome to meet and pray as a group. God is in control!!

So have you ever noticed that during the singing in church, whether it is at camp or at your own church, there is always some people that seem to not have the energy to stand up for the singing along with everyone else. I mean I see Jr. High and Sr. High age kids sitting through the worship in music time and all these senior citizens standing for the duration. COME ON FOLKS! If you had some physicality that made it difficult that is one thing but for healthy young people to just sit out of nothing more than disrespect, it is a sad sight. I mean what this is saying is Jesus isn't worth your efforts to stand during the praise and worship part of the service with everyone else. Even if one isn't a Christian, just out of respect for God's house and other believers one should at least stand when others stand! Think about it Jesus did lots of teaching from a standing position. Jesus stood before His accusers the entire time they were persecuting Him. Jesus stood during His floggings until He was too weak to stand anymore. (Now if you would like to be flogged so you have an excuse to sit I am sure someone would see if they could arrange that for you.) Jesus even was in a standing position as He walked to His death. Jesus was even nailed to the cross in a STANDING position. To me if Jesus went through all of that for me, I can find the strength to stand during the song service. I love my Lord and Savior and He is worthy of my praise and my respect. See back in the day I went to a Van Halen concert. When the band finally came out the entire stadium stood and applauded. Then they proceeded to STAND for the entire concert. See the people finally got what they wanted so they were showing their appreciation back to the band. See peer pressure kept EVERYONE on their feet for the entire concert. We as Christians that are truly thankful for the Salvation that God has given them show their appreciation back to God in worship and praise. Van Halen was good and it was pretty cool, but JESUS is the GREATEST, and gives us more than any rock band ever could. Therefore I think out of respect for God we owe it to Him to stand and be reverant when ever we are asked to. See in Jeremiah 5:22 God is sending a message to those that show Him no respect. It reads, "Do you have no respect for Me? Why do you not tremble in my presence? I the Lord, am the one who defines the oceans sandy shoreline, an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross." We should have enough fear of the Lord to show Him the utmost in respect at all times, especially in His house. 1 Peter 2:17 tells us to "Show respect for everyone. Love your Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, show respect for the King."

If the music of a non-Christian rock band can raise an entire stadium crowd of mostly non-believers, can't we who have been saved from an eternity in hell give the same if not more to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Think about it and give God the glory!

Peace
Wayne