Living in Light of Eternity – 2

Do you ever get the feeling that life is just a routine that you almost have to suffer through day in and day out?  From a basic perspective, your daily life is little different from the lives of those around you: you wake up, maybe eat breakfast, take your shower and make yourself presentable (or at least bearable), off to work, try to eat lunch, more work, eat supper (because you have to eat at least one meal each day), try to spend time with the family/spouse/significant other, or maybe be involved in some kind of ministry, watch 24 or NCIS or Lost, and then head for bed, only to wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

After a while – be it weeks, months, or years – you start to feel like your routine is all there is.  It isn’t that you don’t like your job, or your family is terrible, or church isn’t nice; the problem is that it seems empty, pointless, just part of the here and now.  But life can – and should – be so much more.

Of course, we say that all the time, don’t we?  But who is really experiencing it?  How can everything we do in life, be it work or ministry or love, have eternal consequence when we have a hard time believing that these things make a difference in the present?

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Living in Light of Eternity – Intro

We live in an interesting age, don’t we?  We have gadgets and gizmos galore that supposedly exist to make our lives easier and more efficient.  CEO’s of large corporations bring home salaries that are “gross” compared to what the workers in those companies are given.  The stock markets are at record highs while time with our children, our spouses, our Creator, or even for ourselves dwindles down year by year.

Of course, I’m talking mostly about Western Christianity.  But it seems that we have forgotten to live as we are encouraged by Scripture to live.  We’re not just talking about family neglect and workaholism and greed, though these are a few of the bigger factors we have to contend with.  In reality there are many other symptoms, factors and warning signs that we have stopped living in light of eternity.

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Worship “Litmus Test”

Well, I have to say that for as much as the internet is supposed to be a place of news, information, knowledge, communication, and a place to connect…I’m a bit disappointed. In two weeks time, no one had anything to say about my last post. So, I guess I was wrong; you do just want to hear me rant and rave. I guess I won’t disappoint you further.

In a post entitled A help for struggling worship leaders, I mentioned that a worship blogger was working on a book, and that he asked worship leaders to give him input on their “greatest challenges”.  One comment on that blog was, “…is there a way to determine if people actually worshiped rather than were entertained? My goal is to point them to Christ and help enter into God’s presence, but how do we know if we have been successful?”  I alluded that the answer to this question is found in your Philosophy of Worship.  Let’s jump in from there.

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