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I have already posted the following article before but posting again with RED and BLUE emphasized since I frequently saw many worship leaders were misleading the service according to his/her own self-centered indulgence.
I may call it PRIVATIZATION OF THE WORSHIP SERVICE.
I will do my best for me to avoid this mistake.
WORSHIP; THE RITUAL OF CHRISTIANITY
The set form of conducting a religious ceremony
Rev. James Young Lee
Ceremony, a symbolic action of a community, has very important meanings for said community.
Members of the community remind themselves who they are, what might be their privileges, duties, and so on with ceremony.
Christians, worship our heavenly Father God.
Worship for a Christian is not only the first duty but also the first blessing.
Christian worship is the ceremony in which we confirm our relationship with God.
As Christians we should know and understand what the nature and culture of worship is, and know why and how to worship accordingly.
John 4:23-24 clearly tells us what worship is and how we have to worship God by saying, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
We must worship in truth; the truth of God, the truth of His nature, and the truth of His works.
Truth is the reason we worship God.
We worship God because He is our truth.
God is our truth because He is the source, resource, and reason of our existence.
First of all, therefore, we have to remember that we worship only God but nothing else.
That means we have to focus on God in our worship more than anything else.
God is the Lord of worship.
He is the everything of worship.
In worship, we remind ourselves who God is, what kind of God He is, what He has done for us, and what He will do for us.
He created the heavens and the earth and everything between, including us.
He saved us from our sin and death by paying the ransom for our sin with the precious blood of Jesus on the cross-- just as He saved Israelites from the bondage of Egypt in history.
The God-sent Holy Spirit is our daily source for inspiration, empowerment, and enlightenment.
God is the ultimate judge for every being.
We came from, live by Him and will be going back to Him.
Therefore we remember, remind ourselves, and spread the truth of God to others through our worship.
Secondly, we reflect ourselves under the light of God's expectation for us in our worship.
Are we trying to live on His expectation?
Are we enjoying His blessing for everyday life?
Perhaps another way of thinking of these things is to ask ourselves, "How are we doing these days?"
What could be improved, day after day, in our daily Christian work?
We reflect, repent, and redirect ourselves to God, during worship.
Thirdly, we think about the world and people who live in, and around us, as we worship.
We are supposed to love our neighbors and even enemies because we have to be loving ambassadors of God to those people.
They are the ones whom we must serve, minister, and share our lives in Christ, with.
Worshipping God in truth tells us why we have to worship, and what we have to do in worship.
Worshipping God in spirit, on the other hand, teaches us how to worship.
When we worship God, we worship in spirit.
God Himself, is Spirit and therefore expects us to worship in spirit.
Man's spirit is the deepest self which originated from God's Spirit-ness.
While presenting our body and mind to Him in worship, we should succeed to mobilize and present our deepest self which is our spirit.
Do you know that you are a spirit self?
Do you understand and even feel to be a spirit self?
Do you know why and how you could be failing to worship in spirit?
Do you know how you could succeed to worship in spirit?
We prepare and present ourselves to God in worship.
We have to do that with our whole person; body self, mind self, and spirit self, all together.
Your body is obviously there in the sanctuary.
Your mind could be there too if your mind is not wondering around all over the world.
What about your spirit then?
Are you sure that your deepest self, your spirit, is facing God directly without any disturbance during your worship service?
You have to make worship your priority and set aside everything else in your mind to make sure that you are worshipping God in spirit.
From the very beginning, to the end of the worship, your total self should be focused on God Himself only.
Depending on their own traditions and cultures, people might have different ways of conducting worship to achieve their goals, such as invocation, praise, prayer, preaching the Word of God, presenting the offerings, propelling congregation to the world with blessings and missions, and etc.
They might use some symbols and signs to promote "God-hood" and achieve their goals in their worship.
We have to make sure however, that nothing goes farther, higher, or deeper than the truth of God Himself.
We have to be careful not to be partial, not to be light or casually minded.
We must guard ourselves from becoming fearless, and to be sure to keep ourselves from being self-centered.
We may call Father's name, praise, pray, preach, give offerings, bless and commission the saints to the world, and, maybe, something more in our worship.
However, if any of these things exists without God at any moment, it cannot be called holistic worship.
Worship is the identity, the way, and the source of Christian life.
As long as people stick to the Biblical nature of the worship, they might enjoy their own worship culture.
Culture, however, has its own danger to be selfishly humane.
This can happen when we disregard, overlook, or forget the nature of worship for the sake of this man-made culture.
Pastors, preachers, teachers, or worship leaders could be in danger more than anybody else, to lose focus from God, and confusing oneself to be the hero of the worship service.
We must be humble, and humble ourselves before God and even before other worshippers by remembering who God is, and what worship supposed to be.
Nobody can take His place and His honor.
God is the recipient and audience of our worship.
God not only hears prayers and praises but also the messages.
Preaching is the service to Him, just as much as other elements of worship.
When He is pleased with the preaching He will bless the preaching, and in turn, let the congregation be blessed through the preaching.
Lastly, we want to make sure, since worship is the foundation of Christian life, our daily life should be our worship at every moment.
In the same truth, in the same spirit, we live our Christian life daily in everywhere.
Our daily life, in a wider sense, is our everyday service.
I know that I cannot cover all aspects of worship with such a small article like this.
But I hope I might covered the very basic nature of worship here in this writing.
Since we are supposed to worship Him in spirit, it should be our happiness and joy to be free worshippers within His truth of worship.
Certainly, the attitude, second to truth, is more important than the forms of worship.
If we failed to be focused on God, we may say that we are PRIVATIZING the worship for the sake of ourselves.
You may study further on your own, and discover why and how to worship the heavenly Father, in order to maximize glory to Him and to be blessed yourself.
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