Having just come from a sermon, I thought I'd poke around in the brains of others that know more than I do about the scriptures, and the practices of the various denominations. And it's not that I'm not willing to do my own Bible research. It's that I don't know what is taught in the various church denominations.

I was taught that Worship is valuing God for Who He is, and thanking Him for all that He has done, in Christ, to save us, and for what He does for us on an every day basis.

Consequently, most days I take Communion after morning prayers...I feel as if it starts my day with God off on the right foot, and leaves me feeling all shiny and sparkly on the inside, like I just sent my heart in for a tune up, lube job, car wash, including being detailed, buffed and waxed, good as new!

And I do value God highly, and reverance Him, in the old fashioned fear sense of the word, which basically says, "This is GOD we are talking about and to."

He's the big Guy...I am less than nothing except in His love of me through Christ, and so are we all.

I often sing one line of a song, over and over, all day long and into the next, because the Holy Spirit has placed in my mind. I hear echoes of music not being played now, unless it's in the Celestial Realm, and is somehow leaking through to me. I talk God, read God, walk God, Sing God, and write God all the hours I am awake, 6 days a week. I take a day off from my work each week to watch movies and read novels! Sort of the reverse of most people.

But I don't know what "worship" is to others.

Am I missing something?

I wasn't brought up in a church, and consequently rarely attend a church. I keep trying, but a good church is hard to find in California! But I have church a lot, everytime I am with another Christian, I simply feel blessed if we get to talking Godstuff. And I know God likes that in particular.

[color=993300]Malachi 3:16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
17. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.[/color]

Talking about God is valuing Him to me. I'm an evangelist, so if I meet up with anyone who's willing to talk to me about my very obvious disabilities (- auto accident - testimony on page 3 or 4 of Miracles that Follow the Plow), I start talking about the miracles He's given me.

I have to assume that God is making something happen through me, due to the effect I have on people, because they take my card, and check out the tiny web ministry I have.

My site is merely a bunch of little articles about Jesus and walking the walk, but the site is growing and flourishing. By this I mean that people are passing the site on to others! I pay for the site myself, and God takes care of me, so I don't need donors. And it really is a very little site, for un-churched Christians or Seekers looking for Jesus, but not a religion or a church. I'm sent to the fallen away relatives of those that do attend church, so they, the Churched, check me out and pass me on, and eventually, people show up. And I don't do the writing - I'm just a ghost writer for the Holy Spirit there, unlike here, where I speak my heart, and ask my questions.

Evangelism is easy for me...God opened my mouth, and I have proof and testimony always at hand! It's great to be still not old, and to have a walker - it's a great conversation opener, for they see the big grin and the five year old playfulness, and wonder who on earth I am, and get curious about what happened to me, at least enough to put up with me, much like my brothers and sisters here on SI.

And I have such fun, at home, in Doctor's offices, in grocery aisles, and with one great street preacher who tells me the best stories! And he's so shiny and clean and bright, and so valuable to me that he tells me where he's going to be so I can come visit him!

But is this worship? Or just evangelism? Or fellowship for the sake of talking about God?

And, although I know a few classic hymns, Rock of Ages, Old Time Religion, I'll Fly Away, Amazing Grace, and so forth, I infinitely prefer GodRock and Contemporary Christian Worship songs. The Godrock is for fun in the car, and the Worship songs...well, they are for worship. You know...Michael W. Smith...Agnus Dei? Todd Agnew...The Thunder Song? As the Deer... by Adore?

I won't listen to any other music...too dangerous. And I do support GodRock (www.Air1.com) because it keeps bad lyrics out of the kid's ears, and out of mine. It may not be traditional, but I am not a traditional kind of person, however orthodox my doctrinal views may be.

For instance, I have a home church in my house, but since I am a woman, I don't pastor it if a guy is around. I don't pastor it at all that I know of, but if I do, it's to other women. I answer questions if someone asks, but I don't knowingly take authority, and I don't teach as far as I can tell. We just fellowship and talk God, and sometimes I sing a new song that the Holy Spirit has given me.

