标杆人生 第08天 被造是为讨神喜悦
Planned for God's Pleasure
You created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created. Revelation 4:11 (NLT)
The Lord takes pleasure in his people. Psalm 1 149:4a (TEV)
You were planned for God's pleasure.
The moment you were born into the world, God was there as an unseen witness, smiling at your birth. He wanted you alive, and your arrival gave him great pleasure. God did not need to create you, but he chose to create you for his own enjoyment 2. You exist for his benefit, his glory, his purpose, and his delight.
Bringing enjoyment to God, living for his pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you fully 3 understand this truth, you will never again have a problem with feeling insignificant 4. It proves your worth. If you are that important to God, and he considers you valuable enough to keep with him for eternity 5, what greater significance could you have? You are a child of God, and you bring pleasure to God like nothing else he has ever created. The Bible says, "Because of his love God had already decided 6 that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children-this was his pleasure and purpose.'
One of the greatest gifts God has given you is the ability to enjoy pleasure. He wired you with five senses and emotions so you can experience it. He wants you to enjoy life, not just endure it. The reason you are able to enjoy pleasure is that God made you in his image.
We often forget that God has emotions, too. He feels things very deeply. The Bible tells us that God grieves, gets jealous and angry, and feels compassion 7, pity, sorrow, and sympathy as well as
happiness, gladness, and satisfaction. God loves, delights, gets pleasure, rejoices, enjoys, and even laughs!
Bringing pleasure to God is called "worship." The Bible says, "The LORD is pleased only with those who worship him and trust his love.'
Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. Like a diamond, worship is multifaceted. It would take volumes to cover all there is to understand about worship, but we will look at the primary aspects of worship in this section.
Anthropologists have noted 8 that worship is a universal urge, hard-wired by God into the very fiber 9 of our being-an inbuilt need to connect with God. Worship is as natural as eating or breathing. If we fail to worship God, we always find a substitute, even if it ends up being ourselves. The reason God made us with this desire is that he desires worshipers! Jesus said, "The Father seeks worshipers."
Depending on your religious background, you may need to expand your understanding of "worship." You may think of church services with singing, praying, and listening to a sermon. Or you may think of ceremonies, candles, and communion. Or you may think of healing, miracles, and ecstatic experiences. Worship can include these elements, but worship is far more than these expressions. Worship is a lifestyle.
Worship is far more than music. For many people, worship is just a synonym 10 for music. They say, "At our church we have the worship first, and then the teaching." This is a big misunderstanding. Every part of a church service is an act of worship: praying, Scripture 11 reading, singing, confession 12, silence, being still, listening to a sermon, taking notes, than music, giving an offering, baptism, communion, signing a commitment card, and even greeting other worshipers.
Actually, worship predates music. Adam worshiped in the Garden of Eden, but music isn't mentioned until Genesis 4:21 with the birth of Jubal. If worship were just music, then all who are nonmusical could never worship. Worship is far more than music.
Even worse, "worship" is often misused 14 to refer to a particular style of music: "First we sang a hymn 15, then a praise and worship song." Or, "I like the fast praise songs but enjoy the slow worship songs the most." In this usage, if a song is fast or loud or uses brass 16 instruments, it's considered "praise." But if it is slow and quiet and intimate, maybe accompanied by guitar, that's worship. This is a common misuse 13 of the term "worship."
Worship has nothing to do with the style or volume or speed of a song. God loves all kinds of music because he invented it all-fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. You probably don't like it all, but God does! If it is offered to God in spirit and truth, it is an act of worship.
Christians 18 often disagree over the style of music used in worship, passionately 19 defending their preferred style as the most biblical or God-honoring. But there is no biblical style! There are no musical notes in the Bible; we don't even have the instruments they used in Bible times.
Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship.
Frankly 20, the music style you like best says more about you-your background and personality-than it does about God. One ethnic 21 group's music can sound like noise to another. But God likes variety and enjoys it all.
