Often in our culture we use these two words interchangeably, but worship and praise have to separate meanings and what it comes down to is the focus.

I’ll start with a simple explanation of both and move in to expound on them. Simply put, worship is on God for who He is, praise is about what God has done.

Worship is about reverence, awe struck wonder at God for who He is, the heart of worship longs to recognize the nature of God, to see God for who He is, and to respond in humility, love and recognition that God is holy and above all, loves His creation.

In worship our eyes are entirely fixated on God, we do not look at ourselves but purely and entirely on God, on His being, on His nature, on His very person.

In praise, we look at the things that God has done, that can be what he has done in creating, what he has done in our lives, what he has done in the lives of those around us, or ones we look to as inspirations.

When we worship, our gaze becomes entirely fixed and focused on God, in praise we look not at God, but the actions of God. That isn’t to say we don’t honor God when we praise, it’s to point out the different nature of the two, and the purpose and function of the two.

The Hebrew word for worship is shâchâh, it means to bow down, or lay down, to revere and humbly worship.

When we worship God, we humble ourselves, our mind and spirit and simply sing or meditate on God, His goodness, His enduring mercy and love, the fullness of which we do not understand. The only thing we focus on is God, our entire heart and mind should be consumed with the fire of His eternal being.

Praise, or yâdâh is about confession, outstretched hands, singing and thanksgiving. When we come to God in yâdâh we offer up our voices in recognition of the things he has done, for the mercy bestowed upon us, but in shâchâh sing of the mercy of God in recognition of it being who He is for He is mercy and merciful all His days.

Whether we choose to receive His mercy or not does not change that mercy is His nature, so we can choose to not receive His mercy, therefore we could not sing in yâdâh, but our yâdâh or lack of it, does not change that He is worthy of shâchâh or worship.

If we try to worship the works of God, then His actions become an idol in our lives, we begin to only seek God for what He can do for us, but our worship is to be eyes off ourselves, and fully on Him.

In praise we can sing of what God has done with thanksgiving, in fact sharing what God has done in our lives is a major part of our life, but it should not be confused with worship.

Worship does not say I… me, but is wholly and fully fixed on God. The heart in worship falls before the Father and declares Him holy, righteous and above all. The heart of worship is to see God for who He is and to allow that fearful reverence to humble us and recognize that apart from Him we are nothing.

In praise, our yâdâh, we shout out the wonderful works of His hand, we stretch out our hands and sing the glorious deeds of almighty God, in praise we sing God I thank you, God you have saved me, praise is testimonial, worship is a humble declaration.

I was recently asked to look into what Jesus meant when He said “occupy til I come.” In Luke 19:13

The story, from Luke 19:13-27 is a parable, an image of the kingdom, told to help us to better understand.

Now at first glance one might read this, and with the wording used understand it as trade, business, having an occupation, for the word used in Greek we translate as occupy means to trade.

But again, we must read this as a parable, not as anything whose true intentions are financial. (Now that being said, I am not saying to not build Christian based businesses, I am a proponent of capitalism, entrepreneurship, and believers owning businesses and using them as a means to reach the lost.)

But rather, I believe there is another deeper meaning as well to this. God has given each of us a gift, the gift of salvation. Do we take our salvation, hide ourselves away from the world, avoiding any temptation or fear that we might lose our salvation and so we avoid conflict, and hide the gospel and ourselves away?

Or, are we being fruitful, multiplying and populating the coming kingdom? Are we taking our gift, the gift of salvation, and testifying what God has done, the salvation He has wrought in us, and bringing others into the kingdom with us?

The wording in this passage indicates that we should be in labor, putting the work, gift and investment given to us and there should be a fruit as a result. God does not call us home the day we are saved, because God expects us to take our salvation and the gifts He has given us and use them to glorify Him and do the work He has for us.

How we do that will look different for each individual, how God blesses each of us, and how we use those blessings will look different for each of us, but we are to take those gifts and blessings and turn them to good for the kingdom. When Jesus returns He does not expect to return and find we have taken our time and the gifts bestowed upon them and been unfaithful poor stewards.

For some of this, this may mean starting our own business, or rearing a large family, or pastoring etc, it matters not how it looks, only that we have taken the gifts and been fruitful in our doing. Will every believer be a nurse or doctor? Will all start large businesses that employ hundreds of people? Will all preach from a pulpit or travel the nations preaching? No, God has called each of us to our own work, empowering us with many manifold gifts, some spiritual, others mental, physical, some in finance, others in business, but what matters is we take the gifts and use them for the kingdom sake.