[color=993300]9. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.[/color]

And before someone jumps down my throat about how evil all this contemporary music is, many of the songs I sing were given to me by the Holy Spirit, and range from Rap to Country Western, Blues, R&B, Jazz, Torch Songs, and a few really nice Judaic influenced songs, all about God and the Walk and how great He is. And yes, I get lyrics and music both, and have to record it on my old cassette recorder instantly or the songs are lost. You name it, I've got a song about it in every flavor but plainsong. When Dorcas gives verses, I automatically get music to go with them, and it's a lot of fun. So I know that the Holy Spirit likes all kinds of God music. But is this worship?

I was called by God to "Write", and I'm trying to figure out how to best put that command into effect. But worship is central to our lives with God. And I need to be able to explain it to others, so I really need to know what other people do, are supposed to do, and think I should do, and what worship is, both scriptural and experiential.


Blessings,

Forrest

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Forrest Anderson

Hi Forrest,

The real question is: what is acceptable worship in the sight of God?

I will agree with Tozer here, saying: "While God wants us to worship Him we cannot worship Him just any way we will. The One who made us to worship Him has decreed how we shall worship Him. He accepts only the worship which He Himself has decreed."

Worship is far from some emotional outpourings or heart "touching" songs.
I don't believe that CCM and what they call worship is worship at all.
Maybe these would be strong words, but that is nothing more than spiritual amusement and entertainment. And in most cases mockery to the name of Jesus.

Compare these todays "stars" that are on the link you mentioned (air1) and The One "made himself of no reputation" (Philippians 2:7)
Compare the words of John the baptist, who said " "He must increase, but [b]I MUST DECREASE[/b]" with the most of the artists of todays CCM, where is all about [b]ME[/b], where the center of everything ME, but everything well masked in the name of Jesus.
What a mockery of the name of our Lord!
Apostle Paul in said 1 Cor. 4:13, ". . . we are made as the FILTH OF THE WORLD, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day." And they are trying to be like the world, with some miserable excuse "to win the world".
How can we support this and call it worship?

I had chance to see one of the artists you mentioned on a video for few minutes couple of years ago. The album was called Worship. When the 'worship' concert was about to begin, the artists shew himself and immidiately hundreds of young girls and boys started to scream because he appeared and wanted to touch him! That was abomination! I stopped the video at the moment. How can they call this worship of the living God, when this was typical worship of man?

Calling this worship is a big deception.

Worship is a way of life and it is acceptable only when Jesus in the center of our life.

We are called to worship the Lord in "spirit and truth".

We have heard someone to say "he is worshiper of money"
What makes him worshiper of money?
Does that means that he is sitting in front of the money, bow down to them, lifting the hands and singing songs for money?
This may be a part, but this is not the essence. It means that money are number one priority in his life. It means that the money are forming his way of thinking. He lives for money. Every thought is moving through the thought of money. Every decision is made how to have them more. Every preoccupation and motivation is connected with that.

I believe that is true worship.

"[b]WORSHIP[/b] is our occupation with God himself, with the greatness of his being."

I wound end with one quote from George Warnock:

"I was invited to a gathering one time, where their brochure announced there would be a worship leader demonstrating radical worship...

...the term “radical worship” did cause me to think of a couple of instances in the Bible which I would describe as being radical worship. Job, a righteous man, afflicted by Satan with God’s permission so that he lost almost everything, and was afflicted with a very severe skin disease and sat in a pile of ashes, worshiping God. I would call that very radical."

I would like to post some quotes by Tozer for further meditation on this subject:
[color=003333]
I hope that we will [b]remove[/b] from our hearts every [b]ugly[/b] thing and every unbeautiful thing and every dead thing and every [b]unholy[/b] thing that might prevent us from [i]worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ in the beauty of holiness.[/i] Now I am quite sure that this kind of thing is not popular. The world does not want to hear it and the half-saved churches of the evangelical fold do not want to hear it. They want to be entertained while they are edified. Entertain me and edify me without pain.
[i]-“The Chief End of Man,” Sermon #9, Toronto, 1962[/i]


