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Lip-Syncing Worship

It's not that I expected my children to be clones of their mother and I. But my two little girls are as beautiful as my wife. But it's a little too soon to know if my son will be a triple-threat guy like me. But I was a bit surprised to hear our older two, both in elementary school, complaining about music class.

Our house is always full of music. My wife and I love to sing. And around the house the children can usually be heard singing a tune, when they're not beating each other with a sharp stick. But days that have music class are not looked forward to.

I guess it makes sense. How often can you sing about wheels on a bus? We teach them about farmers, bed-jumping monkeys, sheep and how to touch their heads and shoulders, their knees and toes. It can get a little old. But my son has it figured out. He told me he just moves his mouth to make it look like he's singing. Then he showed me. I'm sure his music teacher doesn't have a clue. That is, as long as she's blind, she doesn't have a clue.

I told my kids they reminded me of Milli Vanilli. They asked who that was. I could just blame it on the rain, but apparently I'm getting older. I should have told them it was like singers who auto-tune.

Seeing further implications, I asked about the songs we sing on Sunday. 'Nope', he said, 'I just lip-sync those as well.'

Sigh.

Sadly we see this in people everywhere today. Their lips are moving, their heads are nodding in agreement and their feet are bringing them into church, but that's where it ends. It's all a show. Jesus condemned the show in Matthew 23:23-29.

He starts out a bit mildly when talking about how the religious leaders go through the motions of giving. The problem is that it's more habit than worship. But then Jesus paints two vivid pictures showing how the Pharisees really look like they are worshiping God on the outside. In all actuality Jesus calls them out for not loving God with their hearts.

They are dirty cups. They are like well manicured grave sites. It looks nice, but it doesn't change the fact that there's a dead body inside. The same can be said for us if we are only outward actions with an unchanged heart. It should be mentioned that Jesus didn't think kindly towards the people who acted this way. He used words like hypocrites, snakes and wicked. There's a reason for that.

They are lip-syncing their way through worship.

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