Author: Mark Anthony Escalera

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Superman Goes to Church?

Yesterday evening, I posted this on my Facebook wall. No, this was not some off the wall church, but a long-established church considered well within the realms of evangelicalism. Some preachers of old came from this particular denomination and would probably roll over in their graves if they knew what was being spoon-fed to gullible sheep.

“Well that church visit was a one-timer only! We knew we were in for a treat when the sermon notes had a picture of Clark Kent / Christopher Reeves with a big Cross in place of the “S” on his chest. The sermon title says it all, “Super Christian, A Fat Woman, and an Old Camera.” Wow, two hours of our lives we will never get back.

During the message inspirational talk, the first large chunk of the time was taken up trying to get the hearer to see how they relate to the Superman of the movies. Basically, we each have our Kryptonite and the reality is that we are far from being SuperChristian. However, if we work hard, in 5 years, we can become closer to the SuperChristian ideal than we are today. It only takes a desire on our part to use our willpower to change.

Here were a couple of quotes from the person who was tasked with delivering the whole truth of Scripture, but failed miserably:

“Love is the most powerful change agent in our lives. So we must love God and love ourselves. The change process includes asking Him to be your Lord and GIVE Him authority for what you become in the future.”

Shades of Joel Osteen. How much biblical knowledge does a person have to unlearn in order to spout these kinds of comments to a listening congregation? Even worse, how shallow does a believer have to be in order to accept these comments from the pulpit?

Let us clarify a few things here. 1) Yes, love is important and is the greatest of faith, hope, and love. However, for believer and unbeliever alike, only God can be the most powerful change agent in our lives. An unbeliever cannot truly love with a biblical love unless he or she is completely and powerfully changed by the God of the universe. For the believer, we are called to renew our minds and to die to self daily, not to love ourselves.

This kind of thinking quickly devolves into the false teaching that we must forgive ourselves and there are even churches that are teaching that in order to move forward in our lives, that we must learn to forgive God as well. This is blasphemy. God has nothing for which He can be forgiven. Only a sinful creature needs to be forgiven, and this comes from God for our wickedness against His holiness.

Here is another quote –

“God loves you just how you are and will love you completely EVEN if you never change.”

Excuse me while I get sick. My stomach should be ok in a few days, but my head will struggle for awhile. This is absolute drivel to coin a good Greek word. Is it true that God loves each of us? First, John 3:16 makes it clear that God loved the world that He gave the ultimate gift of His Only Begotten Son. However, in that same passage, Jesus continued and said in verse 36 that for those who do not believe that the wrath of God abides on them even now. God hates sin. God detests sin. God loathes sin.

This is the problem with much of evangelicalism. It wants to focus so much on the love to the complete, or almost complete, exclusion of the wrath of God. God is equally a God of love and a God of wrath. If there was no wrath, there could be no love exhibited. God had to hate sin infinitely in order to love infinitely.

Further, this last quote smacks of a complete misunderstanding of Biblical truths, and here is why. 1) God does NOT love you just how you are for you and I were once dead in trespasses and sins. The wrath of God bore down upon our heads and we were bound for destruction. God could not place His love upon that which rises in ultimate rebellion against His holiness because He accepts you the way you are. No, no, NO! If God loves you the way you are, then there would have been no need for Jesus Christ to have become the ultimate sacrifice.

2 Corinthians 5:17 makes this abundantly clear. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

God will be glorified in all things and one day, every knee will bow down before Jesus Christ. This will be true of those in heaven, or earth, or in hell. However, the Bible is clear that when God sets His love upon you and redeems you from the slave market of sin that you WILL NOT remain the same. You CANNOT be the same person and choose to abide in your sin with no discipline or correction.

If there has never been a change or if you never change, the wrath of God will remain upon you and one day, in the pits of hell, you will find yourself cursing God with all of your being.

If you are a true believer, then you will not be able to keep from changing anymore than a baby can by willpower choose to remain an infant.

