“But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15).

One reason God unites husbands and wives in marriage is that “He seeks godly offspring.” He desires Christian couples to raise Christian children. The responsibility for Christian education falls squarely in the lap of parents. God tells fathers to bring up their children “. . . in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), and He says through Moses, “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul . . . . You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19).

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news” (Isaiah 52:7 NIV).

“I sure could use a little good news for a change!” Do you ever have such thoughts? You encounter the plethora of tragic news stories broadcast on TV and the internet: natural disasters like earthquakes and floods causing widespread destruction; nations at each other’s throats, firing missiles at one another;

Our minds were designed by our Creator to work on the basis of logic. Researchers tell us that this is why optical illusions work on us. Our brains, in attempting to see patterns in chaos, will often fill in “missing” information allowing us to see things that aren’t actually present. We all like logic and order in our lives, to different extents. We want to know the sun will rise tomorrow and that two plus two will still equal four. However, our God has given us our logic and reasoning ability to figure out problems and day-to-day strategies in this physical life. There is a whole different set of rules for our spiritual one.

I have held my fair share of gym memberships over the years—enough to realize the purpose behind all the machines that you find there. They aren’t there just to get your body into a wide variety of physical positions—sitting, standing, lying down, bending over. Their purpose is to exercise, and thereby strengthen, the various
muscles of your body as you go through the various positions and the ever-increasing amounts of resistance.

It is the same when it comes to worship—it also comes with a purpose!

The word for “worship” in the New Testament Greek carries with it the idea of a person literally lying prostrate before someone else. Picture for yourself, perhaps, the thousands of Muslims at the call to prayer, on their knees with their foreheads to the ground. Better yet, picture Martin Luther in the movies made of his life, where he is lying completely flat on his face on the cold stone floor of the church. That is the word picture behind the idea of “worship.”