​John 4:23-24 - "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."   NASU 

• Your Worship Is Your Informant 

As a minister of God I can not begin to tell you how many times I have had people tell me it doesn't matter how you worship God as long as you are worshipping Him.
 
You will notice they never ever quote a book chapter and verse after that statement. When you look at the passage above you will see it doesn't say, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him can do it any way they want."
 
That is not even close to what God says. God's Word says, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him MUST worship in spirit and truth." 

• Israelites Worship 

God commanded Moses how He wanted to be worshipped by the Israelites in the Old Testament.
 
In Exodus 24:1-2 - Then He said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance. 2 "Moses alone, however, shall come near to the LORD, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him."
 
God was informing Moses there was a correct way to worship Him and an incorrect way. If any of those other men would have tried to follow Moses and worship God by being closer to Him they would have physically died. 

• Jesus Called Worshippers of God Hypocrites 

Matt. 15:7-9 - "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:
 
            'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,
            BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.
            'BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,
            TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"
 
As you can see there were some who were worshipping God, but Jesus states that their type of worship was in VAIN. Their worship was totally useless, empty, void of meaning, and it served no purpose other than making God angry.
 
Jesus went so far as to call them hypocrites and He confirmed what Isaiah had said about them around 750 years earlier when Isaiah said, "…But in vain do they worship me…"
 
Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you to worship God in "spirit and in truth." Don't think for a moment you can worship God any way you want and it will be okay. That is simply foolishness to anyone who has ever read their Bible.
 
John 17:17 - "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."
 
In order to worship God in Spirit and in Truth as John has informed us, we will need to spend time reading His Word. What I have found many times is people read and believe other books about the Bible rather than reading and believing the Bible.
 
You and I are responsible for reading the Word of God, praying to God, asking Him to help us understand, and discovering the true meaning of those verses.
 
I pray you will know God is seeking you because you are seeking Him in spirit and in truth, and His Word is the Truth.
 
I hope you are reading God's Word and growing closer to Him each day.
 
Think About This:
 
Truth Angers Those It Doesn't Fully Convince.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago      
    
Minister of God’s Word

Jere. 26:8-11 - When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die!" Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant'…. Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing."  NASU 
​

• Obedience To God's Will Can Sometimes Be Painful 

I'm not quite sure where the teaching came from that says once you become a servant of God everything in your life was going to be a piece of cake, all of your prayers would be answered the way you wanted, and tough times would now be a thing of the past.
 
I can say without a doubt that Jeremiah was a man of God and he discovered that serving God brought with it some very painful situations.
 
He was a Prophet of God, called to be a prophet before he was even born. Jere. 1:4-5 -Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." NASU
 
I can guarantee you that he didn't believe his life was a piece of cake because he was a servant of God. 

• Obedience To God Can Be Confusing 

Having read the book of Jeremiah the constant thought that crossed my mind was this, "I would not want to be a prophet of God." This was one of the most thankless jobs on the face of the earth. 
 
You obey God and the end result is suffering for you. This is what happened in Jeremiah's life.
 
The very people Jeremiah was sent to help were the ones that wanted him dead.
 
The people the prophets were sent to help would be the ones who either made their life very miserable or they killed them.
 
Here is a conversation Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees about killing the prophets sent by God - (Mt 23:30-31 - 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." NASU)
 
Jeremiah was obedient to God, and it caused him a lot of grief.
 
You may be a servant of God today and have lots of grief. If you do, don't let your thoughts get you to doubt your calling. Don't be led down the path that God must not care about you or He certainly would not allow this suffering in your life.
 
He called Jeremiah and told him exactly what to preach and who to preach this message too. Jeremiah did exactly as he was told and he was hated by the priests and the false prophets. Their hatred was so great they wanted him to be killed. 

• Do You Have Any Enemies? 

Now I don't mean people who won't talk to you any more, or won't invite you to their parties.
 
I mean do you have any enemies like Jeremiah? They want you dead and have a plan to end your life. The answer to that question for most of us would be "No".
 
When I read what Jeremiah was going through I laugh now at what I had to endure in the ministry. I had people lie about me, misquote me, and God forbid the false accusations about my motives.
 
Hello!
 
Could you imagine me sitting down with Jeremiah and telling him how hard my ministry was?
 
I can actually see this person who I visualize as Jeremiah rolling on the ground laughing. When he stops laughing he says to me, "Really, that is all that was done to you? They didn't try to kill you at anytime?
 
Jere. 38:10 - Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies." NASU
 
They were literally trying to kill this man of God. Why? He was doing what God had asked him to do. 

• Life Lesson 

If you're suffering in life and it is because you are doing what God's Word has asked you to do accept your suffering as graciously as possible?
 
You may not receive any rewards here on earth, but the rewards God promises us in heaven will make us forget about all the suffering we have endured while here on earth.
 
