Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Worship
Worship is not a place, a style of music, or an item on a Sunday schedule. It is your whole self answering God: spirit and truth, in response to mercy. Jesus dismantled the idea that worship lives at an address, and Paul called the presentation of your ordinary body an act of spiritual service. Wherever you are, worship is what you are doing with yourself before God.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/what-is-worship · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
John 4:19-26
As you read: The woman asks WHERE worship must happen, and Jesus answers that it no longer happens at an address at all.
19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.
24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
Romans 12:1-2
As you read: Paul's therefore: eleven chapters of mercy first, and only then the call to offer your body as a living sacrifice.
1Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
2Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
The Samaritan woman tried to turn a conversation about thirst into an argument about real estate: 'Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.' Jesus refused both options: 'Neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem.' Worship was never going to live at an address. That should reorganize our instincts, because most of us still quietly assume worship is somewhere we go.
“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.”John 4:20-21
What replaces geography is a manner: 'the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers.' Spirit, because God is not a thing you can reach with rituals alone; truth, because worship shaped by anything false is not worship of Him at all. Notice who does the seeking: the Father seeks worshipers. Worship is not us manufacturing a feeling for a distant God; it is answer to a pursuing one.
“But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.””John 4:23-24
Paul's word for worship startles anyone who thinks it means singing: 'present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.' Your body: your hands, commute, calendar, and money. Under the old covenant worshipers brought animal sacrifices; under the new, God asks for the worshiper. What He wants from you is not a performance on an hour but the possession of a life.
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”Romans 12:1
Romans 12 opens with 'Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God': eleven chapters of grace come first, and only then the call to offer ourselves. Paul cannot even write the transition without erupting into praise: 'For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.' Worship that begins with what we owe is pressure; worship that begins with what we have been given is the only kind Scripture calls true.
“Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”Romans 12:1
“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.”Romans 11:36