2008 Highlights: How Great is our God

When this was first posted up back in August it pretty much instantly became our most read article, recieveing hundreds of hits, and has now racked up over 1400 views. So as part of our 2008 highlights here’s another chance for you to read it if you missed it first time round, or just want to read it again:
You may know the Chris Tomlin song How Great is Our God. The one with the chorus that goes
“How great is our God, sing with me,
How great is our God, and all will see,
How great is our God”
But how will the dying, lost world see if we do all our singing in Churches, in worship venues. Time spent in corporate worship isn’t going to result in many people seeing how great God is. It is when we go out of the worship venue that the non-Christians see us. It is then that we can show them how great God is. We need to be ‘singing’ with our lives outside the worship venue. We need to let joy spill out in indiscriminate acts of kindness in our everyday life. We need to show love to the broken, the hurting, the weeping, the looked down upon, the rejects, the oppressed, the sick, the outcasts. If our times of cooperate worship doesn’t result in that pouring out in our lives it is just empty noise. It is worthless. We have wasted our time. Non-Christians aren’t going to see how great God is, and God already knows how great He is. He doesn’t need us to tell him, he needs us to show the world. In Amos 5:23-24" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=51&passage=Amos+5%3A23-24" target="_new">Amos 5:23-24 God makes it very clear that worship that is pleasing to Him isn’t singing the right words, but doing the right things:
“Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
We need to worship with our lives, with actions speaking louder than words, with love for God and all his creation. We need to let our praise be genuine and be pouring out at all times and in all ways, not just in standard worship in special venues. God isn’t just in the venue, He is in the world. It is when we worship like out there, with our life song and not just lip praises that all will see how great God is.
We can’t worship God in the building and then ignore Him as we walk out the door. (In Matthew 25" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=51&passage=Matthew+25" target="_new">Matthew 25 Jesus says that ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.‘ )We can’t worship the homeless Son of Man on a Sunday and then walk past the homeless in our day to day lives. (Matthew 8" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=51&passage=Matthew+8" target="_new">Matthew 8v20: Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ) We can’t tell God we love Him, but then refuse to love his people. (John 3:16-18" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=51&passage=1+John+3%3A16-18" target="_new">1 John 3:16-18 tells us “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.“)
We know how great God is, and so does God. So rather than half heartedly telling Him how great He is again and again, it is time for us to show the world through our lives.