Saturday, May 08, 2010

Worship - The Act Of Obedience

Our Worship Is Shaped
Not Only By What We Feel,
Or Say Or Sing,
But By How We OBEY
TPWC

Most of us have various reactions to the word ‘OBEDIENCE’. It often gives us a sense of duty, legalism and work but if we take a closer look, we find that God's intention is to show us His amazing love.

We all remember the story in Genesis 22 where Abraham is preparing to follow God’s instruction to have him sacrifice his only son, Isaac. We know the end of the story and our tension is stayed by the fact that we know God would not put Abraham through the ultimate sacrifice; yet have we ever thought that when it comes to His own beloved Son, God offered Him for us! (John 3:16 - God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son ...)

As mentioned in my last post, the first time we find WORSHIP in Scriptures is in Genesis 22. Abraham tells his other men to stay behind, and “we will worship and return to you” (Gen 22:5).
WORSHIP IS AN ACT OF OBEDIENCE!

The whole scene in Genesis 22 enables us to understand Apostle Paul's letter when he said, “Christ was obedient to death, even to the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Christ’s OBEDIENCE at the cross was really His ultimate expression of WORSHIP to the Father. Yet when it comes to offering our lives as living sacrifices (which is our reasonable worship) or even taking up our "crosses" (daily), we often shrink back.

What does it means to lay our lives on God's altar? Imagine a scene from the movies: In some distant tribal culture, one man saves another's life. According to custom, the saved now belongs to the savior. And why not? If not for the rescuer, the rescued one would be dead. His life rightfully belongs to the one who preserved it. So it is with Jesus and His sheep. We were lost and, for all practical purposes, dead. That's not our preferred assessment of ourselves, but it's what the Bible says. Without Jesus, we'd be forever lost. But He rescued us. And in His culture, we now belong to Him. We are to live out the rest of our days - the days He mercifully gave us - for Him

That's what being a living sacrifice is all about. We are not our own; we have no claim on our own lives. We were bought with a precious, heavy price. Living sacrifices don't live for themselves. They live for Another. That's living a life of OBEDIENCE! That's our reasonable WORSHIP!

"There is no true WORSHIP without OBEDIENCE. A life of OBEDIENCE before the Lord is a life of WORSHIP. It was Adam’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden that separated him, and ultimately you and me, from God. It was Jesus OBEDIENCE to the Father, even unto death, that gave us opportunity to enter back into a right relationship with God." - John W. Stevenson


Our Worship Is Shaped Not Only By What We Feel, Or Say Or Sing, But By How We OBEY - TPWC

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