The Word For Today

The worship pathway. When you're on the worship pathway, you resonate with the psalmist: 'I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord"' (Psalm 122:1 NKJV). Something deep inside you feels released when praise is given. Your heart opens up and you come alive. You find yourself in tears, sometimes in moments of deep joy, because God seems so close.

But here are two cautions if you're on this pathway: (1) Don't judge people who are not as outwardly expressive as you. Some people grew up in churches where no one raised a finger, let alone a hand in worship. (2) Guard against an experience-based spirituality that has you always looking for the next 'worship high'. C.S. Lewis wrote about the fatal sin of saying, 'Encore!' by demanding that God reproduce an experience or an emotion. He said that of all prayers, this may be the one God is least likely to grant because it can lead us to worship an experience rather than the God to whom our experience points. Music, for instance, can be a great gift to worship. But because music affects our feelings so powerfully, we can grow dependent on it to produce a certain emotional response. In this case, you may need to spend some time worshipping God without music, so that your worship is based on who God is and not a matter of getting swept up in certain sounds. Also, you may need to engage more in Bible study so that your heart is deeply rooted in the knowledge of God.

The serving pathway. On the serving pathway, you find God's presence seems most tangible when you're helping others. You identify with the words of Jesus: 'Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these...you did it to me' (Matthew 25:40 NKJV). And you may find that you are uncomfortable in a setting where you don't have a role to play or a service to perform.

An example of servanthood would be Dorcas, whom the Bible says 'was always doing good deeds and kind acts' (Acts 9:36 NCV). Gladys Aylward could be considered a more recent counterpart to Dorcas. A humble housemaid from London, she didn't let hardship or rejection by a missionary society silence Jesus' call on her life. In China, she cared for orphaned children, protected the vulnerable and faced danger to help people in need. Her life was marked by humble service, obedience and joy in serving God. President Jimmy Carter has probably inspired more people as an ex-president than he did while he was in office because of his passion for servanthood through such channels as Habitat for Humanity. People on this pathway find that if they're just attending church but have no place to serve, God begins to feel distant. They need to be 'plugged in'.

Two dangers faced if you are in the serving pathway are: (1) You may judge others who don't seem to be serving as much as you do. (2) You can get so caught up being God's servant and forget you're his beloved and redeemed child. Hence you have to stretch by learning to receive love as well as to offer it.

The relational pathway. People who follow the relational pathway find that they have a deep sense of God's presence when they are involved in significant relationships. Jesus' words, 'For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them' (Matthew 18:20 NIV), make perfect sense to the relational type.

If you're on the relational pathway, you may feel guilty when you hear other people speak of long periods of solitude with God and think: 'Solitude wouldn't be so bad if I could just bring a bunch of other people along.' You have often experienced key spiritual moments, such as being convicted of sin or being encouraged to persevere, as God speaks to you through other people. You are much more apt to practise prayer or acts of servanthood when you can do it in a relational context. When you are on the relational pathway, you tend to hear God speak to you more in a conversation than from a book. And you stagnate spiritually to the degree that you feel isolated.

But there are two dangers you must guard against. One is superficiality - getting spread so thin relationally that no one gets past your external self to know you and love you and challenge you deeply. The second is becoming so dependent on the thoughts and counsel of others that you don't develop the sensitivity and ability to hear God for yourself. 'Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left' (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV).

A spiritual pathway has to do with the way you most naturally sense God's presence and experience spiritual growth. We all have at least one pathway that comes most easily to us. And there's enormous freedom in identifying and embracing your spiritual pathway. It means you can focus on relating to God in that way. For the next few days, let's look at some different spiritual pathways and see which one's yours.

First let's examine the intellectual pathway. When you are on this pathway, you draw closer to God as you learn more about him. You love to study Scripture. When you go to church, you often find yourself marking time during the musical worship until the sermon starts. When you're faced with a crisis or a spiritual challenge, you tend to go into analytic, problem-solving mode. You identify with the words of Jesus when he said, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your...mind' (Luke 10:27 NKJV).

The danger of this pathway lies in becoming all head and no heart. Dallas Willard once observed that it is extremely difficult to be right and not to hurt everybody with it. That's why Paul wrote: 'Knowledge puffs up while love builds up' (1 Corinthians 8:1 NIV). Another Bible version expands it: 'While knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognises' (1 Corinthians 8:1-3 NLT). So be sure your growth in knowledge is balanced with growth in humility and love.

God can deliver you from anything in a single day, but you have to back it up with daily discipline. If you don't practise spiritual discipline day in and day out, your deliverance will be short-lived. You'll fall back into whatever it was that God delivered you from. Anybody can set a life goal; the hard part is going after it every day. You get into shape one workout at a time. You get out of debt one pay cheque at a time. Whatever goal you're going after, take it one step at a time, one day at a time! Notice that Paul didn't just say, 'Walk not after the flesh'; he also said to walk 'according to the Spirit' (Romans 8:4 NKJV).

Deciding you're against something is half the battle. The other half is deciding you are for something. Dallas Willard once said, 'When I go to New York City, I do not have to think about not going to London or Atlanta.' That's obvious, but that's how many of us approach spiritual formation. We try to not sin by not sinning. If you're focused on what you shouldn't do - you probably won't do what you should.

Jesus said, 'I will build my church; and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18 TLB). Jesus didn't say you will build the church. It's not yours; it's his. And that goes for your business, school, family, etc. It's not yours; it's his. So, the pressure is off you. And if you're focused on what God says you should do, you'll build your life well!

Much could be said about Rahab without mentioning her profession. She was a Canaanite. She provided cover for the spies of Joshua. She came to believe in the God of Abraham before she ever met the children of Abraham. She was spared in the destruction of her city. She married a contemporary of Joshua's, bore a son named Boaz, had a great-grandson named Jesse, a great-great-grandson named David and a descendant named Jesus.

Rahab's name appears on the family tree of the Son of God. Her CV needn't mention her profession. Yet in five of the eight appearances in Scripture, she's called a 'harlot'. Five! It's even attached to her name in the book of Hebrews' Hall of Faith (chapter 11). The list includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses - and then, all of a sudden, 'the harlot Rahab'. No asterisk, no footnote, no apology.

Rahab's history is part of her testimony. 'By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish' (Hebrews 11:31 NKJV). Think about this: Rahab's profession of faith mattered more than her profession as a harlot. Maybe your past is chequered. Maybe your peers don't share your faith. Maybe your pedigree is one of violence and your ancestry one of rebellion. If so, then Rahab is your model. We don't drop scarlet cords from our windows, but we trust in the crimson thread of Jesus' blood. We don't prepare for the coming of a Hebrew army, but we live with an eye towards the second coming of our Joshua - Jesus. And the God who redeemed and redirected Rahab will do the same for you if you surrender your life to him.