WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

Worship of God is not necessarily performed in a building on any certain day!

How often through our years of attending "church" have we heard such statements as these.... "We are assembled here together to worship God" "The worship service is about to begin", "We invite you back again to worship with us", "Where do you worship regularly?", "Oh, I worship at the __________ Church".... We have developed a 'tradition' of making laws where God never intended. We have used historical divisiveness to take biblical words and twist them into meanings not remotely reflected of New Testament usage. We use the language of Ashdod to keep the pew- people in line with the thinking that "true worship" take place in this stained-glass building. Where in the New Covenant scriptures do we find out about "worship services", "5-acts of worship", "worship place", also where in the scriptures does it tell us about all this extraneous stuff that is so important in promoting the Institutional Church, such as....  "The Invitation Song, The Pulpit, The Professional Minister, The Church Treasury, The Clergy & Laity, Placing Membership/ Joining the Church, Going to Church, N.T. scriptures consist of only 27 love letters, O.T. scriptures consist of 39 books, The Lord's Supper is an Act of Worship, Sermons are Acts of Worship, Public Prayer an Act of Worship.... And this is not all, by any stretch of the imagination, you probably can add to the list as many as I did.

 Jesus demonstrated, in His sojourn here on earth, what it means to "worship in spirit and truth". His attitude and character were clearly manifest in all that He said and did. He was not interested in outward form but rather in the changing of the inner man. All of His teachings were devoted to the transforming and renewing of the mind (Rom 12:1-2) His greatest teaching of service (worship) to His Heavenly Father was what man MUST give unto God, and that is, a total surrender of self to serve the True and Living God, by serving O T H E R S !!

 If "worship" consisted of doing certain prescribed things on a certain day at a certain location, then why did not Jesus ever say anything about it? If it were mere outward acts being performed that God seeks for us to please Him, then the heart could be far away from Him. Jesus taught every day of His life about outward deeds were totally useless, unless the heart was right. Why do we as children of God even perform certain deeds as though God needed them. God is all sufficient. What makes us think that our "acts of worship" are what He needs so He can make it through another week. We have an idolatrous view of "worship" if we think our doing anything puts another good mark on our score card in order to guarantee a home in heaven. All of our activities we do as a together assembly aren't for His benefit, but rather for ours.

If we can ever understand that our love for God must be manifest in our love for our fellow man, then we have finally begun to understand that worship is, in spirit and truth, not certain deeds, to exclusion of others. Even a cup of cold water given in the name of Jesus is deemed worthy, by any follower of Christ. Just as we don't stop being a Christian and then start being a Christian again depending on some circumstances, neither do we cease worship to God, based on special circumstances, special place, peculiar time built around our own convenience. Christianity is not something done one day a week at a set hour, rather a way of life that will influence everything that we say and do. Paul says it much better than I could ever say it....

....(Rom. 12:1, NAS) "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."

Yours for Truth and Freedom......Horace Hooper