Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Worship (05/03/04)
|
TITLE: Do We really know what Worship is? By Emory May 05/10/04 |
 LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND
|
By
Emory G May
Think about what it must have been like to be on a boat, filled with animals for one year. Imagine what it was like to hear your friends, neighbors and perhaps even family members screaming, calling for help and to hear their fingernails digging into the side of the ark as it began to float on the rising water. Consider what it was like to know that you were the only living creatures left on earth; of all of the things that breathed air, you alone still lived.
Then hear the wooden craft as it comes to a sliding stop on soil; now go another step and imagine the door in the side of the craft opening and the animals marching out in pairs to begin a new life, and for you to follow into the sunlight and see a green earth stretching before your landing spot and know that you, with your family had survived.
Imagine then, following the leadership of your heart and making an offering to the God who had rescued you and when He smelled the sweet savor of your sacrifice, He promises never again to destroy the earth by water and places a beautiful rainbow, which follows each storm to illustrate His grace. That my friend is the real inspiration for WORSHIP!
Worship begins with Thanksgiving. If you are not thankful for your rescue, then what is the point in worship? Worship grows out of a heart filled to overflowing with love, praise and thanks for what God has done for you. Worship is recognizing that God is WORTHY of our love and service because of who He is.
Worship continues when you realize that we are rescued because of what God has done, not what we have done. It is God who has put in place the plan of salvation. It is God who has sent His son to become the ultimate sacrifice. It is God who has sent the Holy Spirit to convict us and bring us to a rescued knowledge of Him. It is God who walks with us through the difficulties we face in life. It is because of what God has done that we worship Him, not what we have done.
Worship grows as we come to know this God and have a personal relationship with Him as Father and as Friend. One of the passages which I have always been most envious of in the Old Testament, is the one where Moses is leading the children of Israel to the promised land and in Exodus, chapter 33, verse 11, Moses records, “Thus God used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.” I always wanted that kind of relationship with God and I have found it through worship. That is the time when God and I can communicate as friend to friend and those are my most cherished moments.
Worship then is also communication. It is when I let God know what my needs and concerns are and it is where I stop long enough to allow God to speak to me about what he want and expects from me. Now God doesn’t need anything from me, but he expects certain things from me and I learn of those things when I communicate with God on an intimate basis. Our lives are blessed abundantly when we are obedient to His wishes.
Most of us never get to the point where we are like Noah, but all of us need to be thankful that there is a God, which loved His creation enough that He was willing to send His one and only son to become our Ark and thus give us the ability of worship.