A look at worship.
The other day I was getting ready for Genesis,(the ministry I lead worship for) and I started thinking about what true worship is. The Bible shows us that while singing songs is an act of worship, it isnt the only way we worship God. Worshiping God should be a lifestyle. In Isaiah 1:1-20, God talks of how the Isrealites worship with all these offerings and services but they don't live the way they say. Now, how can we get to this point with God? How can we avoid doing the same thing? Well, let me propose a scenario to you.
You get married. Sweet! That's awesome! But once you are married you rarely ever spend time with your spouse. Occassionally you might exchange a few words but it is usually only when you need him or her to do something for you. However, there are many other people who see your other half quite often. They spend time together, share laughs, do movies, go to dinner, etc... And these people become very very close to your spouse. So you decide that your relationship with him/her will be perfectly fine if you just ask those other people to tell you what it is like to spend time with your husband or wife and what they are like.
And they do. Constantly they talk of how great this person is. And how beautiful she is. How great he can play football. "She's an amazing cook!", one of them might say. Or, "He is such a great guy. He is always so nice to everyone!"..............You get the point.
So lets say, once a week, you do actually spend time with this AMAZING spouse of yours. And in that time you decide to tell him/her how truly amazing they really are. So, you might say....."Hunny, you are an amazing cook!"(you've never tried her cooking) or "Hey, I can't believe that you hold the door for women like that.....what a gentlmen!"(you've never been out in public with him) Once again you get the point that you are basing your entire relationship with your spouse on what other people tell you and not on personal experience. Why would you do that? Would he or she really take you seriously?.......................Probably not.
So many times we do the same thing to God. We go to church, sing songs, listen to sermons and never spend any time at all with God other than that. We think we can base our relationship with God entirely on what other people, who do spend time with Him, tell us. In a sense it's like we say, "Oh, well obviously my pastor spends time with God, cause He is a pastor. So I can just see what God is like, by listening to what he says. That is just as good right?...................is it?.....................well.......why do we do it? Songs that we sing to God are suppossed to be from our heart and an outpouring of the time we spend with Him. It is impossible to have a relationship with The KING above all kings and not be moved to want to sing........believe me.
So I just want to challenge all of us. Lets see what God is like first hand...and that way we can know that our songs to Him will be truly from the heart.
You get married. Sweet! That's awesome! But once you are married you rarely ever spend time with your spouse. Occassionally you might exchange a few words but it is usually only when you need him or her to do something for you. However, there are many other people who see your other half quite often. They spend time together, share laughs, do movies, go to dinner, etc... And these people become very very close to your spouse. So you decide that your relationship with him/her will be perfectly fine if you just ask those other people to tell you what it is like to spend time with your husband or wife and what they are like.
And they do. Constantly they talk of how great this person is. And how beautiful she is. How great he can play football. "She's an amazing cook!", one of them might say. Or, "He is such a great guy. He is always so nice to everyone!"..............You get the point.
So lets say, once a week, you do actually spend time with this AMAZING spouse of yours. And in that time you decide to tell him/her how truly amazing they really are. So, you might say....."Hunny, you are an amazing cook!"(you've never tried her cooking) or "Hey, I can't believe that you hold the door for women like that.....what a gentlmen!"(you've never been out in public with him) Once again you get the point that you are basing your entire relationship with your spouse on what other people tell you and not on personal experience. Why would you do that? Would he or she really take you seriously?.......................Probably not.
So many times we do the same thing to God. We go to church, sing songs, listen to sermons and never spend any time at all with God other than that. We think we can base our relationship with God entirely on what other people, who do spend time with Him, tell us. In a sense it's like we say, "Oh, well obviously my pastor spends time with God, cause He is a pastor. So I can just see what God is like, by listening to what he says. That is just as good right?...................is it?.....................well.......why do we do it? Songs that we sing to God are suppossed to be from our heart and an outpouring of the time we spend with Him. It is impossible to have a relationship with The KING above all kings and not be moved to want to sing........believe me.
So I just want to challenge all of us. Lets see what God is like first hand...and that way we can know that our songs to Him will be truly from the heart.
posted by Michael Baur at 1:01 PM
1 Comments:
right on mikey
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