Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)
By now you are aware of the exercise for Saturdays. It is time to review what you have learned this week about the Disciplines of Worship and the Sabbath viewed through the lens of love.
Please prayerfully consider our conversations over the past week. This blog site makes it quite easy to review thoughts and comments from the past week if you need a refresh. Please answer the following questions:
Today’s Questions for comments:
- What are the top three or four “big ideas” that you picked up during the past week?
- What practical steps can you take to make the Disciplines of Worship and the Sabbath more of a habit?
Next week we will consider the Disciplines of Fellowship and Counsel.
March 14, 2015 at 6:55 am
4 big ideas I picked up this week:
— worship should depict a love and reverence for God
— prayer should be an integral part of worship
— the time we set aside for worship should be one of our ” best” times. We shouldn’t try to “fit God in”. We need to dedicate time that allows us to worship without rushing. We need to make sure God is the focus, instead of already thinking about all we have to do throughout the day. We need quality time with God.
— rest, worship, and personal time with God should be a major part of our Sabbath
March 14, 2015 at 8:14 am
What are the top three or four “big ideas” that you picked up during the past week?
1. Be ready for worship. The way I live my life is the offering I present. It should be my best.
2. Be intentional about my quiet time with God.
3. Do be blinded by the preparation that I miss the time to sit at Jesus’ feet.
4. Is my love and gratitude for Christ reflected through washing His feet with my tears?
What practical steps can you take to make the Disciplines of Worship and the Sabbath more of a habit? Try and nap more on Sundays after church. That extra little rest is good sometimes. 🙂
March 14, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Over the past week, the Lord has taught me and convicted me on the following points: worship is not about what I think I need to do to serve Him, worship is about making the Lord Jesus the focus of my time and attention and simply being with Him, worship is about being drawn by the person of Jesus Christ into an out pouring of my emotions without calculation of the cost and worship is trusting God to be obedient to stop, rest and commune with Him daily and on the the Sabbath i.e. A 24 hour period every 7 days. When I stop and rest, I respect my humanity and the image of God in me. (Scazzero, Peter, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality). These are big lessons and I thank God He is merciful and gracious and has the patience to bear with me.
March 14, 2015 at 1:05 pm
I’ve learned that:
GOD seeks true worshippers, those who worship in spirit and in truth. To worship in spirit is to worship with the whole heart – with passion. Passion cannot be faked – passion comes from loving GOD with your entire being (see Luke 10:27). To worship in truth is to acquire knowledge of and apply God’s teaching to your life so that your actions, words and deeds are a witness of what is right in GOD’s eyes.
WORSHIP with truth but without spirit leads to Head Worship – lack lustre, rules based, pretentious. It is impossible to worship with passion without love. Worship with spirit but without truth leads to an emotional high experience which must be obtained in a particular place or even time – for example a church or a gospel concert – the high last for a few moments but you must continually return to the location for ‘the fix.’ This worshipper loves the notion of GOD but can he truly love a GOD he does not know? He may be ‘active’ in the church but his lifestyle is no different from that of an unbeliever.
THEREFORE worshipping in the spirit and truth go hand in hand.
ALONE time with GOD is important – away from people and distractions, better still an isolated place. Imagine Jesus and GOD are one but he sought out alone time with HIM. Far be it from me not to follow His heavenly example. It must be that it unblocks POWER. It make sense to apply this priniciple to our important human relationship as well to strengthen and ignite them (another commentator alluded to this point earlier this week).
THOSE who are forgiven much, love much – those who are forgiven little love litte (paraphrase). Still examining the implications of this heavenly principle.
Have a good weekend everyone!
March 14, 2015 at 1:26 pm
The comments that were made when we looked at the woman with the alabaster jar caused me to go back and review the story more closely. In doing so, I compared the woman to Simon the Pharisee. This comparison gave me 3 big ideas that I can apply to my life:
1. Simon invites Jesus without preparing for him while the woman came prepared without being invited.
2. Simon had his doctrine correct (Jesus said he judged correctly), while the woman simply acted correctly.
3. Simon was focussed on piety while the woman was focussed on relationship.
In the end, Jesus described the root cause for the disparity between the woman and Simon. The woman loved much and Simon clearly did not. Unfortunately, sometimes I act more like Simon than the woman. I pray that my love will continue to grow through the power of the Holy Spirit and my worship and sabbath practice will improve.
March 14, 2015 at 9:06 pm
The three big ideas for me are:
1. Worship is not restricted to one place or a scheduled time.
2. Be intentional about finding time to connect with God.
3. God deserves the best from us.
March 14, 2015 at 11:07 pm
I would like to try and communicate believe all that I have learned this week into one thought/prayer: that my desire to know The Lord will become progressive filled with increasing passion based upon the knowledge/ truth revealed in His Word by His Spirit. And that I would develop a close/deep and personal relationship with Him than I could ever have imagined. “That I may know Him….” Philippians 3:10-11.
March 14, 2015 at 11:40 pm
Thanks again to all commentators for keeping us focussed on application. Thankfully we do not have to pursue these actions in our strength. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.