Jesus told us that true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. (John 4:23)
When I became a Christian most of the songs we sang were hymns. Many of them I loved ,and still do - their theology was rich and helped to produce Christian maturity in those who meditated on them.
However, we must admit that many of them - and a great number of the choruses we sang, were quite poor, both theologically and musically. The advent of choruses that were more Biblical during the '70s' came as a breath of fresh air, and today, you can hardly find a church where they do not have a time of "Praise & Worship".
"Praise & Worship" - what do these words mean to you? I once attended a two day seminar on "Praise & Worship" but became confused with the teacher's meaning whenever he mentioned 'worship'. Realising that my confusion was probably due to semantics - a different understanding of the words used, I asked him to define his terms for me.
I was amazed when he said that he had never tried to define these words. No wonder, I, and others present, were confused by his teaching.
I shall be defining these words in this way: PRAISE is the sum of those actions we take to express God's attributes. This would primarily be directed to others and would include songs of testimony and proclamation. It is essentially 'horizontal'.
WORSHIP is man's response to his awareness of the presence of God. This would include songs of adoration and thanksgiving but it is expressed to God Himself and is essentially, 'vertical'. It would also include expressions of dance and moments of silence.
The Scriptures teach us that the Lord Himself is present in the gathering of His people. Do we believe that? If we did, would we present our worship to Him in the same way as we currently do? I suggest that much of our so-called worship would change considerably with the realisation of this truth.
God is still seeking those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth!
Be the first to react on this!
Gareth Evans ( - )
Gareth Evans is an itinerant pastor/teacher with a burden to minister to the hurting church his ministry website is Gareth Evans Ministries. Formerly a Physics teacher in the UK and Canada, he became a pastor with the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada in 1979. In 1991, he was invited to serve as pastor on board the M/V Anastasis, a medical, missionary ship operated by Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Since leaving that ministry four years later, Gareth has traveled to many countries, encouraging pastors and missionaries.He is married to Anne and they have three married daughters, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Gareth and Anne live in Victoria, in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Some of his main burdens is to mentor young men to see them walk in the anointing of God and soar on wings as eagles. He has also prayed for revival and moderated many revival conferences across the world.