Wednesday December 28
True Worship
EVIDENCE
Key Text: 1 Thess. 2:13
As we write today’s lesson, federal agents are sifting through the charred rubble
of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. Members of this religious cult
had given all they had to David Koresh, who claimed to be Christ. Koresh had
absolute control over his followers, to the point of death for many. How does a
tragedy like this happen? How could intelligent human beings, most of them from
very religious backgrounds, choose to trust a man whose life so completely
contradicted Christ’s example? The apostle Paul gives some insight on the topic.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks
to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened”
(Rom. 1:21, NIV). Those who choose not to devote their lives to God, or to follow
How could intelligent human beings choose to
trust a man whose life so completely contradicted
Christ’s example?
His principles, are easily deceived. Because their minds are not open to God’s
guidance, they rely on their own faulty reasoning.
The three angels’ messages contrast this reliance on self (creation-worship)
with reliance on God (Creator-worship). The first angel calls us to worship the all-
powerful God, who created everything. The third angel warms about the results of
worshiping the “beast and his image.” The “beast” is anything that is contrary to
God. In choosing to follow the beast, a person gives up reliance on God and places
some other authority in God’s place (e.g., another human, one’s own will power,
or wealth). Reliance on something or someone other than God is ultimately reliance
on self—thinking I know better than God.
The three angels’ messages call the world to worship Christ, the Saviour. In
every believer who accepts the three angels’ messages, there is a desire to follow
Christ and become more like Him. True worship is not simply passive
acknowledgement of God’s power. True worship is actively accepting God as the
only way to salvation and allowing His transforming power to work in my life.
REACT
1. How do I respond to God’s call to true worship?
2. In what ways could I learn to rely more on God than on my own abilities?
3. How do the three angels’ messages relate to the issue of religious cults?
By Stephen Cooper and Aloma Hughes, brother and sister, a graduate student in
international health and health administration at Loma Linda University and a
graduate in public relations from Pacific Union College, respectively.
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