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Study on Worship: Part 1
Written by on September 7, 2014
I can hear it coming… Oh no another person who assume they are an expert on Worship. Nope. I am a student, like you. My endeavor here is to search the scriptures, and understand what Biblical worship is meant. I can say worship, intuitively, is beyond that “experience in church”; but yet it not totally exclusive from it. I think we may be shocked that worship isn’t just the slow song, or hymn in church; worship is not just through music or the arts, or just an outward appearance of raising of hands, or bowing down at the altar. Yes those are forms, but there is more to it.
I am going to use a definition of a worshiper, that is not mine, that we will see (at least through my studies) that I found is supported over and over. Apostle John W. Stevenson says,
“I define a worshiper as one who is intimately acquainted with, and has a daily relationship with God exhibited through obedience.” (Stevenson, 2009 )
One of the first thing I noticed about this definition, is that it refers to a relationship with God. Not just with God, or with the Holy Spirit, or with Jesus. But with the triune God. It means that knowing God and being intimate with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Step 1 to Pure Worship: Recognize that we belong to God
Exodus 20:2-6 states:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments. (NIV)
God made a way for the children of Israel to get to the promise land. God also made the way for us, led us out of the bondage of sin. Our Egypt. We have be When we accept Jesus, we are redeemed from the curse of the law. When we become His, we cannot make anything or anyone a god before Him. Remember Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 6:20 and in 7:23-24 we were bought with a price.
God being God, made a way through the offereing of His Son, as a scapegoat for us, bought us with a price that can never be repaid. He was made a way for us to become close to Him; to enter into an intimate relationship with Him. God being Holy, cannot enter into a relationship with one who is unholy. But the sacrifice that Jesus made, when we accept him, and allow Him to transform us, we become righteous and Holy through Him.
This purchase comes with a price, the price of obedience. Not bowing down to other Gods, treating our bodies as the temple of Christ. God wants (and demands) your absolute transformation and His absolute ownership and worship. He bought you and He owns you. You are His. Our worship, begins recognizing we are God’s property.
We will talk more on the remaining steps of understanding true Worship.
This is staggering enough as it stands. The implications of my life being owned by another are far-reaching and pervasive.
Cited Works:
Stevenson, John W. Worshiper by Design. Press, 2009. print.