So, while the sheeple were being entertained, the Holy Spirit must have been grieved. The music and announcement time comprised right at 60 minutes of the total service time. Many swayed and clapped with the music driven by the band at the front, but few sang. People laughed at the jokes and little anecdotes, and I presume they went away feeling like they had accomplished something special by filling in the Church/God box of their lives for another week. Yet, there was no change.

It was a very sad commentary on what happens when the pulpit gets away from the Bible as the standard, and a very sad commentary on what happens when the people in the pew have no clue whether what is being said is actually in the Bible or not. We were grieved at the realization that here was another full church full of people who had no clue what it means to biblically worship a holy, righteous God.

Superman is not real, but God is real. Superman does not belong in church, but God does (Rev. 3:20). Our God came into the world to save sinners and to change them. He doesn’t turn us into SuperChristian, but His Holy Spirit guides us into all truth so that we become more like an image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Wrong Motives Produce No Lasting Joy

Recently, I have been reading through the wonderful allegory by John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. We were also blessed to obtain an audio dramatization from Master Books that we would highly recommend to anybody who loves this story.

One scenario stands out in my mind and I have been pondering for some time now. The characters involved in the scene are Christian and Pliable, both of whom come from the City of Destruction. The first carries a weight of sin upon his back and is plodding on the way to the Celestial City as quickly as he is able, while the latter has nothing that seems to be holding him back.

Pliable is a clear reflection of the defining of his name. Pliable means easily influenced or easily bent. From the beginning, we know that he is a follower and not a leader. He follows Obstinate in trying to get Christian back to the City of Destruction, but quickly changes his mind when he hears of the wonders of what is in store for those who reach to the Celestial City.

sloughofdespond

As I considered Pliable, I thought of Christian’s early attempts at seeking to be an evangelist and how similar it is to much of what we find in evangelical circles today. Christian’s methods of reaching the unconverted changes later in the story, but to begin with, they are far from appropriate and certainly not Biblical. Let’s us think about some of the problems with Christian’s approach to reaching Pliable.

1) Pliable is not in dire straits as is Christian. As mentioned previously, Christian has become aware of the burden of sin, but Pliable has not. No person has ever come to Christ who has not been first brought to the awareness of the danger he or she is in. If they do not believe they are fleeing from the wrath of God, then there is no true conviction.

2) Pliable is easily swayed first from Obstinate’s viewpoint and then to Christian’s, and it is not long before he returns to the City of Destruction because he does not like what he finds on the path to the Celestial City. A person who is convinced to follow another, other than Christ, will not follow for long until another comes along with a more persuasive argument. We will be like King Agrippa who told Paul, “Almost you persuade me to be a Christian.”

3) Pliable then listens to the wonders of what heaven will be like and becomes enraptured with all the glories that will soon be his. It is in this way that Christian makes a mistake. He seeks to share with Pliable that which is designed to gain the attention of a worldly person, but he forgets some of the most important factors of evangelism. He fails to address that Pliable is not aware of his sin, he is not aware that his city will soon be destroyed, and he is not aware that trials and tribulations are the lot of all who live godly in Christ Jesus.

4) Pliable soon learns the reality of the Christian life and he is not impressed. In seeking to follow the way of Christ, he, like millions today, thought that this would be his best life now. He thought that there were no troubles to assail him and that life would become easy. He sought to come to faith for the wrong reasons, namely, because of what he thought he could get, and not because of what had already been accomplished through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5) Pliable falls into the Slough of Despond which Bunyan describes like this:

This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.

This became too much for Pliable for he cannot stand to be mired in such filth. Instead of fleeing to the cross as Christian does, Pliable immediately climbs back out of the Slough and makes a beeline for the City of Destruction. Christian learns that for all to be well with his soul, he must flee from his sin. It is only when our sins are nailed to the tree that we can know the joy of forgiveness and no further condemnation.

Pliable is like many today who think that they can come to Christ with their own good works or apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. For those who know Christ, we must seek to share the truth of the Scriptures that no man comes to Christ who does not realize the depths of his sin and the matchless wonder of the Savior. Truly, Pliable’s wrong motives for wanting to be a follower of the Way produced no lasting joy. Fellow believers, if we use wrong motives to seek to entice people to follow Christ, we cannot be surprised when we find that we have only made false converts.

