From Walk in the Word by Pastor James MacDonald
Worship Defined
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind . . .” Luke 10:27
We were created and saved for the sole purpose of bringing glory to God. True worship recognizes that I am for Him. I breathe for Him. I live for Him. I spend my life for Him. The essence of worship is proclaiming God’s rightful worth and position. It’s one of the reasons why we go to church: to sweep out the peripherals that have crowded God out of His central place in our lives.
So much of what passes for worship these days misses that mark. Worship is not about me-what God does for me and how He benefits me. Worship is not singing, “Hold me close, let Your love surround me, bring me near . . .” An element of testimony is fine, but worship is singing to God. The joy of worship begins when we break the chains of self to be free to focus on God once and for all. God is not some exalted human being at the top of the mankind chain. God is ineffable glory. He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). He is not like us at all. He says of Himself in Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God leads us to the place of worship because that is the place where we rightly belong. The word worship in the Old Testament means “to bow before.” It’s the picture of pressing your forehead to the ground in extreme humility and recognition of the infinite superiority of the one who is worshipped. That is our rightful place. The amazing thing is not that God invites our worship, it’s that He would care about what we as sinful people would say about Him at all and even more-that He would seek it (John 4:23).
Though I can’t explain it exactly, when the God of the universe is rightly worshipped, powerful things happen. When Jesus is passionately adored without shame or pretense, without entertainment or needless comedy, God shows up.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Worship Defined
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2 comments:
thanks for visiting my blog! i'm loving yours..looking forward to reading more...
fyi...did you know james mcdonald has a blog? no one hardly ever comments..must not be pumped up much or else dudes just don't comment..he is just hilarious though..:)
lisa
Awesome post! I agree 100%. "Worship" music today has become so "not worship" at all. As part of a worship team myself we feel it is critical that we teach what "worship" is and what it isn't. I always find it amusing when people come to me after a service and say "worship was great this morning" - I say, "yes, when Pastor prayed during communion and spoke of all those amazing attributes of God - it was quite a deep moment with the Lord." I don't mean to lessen how music affects one's spirit and life. I understand that totally - but worship isn't only music and much of our music isn't worship at all. Worship is life abandoned to God - a perpetual praise offering!
By the way, I found this post off of Mandy's post - I'm glad I did... You have a beautiful family!!!
Lord bless you!
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