HOW to MAIL a VALENTINE to GOD  

by Linda Harper

Because we do not live in a society where wooden or stone images are set up in prominent public places and openly worshipped, it is sometimes difficult for us to understand what “Praise and Worship” are all about.  In Old Testament accounts, the Israelites knew how to worship. They worshipped both the True God and, in times of sinful rebellion, turned their devotion and energies to worshipping false gods of wood, stone, gold, the heavenly bodies, etc. They may have often worshipped gods that “were no gods” but they had no problem knowing how to worship!

The “man after God’s own heart”, the psalmist and minstrel, King David, knew how to worship in the way that pleased God.  He gave us some guidelines in Psalm 100.

Psalm 100, A Psalm of Praise. 1. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. 2. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. 3. Know...

 A close Musician friend of mine recently asked:

Do you think I think my identity lies in what I do?

 My Response:

I don't know about you. I just know that performance-based identity is something I have struggled with for nearly a half a century. I figure if it has been such an issue with me, perhaps other musicians may find it a challenge to be set free in this area also.

 Our perception of self-worth can easily get tangled up with what we think others think about us. We measure ourselves by ourselves and wind up comparing apples to oranges and put ourselves in the wrong barrel. If I am an apple, then I should be perfectly content to look like one, smell like one and taste like one. If I am comparing myself to the oranges or bananas in the adjacent crates then I may think I am not tangy enough, not brightly colored enough ( I love the color yellow) and pretty dull by comparison.

 Having our identity in what we do sets us up for periodic hard-drive crashes....