The Essence of Worship
The classic definition of worship is to bow oneself down in acknowledgement of the worth of someone compared to oneself. Another way of thinking about it when worshipping God is that in the act of worship you humble yourself and acknowledge how "low" you are compared to God's infinite exaltation. But I want to offer you this ... the essence of worship is obedience to the word of God.
I think of how many times I see and hear about people who read the Bible and then try to change the plain meaning of the verses and passages to allow them to continue in some sin they are attached to. But true worship receives the word of God as a good and holy thing and then (in obedience to the received word) we change ourselves to conform to the word. We are supposed to change to match what the word says ... not change the word to match the favotire passing fancy of the world around us.
Failure to do this is the essence of worldliness, which is the opposite of holiness. We are warned in scripture that friendship with the world is to be an enemy of God. Why? Friendship with the world leads to sin which is rebellion against God's word. And again, scripture says that rebelion is the same as the sin of witchcraft. The cure for worldliness is holiness, which is grown in us as we become more and more obedient to the word of God.
We were not saved to take Jesus as our savior and live with Satan as our Lord. No! We were saved for good works, which God had ordained beforehand that we should walk in them. We were saved so that our light would so shine before men that they would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven because of them. We were saved to be living epistles to the truth that God saves from sin. We are God's letter written to the world. Our lives are the contents of that letter.
Beloved, let us never forget, we are saved by the Spirit and the Word, and we are changed by the Spirit and the Word. Coming into conformity with what the Bible says is the recipe for growing in Christlikeness. And that is why we are saved.
The classic definition of worship is to bow oneself down in acknowledgement of the worth of someone compared to oneself. Another way of thinking about it when worshipping God is that in the act of worship you humble yourself and acknowledge how "low" you are compared to God's infinite exaltation. But I want to offer you this ... the essence of worship is obedience to the word of God.
I think of how many times I see and hear about people who read the Bible and then try to change the plain meaning of the verses and passages to allow them to continue in some sin they are attached to. But true worship receives the word of God as a good and holy thing and then (in obedience to the received word) we change ourselves to conform to the word. We are supposed to change to match what the word says ... not change the word to match the favotire passing fancy of the world around us.
Failure to do this is the essence of worldliness, which is the opposite of holiness. We are warned in scripture that friendship with the world is to be an enemy of God. Why? Friendship with the world leads to sin which is rebellion against God's word. And again, scripture says that rebelion is the same as the sin of witchcraft. The cure for worldliness is holiness, which is grown in us as we become more and more obedient to the word of God.
We were not saved to take Jesus as our savior and live with Satan as our Lord. No! We were saved for good works, which God had ordained beforehand that we should walk in them. We were saved so that our light would so shine before men that they would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven because of them. We were saved to be living epistles to the truth that God saves from sin. We are God's letter written to the world. Our lives are the contents of that letter.
Beloved, let us never forget, we are saved by the Spirit and the Word, and we are changed by the Spirit and the Word. Coming into conformity with what the Bible says is the recipe for growing in Christlikeness. And that is why we are saved.
1 Comments:
Dear John,
I like those words you posted
"We are God's letter written to the world. Our lives are the contents of that letter." Those are powerful words and they are words that we really need to focus on. The world is watching us..under a microscope. Good blog.
Cristina
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