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Paul Washer – The Great Commission

Paul hits another one out of the park with this little sermon jam. It is well worth just under 7 minutes of your time to watch this video. May we be encouraged to continue moving forward for Christ instead of staying stagnant. As Paul exhorts in this video, let us live for Christ in such a way that we will have no regrets when we die.

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Rock of Ages

Sir Will­iam Hen­ry Wills, in a let­ter to Dean Le­froy, pub­lished in the [Lon­don] Times in June, 1898, says ‘Top­la­dy was one day over­tak­en by a thun­der­storm in Bur­ring­ton Coombe, on the edge of my prop­er­ty, Blag­don, a rocky glen run­ning up in­to the heart of the Men­dip range, and there, tak­ing shel­ter be­tween two mass­ive piers of our na­tive lime­stone rock, he penned the hymn,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

There is a pre­ci­pi­tous crag of lime­stone a hun­dred feet high, and right down its cen­tre is the deep re­cess in which Top­la­dy shel­tered.’ – Telford, p. 257

This hymn was sung at the fun­e­ral of Prime Minister Will­iam Glad­stone in West­min­ster Ab­bey, Lon­don, Eng­land. Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s husband) of Britain asked it be sung to him as he lay dy­ing. In Hymns That Have Helped, W. T. Stead stated:

…when the Lon­don went down in the Bay of Bis­cay, Jan­u­ary 11, 1866, the last thing which the last man who left the ship heard as the boat pushed off from the doomed vess­el was the voic­es of the pass­en­gers sing­ing “Rock of Ag­es.”

In ano­ther sto­ry:

A missionary complained of the slow prog­ress made in In­dia in con­vert­ing the na­tives on ac­count of ex­plain­ing the teach­ings of Christ­i­an­i­ty so that the ig­no­rant peo­ple could un­der­stand them. Some of the most beau­ti­ful pass­ag­es in the Bi­ble, for in­stance are de­stroyed by trans­la­tion. He at­tempt­ed to have [Rock of Ages] trans­lat­ed in­to the na­tive di­a­lect, so that the na­tives might ap­pre­ci­ate its beau­ty. The work was en­trust­ed to a young Hi­ndu Bi­ble stu­dent who had the rep­u­ta­tion of be­ing some­thing of a po­et. The next day he brought his trans­la­tion for ap­prov­al, and his ren­der­ing, as trans­lat­ed back in­to Engl­ish, read like this: ‘Very old stone, split for my ben­e­fit, Let me ab­sent my­self under one of your frag­ments.’ – Jones

The hymn was al­so re­port­ed­ly sung at the fun­er­al of Amer­i­can Pre­si­dent Ben­ja­min Har­ri­son be­cause it was his fa­vo­rite hymn, and the on­ly one he ev­er tried to sing.

HT: Rock of Ages – Cyber Hymnal

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Independence Day and the state of the church in America.

An article written by Pilgrim 4 years ago, and even more applicable today.

Pilgrim's avatarChrist Alone Wyoming

Today marks the 234th anniversary of our nation’s birth, but this occasion brings to mind two problems that I see within Christendom; both of which have the same solution.

Firstly, why do we (every year at this time) feel the need to mix nationalism with the church? On this Sunday, Christians will be running from church to BBQs and parties; some won’t even need to leave the church property as all the festivities will be rolled into one like a church in my local area advertising the events they’re having at their “community freedom festival” which include:

Pony rides / Face painting / Food and drinks / Sno-cones, popcorn, cotton candy / Games and prizes / Bounce houses / Giant slide / Dunk tank / Crafts for the kids / Live music / And much more.

Remember, dear readers, this is a “church.” The only reference on their advertisement that…

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Family Renewal – An Introduction

It is my privilege to introduce a fairly new ministry to the faithful readers here at Defending Contending. In 1999, our family first met Sis. Skeet Savage and her family which includes her daughter, Sony Elise and her son, Israel Wayne. Sis. Skeet is responsible for the writing ministries under the umbrella of Wisdom’s Gate Ministries. Down through the years, the ministry of Wisdom’s Gate has been a personal blessing to our family in so many ways.

