{"id":27793,"date":"2023-08-17T10:14:37","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T17:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-ontrack-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-08-17T10:28:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T17:28:49","slug":"2023-worship","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"The Privilege of Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">By Max Lucado<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>The Privilege of Worship<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27794 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"549\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-1.jpg 549w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-1-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When religion is used for profit and prestige, people are exploited and God is infuriated.<\/p>\n<p>When Jesus entered Jerusalem the first day of Passover week, Matthew 21:12 and 13 says, \u201cHe went into the temple and threw out all the people who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves. Jesus said to all the people there, \u2018It is written in the Scriptures, \u201cMy temple will be called a house for prayer.\u201d But you are changing it into a \u201chideout for robbers.\u201d&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hucksters. Faith peddlers. People making a franchise out of the faith. This was not a temper tantrum.\u00a0It was an intentional message: \u201cCash in on my people and you\u2019ve got me to answer to.\u201d You see, God will never hold guiltless those who exploit the privilege of worship.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27795 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-2-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Most Incredible Invitation<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Invitations are special. To be invited is to be honored\u2014to be held in high esteem!<\/p>\n<p>The most incredible invitations aren\u2019t found in envelopes, they\u2019re found in the Bible. God invited Eve to marry Adam, the animals to enter the ark, David to be the king, Israel to leave bondage, and Mary to give birth to his son.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome,\u201d he invited. \u201cThough your sins be as scarlet, they can be white as snow. Come to me all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.\u201d \u201cCome,\u201d he would say.<\/p>\n<p>You see, God is the King who invites us to come. Who prepares the palace and sets the table and invites his subjects to come in. His invitation for you, however, is not just for a meal \u2013 it\u2019s for\u00a0<em>life<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-27796 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"479\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-3.png 479w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/worship-3-300x143.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 479px) 100vw, 479px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":27795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-27793","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27797,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/27793\/revisions\/27797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27793"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=27793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}