August 12, 2013 … Our work is our worship

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 224

Devotional Song: Go to this link  … Today in my devotional journal entry, please take the time to watch/listen to a powerful song sung by the group, Hillsong, singing “Here I Am To Worship”, asking us if we’re living our lives in worship of our Lord. … And then at this link  there is a video of a very poignant prayer of a young man who desires to be all that Hillsong sings about by living his life in worship and outreach for Christ’s Name.

Highlight Study passage found in Colossians 3: 23-24 [NLT] …  
23 Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.
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Contextual reading study of Colossians, Chapter 3: Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage #1: Romans 12: 1 … [NLT] [All of our living and working is our “living sacrifice,” i.e., our worship.] … [NLT] …  
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him.

Reference Passage #2: Psalm 104: 23 … [NLT] [“Avodah” is our WORK.] … [NLT] …  
23 Then people go off to their work [“avodah”]; they labor until the evening shadows fall again. 

Reference Passage #3: Exodus 8: 1 … [NLT] [“Avodah” is our WORSHIP] … [NLT] …  
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh once again and tell him, ‘this is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so they can worship [“avodah”] Me.

My Journal for Today: There’s an Old Testament concept in Hebrew; and it is “avodah.” You can find it in OT Scripture referring to either “work” or “worship.” Two of those references can be found above as reference passages #2 and #3. Taken together, therefore, one can say that “our work – i.e., whatever we think, say, or do – is our worship.” And the Apostle Paul was certainly one who found himself called out for service to our Lord; and he picked up on this Jewish concept of “avodah” in the New Testament in his writings to Christians in the Colossians 3:23 and Romans 12: 1 passages above.

And the song to which I link you above shouts out the very same charge to our lives … i.e., that we need to be declaring by our everyday work is our “living sacrifice” and our worship of the One, our Savior, Jesus, Who served mankind all the way from His carpenter’s bench to the cross. Do I really need to go into depth here in reinforcing the Hebrew meaning of “avodah?”

No, I think not. I’m duly convicted to pray here this morning that I can go forth with all the works that I do today being both my work and my worship, … showing as much “living sacrifice” as I can as my work/worship of my Lord.

My Prayer for Today … Lord, whatever I think, say, and do today, may it be my worship and thankful praise for Your Lordship in my life. … Amen