What then? Is our salvation contingent upon the work we do? No, else the cross becomes in vain, but we are called as good stewards, faithful sons to be diligent in our pilgrimage, good caretakers and image bearers of the God most High, who is not lazy not slack, but working hard. Our work we are called into, in whatever form, is designed to glorify the Son, build the kingdom and honor our Heavenly Father.

To occupy in this context is not having dominion, but being diligent workers, not in laboring for our own small kingdoms that will pass away, but toiling for the kingdom, which is of Christ and in us, adding into it, not that any man adds, for some plant, others water, but God provides the increase.

Has the church always understood and acted on this? This message while intended on the individual can also be applied to the Church local and global. Is the church taking the gifts of each member of the body and raising them up, equipping them to the work of the ministry? Are we encouraging others gifts and helping them to use them for the kingdom?

Are we so focused on what the mouth does for the body we are forgetting what the hand does? What the foot can do? The finger or the ear? All of us are apart of one body, designed to honor the Son. The church does good setting money aside for missionaries, for new pastors and for updates to the building, but is the Church always putting it’s entire resources to the good work of building the kingdom?

We will look more another day into the question, has the church always been a good and faithful steward? What has the stewardship looked like, occupying until our Lord’s return? Throughout the history of the church.

The good news, and somehow the most controversial thing the world has ever known, since it’s founding people have been trying to fight and stifle it.

Since Cain and Abel unrighteous men have killed those men who seek after righteousness and Truth. Nothing is new about this, it has just been a long time since it has been seen like this in America.

The good news of Jesus Christ must be proclaimed in the face of any and every darkness, for it is the unbreakable and unyielding truth, it is the only thing that saves.

Jesus came, born of a virgin, was raised as a Jewish man, he lived a perfect and sinless life, the only one who could. He was the fullness of the Godhead in human flesh. For over three years he worked a ministry, with signs and wonders following.

During the time of his ministry Jesus cleansed the leper, healed the sick, made the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, preached to the poor, the dead were raised to life, he challenged hypocrites, he challenged people who didn’t want their views challenged, he ate with sinners and loved on them, he commanded the evil spirits out of those they tormented and calmed the storms.

Jesus spoke with authority, with an unmatched understanding of the Holy scriptures. He challenged the views of the world of His time and never backed down, they couldn’t outsmart him, they couldn’t trap Him in their rhetoric, and when they tried to trap Him politically they failed.

While at dinner with a leper, a woman came and anointed him with ointment from an alabaster box, a sign of his coming burial.

Jesus was betrayed by one of his 12, lead before the priest, they mocked Him, beat Him, sent Him before Pilate.

Pilate couldn’t find fault in Him, He was sent before Herod before whom He would not speak. Pilate tried to release Him, but the people chose a murderer over the one who came to save them.

Jesus was beaten again, a crown of thorns was placed upon His head, he was beaten beyond being recognized as a man, then He was crucified where He was mocked and reviled again.

There in His final hours He met a thief, for on either side was a thief. One would find salvation in the lamb of God, the other chose to scorn the one who loved.

Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross, the purpose of His life was finished, He accomplished all He came to do. A mighty earthquake and darkness fell, the veil was split in two.

Jesus was buried in a tomb where never a body lay, purchased by a Pharisee, and a great stone was rolled over the tomb entrance.

The 11 left scattered and knew not what to do at the loss of Jesus.

On the third day, the first day of the week the women went to the tomb and met an Angel. The stone was rolled away.

“He’s not here” proclaimed the angel, for Christ our Lord had risen, just as He said He would do. Jesus was seen by many over the next forty days, as were a great many others who had been dead and raised from the grave with the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until the appointed day of His return, where He sits now, as His church proclaims the good news of what Christ has done for all mankind.

Jesus death was not because He challenged the religion, it was not because He was a good teacher. Jesus died as it was the only sacrifice that could wash away the sins of the world. He died so that the lost sheep of the world could come home.

Jesus is the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, whose blood is the only way to cleanse us of our sin, the only way we can come to salvation and in His name alone is the hope for our eternal salvation.

Jesus is the perfect and eternal sacrifice who died to take away the sins of the world and to call us out of sinful living, but the world hated Him, rejected Him and despised Him, for the world is darkness and could not comprehend Him, for He is the light.

His love for the people of the world, and creation could never be fully understood by us, for it was His great pleasure. Everything that is is by Him, He was in the beginning with the Father, and the Father is in Him and He in the Father.

The good news is we are able to come into the full love of the Son and the Father, through Jesus Christ, it is open to all who will call on His name, call on the name of Jesus Christ that you might be saved. For the Father is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance.

