English Standard Version
For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

— 2 Corinthians 10:18

The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

9:1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.

2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

— Nehemiah 9:1–3 (ESV)

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

— Matthew 5:42 (ESV)

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

18 a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

19 a false witness who breathes out lies,

and one who sows discord among brothers.

— Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)

17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’

18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

— Deuteronomy 8:17–18 (ESV)

That at the beginning he had often passed his time appointed for prayer, in rejecting wandering thoughts and falling back into them. That he could never regulate his devotion by certain methods, as some do. That, nevertheless, at first he had meditated for some time, but afterwards that went off, in a manner he could give no account of.

That all bodily mortifications and other exercises are useless, but as they serve to arrive at the union with God by love: that he had well considered this, and found it the shortest way, to go straight to Him by a continual practice of love, and doing all things for His sake.

That we ought to make a great difference between the acts of the understanding and those of the will; that the first were comparatively of little value, and the others all. That our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God.

That all possible kinds of mortification, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the Blood of Jesus Christ, labouring simply to love Him with all our hearts. That God seemed to have granted the greatest favours to the greatest sinners, as more signal monuments of His mercy.

That the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were not to be compared with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state: so that he was careful for nothing, and feared nothing, desiring but one thing only of God, viz., that he might not offend Him.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. (1906). The practice of the presence of God. (Page 15) London: H. R. Allenson.

English Standard Version
you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.

— Deuteronomy 26:2

Daily reading

Worship

Theological reality

Diversity

Catechism

Fundamentals

Isaiah 42:8 – I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.

Habakkuk 2:14 – For the earth will be filled
    with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

God Himself

Romans 9:17 – For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God has made me,
    and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Acts 17:27 – that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

Worship is not passive

Pro-straight worship

Worship costs

Process the cost

Psalms are sung

Celebrate real-time

Approaching the throne of Grace

Affections of the heart

The desires and affections of the heart

A call to worship

Sing to the Lord a new song

Kiss the feet of the King

Come before the King with offerings