Worship: where and how?

The New Testament reminds readers that God gave commandments for worship and a location where worship should take place:

“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.” (Hebrews 9:1)

In the Old Testament, the place of worship was Zion, the mountain of God:

“Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!” (Psalm 99:9)

From this and perhaps from the human tendency to want rules and ritual, we have buildings and call them our place of worship. The problem is that it the ease of sliding into a Sunday-only routine in which worship happens on the first day of the week and in the local church. For many, this place and time are precious, yet even the OT defined worship in ways that go beyond a place and a day.

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (1 Chronicles 16:29)

Worship is about giving God the glory due Him. Certainly He demonstrates His goodness and power every day of the week and in all places. It seems that worship should be the same.

Worship is also about bringing an offering. In the OT God defined a sacrificial system yet it pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When we worship, our offering is not a lamb or grain or anything we can produce; it is the offering God made to us. His Son shed His blood for our redemption. When I worship God, the salvation of Jesus Christ for my sin is a large part of why I bow before Him.

“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” (Psalm 29:2)

Having tried to list all the wonders of God and the glory due His name, I run out of paper and ink. The world and all that is in it; the way things work; the amazing creation including the heavenly bodies and human bodies; beauty and color; the weather; and most of all the wonder of His visit to this planet to bring redemption to sinners. The glory due His name has no end and for these I worship.

“Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!” (Psalm 96:9)

Worship is also about attitude, about my standing before Him. He is holy but because of Jesus and the power of the Word of God, I am also set apart for Him, made holy by His blood. It is not about ritual but a way of being and in that way of being I can worship Him. And because I know what I am without Jesus, I worship with awe and trembling. I know that I cannot deserve this privilege, this awesome opportunity and experience of worshiping Almighty God.

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Lord Jesus, what more can I say? You are entirely worthy of every good thought, every praise, every thankful expression I can muster. Fill me today with worship — and I know it is Tuesday and I know I am in a condo basement and not at Your holy mountain, but I also know that I can worship You all the time and wherever I am.

Dying on my mind

The past week seems filled with death. A friend in our church was diagnosed with cancer and died in four weeks. Today we celebrated his extraordinary life. A neighbor who was told four years ago that her cancer would kill her in a few months lived until Friday, until she had enough and called for an assisted death. John McCain, one of the few political heroes left in this crazy world, has died. We have friends with family in India where flooding has killed hundreds and no one knows who has died or survived. Every day the news brings stories of shootings, hit and runs, accidents, and deadly crimes. If people are not thinking about death and dying, it would be a wonder.

The early Christians thought about it. Their world was as dangerous and violent as ours, maybe more. Their lifespan was shorter and persecution was normal. This is what the Apostle Paul said to them:

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 5:1–5)

He calls this body a tent, a dwelling place. It is like the box that contains the ring, the container for the treasure of life — but not life itself. Silly us; we spend a lot of time caring for the container. I’ve not counted, but most magazines for women have a huge percentage of their pages devoted to ads for beauty products and clothing. We think more about how the box looks and neglect the inner person, our soul, our spiritual being.

Perhaps death has so many euphemisms because it makes us think about the folly of all that. If I spend an hour a day in front of a mirror and five minutes talking to God, what does that say about priorities? Do I work as diligently to please God with the kind of person I am as I do to please others with my appearance? Do I seek a healthy soul and a godly attitude as much as I seek health, well-being, and even physical life itself?

All this death certainly brings out our values. I know Christians who care very little about all the bad news. It does not make their prayer list. Some of them never read or listen to world news. Others get so wrapped up in it that they are fearful to step outside their homes. Is there a middle?

Death is a reminder that life is a gift but short, that God has something better ahead, and that our mortality will be swallowed up by eternal life. Death reminds me that this life is not all there is and I need to think about and prepare for the next life . . .

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2–3)

As much as thoughts of death are unpleasant and sad, there is a sweetness in looking forward to seeing the face of Jesus. Instead of letting aging and dying push me to buy more anti-aging creams, get youthful haircuts, and buy the latest fashions, God wants me to continually focus on Jesus, and to quickly attend to the sin in my life — which is a far bigger challenge that hair dressers, malls, and getting rid of wrinkles!

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Lord Jesus, I love those passages in the Bible that say things like, “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength” and the passages about restored youth and vigor, but I also love the one above that reminds me again of the shortness of life and the priorities I ought to have. No matter how young I might appear, this body will wear out and be replaced. Besides, it is only a container; the real person is inside and holding hands with You, the eternal One who never ages and who gave Your life that I can live forever with You.

For better or worse, richer or poorer . . .

While I’m reading through the Bible each year, and reading the words of Tozer each day, I’m also reading the prayers of a man named Walter Brueggmann. I don’t know much about him but that he prays with great transparency, expressing things that I might feel but do not say out loud. Tozer’s thoughts and Brueggmann’s prayer for today seem related.

First, the Scriptures declare the way the psalmist thinks about the commands of the Lord:

“Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.” (Psalm 119:137–138)

Brueggemann says this in his prayer entitled “You who Command”:

You who command,

You who are our commander,

You who are our commander-in-chief;

We intend obedience, without reserve.

As we ponder your commands, they often come at us

like more nagging from our mothers,

like more rules from our teachers,

like more expectations from our peers,

like more pressure from the church,

like more defeat from our guilty conscience.

Our obedience thins down to resentment,

tired of the nagging and pressure and rules and expectations.

Then we hear your wonderful words of life,

and know that in your command is our perfect freedom.

For your command,

for Jesus’ glad obedience,

for Jesus’ new command of neighbor,

we give you great thanks.

We vow full, glad compliance. Amen.

(Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, ed. Edwin Searcy. (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003).

This conclusion that God is acting in righteousness toward us and the same conclusion of the psalmist are positive responses to what could seem like a ‘harsh taskmaster’ to my sinful heart. God wants good for me, but like he spoke to Eve in the garden, the enemy wants me to think otherwise. If Satan can convince me that God is not for me, then he can also convince me to mess with what the Bible says, changing it to suit my selfish pride and reasoning.

Tozer says, “To manipulate the Scriptures so as to make them excuse us, compliment us and console us is to do despite to the written Word and to reject the Living Word.” He is right. Instead of concluding God loves me and wants perfect freedom for me, I will hear Him in resentment.

In contrast, saving faith in Jesus Christ means believing all that the Word of God says. Tozer warns to beware that I do not make up a Jesus that I can accept rather than trust the reality that God has revealed.

True faith is not only about believing what God says. If I genuinely believe then I will obey Him . . .

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” (Romans 1:1–5, italics mine)

Faith is not a sentimental wishy-washy and passive acceptance of the pleasant verses while overlooking the stern warnings. Instead, faith is in the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the One who tenderly forgives sinners yet also with a whip drives money-changers out of the temple and calls the religious leaders in His day hypocrites. I cannot pick what I like about Him and ignore the parts that make me squirm.

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Jesus, You put blessing into the words of the poet who hears Your strong commands and can say: “Then we hear your wonderful words of life, and know that in your command is our perfect freedom. For your command, for Jesus’ glad obedience, for Jesus’ new command of neighbor, we give you great thanks. We vow full, glad compliance.” Thank You for this and for Tozer’s words that agree and reinforce. I enjoy the pleasant commands yet must also be glad for the more difficult things that You bring into my life. Your love is in them also and for that, I must respond in faith and obedience.