Beware of Settling for Religious Routine

# 65 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 4:11 Also the ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. ( 1 Sam 4:11) God exposes the false security of the Israelites by allowing Himself to be captured by the enemy. The glory has departed! This is the lot of dead orthodoxy. But what do I mean by dead orthodoxy? I mean any and all religious expression that becomes rote. It's the age old trap of getting very comfortable with religious routine and ritual. So comfortable that you begin to think that it's all you need to do. Dead orthodoxy is not restricted to what we call liturgical churches. Every church has their own liturgy. Every church settles into a routine of worship, and this routine always poses the danger of becoming a substitute for true worship of God. We would do well to learn from the early church in this regard. It was their custom to meet on the first day of the week, which they referred to as “the Lord's Day,” commemorating the day of His resurrection. This worship service had two main elements. The preaching of the Word and the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Ac 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. Midnight!!!!! Talk about a hunger for anointed preaching! Prayers, praise, and thanksgiving were also very likely a part of the service. It was a great time for strengthening mutual faith. But the true test of faith always took place during the rest of the week. I like the way the Lutheran biblical commentator Paul Kretzmann put it in commenting on this passage from Samuel. He said, “many have the name of Christ in their mouths but are far from accepting Him as their personal Savior. God wants true repentance, faith, fear of His Word. A dead orthodoxy without piety of the heart avails nothing.” Beware of settling for religious routine!