From Pastor Hazel

Worship

Donald McKim, author of The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, defines worship as a service of praise, adoration, thanksgiving and petition directed toward God through actions and attitudes. Christian worship is Trinitarian in form as praise is offered to God (1) through Jesus Christ (2) by the power of the Holy Spirit (3).
Worship is central to the Christian life and involves a total response of devotion from believers. It is guided by Scripture and is enabled by the work of the triune God, who alone is to be glorified. Worship is what we do as a means of loving and trusting God!
William Temple states that to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.
Richard Foster expresses in Celebration of Discipline that to worship is to experience reality, to touch life. It is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of the gathered community. It is breaking into the Shekinah of God, or better yet, being invaded by the Shekinah of God. “Shekinah” means the glory of the radiance of God dwelling in the midst of the people. It denotes the immediate “Presence of God” as opposed to a God who is abstract or aloof. It reflects on our forgetting others around us as we center on the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is worshiping as though no one else is present but you and God.
Richard Foster shares that Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. The reality of worship is found “in Spirit and in truth.” Worship takes place when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit. Liturgy and rituals do not constitute worship. We can use all the right techniques and methods, however, until the Lord’s Spirit touches our individual spirit, we have not worshiped.
True worship is not just going to church on Sundays. True worship happens when we put God first in our lives. When we let go and let God take over. Then we know that the Spirit of God has touched our spirit.
Matthew 15:8 states: “Some of us honor God with our lips, but our hearts are far from God.” Our God knows everything about us. He knows the number of hairs on our heads. Don’t you think He knows when we are truly worshiping Him? Keep worshiping until God’s Spirit touches your spirit. Believe me, you will know when it happens and I promise you that your life will never be the same!
Today, as one way of worshiping God, make every aspect of our lives a cause for God. Praise God for the blessings and opportunities that He has given us, and live according to the beautiful words found in I Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you! God deserves our worship, our prayers, our praise, and our thanks. We deserve the joy that is ours when we worship Him in spirit and in truth; with our prayers, our deeds, and with our lives!
This week's message was illustrated by the placement of a bell on the altar and the addition of the word "Worship" to the Living Banners.