Heart Of Worship - Part 1

There are people who mistaken worship as this:

When people come to church, they come into the presence of God.
When people leave the church, they leave the presence of God.

Our whole life is worship. It is our time. It is our money. It is our plans. It is our all that is given to God. That's our worship. It is not limited to a "Sunday's services". As Rick Warren clearly points out in his Purpose Driven Life book, "We come on Sunday to sing, "His Truth Is Marching On" but then go AWOL on Monday for the rest of the week." I mentioned that many Christians are "out of sight"!

So why do we "worship"?

"God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward to sharing in God's glory. It's that simple. That is the substance of our Message." Colossians 1:27 (msg)

We worship because of Christ! We worship the glory God has for us all! It is the only thing that gives us eternity! Sadly, so many of us have led ourselves away from the Source (capital "S") into the source (lower "s")! We're often victims of misdirected worship. Misdirected worship is IDOLATRY! Our hearts may be on something else. If we do not live out the purposes God has for us, we're living in the state of idolatry. We could be led away from being "..true worshippers in Spirit and Truth.." by our friends, by our children, by our colleague, by a member of a family, by the standards of this world, or by the temptation the world gleams on our eyes and hearts! We cannot be the same in Spirit when misdirected worship happens. We have missed out the full potential God has for each of us in every walks of life: LIVING HIS PURPOSES!

We "worship God" because of His love. "See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don't know God, so they don't understand that we are his children." 1 John 3:1 (nlt) Worship is all about love. We have a deep and intimate relationship with God. I am not talking in a sexual viewpoint that you may be thinking of. No. I am talking about "a passionate love"! Remember the Mel Gibson movie, "Passion Of Christ"? Passion means suffering. We have passion for God! We're willing to suffer for God (Acts 5:41, Philippians 1:29 & 2 Tim. 2:3). Our surrender of our all is our loving worship to God. Our life has no beauty without Christ.

OUR PASSION, OUR LOVE IS ULTIMATELY OUR WORSHIP!!!

"We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us." 1 John 3:16 (nlt)

"And I will give them one heart and mind to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, promising not to stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me..."" Jeremiah 32:39-40 (nlt)

Where is your heart in worship to Him?