I'm reading a thought provoking book by Robert Webber called, "Worship--Old and New." When Dr. Webber talks about worship in its broadest sense, he defines it as a "meeting between God and His people."
This definition has been kicking around in my head all week. The more I think about it, the more I like it. In my understanding of God, the thing that I think God wants more than anything else is for us to meet with Him and commune with Him.
I hear people say that worship is everything, everywhere, all the time. I think this is faulty thinking. Not everything is God honoring. Not everything mirrors a life lived in obedience to Christ nor does every action bring glory to God. However, when one wields one's thoughts, emotions and service in order to meet God, I think it is worship.
To flush out this thinking, an individual could read the most advanced theological ideas ever constructed but never meet God in the process--this is not worship. A worship leader could put together the most beautiful sounding praise set of all time and never meet God in corporate worship--thus the individual did not worship. Finally, a person could do beautiful acts of service with an ugly heart and totally miss giving God honor--this is not worship.
If we were to take those same scenarios and allow those individuals to meet God in their thinking/reading, allow the individual to connect with God through the praise set so that the individual is responding to who God is and doing service that allows others to meet with God--I think this is worship.
May we meet God through our hearts, our heads and use our hands to serve people so that they may also meet with God this day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I preached a sermon very similar to this a few weeks ago. Great points!
Kellie --Paragraph #4 wasn't written off of I Cor. 13 but if it made you think, praise God. Thanks for reading. I would be intrigued to hear what you have to say about being patient, kind and etc. towards God. It is a little hard for me to get my mind around due to the fact that we are fallen and God is perfect. I think any response that we showed God (love,kindness,patience etc) would simply be a mere reflection of who God is.
Post a Comment