There is no such thing as "Christian 17" music; there are only Christian lyrics 22. It is the words that make a song sacred, not the tune 23. There are no spiritual tunes 24. If I played a song for you without the words, you'd have no way of knowing if it were a "Christian" song.
Worship is not for your benefit. As a pastor 25, I receive notes that say, "I loved the worship today. I got a lot out of it." This is another misconception about worship. It isn't for our benefit! We worship for God's benefit. When we worship, our goal is to bring pleasure to God, not ourselves.
If you have ever said, "I didn't get anything out of worship today," you worshiped for the wrong reason. Worship isn't for you. It's for God. Of course, most "worship" services also include elements of fellowship, edification, and evangelism, and there are benefits to worship, but we don't worship to please ourselves. Our motive 26 is to bring glory and pleasure to our Creator.
In Isaiah 29 God complains about worship that is half-hearted and hypocritical. The people were offering God stale prayers, insincere praise, empty words, and man-made rituals without even thinking about the meaning. God's heart is not touched by tradition in worship, but by passion and commitment. The Bible says, "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."
Worship is not a part of your life; it is your life. Worship is not just for church services. We are told to "worship him continually" and to "praise him from sunrise to sunset." In the Bible people praised God at work, at home, in battle, in jail, and even in bed! Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the morning and the last activity when you close them at night. David said, "I will thank the Lord at all times. My mouth will always praise him."
Every activity can be transformed into an act of worship when you do it for the praise, glory, and pleasure of God. The Bible says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.' Martin Luther said, "A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God."
How is it possible to do everything to the glory of God? By doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus and by carrying on a continual conversation with him while you do it. The Bible says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."
This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship-doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus. The Message paraphrase 27 says, "Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going-to work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Work becomes worship
when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness 28 of his presence.
When I first fell in love with my wife, I thought of her constantly: while eating breakfast, driving to school, attending class, waiting in line at the market, pumping gas-I could not stop thinking about this woman! I often talked to myself about her and thought about all the things I loved about her. This helped me feel close to Kay even though we lived several hundred miles apart and attended different colleges. By constantly thinking of her, I was abiding 29 in her love. This is what real worship is all about -falling in love with Jesus.
DAY EIGHT THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE
Point to Ponder: I was planned for God's pleasure.
Verse to Remember: "The LORD takes pleasure in his people." Psalm 149:4a (TEV)
Question to Consider: What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?
- The clergyman began droning the psalm.牧师开始以单调而低沈的语调吟诵赞美诗。
- The minister droned out the psalm.牧师喃喃地念赞美诗。
- Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
- After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。
- The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
- They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
- In winter the effect was found to be insignificant.在冬季，这种作用是不明显的。
- This problem was insignificant compared to others she faced.这一问题与她面临的其他问题比较起来算不得什么。
- The dull play seemed to last an eternity.这场乏味的剧似乎演个没完没了。
- Finally,Ying Tai and Shan Bo could be together for all of eternity.英台和山伯终能双宿双飞，永世相随。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
- Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。
- The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
- Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
- The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
- The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。
- Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。
- The term 'industrial democracy' is often used as a synonym for worker participation. “工业民主”这个词常被用作“工人参与”的同义词。
- The scripture states that God did not want us to be alone.圣经指出上帝并不是想让我们独身一人生活。
- They invoked Hindu scripture to justify their position.他们援引印度教的经文为他们的立场辩护。
- Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
- The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。
- It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
- He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。
- He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
- The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。
- Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
- Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
- They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
- His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
- Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
- His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。
- She could hate as passionately as she could love. 她能恨得咬牙切齿，也能爱得一往情深。
- He was passionately addicted to pop music. 他酷爱流行音乐。
- To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
- Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。
- This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
- The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
- music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
- The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。
- He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
- The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
- a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
- When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
- We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。
- The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
- He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。
- You may read the prose paraphrase of this poem.你可以看一下这首诗的散文释义。
- Paraphrase the following sentences or parts of sentences using your own words.用你自己的话解释下面的句子或句子的一部分。