In late 2013, the Lord graciously allowed the combined years of experience of writing, editing, and speaking to flourish into a new outreach entitled Family Renewal. Family Renewal is a ministry co-founded by Israel Wayne, his wife Brook, and Israel’s oldest sister, Sony Elise. The ministry is dedicated to family discipleship, teaching others how to defend their faith, and teaching the importance of a Biblical worldview.

Israel, Brook, and Sony Elise are all prolific writers and have been been a blessing to many down through their years of writing. In addition, Israel speaks throughout the year at various evangelical churches, homeschool conferences, and apologetics seminars.

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Recently, Israel had the privilege of seeing a new book published. This book, Questions God Asks: Unlocking The Wisdom of Eternity, would be a welcome addition to the library of every Christian home.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in having Israel speak at your church, men’s retreat, family camp, or for a Biblical Worldview or Apologetics conference, please contact Sis. Sony at (269) 282-6058 for further details or you may email them at Family Renewal Ministries.

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The Problem of Good Deeds

This is a good video from Pastor Michael Durham of Real Truth Matters. It should be watched and considered by anybody who thinks that good deeds will grant you any grace before God. Modern American Christianity has been redesigned in a way that seeks to make you feel good about yourself, but it does not match up with true Biblical Christianity.

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Enduring Heartbreak

The last few months in the lives of our family have brought great pain and heartbreak, but God has been so faithful. Apart from the time we spent in the jungles of Liberia, West Africa, I cannot remember a period where we have been so broken and spent emotionally, physically, and even spiritually.

Looking at YouTube, Vimeo, or other similar sites will reveal a large amount of messages on various aspects of encouragement. However, as a pastor, I have had to learn that sometimes it is easier to stand in front of a congregation of believers and preach than it is to have to learn the hard lessons of life. It is easier to preach from Job 23:10 than it is to sit in sackcloth and ashes with Job when it seems like you have lost much of what is special to you.

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Looking back through tears, I have to wonder what Job would have thought of my attempts to provide encouragement. In Job 16:2, he tells his fair-weather friends that they are nothing more than miserable comforters. He was in the middle of learning what they could not know. The truth was and is that you cannot fully understand what you have never experienced. Sympathy is feeling sorrow for your hurt, but empathy is knowing your hurt in my heart.

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I know what it means to lose a position as shepherd because the majority of the leaders were not saved and had no true testimony. I know what it now means to come home broken from leadership meetings have been told over and over again that if I do not stop preaching the gospel of Christ alone by grace through faith alone that I would lose everything. I know what it means to have leaders tell you that there is more than one way to heaven, “if we are even good enough to get there.” I know what it is like to come home and there is nothing you can do but hold your wife as she weeps uncontrollably and knowing that she bears as much of the pain as you do, but somehow she believes she is supposed to be strong for those who are watching. I know what it is like to see the vitriol and anger spewed at a meeting because I took a stand against homosexuality, and this from people who were nothing more than “casual Christians.” I know what it is like to see those who claim the name of Christ tell you that they want to do what is right, but yet remain in bondage to false leaders who live in rebellion against God.

My wife and I now know what it means to have to pick up the pieces of the lives of some of our family members. It seemed a lot easier to provide “comfort” and “counseling” to others from a Biblical perspective than it actually is to live through the heartbreak of watching those you have sought to love lie repeatedly and even throw out threats about what they will do if they don’t get their way. We now know the pain of being deliberately kept from seeing somebody that means the world to us.

Psalm 59:16-17, “But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.”

However, like Job, my family and I are learning. The details of what has caused the pain actually pales in comparison to the details of the education being afforded us through these trials. We are learning more and more of what it means to live in grace, but to show grace. Some would define grace as being non-judgmental and allowing people to live any way they desire. But that is not grace.

