Worship: Encouragement Part I

When I was a part of the Brooklyn MC, my life group was reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (which I highly recommend). Well, I finally got back a copy of the book from the library today and offer you this humble gift from what I read today ...

Jesus answers for all time the question of whom we are to worship. "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve" (Matt 4.10). God made clear his hatred for all idolatries by placing an incisive command at the start of the Decalogue. "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20.3). Nor does idolatry consist only in bowing before visible objects of adoration. A.W. Tozer says, "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him." To think rightly about God is, in an important sense, to have everything right. To think wrongly about God is, in an important sense to have everything wrong.

If the Lord is to be Lord, worship must have priority in our lives. The first commandment of Jesus is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12.30). The divine priority is worship first, service second. Our lives are to be punctuated with praise, thanksgiving, and adoration. Service flows out of worship. Service as a substitute for worship is idolatry. Activity is the enemy of adoration.

A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in what we could only call a "holy expectancy." They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God. It was not surprising to them that the building in which they met shook with the power of God. It had happened before (Acts 2.2, 4.31). When some dropped dead and others were raised from the dead by the word of the Lord, the people knew that God was in their midst (Acts 5.1-11, 9.36-43, 20.7-10). They gathered with anticipation, knowing that Christ was present among them and would teach them and touch them with his living power. When more than one or two come into public worship with a holy expectancy, it can change the atmosphere of a room.

Live throughout the week as an heir of the kingdom, listening for his voice, obeying his word.

With much love - Amanda Kay :)

Hebrews 10.24 - And let us continue to consider how to motivate one another to love and good deeds.