Think On This:
 
As long as your conscience is your friend, don't be concerned about your enemies.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word

​Judges 7:2 - The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ 

• What God Wants

God informs Gideon that if he went into battle against the Midianites with 22,000 men that the Israelite's victory would be dangerous. Their victory would fill them with pride. They would start to believe they were victorious because of their strength. God wanted Israel as He wants us to trust in Him.

Are we walking each day in faith so that no matter what enemy we encounter we can defeat it with God?
 
What prideful enemy are you facing today?

We have an enemy who is constantly trying to get us to believe that what we have accomplished we have done on our own. God wants us to trust Him and believe He is helping us daily. 

• What The Devil Wants

In 1 John 2:16, we are told that the three ways we will be tempted are through the Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, and the Pride of Life. You will be able to place sin under one of these three categories. The devil has been very successful in getting God's children to sin.
 
Sin has conquered all people except Jesus Christ.  
 
Adam and Eve's sin in the garden, David's sin when he numbered Israel or Samson's sin of using his strength incorrectly, all three of these sins come under the Pride of Life.

I am sure if we will look at the sin that has conquered us we will find that it falls under either the Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes, or the Pride of Life. 

Are you going to be able to defeat these temptations by yourself?
 
The answer is "NO". We are going to need to trust the Lord to help us overcome the temptations the devil will use. Remember the devil is not omniscient (all-knowing).
 
Only God is omniscient.

So how does the devil always seem to know what temptations to confront us with that succeed?
 
The devil is very observant. He knows that to defeat his opponent he has to know their behavior. He has studied the behavior of God's creation and he has discovered how to get us to sin.
He has beaten everyone but ONE, Jesus Christ.

We, humans, are not too hard to defeat. Simply use one of the three ways mentioned above and he succeeds every time.

When tempting our Lord and Savior look at his plan.
 
He said to Jesus, "If you are the Son of God turn these stones into bread." He tried to get Jesus to doubt Himself and because Jesus had been fasting he slips in a Lust of the Flesh temptation. Turn the bread into stones if You are the Son of God. You have to be hungry. Your flesh has to be craving something to eat.

When that doesn't work he tries the Lust of the Eyes when he tells Him I will give you all these kingdoms if You will worship me.
 
Lastly, he tries the Pride of Life temptation when he says, Go ahead and jump from the pinnacle of the temple angels will save You. God will send His Angelic Air Force to swoop in and make sure Your landing is a safe one.

• What Do You Want?

It really comes down to this: What is it we want? Hopefully, we will all want to trust in God and not allow are accomplishments to lead us into sin.

Think on These:

Pride hides a man's faults to himself, and magnifies them to everyone else.

When success turns a man's head, it leaves him looking in the wrong direction.

Stay Pumped,
 
Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word

1 Samuel 29:6-9 - Then Achish called David and said to him, "As the LORD lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the army are pleasing in my sight; for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords. "Now therefore return and go in peace, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines."
 
David said to Achish, "But what have I done? And what have you found in your servant from the day when I came before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?" But Achish replied to David, "I know that you are pleasing in my sight, like an angel of God; nevertheless the commanders of the Philistines have said, 'He must not go up with us to the battle.'    NASU
 

• David Wanted To Fight 

David had been living with the Philistines because King Saul had been trying to kill him. Therefore, David went to live with them because he knew Saul would never come down there looking for him.
 
The Philistines were about to go to war with King Saul and David was going with Achish, the King of Gath, but the Philistine lords didn't trust David as Achish did. Achish had no choice but to dismiss David.
 
David wanted to go and fight with Achish against the Israelites, but he wasn't permitted to do so. Would David have actually fought against Saul and the Israelites? This question will never be answered because he was dismissed and sent back home. 

• David's Blessing 

 When David and his guerilla fighters return to their home in Ziklag, they find the Amalekites had raided Ziklag and had taken captive all their wives and children.
 
Can you see what I see?
 
If David and his men would have been allowed to stay and fight with Achish what a disastrous outcome this would have been for their families. The real blessing was David being told they could not fight with the Philistines and they must leave.
 
When they arrive home they discover their families really need them to come and save them from the Amalekites.
 
David and 400 of his men pursue the Amalekites, they overtake them and rescue all of their family members and everything that was taken was recovered. 

• When You Don't Get What You Want 

David didn't get what he wanted but he did receive what he vitally needed.
 
When you and I don't get what we want the best thing we can do is give our LORD time to show us what He will give us is more important than what we want.
David didn't get to fight with Achish, but he did get to fight with his men and during this fight, they saved all of their families.
 
It is really easy to see which fight David and his men needed to be involved with at this time. You and I might want to be going in one direction but the LORD wants us to go another way.
 
We must always remember God is the One who is omniscient and we are not.
 
Think About This:
 
Always remember that a man is not rewarded for having brains, but for using them.

Stay Pumped,
 
Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word
​