Life is hard, and most of struggle with finding a sense of purpose and fulfillment in life. We work jobs we take no joy in and find more stress than happiness, and we ask God what His plans for us are and why we are here.

God has created us with passions, talents, skills and gifts. Some of us are walking in those right now, and some of us can’t find how to walk in those in a way that will provide for our families or God has not opened that door telling us to wait with patience.

Men and women all over the world feel lost, depressed and scared, wandering without a sense of purpose to life. It gets hard, this life is hard, and harder still when we wander with no sense of purpose.

Truthfully we were each created with a purpose, we have a heavenly creator, a good Father who made us each to fulfill a purpose in life. Some of us find that purpose early on, we know what we were made for, others of us struggle for years and wrestle to understand.

I have spent years with trying to fight through this life to uncover what God made me for, not a lost sense of I am an accident, I know I have a Heavenly Father who loves me, but I have never been able to find the purpose He has for my life.

I have seen many stories lately of people who have found their God given purpose, whether a calling they have known from a young age, or one they stepped into as a young adult. I have come to have people in my life who recognize not only God’s calling, but see the talents as well, and how they all tie in.

Often, God’s plan and purpose will require the talents he blesses us with, and sometimes it takes finding the right people to believe in you and pour into you, to water and grow those gifts so you can walk out the purpose of your life.

There is no one simple method for discovering your purpose, for we each have our own path to walk. For some of us, we know as a child, others we find it as a young man, and some struggle and fight for years through our adulthood, but I would urge you, if you are struggling to find your purpose, prayer this simple prayer.

God, what is the purpose you have for me? Is there anywhere I am believing something untrue about you? Am I not submitted to your Will or is there anywhere in my life I am holding on to my plan over yours? God, let it not be about what I want from you, but what you want from me. Help me to fully surrender to you. To fully surrender to your plan, your purpose, the reason I am here. What is you would have me do today, and every day after? Let my life be a life submitted to your will. Amen.

I am writing this post shortly after the tragic shooting of a tremendous patriot and hero of the faith, Charlie Kirk. When I started to type this I had to pray, for strength to process my emotions as I was feeling a myriad of heavy emotions.

I have enjoyed listening to Charlie Kirk for years, he was a talented debater with a gift from God, and a falling to reach the most in need and vulnerable of our nation, our youth.

During the last few years the attacks targeting outspoken conservative, and particularly conservative Christians has been on the rise. Now we know as believers that this should be no surprise, I have heard countless conservative Christians express the same view of how blessed we have been to have the religious freedom to worship without fear, but that it could all be taken away from us if we allowed it .

I could use this (very small) outlet to respond in flesh and anger, but I won’t do that, which is why I had to pray before this post. We are coming to a head, a pivotal moment in American history is coming before us, and now more than ever American Christians need to rise to meet the age.

Darkness and evil are emboldened, lashing out against truth and light at every corner, many so called leaders are leading the people of our nation astray, promoting that which is evil and calling it good.

Everywhere you turn, from small towns in the middle of conservative America, to mega cities the people are challenging God’s truth and what is right, fighting for sin to be praised and not the truth of God’s word. And many of us Christians, myself included, have been sitting idly by and allowing the rampant sin to plague our nation, while we go to work, and entertain ourselves, forgetting the Godly duty we have.

I am not a promoter of physical violence, it is not the way for Christianity, but I do believe in organization, being active and outspoken for our faith. I do believe in standing up before wickedness and not backing down, but standing bold as a lion and declaring over our nation and our families, that the enemy will have no more.

We need to stand against the violence plaguing our nation, and we need to stand against the perpetrators of evil, violence, sin and self indulgent lies. It is time for more Christians to raise the banner high, and proclaim Jesus, without wavering in the face of a nation and culture that seem to be moving further and further away from the good news of Christ.

It is heartbreaking to see where our nation is heading, to see the patterns that lead to the evil socialist regimes in Russia, Nazi Germany and Italy, as well as countless nations in our own time, being fully accepted and advanced in our own nation.

We can become upset, we can choose to do nothing and go back to our tv and video games, or we can begin to mobilize and organize. It is time for the Christian to live up to the full call of Revelation 12:11, to overcome by the blood of of Jesus, the word of our testimonies and to not love our lives only to death.

That Christ and His kingdom would be our heart’s proclamation; and that we would do our part to advance the kingdom on Earth, not with violence, but in love, with true love that does not condone sin, but loves through it into a place of freedom from sin.

I pray that from this tragedy more Christians will find the strength, the will and the courage to challenge evil, darkness, sin and lies boldly, that we will all rise up to challenge the culture of political violence that seems to be swarming the nation.