By Fenter Northern
I have been attending worship service for many, many years, I think about it a lot. I know that the Apostle said I must worship my Lord “in spirit and in truth.” As animated as you make the service, you cannot worship God in Spirit without the truth. Many seem to confuse God’s Spirit with their spirit.
The question comes to my mind, just what should each worship mean to me in the current affairs of my life? And, how can I receive as much as possible from each worship period to help me conform my life to the will of God. When the last amen is said, and I walk out the door, how should that experience in worship have helped me face another day of noisy distractions and unexpected temptations?
Prayer is central in worship. We close it with the little word Amen which conveys stirring, deep meaning. Just what does it mean? It conveys the basic purpose of what a worship is all about.
“Amen” says that I accept the will of God in my life and will do whatever the Lord requires of me to adjust my life to His. It means there is no conscious rebellion in my heart. That is a prerequisite if I expect to be saved eternally. It sounds so easy and very appropriate, but it is not easy. It is one of the most challenging words a Christian can utter. It means the life I will live in heaven must be learned here, and worship is where we learn it. Sure, we all need God’s grace because we fall so miserably short of the goal. We cannot rely on grace covering our status quo.
One way to begin learning that sinless life I will live in heaven is to observe Jesus praying. In the blazing, hot agony of Gethsemane, in the very shadow of the cross, He prayed with sweat falling as drops of blood from His brow, “Father, if it be possible let this cup pass. Nevertheless not my will Father, but thine!” —Amen, so let it be. When we eventually say it in heaven as did the twenty-elders, it will be because we learned to say it here in worship in spirit and in truth–but it is a hard lesson to learn.
In some of his instructions to the disciples near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus informed them He must travel to Jerusalem where He would be put to death. Peter was shocked beyond measure and passionately said, “Master, this shall not be unto thee!” No way was Peter going to say Amen to that. God’s will could not possibly be the death of the long awaited Messiah.
But then, aren’t we much like that too? In our ignorance we balk at the extremely high cost of discipleship even though it takes whatever is within the will of God to save the world. Jesus, facing the anguish of the cross said it was the “cup” that He must drink. Man facing the cup he does not wish to drink in New Testament Christianity has written his own beliefs, redacted the New Testament, established his own churches, and designed his worship according to his spirit and what he views as truth.
This idolatry has produced innumerable faiths, yet in the New Testament the brother of the Lord said there was only one faith for which one must contend (Jude 3). If one is not willing to drink the cup of God’s will revealed exclusively in His Truth, it is the epitome of foolishness to think all the multitude of beliefs, all the restyled churches man can establish, and all the praise he can offer in a personalized worship will open the gates of heaven wide enough to accept what is not within the will of God.
God considers idolatry a horrendous sin. He allowed Judah to go into Babylonian captivity (598-536 B.C.) for their stubbornness at not putting their idols away.
True worship is adoration, but it is more than that. It is a learning experience with intent to put what is learned into practice. It is being sure that the One Who is sitting beside you in the pew is the Lamb of God that gathers the sheep into His fold because they respond to the sound of His voice. There is only one worship that is acceptable: the one where you kneel at the cross and say, “Not my will but thine, O Lord. Make me and mold me according to thy will. I lay all my trophies down at your feet. It is Thy kingdom. Help me walk in the light as you are in the light
AMEN.