Grace is understanding what Christ did for us on our behalf. Grace means that I remember that what others meant for evil – God means for good. Grace means that I recognize that my own sin is no less and no greater than the sins of others and that forgiveness was granted to me by Christ just as I must do to others who have deliberately hurt us. Showing grace means offering to others what I cannot humanly manufacture. Grace does not come from praying through the Imprecatory Psalms against others. Grace means I have to be reminded that those who cause the hurt are not the real enemy. The real enemy is the evil one, Satan himself.

We have learned much this year and I expect the trials are far from over. However, the pain we have endured was obviously a necessary part of God’s perfect plan for our lives. Shall we take good at the hands of a sovereign God and not also the bad? Who am I to question what God deems is right and necessary in order to conform me into the beautiful image of His Son? I have no more right than the clay does to tell the Potter what vessel to make.

Enduring heartbreak is never easy. What you will go through is ultimately designed to bring honor and glory to the Lamb who was slain from before the foundations of the world. My prayer though is that whatever you are suffering, whoever may have hurt you, or however you have arrived at your present situation, than you and I will each be able to come to the point where we can stand triumphantly and say, “He has tried me, and I have come forth as gold!”

If you have never experienced great pain, you can still be there for friends and family. Trust God to give you the words that will bring comfort and encouragement. For those who have gone through pain and heartbreak, you are in a unique position to give glory to Christ for the work done in your own life and how you can come through the other end as a victor because of Christ alone. Each of us have people who have been there and cared for us through our tears. For those friends, we each give thanks to God.

In conclusion, I want to leave you with a beautiful hymn by William Cowper, a colleague of John Newton, who wrote “Amazing Grace.”

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Some Really, Really Bad Sins

A fellow pastor in Scotland, Bro. Jon Gleason posted this on his own blogsite and as we have done a few times in the past, I felt this was one worth sharing and giving much consideration.  Thank you, Jon, for your faithfulness to the Lord.

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Some Really, Really Bad Sins

Posted on 27 May, 2014 by

In I Corinthians 10, we have a list of really bad sins.  We get these sometimes in Scriptures, describing our lives before we were saved, or describing the extent to which sin takes people when they turn away from God.  In this case, we’re told that these sins are recorded in Scripture for an example to us, warning us not to do the same things.

 

I Corinthians 10:5-6, 11-12

5 But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things were our examples….

11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

So Paul here tells us that the sins listed in verses 6-10 are sins that brought destruction on the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness, and that these things are examples we must not follow.  They are written (in the Scriptures) to teach and warn us against doing the same things.  Let’s take the time to look at them.

I Corinthians 10:6

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Paul doesn’t here tell us exactly which event in the Old Testament he is describing, but there are several that could apply.  “We should not lust after evil things.”

This one isn’t hard to understand.  We know this.  If we find out a Christian is lusting after evil things, we aren’t going to say, “Oh, that’s ok, his circumstances make it all right for him to do that.”  We know there is no excuse.

We would tell someone who is doing this that he needs to repent and confess his sin.  We wouldn’t give sympathy to someone for sinning in this way, we’d tell him he needs to stop.  We know that God destroys people for this kind of sin.  We know the examples from the Old Testament that “are written for our admonition.”  We’d warn him.

I Corinthians 10:7

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

This sin is also easy for us to see clearly.  Oh, there are forms of idolatry that are deceptive, for we’re told that covetousness is idolatry.  But once idolatry is clearly recognised as such, no Christian would permit another Christian to make excuses for it.  It is wrong, and we know it.  If we try to make excuses and say that our circumstance is different, is a situation that creates an exception and makes it ok to commit idolatry, we know we are lying to ourselves.

We know this is a dangerous sin.  The Old Testament examples are clear.  This is one we wouldn’t dare to take lightly.

I Corinthians 10:8

Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

This is another easy one.  Sure, people make excuses for their immoral behaviour, but we can see right through those excuses, and so can they.  We know that when people do this, it is simply because they want to, not because they have to or because God put them in an impossible situation where they had no other choice.  Sin is sin, and we know it.

Some churches just let these things go, but even they know it is wrong.  No one who takes the Bible seriously at all will condone this or give any sympathy to a person who makes excuses for their sin.  A person doing this needs to repent — it is a really, really bad sin, one Christians should never ignore.

