Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Session 70:Worship
Worthy of WORSHIP! WOW! That's what comes to my mind when I think of what He has done for, is doing, and will do for me. The question is, what have I done for Him? The value I place on Jesus will result in my worship or lack of worship. As I was reading the scripture for this week's lesson, one verse just jumped out at me. Being a southern country boy, I have grown to love animals. Psalm 100:3 says that we are the sheep of His pasture. When I meditated on sheep and their relation to the shepherd, this is what I come up with: Think about sheep. Dumb, careless, dependent, wanderers, must be lead,.... I could go on and on. But, I could not help but think of how dependent that I am on God. All of us should be just as the sheep when we are living our lives knowing that God is in complete control. The shepherd is always nearby and is standing there looking out for the enemy as he preys on the sheep. Healthy sheep will eat what the shepherd offers them to eat. WOW! Do you realize that when you hear sheep groaning or see sick sheep, and you analyze the sheep and their relationship to the shepherd,you will probably see that the sheep is not eating. A satisfied and healthy sheep puts full confidence and trust in what the shepherd offers to eat and is excited to eat. We feast on the WORD OF GOD. Then, as a result of our feasting, we are excited and ready to worship. I can tell you from personal experience that when I am most happy is when I have been in the Word. True worship will begin when we work on our personal relationship with GOD!
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5 comments:
Billy, I found this somewhere. Its short and simple but speaks volumes.
How to Worship
Be silent. Be thoughtful.
Be reverent, for this is the house of the Lord.
Before the service, speak to the Lord.
During the service, allow the Lord to speak to you.
After the service, speak to one another.
written by anonymous
Go to the restroom before and/or after the service!
written by John T. Howell
Or just hold it..... Sorry John, had to add that one option. I have put alot of thought into this subject these past few days. I found it easy to worship, very difficult to worship, and wondering why I worship my Saviour. I say this not because of the lesson but Cherrie's uncle Danny Weaver passed away about 5 hours ago today. Cherrie called me while I was in Savannah and asked me to drive down to Gainesville FL and be there with her and the family. This gave me a multitude of miles and hours to ponder the situation and the subject of Worshipping The Lord of Lords. You see Danny was a very devout Child of God and was there when I was ordained as a Deacon, so my first thoughts were of his relationship with his Saviour, this made it easy to worship Christ. Because I knew that Danny was gonna get to see Jesus in a very sudden time. And as I made that drive and listened to a Casting Crowns CD, "Father, Spirit, Jesus" is a song that talks about worshipping Jesus and it help me put some things into perspective. The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept" and I found myself praising God because He didn't weep because of Lazarous's death but that He had to remove him from being with the Father. But as the mileage gathered up I found Satan getting in my way. I began to question why God would take Danny when he had so much to offer for His kingdom. There were some other issues going on that diverted my attention too, but they're not important enough to put on here. But those things I had no control over and had to just accept continued to move my praise and worship of Christ in the wrong direction. After being at the Hospital and seeing Danny lying there basically lifeless I found myself wondering why God would let a God fearing and reverent Mother suffer the loss of her son. This caused me to stop my praise for a while, I was becoming like Job's friends.
But then I became a part of a discussion with some of the family about Job and Christ. God didn't allow Job to be chastened by Satan to prove Job's righteousness, but to prove He is still God and He is still in complete control. And my spirit went immediately into pure thoughts of praise and worship to my Lord and Saviour. You see Danny was an ordained Deacon, and at my ordination I can't remember what everyone whispered in my ear as they prayed for me and my ministry as a Deacon, but I remember what Danny said just like it were yesterday. He said "Satan is fixin to start an all out war against your relationship with Jesus, prepare yourself and remember that I'm there praying for you as the fights happen." And then he prayed for me and with me.
What I learnt from this seemingly tragic situation is that Jesus rescued him from pain and this world. Now that's something to give praise and worship for, something that not one person here on this wretched world could do. But Jesus Christ can and I will worship Him when it seems all is lost, will you when the world sits hard on your mind and heart? Praise God that it only took 11,000 thousands of a second, the twinkling of an eye, for Jesus to make us anew!!!!!
Wesley, what i hear you saying is, worship is not about us. Whether we feel good, bad, things go right, things go wrong, death, life, sickness, health,etc....we are to worship.
Maybe you didn't mean it, but thats what I read. See, you have to have sound doctrine to worship properly. When our life is great, God is in control and blessing us. When our life is a train wreck God is in control and blessing us. Our response is worship.
Joyce says…..
I know this post is a lil late, but I pray that my worship is acceptable to God and if it is not I pray for conviction in the areas that need repentance and correction.
In terms of our worship, listed below are four different (I know there are many more than four) kinds of hindrances that can not only hinder worship but could also hinder our fellowship with God.
Unconfessed Sin
...In order to clear our worship, we must cleanse our lives from sin (1 John 1:9), thus restoring our fellowship with God.
Unforgiveness
...unforgiveness must be humbly confessed to God and honestly resolved before our fellow man, in order to allow our worship to be acceptable to the Lord.
A Self-Centered or Prideful Spirit...
From a worldly perspective, it would be very easy to view the worship of God as a 'what's in it for me' experience...we could also enter into worship with feelings of discontentment or impatience. But such negative feelings would indicate that we are not satisfied with God's design for our lives...
Impurity
...we are not necessarily impure if we experience a sudden reaction to an initial display or suggestion of something impure. The impurity comes in if our second reaction is not to reject the temptation and flee from it...the psalmist provided the solution: 'How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word' (Psalm 119:9)
The worship of God is an awesome and powerful experience. We must never enter into it with a flippant attitude or an insincere heart. Therefore, our aids to worship must be activities that cause us to focus totally on God...
"The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart." (Not my quote but one I feel truthful)
Stephen Bene' says,
I recently heard Charles Stanley say, "If you're not thinking right it's because your not praying right and if your not praying right it's because you're not thinking right." Our thought life and our prayer life are directly connected to each other. It only makes sense that if I'm thinking only of myself and what I want I will not be thinking about what God has planned for my life.
Our thoughts guide our actions which means that if we're not thinking right we can't worship right either. My seminary Ethics professor defined ethics as the manifestation of my faith and beliefs in my thoughts and actions in every situation of life. He said that our personal ethics are how we worship God on a daily basis. That makes perfect sense! If I am focused on God and His will I will live a life of integrity and everything I do will be in line with God's will for my life.
As a former Minister of Music and a seminary graduate I have spent alot of time thinking about and studying worship. My personal worship is the result of the closeness of my relationship to God at any given moment. My closeness to God affects every other relationship I have as well. When I am closer to God I am closer to Amanda, my boys, my friends, and my family. The opposite is also true.
When most Christians think about worship they think of corporate worship. Corporate worship is the culmination of our daily walk with God expressed through singing, prayer, the reading of Scripture, baptism, communion, tithing, and the preaching of the Word with fellow believers. Corporate worship is like "gameday" for an athelete and personal worship is like "practice". The player will only play as well as they practice. We will only worship corporately as well as we have worshipped personally throughout the week.
Lastly, 2 Chronicles 5 describes the ULTIMATE worship service. The Temple was completed and the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the Temple. The priests had spent all day making sacrifices for the people. Everyone stood clean before the Lord. The singers sang, the intrumantalists played, and the Lord came down and His glory filled the Temple. The priests could not minister because God's glory was all around them......and who says God doesn't work through music?
In His Love,
Stephen
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