Bona Fide Worship
Worship is a funny thing, it seems very difficult, if not impossible to get started. Some people passionately follow Christ, while many seem to just attend church, and still others say they believe but their activity has nothing to do with Christ at all. I think anyone who believes in Christ wants to be a bona fide worshiper. In nearly two decades of ministry I have watched a lot of people struggle with the dilemma of living their faith out on a daily basis. The key to bona fide worship is recognition of Jesus. When I recognized and accepted who Jesus Christ is I began to worship Him. Are you a bona fide worshiper?
Matthew 14:25-33 (New International Version)
25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear 27But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
What ways does Worship take form?
As I said in yesterday’s post “worship is the activity of the human soul.” So the way I see it we are worshiping something in everything we do. I believe the divine design is to worship Christ in every activity that we choose to participate. I think we can worship in work, recreation, fellowship, athletics, service, and even relaxation. I think there is a real danger for Christ followers to view corporate worship at church as the only form of worship. We are certainly expected to faithfully participate in corporate worship but it is only one form of worship. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. In Christ we find our being!
Acts 17:22-28
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24″The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28′For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
So what I am taking from this is, if I walk in Christ through the Holy Spirit as a child of God with all that is my being, faithfully incorperating those things I am learning in the word and see as examples from faithful christians absorbing this into my journey makes me a worshiper? Cool Beans!
It makes you a bona fide worshiper!
Romans 12:1-Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.
Love this verse…