A Place of Worship

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   This past Friday, my wife and I, along with our exchange student and another couple from our church,  had the privilege of taking the train up to Seattle to watch the Dodgers take on the Mariners in one of the last games of the regular season. I have been a lifelong Dodger fan, and getting to watch them play in person is always a treat. One of the things I noticed about walking into T-Mobile Park is that almost no one was in a bad mood. They were coming into this place to celebrate, in a sense, their team striving to accomplish something with excellence. In a way, what I was witnessing was a form of worship.

   Psalm 100 says, "Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."

   As Christians, we have something infinitely greater to celebrate than seeing the Dodgers or the Mariners make the post-season. The object of our worship is incomparably more worthy than the most skilled baseball team ever to take the field. Yet how many of us walk into church with shouts of joy in our hearts and thankfulness on our lips? How many of us leave the same way? David writes in Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the LORD's, and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it." If this is the case, then we should walk through life with a greater joy than a fan entering a baseball stadium. From the time we get up in the morning until we lay our heads on our pillows at night, let us make every effort to live life as an act of worship to the Lord who alone is worthy of worship.