Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Worship That Never Ends”. An interesting title. It begs a couple questions, though. “What is true worship”? And the answer to this can lead to a second question, “How about the never- ending part”? So first, lets’ look at worship. What is true worship?
“To become a toiler, to continue patiently in well-doing which calls for self-denying labor, is a glorious work, which Heaven smiles upon. Faithful work is more acceptable to God than the most zealous and thought-to-be holiest worship. It is working together with Christ that is true worship. Prayers, exhortation, and talk are cheap fruits, which are frequently tied on; but fruits that are manifested in good works, in caring for the needy, the fatherless, and widows, are genuine fruits which grow naturally upon a good tree” (2 Testimonies pg. 24).
Do we worship God by what we say, the songs we sing, the services we attend? Is that true worship? Or is worshipping God something much more? We worship God by our lives. And if this is worship, is not praise akin to this, too? I submit that praise, like worship, is what is done by the life, not by mere words or song. The way we each live display what we truly worship and praise, not mere words or songs.
But more. True praise/ worship is what you do WITH another. With the One worshipped and praised. With our God. Not solo. True worship/ praise is done with the One we worship and praise. He is a participant in the worship and praise. Else it is but us sinners, offering our sinful worship and sinful praise. He is a participant in the praise and worship of our lives, which proceeds from our hearts. Hearts washed clean, and kept clean by His abiding presence.
We have been so confused about this. We are so enamored with our own autonomy and our own selfish thinking that we are missing the point of our lives, the point of our being. We are to live in-union-with our God and with each other. We are not an island unto ourselves. “Selfishness is death” (Desire of Ages pg. 417).
Take love, for example. Love is not really love unless it is shared with another. And even that love which we share with another is not really love unless it is intimately connected with our God. We are incapable of loving at all unless we are connected intimately with our God.
This is part of what God has been trying to get through to us since the very beginning. That all things are WITH Him, not apart from Him. Love is not done alone but with Him… and then expands to encompass the other. Praise, worship, faith, works, obedience… all done with Him, not apart from Him. Intimately with Him. This is the beauty of what God has been trying to get through to us. All is with Him… or it is not true, not authentic. Without God it is all a sham, a show, just words.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Our spirit must be united to Him so that our spirit and His Holy Spirit, are One. Else we do not love, nor believe, nor praise, nor worship, nor obey… all is self and all is lost.
But not to worry. God has done all to meet our desperate lack. All we need is to come Home to Him… and stay with Him… trust Him (which is the definition of “faith”). Being with our God is everything. Being without Him is emptiness and death. It is something that begins here and extends into all eternity. We start here and now, walking with our Lord, working with our Lord, loving our brothers and sisters here and now with our Lord. And it extends into eternity. How good can it be??
With brotherly love,
Jim