Day 161

2 Samuel 15:13-16:14, Acts 6:1-7:19, Psalm 71:19-24

Samuel today provides me with quite a random reminder of how lucky we are. Amid all of the family feuds and the escape from Jerusalem I was pointed to the fact that we can praise God where ever we are. You are probably not in church right at this moment and yet you can be safe in the knowledge that you are before God, and that you can get down on your knees and praise His holy name.

Whilst David is on the run, the Ark of the Covenant comes out with him, but David sends it back to Jerusalem for that is where it belongs, and that is where it will belong for a long time to come. David is very conscious that this might be God moving him on, and if it is God’s will that Absalom be king then the Ark belongs back with him.

After that David heads up the Mount of Olives (note the link with Jesus), and arrives at the summit “where people used to worship God” (v32). On the one hand we have the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, before which worship should be offered, and on the other we have the Mount of Olives, a historic place of worship, two places of worship. We still have churches and chapels in which worship is offered yet we are able to do it in so many other places: in our bedrooms (or any other room at home), in the school or office, even out in the middle of no-where.

Then there is the other side to this worship, living lives like the early disciples, where the whole of our lives are an act of worship to God. Stephen is another of the characters who doesn’t get a lot of space in the church calendar and yet he is a real hero and a martyr for the faith, his story is certainly one to take note of and today we see his arrest and the start of his speech (it is a good one!)

The disciples were trying their best to spread the word of God and at the same time helping to distribute their wealth to help others. Their lives were wholesale acts of worship. When Stephen was commissioned to help with  these tasks he took that to the next level, he was willing to die for his God, now that could be called an act of worship.

What are you going to do for God today in worship, and what novel place are you going to find to worship Him?