Todays devontional comes from the bobyyoungresources.com page..Permission to use as stated on the webpage.
What Matters? What Doesn’t Matter? (8)
God desires to be recognized for “who he is”—God of gods, Lord of lords, King of kings. God wants to be known and recognized–acknowledged in his perfection. We have affirmed that understanding God requires understanding God’s grandeur and glory through (1) the human dilemma and the ultimate result of separation from God, (2) the plan of God developed through Jesus Christ with the potential to restore lost relationship, and (3) the New Testament as the communication of the covenant agreements. With these foundations in place, we are ready to move ahead.
God desires that the recognition of his nature result in respect and response. Both respect and response are shaped by the nature of God and by recognition of the New Covenant sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Recognizing and acknowledging the nature of God leads to the conclusion that how our worship reflects and honors God’s nature is important to God. How one responds to God through the access he freely and graciously grants in Jesus Christ must also be important. These two topics are the subjects of this article and the next.
Simply stated, how human beings worship God matters to God. It cannot be the case that any and all kinds of worship are acceptable. Both the Bible and human reasoning suggest that there is such a thing as unacceptable worship. How does God desire that his human creation demonstrate respect and honor for his nature and his actions on their behalf?
While aspects of OT worship appealed to the physical senses and occurred primarily in the physical realm, the NT teaches that God desires a spiritual worship or service (Romans 12:1-2). The context of this passage suggests that under the new covenant our lives are presented to God as priestly sacrifice. Because the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient payment for sins once for all, worship is centered in remembering that sacrifice. The early church participated in the Lord’s Supper weekly as a reminder and renewal of the covenant sacrifice. The Supper is not limited to a vertical dimension. It reaches both vertically and horizontally. Corporate worship is shared with a horizontal dimension, teaching, encouraging, and admonishing “one another.” God desires worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23, 24).
Participation in corporate worship never takes the place of individual worship, and vice versa. Worship is a mind—an understanding and attitude—which ascribes “worth” to God. Acceptable worship is rooted in God’s nature. God’s nature is the foundation and cause of our respect and honor for him. While one can live life “with an attitude” (a phrase often used negatively, but here used positively) of worship, biblical examples of worship are intentional. Worship does not occur accidentally as we go about the normal activities of life.
A longer article (or series of articles) would be required to set forth what the Bible teaches about worship, or even how the New Testament describes the worship of the first century churches. Suffice it to say here, by way of summary, that it matters to God that human creation recognize him and know him fully as he is (consistent with his nature), and that such recognition of God result in respect and honor worthy of God.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 6:15 am and is filed under Faith, God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
