Missing the Point of Worship

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Worship

A truck pulled up to the border, and a customs officer was suspicious. So he ordered the driver out and searched the vehicle. It was a thorough search: the panels, bumpers, and wheel cases are all pulled off and examined, but not a single bit of contraband could they find. Finally, the driver was waved through.

The next week, the same driver pulled to a stop at the border. The same official was there, and he was determined to find what this guy was smuggling. Again the official searched, and but again he found nothing illicit. As time went on, there were full-body searches, X-rays, and sonar, but every week the same man drove up, and no mysterious cargo was ever found.

Finally, after many years, the officer was nearing retirement. Here came the same driver. “I know you’re a smuggler,” the customs officer said. “Don’t bother denying it. But I can’t figure out what you’ve been smuggling all these years. I’m leaving now; I’m getting ready to retire. Won’t you please tell me what you’ve been smuggling?” “Trucks,” the driver said.

The customs official totally missed the point. Are we missing the point when it comes to worship and what it’s really supposed to be about?

 

Meeting the Wholly Other in worship

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Preaching, Worship

A chapel service during my year at Wheaton College had an unforgettable impact on me. The speaker was Dr. V. Raymond Edman, beloved past president of the college. His health had been precarious, so it was a special moment when he stepped into the pulpit.

He warned us to learn greater reverence before God. Worship is a serious matter, he told us. He recalled visiting Haile Selassie, then emperor of Ethiopia, and described the preliminary briefings, the protocol he had to follow, and the way he bowed with respect as he entered the presence of the king. In the same way, he said, we must prepare ourselves to meet God.

At that moment Dr. Edman slumped onto the pulpit, fell to the floor…and entered the presence of the King of kings. He was dead, but for a few moments we had come to life. The dividing line between heaven  and earth  suddenly dissolved, and we were no longer restless college students with textbooks on our laps, worried about exams the next hour and dates the next weekend; we had joined angels and archangels around the throne.

When we gather for worship, whether we are immediately aware of it or not, we’re about to meet the Wholly Other.
–Donald McCullough

Are we playing with TNT?

Tags

Church, Worship

Why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with the chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
–Annie Dillard

No graven images

Tags

Ten Commandments, Worship

The first of the Ten Commandments tells us who we are to worship, and the second tells us how we are to worship God—with “no images” (Exodus 20:4).

When Israel made the golden calf while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, they were not attempting to worship a false God but attempting to worship the one true God in the wrong way—with an image. God is spirit, meaning He has no physical form, and any attempt to give Him form only distorts Him. No image of God can be created that captures His fullness.

We may not be guilty of graving images onto stone or fashioning them out of gold, but we are guilty of graving images onto our minds. We make God into who we want Him to be and worship this false image. So the reason you don’t see anything wrong with gossip, gambling or watching inappropriate movies, is because you have fashioned a god that has no problem with it.

You find it easy to skip church, Bible reading and prayer because you have fashioned a god that is not upset with you for this. You do not see the need to tithe regularly, support missions or help the poor because you have fashioned a god who does not require this of you.

But God sent Jesus, the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), to rescue us from our sin and false images, and to show us who God is and what He requires of us. Repent and follow Christ.
–Jason Jones, pastor of Madden Baptist Church, Leake County, Mississippi

When worship is no longer worship

Tags

Culture, Worship

Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.
–A. W. Tozer

Beautiful Or A Bunch Of Noise?

Tags

Praise, Worship

Despite the fact that blue jays are beautiful and very intelligent (one of the smartest birds in America – they are able to mimic many other birds’ songs and even cell phone ring tones), they are also very noisy, bossy and obnoxious.

The squawky noise they make reminds me of a scripture in Amos 5:23, “Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen.” During the time of Amos, people were not worshipping God with their whole hearts, but just going through the motions, and God said He would not listen to their songs nor accept their worship.

There is so much of this same thing going on today. Many lift their hands in praise while singing so that they can “feel good,” but then live like the devil as soon as they get out of Church.

Are our worship songs beautiful in God’s ear or just a bunch of noise that is not pleasing to Him?

Don Carson sums up what I’m trying to say so well, “Our generation desperately needs to connect praise with righteousness, and worship with obedience. . .”
–Norma Benton Bowlin, via Facebook

Humor: Not Thinking At Church

Tags

Church attendance, Intellect, Worship

A pastor was complimenting one of his congregation about her faithful attendance. “Oh, pastor,” the lady said, “It is such a rest after a long, hard week’s work to come to church and relax on the soft cushions and not think about a thing.”