I Corinthians 10:9

Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.

In the Old Testament account (Numbers 21), we’re told that the people spoke against God by saying He had brought them into the wilderness to die.  Thus, they accused God of either malice or incompetence — in other words, blasphemy.

We know that is wrong.  No one who claims to be a Christian should speak against God in this way.  We know that unbelievers might say things like this, but it is sin, and any Christian who does this needs to repent.  We wouldn’t hesitate to warn people against making accusations like this against God.  We know this is a really, really bad sin.  If we love God, we wouldn’t listen to someone who claims to be a Christian speaking this way about Him, would we?  We would remind them of the Scriptural warnings and examples.

I Corinthians 10:10

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

Murmuring and complaining.  We know this is a really, really bad sin.  We wouldn’t accept excuses for this, would we?  Would we?

Would we give someone sympathy for this sin?  Would we let them use the excuse that their circumstance is bad enough that it is ok to sin in this way?

Would we fail to warn them that this is a really dangerous sin that can bring destruction?

Would we neglect to tell a complainer that their sin is listed right in there with fornication and idolatry?

Or do we let them decide, and so we decide right along with them, that murmuring and complaining isn’t a really, really bad sin after all?

Maybe we even decide it is a sin we ourselves can get away with.  After all, there aren’t really any Scriptural examples / warnings about this, are there?

Murmuring and complaining.  It is a really, really bad sin.  It is listed right there in I Corinthians 10 with evil lusts, idolatry, fornication, and blasphemy.  We have no right to decide it isn’t really that bad after all.  The murmurer does not need sympathy, the murmurer needs to change his thinking and his words, to repent.

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How Much Do You Love Christ?

Oh Father, may you reawaken the first love we had for Christ when we were rescued from the pit of hell and from having to undergo Your wrath. May our hearts be overwhelmed with Jesus Christ so that there is nothing that will ever be first above Him.

Christ does not want prominence (first among many), He demands that preeminence. He must be the first and only one we worship.

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Which Way to Heaven?

What a beautiful reminder by John MacArthur that God alone sets the rules for how we can get to heaven. It is simple for it is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone! Plus nothing and minus nothing, or you will be damned. As John says, it is not enough to admire the gospel, nor is it enough to be fascinated with Jesus Christ, “You must enter the gate of salvation through faith in Him.”

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Our Newest Contributor – Sony Elise

Hello Defending Contending Readers,

Sony EliseI want to briefly introduce a longtime friend of our family, Sony Elise. While she may not be writing as regularly as some of us, I know that what she shares by way of encouragement will be a blessing to you. It has been a while since we have had a Christian lady sharing here and I thought this would be a great addition. While nobody agrees 100% in every area, I know she loves the Lord and bathes everything she does in prayer.

She is a homeschool graduate and has been an editor for magazines and books for almost 25 years. Currently, she works with her brother, Israel Wayne, in a ministry called, “Family Renewal” and she also runs her own Christian editing business, Sony Elise Editing Services. For further details, you may follow the listed links.

Welcome to DefCon, Sis. Sony.

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Carnal Means to Attract Carnal People

Paul Washer speaks poignantly and directly to both pastors and church members. The Bride of Christ needs to wake up and remove those from their midst who keep them from following Christ. If you are following a church leadership that hates the true gospel of the Lord Jesus, you would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea then to sit under such teaching and leadership that is bound to the works of the flesh. Such a leadership is not honoring to Christ. If you know the truth and ignore it, you will be held accountable for what you know.

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10 Ways to Hinder Growth in Worship

This is a very interesting video worth watching in regards to worship. Too many churches have gone down this path of being relevant and producing worship that is mind-numbing. In a recent ministry, it was more important to have more songs than doctrine or preaching. The preferred timing of the service is that the preaching should be no longer than the 20 minutes of “worship” drivel that some preferred. This is not true worship. Further, if it appeals to your feet or your emotions before it speaks to the renewing of your mind, it is not honoring to God and has no place in worship.