Because we are not [b]worshipers[/b] we are wasting other people’s money tremendously. We’re marking time, we’re spinning our wheels with the axles up on blocks, burning the gasoline and making a noise and getting no place. God calls us to worship and I find this missing in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in this day. Instead of worship, we are now second in entertainment to the theaters. I want to tell you something. If I want to see a show I know where I can see a good one put on by top flight geniuses who know what they are doing. If I want a show I’ll duck out and go down to a theater and see a show hot out of Hollywood or London by men and women who are artists in their field. I will not go to a church and see a lot of ham actors putting on a home [b]talent show.[/b] And yet, that’s where we are in evangelical circles. We’ve got more show in evangelical circles than anywhere else.
[i]-“The Chief End of Man,” Sermon #4, Toronto, 1962[/i]

When you raise your eyes to God and sing, ”Break thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,” is that entertainment—or is it worship? Isn’t there a difference between worship and entertainment? The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment. That is why we have the great evangelical heresy here today—[b]the heresy of religious entertainment.[/b]
[i]-Success and the Christian, pp. 6-7.[/i]

"In my opinion, the great single need of the moment is that [b]light-hearted superficial religionists[/b] be struck down with a vision of God high and lifted up, with His train filling the temple. The holy art of worship seems to have passed away like the Shekinah glory from the tabernacle. As a result, we are left to our own devices and forced to make up the lack of spontaneous worship by bringing in countless cheap and tawdry activities to hold the attention of the church people."

OUT OF ENRAPTURED, ADMIRING, adoring, worshipping souls, then, God does His work. The work done by a worshiper will have eternity in it.

THE GREATEST TRAGEDY in the world today is that God has made man in His image and made him to worship Him, made him to play the harp of worship before the face of God day and night, but he has failed God and dropped the harp. It lies voiceless at his feet.

WE’RE HERE TO BE WORSHIPERS first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshiper, and after that he can learn to be a worker.

GOD ALMIGHTY SENT HIS Son Jesus Christ into the world for a purpose, and what was the purpose? To hear the average evangelist nowadays you’d think that we might give up tobacco; that Christ came into the world that we might escape hell; that He sent His Son into the world that when at last we get old and tired we might have someplace to go. Now all of these things are true. Jesus Christ does save us from bad habits and He does redeem us from hell and He does prepare us a place in heaven, but that is not the ultimate purpose of redemption.
The purpose of God in sending His Son to die and rise and live and be at the right hand of God the Father was that He might restore to us the missing jewel, the jewel of worship; that we might come back and learn to do again that which we were created to do [b]in the first place—worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, to spend our time in awesome wonder and adoration of God, feeling and expressing it, and letting it get into our labors and doing nothing except as an act of worship to Almighty God through His Son Jesus Christ.[/b]

THE FARTHER ON WITH GOD we go, the farther up into Christ’s heart we move, the more like Christ we’ll become; and the more like Christ we become, the more like God we’ll become; and the more we become like Him and the nearer we are to Him, [b]the more perfect our worship will be.[/b]

IT IS DELIGHTFUL TO WORSHIP God, but it is also a humbling thing; and the man who has not been humbled in the presence of God will never be a worshiper of God at all. He may be a church member who keeps the rules and obeys the discipline, who tithes and goes to conference, but he’ll never be a worshiper unless he is deeply humbled. [b]“A humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe.[/b]”


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Sources:
[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2825&forum=34#17953]A.W.Tozer on Entertainment[/url]
[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3454&forum=34&start=0&viewmode=flat&order=0]A.W.Tozer on Worship[/url]

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Danielle

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Forrest Anderson

Is that what happens in your church?

How horrible for you to be disturbed in the one thing I like about large assemblies of Christians!

When I do visit a church, it is for a worship service only, that's usually on a Friday or Saturday night, and is simply hours of praise, and I love it. Yes, I do check out the Pastor's, but they usually can't answer the few questions I think I need to know about a church. But then, California is weird. Despite the number of our churches, one wonders what they are going to church for.

Blessings,

Forrest

_________________
Forrest Anderson

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Danielle