Valerie Rae Hanneman
Matthew 6:24a (The Message)"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other.”
I have undergone so many changes in the last eleven years. I think about the woman I was when I first walked into Fresno First Baptist and she is a stranger to me. Father has changed me so much that I have very little in common with that once-upon-a-time woman (Thank-You, Abba!). Sometimes Father has changed me with a gentle turning of thoughts, a pointing to a different direction. Sometimes I have acted like a stubborn ol’ mule when Father is trying to change me and Father has treated me like a stubborn ol’ mule and used a 2x4 to get my attention.
I am a passionate Dallas Cowboy fan. I have been a fan since I was 20 - longer than some of you have been alive! They are the only football team that I have ever supported. I have jewelry, clothes, banners, scarves, cups, dishes, etc all adorned with the Cowboy Star. I even have a life-size cut out of Troy Aikman. My involvement was not restricted to Sonday football games, I debated, discussed, argued and praised every move the Cowboys made while dissin’ all the other teams as inferior. I was Dallas Cowboy blue & silver through and through.
When I started attending FFBC I was attending services every other Sonday. I only attended if the Dallas Cowboys were playing an afternoon game. If the ‘Boys were playing a morning game, then I was curled up in my recliner cheering for my team. At first that didn’t bother me, then I got this sort of whisper in my head that said “Shouldn’t you be in church?” I justified my emphatic “No!” by reminding the whisperer that I was splitting my time 50/50 between church and football – and considering the last 16 years of my life - that was a radical change all by itself. I promised I would attend church more regularly when football season was over.
One Sonday, I settled in to hear the preacher. I really liked his preaching and had a lot of respect for him.(That he was a 49’er fan was a major flaw in him but I was mostly dealing with that.) On this Sonday, using baptism as an example, he preached about priorities. He told a story about the Roman soldiers who would hold their sword arm out of the water when they were baptized. They were willing to give everything to Jesus – except the arm that they made their living with. There was a wave of laughter, then Willie said, “We laugh at them but how many of us are holding something out of the water?” He went on to give various examples – our jobs, our wallets, our this, that and the other. Then he paused for just a second then said, “And some of us are holding football helmets out of the water.” He wasn’t looking at me but I knew he was talking to me! Talk about a deer-in-the-headlights look! My facial expression was fixed, but my mind was swirling! How did he know that?!? I hadn’t told anybody (particularly not him!) that I was skipping church to watch Dallas play football! I was so blown away that the rest of the sermon was a blur. And here is the funny thing – when I shook his hand as I was leaving there was nothing in his expression that indicated that he knew I was the one he had been talking to. For the next week I couldn’t get his words out of my mind.
We are created to worship God. In the beginning when God created Adam and Eve He created them to be in relationship with Him. That was their purpose. That is our purpose. To worship is as much a part of our DNA as is the color of our eyes and the number of hairs on our big toe. When Adam and Eve sinned and all of creation fell because of that sin, our worship DNA fell also. The need to worship still burned like a flame within us but now we were choosing other things - the wrong things - to worship. Cain brought his offering and placed it on the altar to supposedly worship God. But that was not who he was worshiping. He knew what he was supposed to place on that altar in order to worship God but he chose to place what he wanted. His offering was worship of himself and what he had done not of God and what He wanted.
We are going to worship something. We cannot not worship. If we don’t consciously chose what we worship, then we will unconsciously chose it. When Joshua stood before the Children of Israel he said, “Chose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house - we will serve the LORD.” Joshua was telling them to make a conscious decision about who they would worship (serve). After great popularity among the people and after attracting many followers, Jesus’ ministry weakened as His followers began to desert Him unable to stand the pressures from the religious leaders. Jesus turned to the 12 core disciples and asked, “Will you leave me as well?” This was the time that they had to make a conscious decision to worship and stay with God. Peter answered and said, “Where would we go? Only You have the Words of Life.”
I had a pretty miserable week during which I realized that when I was telling myself that I was splitting Sondays 50/50 between church and football - I was lying to myself. I was watching the Dallas Cowboys every Sonday and giving them 100% of my worship. And God was getting the scraps off the altar. That week I had to determine who I was going to worship. That next Sonday, Dallas had a morning game. And I was seated in a pew at FFBC, able to look my pastor straight in the eye, because I had made my conscious decision of Who I was going to worship. My God is worthy of all my worship - there are not going to be any more altar scraps. Shortly after this I officially joined the church that my heart had already joined - and my life has never been the same. Hallelujah for that! There is not enough time in eternity to praise You, Father, for what You have done.
If we do not make a conscious decision to worship God, we are making an unconscious decision to worship something else. What is your decision?
Father God, my decision to worship You alone was one of the smartest things I have ever done. I have never regretted it and I never will. You are worthy and You are worth it. I love You, LORD.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of Fresno First Baptist Church at valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at November 17, 2006 02:13 PM