By Not Known
Worship is anything that acknowledges God’s worth: that he is God and we are
not; that he is the God who created, sustains, saves and provides.
Worship is a life-long activity that begins with our conversion in which we
decisively acknowledge that God is God and turn from worship of self or empty
man-made idols. We then move onto a life in which all we are and do is
presented to God as a ‘living sacrifice’ (Rom 12:1). This is worship to the max.
Without this worship of our lives, our rituals and actions in church services are
empty and offensive to God!(e.g. Amos 5:21 -24).
Where does this leave our acts of Sunday worship? They are very important
occasions as we meet together to admire and praise God, confess sins and seek
pardon, make our needs known, hear God’s word, give each other spiritual
encouragement and share in fellowship.
Sunday worship involves every aspect for our being and is not just some ethereal
matter of the soul. With heart and soul we love and adore God and engage with
each other in love and fellowship. With our mind we receive God’s word so that it
can inform and transform our lives. With our body we greet and care for each
other, sing, listen, talk and give.
Sunday services at ORPC have a strong focus on music and message, alongside
other aspects such as prayer. God’s message is dominant as seen in the amount of
time given to the reading and preaching of the Scriptures. Congregational hymns
and choral music are carefully chosen to help us in praise and worship, and are
coordinated to preaching themes – in order to prepare us to hear God’s word and
to lead our response to it.
To some extent, services of worship are another area where ‘what we gain
depends on what we give’. The person who arrives at a service tired, late
distracted, self-absorbed and ill-prepared is unlikely to gain much. On the other
hand, there is much to gain if we come early and well-prepared, engage
generously with fellow worshippers and especially if we open ourselves freely to
God in praise, prayer and the hearing of his word.
What kind of a worshipper are you?