Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
It is funny how The Bible speaks in pairs (The greatest commandment) and this is just another example. We are to take action in the community but also we are to defend ourselves from becoming corrupted. How often do we avoid helping people because we do not wish to become tainted ourselves? How often have we tried to reach out to the lost only to find that we start inheriting there morals? The first part of chapter eight made me ask myself these two questions and I had to realize that you cannot have a strong offense without an impressive defense.
Later in the chapter I think that Matt makes an excellent point concerning our loss for our first love. We are so easily throne off course by the things that are in themselves not evil, but if not monitored things like bands, sound systems, new techniques, songwriting, style, ability, performance, and leading can all become weapons of mass distractions. I know that these things have definitely thrown me off my scent.
At the end of the chapter Matt Redman shares the origin of his song The Heart of Worship. He explains that the worship was all a performance and that to counter this emerging attitude they removed their sound system and band for weeks. After a few weeks people really turned their hearts back in the right direction.
Lord I ask the same thing for our lives. I pray Matt's prayer for us Lord purify our hearts and simplify our lives that we might entirely seek your presence.
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