Worship In Spirit

I believe there is "NO" wrong way of worship since worship is spiritual from the heart. That's between God and the believer who worship. There are different preferences of beliefs and different style of worship. Some prefer one worship style while other prefer another worship style. Christians sometimes follow their conscience on their worship preferences. The key is when we are in a community of people when worshipping, its matter of respect and self-control.

Short Definition of "Lukewarm"

Think of this: If you ever had occasion to drink a lukewarm soft drink, you know the feeling. This is an illustration of a lukewarm drink to describe the distaste that makes God spit out the church at Laodicea. He doesn't want to have anything to do with it. The lukewarm ones are professing Christians who play games, but are not really His. They have been touched by the gospel in some way. They nauseate God because they know the truth but they have pride.

Tempted to Sin and Negative Circumstances

If we get "tempted" to sin, we know the source is Satan because he knows that our spiritual warfare is in our hearts. God meets us in our heart rather than our mind therefore we need to focus on the "heart of the matter". "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."--Matt. 26:41. Biblically, Christians are no longer "in the flesh": "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). "If Christ is in us, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10). Regarding "circumstances".....Romans 8:28-29 "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Proverbs 20:24 How can we understand the road we travel? It is the LORD who directs our steps. When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. Eccl 7:14. In Proverbs 16:9 We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps. God has given us opportunities to do the Great Commission with our circumstances which means an opportunity that is defined as a providential circumstance which permits us to use to glorify God. All circumstances can turn people to God. Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

"Is there sufficient grace to help us in every issue of life?"

"Is there sufficient grace to help us in every issue of life?" Life is filled with difficulty. Life is filled with pain and sorrow and suffering. Bad things happen to everybody because we are living in a sinful world. Things will go wrong, they will go wrong all the time and that God has given us the grace to survive. God has given us the grace to sanctify us. The sources of "thorns" can be weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions and difficulties. We don't know the source of Paul's thorn but when Paul wrote later, he listed all the thorns and he didn't say which one he was experiencing. In my personal view, reading Corinthians and history of Corinthians, Paul defines this thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan (that's another word for a demon, Satan's angel). A demon had moved in to some false teachers, brought the false teachers into the Corinthian church. The false teachers were trying to destroy his reputation because of his past (murderer). I believed that Paul saw this as a thorn in his flesh. It was tearing him because of his great love for the church and the people in Corinthians. Instead of fighting with false teachers, God gave Paul grace to endure and allow God to handle the situation. Paul just needed to focus on God rather than the problem. God uses suffering to perfect His power as verse 9 said "Power is perfected in weakness". God is saying "You should not have self-confidence and trust in yourself in the sense you believe you're capable of anything eternal that only I can provide grace and power." Only God can overcome situation as long as you trust in His GRACE. The question here is, when God given you the grace to handle the sufferings of life, did you allowed Him? That's the issue. Paul’s thorn was not his main focus but rather something far more deeper. The thorns are not necessarily evil, but rather the works of self-righteousness. God answer to our prayers because He knows that our trouble does not lie in our focus, but in ourselves. God is not here to get our circumstances straightened out so that we will become happy. Grace of heart is a gift from God and this has nothing to do with the thorns because God change our circumstances by changing us internally, by allowing Him to lift us above our present thorn and He will lead us into His will. It is a choice God gives us within the parameters of His omnipotence. Grace is having all sufficiency in everything we may have an abundance for every good deed. The right perspective is to understand that in the trouble of life this is part of it trying to discern what God is doing in the trouble of it. James says count it all joy when you fall into various trials cause trials have a perfecting work. Peter says after you've suffered a while the Lord will make you perfect. God uses suffering to reveal our spiritual condition. In the midst of the sufferings, what kind of Christian do you see yourself? God answers not by removing the pain, because the pain was productive, rather God gave Grace to endure. In this life it is inevitable and it is useful because it produces the evidence of your true spiritual condition, humility and intimacy with God and allows God to put Himself on display in His grace. "Therefore as, we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers" (Galatians 6:10). The needs of the people, not our own convenience, decide how far we shall go and how much we shall do. Had there been no Fall there would have been no thorns and no cross. Christ was the perfect example of the healthy normal man, He did not live a normal life. He sacrificed many pure enjoyments to the holy work of moral rescue. That example taught me that the needs of the world and my ability to minister to those needs. God is not primarily an emotion, but an act of the will that true Christian love is the love of willing, not the love of feeling. It's the devil who would like to make our life superficial prosperous, superficial successful, superficial happiness and superficial peace because then we pride ourselves with pride so others can see how much faith we have. God's power is GRACE and that is where my faith is.