1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian 8 - Blessed are the peacemakers | Page 6

overwhelmed with the details of the job and had become distracted from the reason
for her service. For anyone who has ever served in the church, I am sure that they
can identify so well with the person of Martha. There is work to be done and bills to
be paid and services to be rendered, but oh! how careful we have to be to make sure
that these do not distract us from the person we worship. Mary, however, had found
what Jesus termed to be “the better thing”, and that simply was to take time from
work in order, simply, to worship. Work will always be there, but if work is all we do
then sadly we have missed the point. I have to confess that when it comes to the
service of Jesus, I personally, can become a “workaholic”. I do not begrudge this
service, in fact I love it, but if I love the service of the King more than the King
Himself, I become an idolater.
This worship of Jesus takes many shapes and forms. There is without a doubt a
necessity for the corporate worship of Jesus, when those of like-mind, put aside the
work of the weak and the chores of the day and the entertainment of the moment to
sit before the King and worship Him. I think that music is a great way for this to
take place. I think too that sitting quietly, just contemplating the awesomeness and
the goodness of God is another way. But something happens in the heart of believers
today when we worship God corporately.
As much as corporate worship is important, individual worship is equally as
necessary. I encourage you all to take time every day to read God’s word and quietly
sit without the distractions of the day and allow Him to be the object of your
attention. God very seldom speaks into busy and overwhelmed lives; He prefers to
speak to those who have prepared themselves to listen.

Prayer Thought: I encourage all of you today to take some time to evaluate your
values and your weekly and daily priorities, to make sure that the externals of your
life are in order so that there is made time simply to do as Mary did and sit at the
feet of Jesus in worship.

Thursday
Reading: Judges 6 v 1 – 24
So far in our study of places where peace with God can be lost, we have said that
peace can be lost at the point of sin and at the point of the externals of your life
being in disarray. Let me add to this list today by suggesting to you that peace with
Theology.
God can be lost at the point of Poor Theology.
In Judges 6, the passage you have just read, Gideon portrays this truth so perfectly.
In the story, the angel of the Lord came to Gideon with an instruction that Gideon