"Abortion: The Context of our Praise"

This convicting excerpt from this insightful blog points out the flawed attitude we often have regarding church services.

"This emphasis on the cultivation of shallow but pleasant feelings and a sense of fun in evangelical churches is a large part of why the church finds itself irrelevant to contemporary culture. While we are busy trying to show the world “Christians can have fun too”, the world around us grows an ever darker, more murderous place.
We fail to consider our context. The most significant fact we should carry with us about our culture as we consider how we might design church services that speak to it is the reality of abortion. We should remember that while we fill our services with clever skits and shallow songs and advice on achieving your best life now, the streets of our cities run with the blood of 50 million babies.
Whatever we do in church, it should point to something, indeed someone, strong enough and virile enough, to gain victory over evil of that magnitude. The culture of death is the culture into which we speak. Abortion is the context of our praise. A church dedicated to her own entertainment, to feeling good on Sunday mornings will fail, indeed has failed, to point to Jesus, the one who will redeem and punish the evil of our age."

Perhaps next week instead of wondering if my crockpot is plugged in or hoping my child does not scream, I can instead consider the bigger picture: I am worshipping a just God, a God who sees the evil in me and the evil of my surroundings.

And yet, this same God takes delight in being merciful.