Worship

I read Barbara Hughes' chapter on 'The Discipline of Worship' in her 'Disciplines of a Godly Woman' this week for a ladies' discipleship group, and the following post is the result of our group discussion on the issues it raised.

True worship is not judged by outward appearances, but by the state of the person's heart towards God. You could sing with 100% energy, and yet not be worshipping God. You could attend church every Sunday, but if your heart is not striving to love God and obey Him, your worship is meaningless. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul makes the mistake of thinking he can worship God in the way that he wants to. He is commanded to kill all the Amalekites, including their livestock, but he keeps Agag the king alive, and keeps the best of the livestock to sacrifice to God. His motives seem fairly good, but fundamentally he was disobeying God's command, and so Samuel rebuked him.

Therefore, to worship God 'in spirit and in truth' (John 4) means that you engage both your heart and your mind. We need to worship the God of the Bible, not shape our own god from what we think God should be like. It's no use singing songs to a god that we've decided could never send anyone to hell. We wouldn't be worshipping in truth then. But similarly, there's no use being doctinally correct without engaging our hearts in real love for God and all He has done for us.

In everything we do -our work, our social time, our leisure- we can worship Christ by doing everything for Him and to please Him (Col 3:17). But does this mean that we don't need to go to church? What makes our Sunday services different from this everyday worship? Well, on Sundays we participate in corporate worship. Our corporate worship is not just singing songs together, but hearing the Bible read and preached. It is vital for us to be members of a local church for our own spiritual health and for the sake of the world. God designed us to live the Christian life as part of the Body of Christ- it's not a solo pursuit. It's much harder to stand for Jesus when you're alone in a hostile world. Knowing other Christians and meeting with them regularly helps to strengthen you and encourage you that you need to stand firm till the end. Also, hearing God's word preached can challenge you with things in your life that God wants you to change, and help you get to know God better.

The church is God's designated place for Christians to meet together, disciple each other, and send each other out into the world to preach the good news of the gospel. In one sense the church is not a physical building, but God's people all over the world. But in another sense, each local church is an important unit of God's people, and we should make every effort to commit ourselves to it. The church needs you and you need the church!