Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Worship

I haven't shared any Tozer for a while.  Here is today's devotional thought:

Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the 
beauty of holiness. 
--Psalm 29:2

Yes, worship of the loving God is man's whole reason for existence. 
That is why we are born and that is why we are born again from above. 
That is why we were created and that is why we have been recreated. 
That is why there was a genesis at the beginning, and that is why 
there is a re-genesis, called regeneration.

That is also why there is a church. The Christian church exists to 
worship God first of all. Everything else must come second or third 
or fourth or fifth....

Sad, sad indeed, are the cries of so many today who have never 
discovered why they were born. It brings to mind the poet Milton's 
description of the pathetic lostness and loneliness of our first 
parents. Driven from the garden, he says, "they took hand in hand 
and through the valley made their solitary way." Whatever Happened 
to Worship?, 56-57.

The question, then, in some people's minds is, "So that is our purpose?  To gather on Sunday's and worship?"  This is where we have been taught an incomplete understanding of worship.  Worship is the outpouring of our lives.

Romans 12: 1 says "offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship."  But don't miss v. 2:  "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

2 comments:

Jeff said...

I love this quote from Oswald Chambers: "It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a LIVING sacrifice - to let Him have all of your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is what is acceptable to God."

He emphasized "living" to remind us that our love for God should cause action on our part, an active worship where we pour out praise and love for our Savior and an active desire to seek out ways to show the beauty of God to the hurting and lost.

Thanks for a great post today.

Randy Davis said...

It seems to me that last two blogs work together. Our worship in the transformation of our lives to interact with those arounds us - to be the embodiment of God's grace and mercy.