Weekly Thoughts

12/28/07 – Worshipper

Hi all,

As one year closes and another lay open before us, our thoughts are turned to New Year resolutions with the help of about every media outlet in the nation.

As sure as TV cameras focus on reporters standing on the side of the road in the middle of a snowstorm, the morning news shows will begin running tips on losing "holiday weight" just a week after they ran the last cooking segment on holiday foods.

I mean really, why do they assume I want to lose what I obviously worked so hard to gain? They will thoughtfully include nutritional information, examples of exercises to do, and much more; all designed to drive us to the health clubs or treadmill or low-fat aisle of a local store.
They say millions of people make New Year's resolutions, yet the percentage of those who will keep them the whole year is in the low single digits.

In spite of the above, it is a good time to set spiritual goals and seek the Lord for the coming year. But whatever goal or resolution I set, I want it to be something I can keep.

This last week being the celebration of Jesus' birthday, I've been asking the Father what gift he would like me to give him this year. I mean, what do you get God the Father; literally the Man who has everything?
The thoughts that have run through my head on this subject admittedly range from the absurd - You want beef? Oops, you own the cattle on a thousand hills and the gold and silver therein (so there goes jewelry too) - to the serious: How can I further lay down my life for you?
Paul said in Acts 17: 24-25 of the Father: He "...lives not in temples made with hands, neither is worshipped with man's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all, life and breath and all things..."

He isn't worshipped with man's hands. I couldn't make anything, produce anything, forge or smelt or invent or construct anything for him. He isn't worshipped by any CD I could make, any sermon I could offer. He gives life and breath to all - how can I come close to equaling that? What do I have to give Him?

But there is something the Father wants that ties in very nicely not only with me wanting to give him something, but also with my consideration of a New Year resolution.

Jesus said in John 4: 23: "...the true worshippers shall worship in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him."
Wow! The Father has all, he created all, he gives breath to all, yet he seeks worshippers. I can't think of another verse that indicates something God personally wants, just for himself. There are plenty of verses that say if we do this God will do that; or that he is looking for people to pray that he can bless them, or he wants people to repent, and so forth.
But Jesus, the One who knows the Father the best, reveals his dad is looking for worshippers; a deep desire in his Father that only one so intimately acquainted as His only Son could share.

That's it: I will give him my worship, and I will purpose that in the coming year I will make it a year of worship in spirit and truth, that He may have a "present" from me all year long!

I am intrigued by the need to be a worshiper in spirit and in truth though, for it's not just worship the Father is seeking, but very specific worship: in spirit and truth. When you look at the worship going on out there you'll understand why Jesus specified worship in spirit and truth.

In the context of John 4 Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman when she asks him about where to worship. The Samaritans were a sort of half-breed Jew whose ancestors broke off from worship in Jerusalem during Israel's civil war that happened after Solomon died. The ten northern tribes broke off from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and a remnant from each of the other tribes and didn't want to go to Jerusalem to worship, so they appointed Samaria as their capital and appointed their own priests, idols, and order of worship. (I Kings 12: 16-33)

She raises the question about which is the right place to worship; Jerusalem or Samaria, but Jesus told her in verse 22: "You don't know what you worship, we know what we worship, for salvation comes from the Jews".

Interesting isn't it - she had worshipped who she thought was God as her ancestors had done for the last 1,000 years, yet Jesus said she didn't even know what she worshipped. When Paul saw the men of Athens worshipping an idol with the inscription: "To the Unknown God", he told them they worshipped in ignorance.  Yet when he shared who this unknown God was, most laughed at him and rejected his message. (Acts 17:23)

Even Lydia, the founding hostess of the home based church at Philippi "worshipped God, whose heart the Lord opened so that she listened to the things spoken of by Paul." She was a worshipper of God, but still needed to have her heart opened so she could be born again. (Acts 16: 14) (Do you suppose there are worshippers of God in some pews who don't know God though they worship him?)

Paul said in Romans 1:19-21 that there are people who have seen God in nature to the extent they are without excuse, yet "when they knew (about, or recognized him to be) God they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened."

So it's easy to see that the planet is not lacking for worshippers: There are those who worship they know not what, though they claim they do know (perhaps even debating on this holy site or that holy site), there are those who worship in ignorance, there are those like Lydia, who worship him but don't yet actually know him, and there even those who have seen him in creation but refuse to humble themselves and worship him.

If you expand that to include the gist of the message of The Revelation; which is people who do evil and then have bad things befall them and they still don't repent, but instead hang onto the worship of false gods and a sinful life, then it's plain to see you have a whole lot of confusion about proper worship out there. (See The Revelation 9: 20-21)

Thus the Father seeks worshippers in spirit and truth. The word spirit means that we worship the Father, knowing who He is, with our very breath and life. Truth refers to our lives being righteous, upright before him, as well as truly knowing who it is we are worshipping.

I've always sought to walk with God naturally, according to how he made me, during the course of each day rather than by someone's formula or schedule or ritual. It's simple really: I've greatly admired what the Word says about Enoch and Noah: "...and Enoch walked with God" ; "...and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 5:24; 6:9)

In the same way I can say "I am taking a walk with my wife" and the language of the sentence indicates both that I walk with her and she with me, so too do these verses reveal as each man walked with God, God also walked with them.

The key of worship opens the door to walking with God as Enoch and Noah did, naturally free flowing from our spirits to the Father as a matter of lifestyle. Worship is a flow from our heart to the Father's heart which needs no external accompaniment.

At it's core there is no need for a worship team or CD to lead, for the act of expressing love to and for God is borne of a humble and grateful heart that is unable to contain the love within; it must pour forth in worship or burst!

We must always and in every way, whenever the mind turns quiet, worship God and (just) walk with him. And that's why the Father seeks worshippers in spirit and truth - those are the ones who can walk with Him -and amazingly enough, he can walk with them.

So if you are considering a New Year's resolution, consider joining me in renewing your commitment to be a worshipper of the Father; it is what He seeks.
 
Some thoughts today,
Blessings,
John Fenn