Today is Saturday. Tomorrow is Sunday & I am looking forward to church. I open my devotional & the portion of Scripture pretty much gets right in my face.
 ”Who may worship in your sanctuary, LORD? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?” (Psalm 15:1 NLT).
I realized in reading this that there is a difference between being in the church, physically and entering into His Presence. I do not want to be in the church & not be in His Presence. I want to be there & know that He met me there. I want to enter into worship & leave my gift of worship there at His altar. So this morning in reading this portion, I discovered that a little self-examination never hurts as Scripture does tell me what God desires of His worshipers:
- We are to be blameless, meaning that we have confessed our sin to Him & that we desire to live in a way that is right & pleasing to Him
- We are to speak truthfully & be sincere in our relationships with one another
- We are to refuse to gossip
- We are to refuse to harm our neighbors
- We are to refuse to speak evil of our friends
- We are to despise flagrant sinners & honor those that follow Him
- We are to keep our promises even when it hurts (ouch)
- We are to lend our money without charging interest (or expecting anything in return)
- We cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent
The Message words it well:
“God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list? “Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; despise the despicable. Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. You’ll never get blacklisted if you live like this.”
Each week we receive the Worship Preview. If you missed it, here’s the link:
                                 http://wp.me/pqy7R-4n
We have been invited to God’s table. We are on the guest list. May we examine ourselves & come prepared to enter into His Presence & worship in His sanctuary tomorrow.
