Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. --Matthew 5:15-16

Monday, July 17, 2006

What's the RIGHT way to worship?

Ok, I'm back. I meant to get back to this last night, but because of the storm I was afraid of a power outage, and I didn't want something like that to wreak havock on my computer. So first, let's think about how "worship" in areas even outside of Christianity. (Why even outside of Christianity? Yes, it's wrong to worship anything except for God, but when we think of what people might worship and how they worship, that might broaden our understanding of different ways of how we can worship the true God.)

So I'll list some things people "worship" and how they worship those things:

  • Kings & Emporers (let's start with the obvious historical example)
    • People have bowed down to kings as a form of worship
    • People approach the king in humility
    • They will do anything the king commands, even when morally wrong.
  • Music groups (if people aren't careful, I'd say this could fall into the area of worship)
    • They may do anything to go see a concert by a certain group and then shout at the top of their lungs when singing the songs.
    • They memorize all the songs, collect all the pictures, wear the t-shirts, and faint if they shake the singer's hand because they're so excited.
    • They tell everyone about how cool the group is.
  • Money
    • Sometimes people dedicate their whole lives to getting more and more money.
    • Sometimes (though sooo sad) people will put their careers above family and friends. They give up everything for the sake of getting more money.
Ok, so I've talked a lot about actions here. So we can sing in worship, we can even take the lyrics of worship music and praise God without singing.

so ... what do you all think? Can we apply these forms of worship to God? How?

Some of these forms of worship can also be misapplied as well... such as using worship as an excuse for trashing others (I can't think of a "nicer" way of putting it. :\ )

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6 Comments:

Blogger Heather R. said...

Yay! Jessica's here! :) Glad you can join us!!!! Woo hoo!

7/18/2006 5:04 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Now we just need to see ISFC again.

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo ISFC??? Where art thou????

7/18/2006 5:05 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

I agree with you both. Worshiping God can happen anywhere at any time. Deaf people can worship, for me, playing the violin for God is worship. Though, I'd like to just be honest and say that sometimes even on stage I forget WHO I'm worshiping. Seems strange, doesn't it? It's a very easy trap for performers to fall into, I think, and preventing that requires major mental discipline. I'll comment later on some of the pitfalls I fall into when worshiping.

I think many people at first have a difficult time understanding that worship can take many different forms because they're soooo used to seeing only one way of worshiping God: in church with a certain kind of music.

When I went to Spirit West Coast a few years ago, I gotta tell ya, I had some of the best worshiping experiences there. Also when I was going through different crises (plural for "crisis"), just getting down on my knees in my living room and having a REAL heart-talk with God... those were significant worship experiences for me (and whoa, no music playing in the living room!).

7/19/2006 12:44 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Regarding GF's quote: "Money can be used for good or...ta-da-da-daaaaa...EVIL. If we are selfish and it turns our focus away from God, then it is considered...ta-da-da-daaaaa...EVIL." lol-rofl!!!! You're so funny! Well done good and faithful one. Thou groweth and increaseth in wisdom!

I fully agree-- I think that any action can be an act of worship to the Creator. It all depends on ta-da-da-daaaaa... THE INTENTION/MOTIVATION BEHIND IT! :)

7/19/2006 5:35 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Yeah! Woo hoo. Welcome Berry!

Yeah, it should be a total lifestyle. And taking that one step further, even in our jobs, our studies, etc, we should be thinking of how others can learn more about God. Like in interpreting, we know that regardless of the language one uses to communicate with the mouth, "out of the heart, the mouth speaks"... even if we can't verbalize our thoughts, God knows them and we can worship God even THAT way! Preach it brothah!

7/20/2006 7:33 PM

 
Blogger the-wonder-bucket said...

hm. yeh i liek this post.
i agree with everything here, there is no right way to worship.
and its kinda sad that some people beleive that there is. like i said in an earlier post, we have people in teh world that think you can only worship god by singign hymns and they think that worship in the form of good music is wrong.

7/20/2006 7:53 PM

 

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