Food for Thoughts

I read this verse during my devotion which made me paused for a moment and to ponder on my commitment to Him. The verse is Matthew 15:8-9 which says:
"These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me,
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.." (also a quote from Isaiah 29.13)
This kind of people are what Jesus called hypocrites but it is targeted at the pharisees at that time.
Ignoring the pharisees, coming back to me I think this verse really me profoundly. Many times I believe I was merely offering lip services to God during worship session, singing for the sake of singing but far from Him. Do we sometimes (or most of the times) just offer lip services during worship just to add the intensity of sound during singspiration, not knowing what we sing or just sing for fun? Even worse, we believe we're worshiping Him in spirit and in truth while our lifestyle speaks otherwise.To me I find it very hard to sing praises to Him when I did bad things, for example ( example only!) watching pornography syok syok and later go to youth fellowship and sing a song of praise like "You are my all in all....Jesus,Lamb of God..Worthy is Your Name....". Is this right? Absolutely not! It's like you steal your dad's wallet and later go say "I love you,dad".
After a long discussion, my point is that our worship should reflect our lifestyle, showing that God is worthy to be praised after what He has done in our lives, changing us from inside out. If we knew we were sinning against Him all these while, ask God for His forgiveness and guidance of the Holy Spirit that we will sin less.Turn to the bible to seek His guidance in life.As conclusion Psalms 119:11 is essential for all Christian's spiritual growth:
"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

success or holiness?

the MUET teacher today (english for people who's not yet in form 6) showed us a blog about a student. Girl M who got a band six which is the highest grade for english. That achievement is something that i admire but not the attitude of the one getting it.

Firstly, she bragged about herself being a 99% english speaker all the time. Ok, that's not good. NExt, she said she did not practise for the speaking session as she is a public speaker and debater. ok... then, she goes on to say she practiced with well-known speakers that took part in debates as well. Of course, when she described herself, she listed everything from being active in this that but.. she lacks something. The heart.

People tend to say that the higher educated the person is, the more mature he or she is. How wrong can that assumption be. From what i see, she's not showing me any maturity for her age. If i have to sacrifice my holiness for pride to get success, i rather not get success at all. it's not fitting for a believer of the Lord to act like this. You are educated to be better, not to be worse than before.

Point of the day :Are you wiling to sacrifice success when your holiness and well being comes into questioning?