You may have heard people say
that they can praise and worship God by themselves at home or online, just as
easily as in a group setting. You may have said this, or even have this stance.
This may be the case, and we need to be encouraged to do so, but we also need
to come together to praise and worship God. This is being called out to praise
and worship. As the church we are the called out ones. That is essentially what
the word church means;
that we are the ones who are called out of the culture around us and into the
Kingdom culture. Having begun the transformation process, we are then sent back
into the surrounding culture to salt it with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That
is so that those in the surrounding culture may be called out into the Kingdom
culture and so on.
One feature of being called out
is coming together to praise and worship our Father God. He is called our
Father by Jesus Christ (Matt 6:9), since He is the Father of His Church, His
children and not just the individual. In this day and age it can be all about
the individual, but from the Father’s perspective it is about Him and His
church. This is a divinely created relationship between God and His children
that needs to be the
basis for all our worship. Consequently, the foundation for all our worship is
theological and not humanistic.
Although at
times we may be emotional regarding our worship, it should not be the basis for
our worship; rather the focus is God Himself. So, it is not the fact that we
can worship God, but that He actually gives us the privilege to worship Him.
Interestingly, the first of the Ten Words carried within it the command for the
nation of Israel to worship God (Ex 20:1-6; Deut 5:6-10; 6:4-25 esp. v13;
10:20-21). Jesus picked up on this command when dealing with Satan over the
issue of worship (Matt 4:10; Lk 4:8).
Pause in His
presence for a moment and think this over…
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