"O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.... Harden not your heart...as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tried me, proved me, and saw my work." Ps. 95:6-9
Worship is most certainly about music and singing (vs. 1-2), but it is also about obedience as well (vs. 7b-11). We called to not only "worship" but also to "bow down," to show forth praises and give submission. In truth, they are a package deal: praise without obedience is hypocrisy, while obedience without praise is dead formalism and legalism. Praise and obedience are like "spirit" and "truth": both are necessary for proper worship (John 4:24).
If God is "our maker" (vs. 6) and "our God" (vs. 7), and we are His "people" and "sheep" (vs. 7), then worshipping Him for who He is and what He does is not only a matter of praise (for His goodness and greatness) but also obedience (for His leadership and headship). The people of the wilderness wanderings are the prime example of this (vs. 8-11): somehow they managed to give praises at the tabernacle and refuse to enter the promised land (and stay out of it) when they were told to.
God does not need a legion of yes-men and cheerleaders anymore than He needs dour-faced servants catering to His every whim. What He calls for are a people who delight in Him so much that they not only willfully and gladly offer up praises but also themselves.
-Jon Vowell
Showing posts with label Formalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Formalism. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Worship as Obedience
Monday, July 13, 2009
Real Presence
"...my heart and flesh crieth out for the living God." Ps. 84:2b
The main ignorance both inside and outside the church is that Christianity is about dead principles rather than a living person. Apparently, we are all about rite and ritual and ceremony with empty prayers and readings rather than communion with a living, personal being who is there. In addition, our churches are merely buildings of stone and wood rather than the house of the Holy One. Even holiness itself is nothing more than dead piety rather than an active principle emanating from a living and present presence that dwells within us. We must set this ignorance straight: Christianity is no more about dead formalism or stringent legalism than Christ Himself was; rather, Christianity is about actual fellowship with the living God who is there.
Perhaps the world can be excused for this ignorance, for how are they to know unless we tell them? Thus, we are the more guilty ones. Our lives, our deeds as well as our words, reveal nothing living or present, nothing active or personal. If we are not dead formalists orlegalists (or both), then we are at least pasty-faced moralists, our lives no different from the average pagan or heathen. Christianity, however, is not about dead religion; it is about the living God who walks with us and dwells within us. That reality should be reflective of a difference in our lives, a difference that cannot be simply explained away as mere religion and/or morality. To be "Christ-like" means that, like Christ, people must not know what to do with us because they have been in the presence of the living God, whether they knew it or not.
-Jon Vowell
The main ignorance both inside and outside the church is that Christianity is about dead principles rather than a living person. Apparently, we are all about rite and ritual and ceremony with empty prayers and readings rather than communion with a living, personal being who is there. In addition, our churches are merely buildings of stone and wood rather than the house of the Holy One. Even holiness itself is nothing more than dead piety rather than an active principle emanating from a living and present presence that dwells within us. We must set this ignorance straight: Christianity is no more about dead formalism or stringent legalism than Christ Himself was; rather, Christianity is about actual fellowship with the living God who is there.
Perhaps the world can be excused for this ignorance, for how are they to know unless we tell them? Thus, we are the more guilty ones. Our lives, our deeds as well as our words, reveal nothing living or present, nothing active or personal. If we are not dead formalists orlegalists (or both), then we are at least pasty-faced moralists, our lives no different from the average pagan or heathen. Christianity, however, is not about dead religion; it is about the living God who walks with us and dwells within us. That reality should be reflective of a difference in our lives, a difference that cannot be simply explained away as mere religion and/or morality. To be "Christ-like" means that, like Christ, people must not know what to do with us because they have been in the presence of the living God, whether they knew it or not.
-Jon Vowell
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