True worship

[Mayflower Pilgrim]

"true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23)

Writing back in 1945 A. W. Pink said in his Gospel of John, "The more spiritual our worship is the less attractive to the flesh it will be. Modern 'worship' is chiefly designed to render it pleasing to the flesh, a 'bright and attractive service' and entertaining talks. What a mockery."

Even earlier C. H. Mackintosh warned that "There may be a great deal of what looks like worship yet which is after all, only the mere excitement and outgoing of natural feeling. It not infrequently happens that the very same tastes and tendencies which are called forth and gratified by the splendid appliances of such so-called religious worship, would find most suited supprot at the opera."

Worship without truth nor worship mixed with error is false worshipping and those seeking to worship God must avoid it. As A. W. Tozer stated: "We must learn that we cannot have our own way and worship God just as we please...there are certain types of worship that God will not accept, though they may be directed toward Him and are meant to be given to Him."

 

[chilibowl]

Often times when we concentrate on the "truth" of Johns text, and we forget the "Spirit" which was written in the same breath. -D.C. chilibowl
~Lol~ I really think that's funny

but seriously, worshiping "truth" to the expense of "spirit" leads to legalism, and we know how "he" feels about that... After all, he didn't spend the majority of the Epistles rebuking those "worshiping with out truth"

But don't get me wrong, truth is a community that is getting harder to find in worship. We need to know balance not one extreme or another!

LOL - D.C.Chilibowl

Sorry, I didn't have anyone important to quote.

 

[Sketcher]

Worship without truth nor worship mixed with error is false worshipping and those seeking to worship God must avoid it. As A. W. Tozer stated: "We must learn that we cannot have our own way and worship God just as we please...there are certain types of worship that God will not accept, though they may be directed toward Him and are meant to be given to Him."

Yes, but at the same time there are many forms of worship that the Bible does not condemn. If God does not condemn it, who are we to condemn it? If the Bible does not say God condemns it, who are we to say that He does?

I do agree that there needs to be more to worship besides a good feeling. We need to be truly honest with ourselves and with Him. We need to worship Him with our minds as well as our emotions. In fact, emotions aren't supposed to be the driving force, I consider them a bonus.

"The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."- Isaiah 29:13

So we do need to worship in spirit and in truth. However, when we condemn something that the Bible does not, we cease to do that and our worship becomes nothing more than "rules taught by men." I agree that we should not go to the extremes on either side of true worship.