Dancing in the Light

I John 1:7 "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."

Name:
Location: North Platte, Nebraska, United States

I am a christian wife, mother and grandmother. I am a licensed Social worker and a licensed Christian counselor. I am most proud of the relationships I have with God, my family and friends all over the world. I have been blessed beyond my dreams.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

WormFest '08

Are you already tired of the presidential campaign stuff? Each presidential hopeful has a massive staff, whose duties include making the news circuit lauding their candidate. Each presidential hopeful spends millions of dollars to put their name, their face and their accomplishments in every American home, car, ipod, et. When they are not bashing their opponents or the current President, they are expounding on their candidate. They spin, distort and flat out lie so that the American public will believe that their candidate is more than an man/woman looking to move up the corporate ladder. It is disturbing to say the least.
Sunday, Ned spoke about reverence for God and of course he talked about King Herod in Acts 12. The king is in front of large crowd. The crowd is chanting and yelling that he is more than a man, even a god. The text says, "Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died."
I find this interesting because Herod doesn't appear to say anything!! He is not the one claiming to be a god. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't refute the comments, he doesn't blush and say, "aw shucks" or anything like that. He stands there, soaking in the praise, as if he really, truly deserved it. Quite the contrast to the reactions of Paul and Barnabas in Lystra. (Acts 14:8-19)
Remember, the crowd is so impressed with the healing of the lame man, they begin to worship the healers, calling them gods. The text says that when Paul and Barnabas heard this they were distraught. They tore their clthes and shouted down the crowd, speaking to them, attempting to refocus them on God and His message rather than the messengers. It says that even after a lengthy encouragement to praise God, the crowd still wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas.
That is incredible! Incredible because it is so unlike us humans to refuse credit, to be upset by adoration of others, to grieve at being the object of worship. This humble, God-centered, selfless attitude is rare in our society, in our churches, in our families and yes, in our elected officials. God is God and we are not. He is all powerful and we are not. He is all knowing and . . . you get the picture. The 2008 election will continue to be in our faces with increasing intensity. We cannot change the nature of the media driven beast. We can however, become the kind of people who are uncomfortable around praise and instead of saying nothing, give God the glory. So as we strive to become more like Christ, we must remember the example of Paul and Barnabas and even . . . of King Herod.


Neva

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this post and reminding me that God deserves the glory and I deserve the worms. You are an amazing writer. Keep up the good work.

Lyndsay

8:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice title! Surely God deserves all praise.

12:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am touched by this post simply because I stand at the back of the church three times a week and quietly listen as members tell me how wonderful I am. I really need to work on making sure they know God gets the glory---thank you, sister,

Dean

12:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ouch!!
Reminds me of the sermon on the mount verse--let your light shine before men so that they will see your good deeds and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
It should be atributed to Him.

Good post
Pat

12:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Neva for reminding us that no not one of us humans deserve adoration.

Only our loving God deserves praise, all good comes from Him and we are the recipients not the creators of His good!

Gods grace be with you
madalyn

12:53 PM  
Blogger The Preacher's Household: said...

God is God and We are not. Good thing to remember.
Kathy

1:30 PM  
Blogger Neva said...

Lyndsay, Pat, Dean and Kathy,
Thanks for stopping by and for the comments,
Martin, if it is a good title, God indeed gets the credit, if not, its just me being a dork! :)
Madalyn, I am so glad you are visiting this blog, see you in class Wednesday.
Love and peace,
neva

5:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I liked the post and everyones comments. I have been trying to post all day. Wanted you to know how much I appreciate your insights and comments.

In Christ
Dan

5:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WormFest, kinda sounds like a live aid concert to benefit bait!

Just kidding, I really enjoyed teh post andthe reminder that if God isnot glorified in our ministry, we are just doing busy work. (I heard you say that once and it stuck with me.) It is so right.

Love ya
Eileen

5:45 PM  
Blogger Neva said...

Dan, Thanks for stopping by---Eileen, you are so funny!!!
Really, thank you
Neva

6:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brings new meaning to "such a worm as I"

7:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yep. The world is designed to keep us entertained, struggling, desiring more... so that our eyes remain off the Truth - which is Jesus.

11:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your writing is so though-provoking...love your site!

9:20 AM  
Blogger Bob Bliss said...

Did you hear about the man in a congregation who was voted the most humble man in their congregation and they gave him a button that said, "The most humble man." They took it away from him because he wore it.

5:18 PM  
Blogger Neva said...

Bob,
Thats funny!!!

Thanks for stopping by
Neva

5:20 PM  

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