June 4, 2025

“To them that long for the presence of the living God, the thought of Him is sweetest itself: but there is no satiety, rather an ever-increasing appetite...” 

― Bernard of Clairvaux

This upcoming Sunday, we will move deeper into the topic of vision renewal as we shift from vision to mission. For the sake of connecting the dots, we must ask ourselves, “What does it look like to embrace and extend the good news of the Risen Lord Jesus in Spokane…?” The first thing to address in answer to this question is worship. D.A. Carson once wrote that “Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their Creator-God.” We glorify God, not just in the “singing-together-on-sunday” sense of the word, but worship in the most robust sense possible; not just with our lips, but also in our lives.

In pursuit of this full sense of the Christian life as worship, many make the mistake of devaluing the Lord’s Day: “It’s not what we do on Sunday that really matters, but how we live during the other six days of the week.” The way we live does matter, and it is true that our Sunday morning, or religious worship, will be less than acceptable if our devotion is only for show. It goes wrong by implying that our individual moral decisions are the total of our faith and that religious Sunday morning stuff is like a sort of spiritual window dressing: pretty, but not really necessary. The biggest mistake in this perspective is that it puts you and I in the wrong position - we aren’t the consumers of our worship (at least, we aren’t supposed to be!) - God is. As often as we remember this, we lean into the lives that God has given us to live, lives in joyful dependence and celebration of his eternal glory! 

“The glory of God is man fully alive, but the life of man is the vision of God.”; “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”** The chief expression of Coram Deo is gathered Lord’s Day worship on Sunday Morning, which transforms how we live at home, work, rest, and play throughout the week.

**Ireneaus of Lyons; Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechism #1