Nehemiah 9:3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God.

This whole chapter is a beautiful example of corporate worship. They weren’t making animal sacrifices, but they were sacrificing their comfort (standing all that time) and were focusing on the faithfulness of God and their own unworthiness. There are many kinds of worship, but the focus must be on God for it to be valid. God is not happy with man-centered “worship,” and doesn’t receive it. (Isaiah 1:11-13) I am reminded of what a Chinese pastor once said when he was asked his impression of churches he had visited in the US: “I am amazed at how much you can do without the Holy Spirit.” What a condemnation! We want people to feel welcome in our assemblies, but if our focus becomes creature comforts, the assemblies themselves lose all meaning. Not every service is to be dominated by confession of sin – we should be walking closer to the Lord than to need that – but every service needs to have a sharp focus on God, and how every good thing He pours out on us is by grace, and not something we deserve. It is right for God’s children to expect good things from Him, but we must not take them for granted, or overlook our failures.

My times of confession of sin are rarely in a corporate setting, but they are real. I am not to seek to humiliate anyone, but I am to help believers understand the importance of confessing their faith and confessing their sins. When confession becomes institutionalized, it tends to lose much of its meaning. That’s not to say that corporate recitations of the Apostle’s Creed, for example, are wrong, but frequent repetition tends to dull the impact. I remember the testimony of a formerly Lutheran pastor who talked about the bondage of confessing over and over again sins that had been forgiven and therefore blotted out. The reason for the Israelites in today’s passage confessing their ancestors’ sins was because they themselves were suffering the consequences of those sins, and they had added plenty of their own. I don’t know if Japanese are often, if ever, called on to confess and repent of the sins of their ancestors. That may be one source of bondage in the Church today. I need to address this subject in prayer before I address it from the pulpit, but we need to be released from all bondage, to be and do all that God intends.

Father, thank You for this Word this morning. Help me hear You clearly and speak only what You say, rather than spouting off what­ever my mind comes up with. Help me, help us all, walk in a clear awareness and appreciation of Your grace, so that we may be fully responsive and obedient to You at all times, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!