Mission Objectives (Chp 8)
Just as was everything was created by God, everything on this earth is dedicated to God. Including us. Or at least that's how it should be.
The last chapter discussed how the reason for everything was to glorify God and how to glorify Him. This chapter introduced out first purpose. God's pleasure. We were made to please the Lord; in other words to worship Him.
I came across an interesting cultural difference while reading this chapter. Clearly this book was intended for a North American audience and apparently the common understanding, or misunderstanding, of the word worship there is music and singing. As far as my understanding goes, to me, worship meant traditional church practices and services. I'm also quite mistaken. Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is called worship and therefore it becomes a lifestyle; the way your life is lived, not just part of your day before you go to bed.
Realizing that worship is a lifestyle of bringing pleasure to God reveals that worship isn't actually for us, it is for the Lord. When we understand this we can approach worship as a giving of ourselves to please God rather than a taking to please ourselves. Of course through worship we gain a lot personally and there are a lot of benefits, but the intention is to please God.
Our church (Orthodox, more specifically Coptic Orthodox) is very rich in its traditions, rituals and practices. But often, and I've heard this a lot and its been said and discussed many times over, we get so caught up in the routine of these rituals that we forget their meaning, we do them like chores with your mind wandering elsewhere. The ritual lacks heart and commitment and becomes meaningless and we need to wake up ourselves and be aware that this isn't the way to please God, by thinking about something else while we automatically spew "prayers". We need to build a lifestyle where God is the essence and His pleasure is our goal.
This lifestyle will stem from one small thought. Last chapter we said that to glorify God we need to act in a manner that Jesus would have were He in our position. Today we learn that if we want to create a lifestyle of worship then everything we must do, it must be as if it's done for Jesus and not just done for Him but while communicating with Him constantly through it all. Its a relationship. A very illustrative example given is when you truly love someone, they become everything on your mind, you hear their voice, see their face, talk to them in your head and they reply to you, you see them in everything, you think about them wherever you go and in whatever you do. That's the lifestyle and relationship we want to build with God, we want to fall in love with Jesus, that's how we will be able to worship Him in every moment of our lives and in everything we do.
May God fill our lives with His presence and make us aware of it in a way where we can't help but reach out to Him and talk to Him and think of Him all the time. Amen.
The last chapter discussed how the reason for everything was to glorify God and how to glorify Him. This chapter introduced out first purpose. God's pleasure. We were made to please the Lord; in other words to worship Him.
I came across an interesting cultural difference while reading this chapter. Clearly this book was intended for a North American audience and apparently the common understanding, or misunderstanding, of the word worship there is music and singing. As far as my understanding goes, to me, worship meant traditional church practices and services. I'm also quite mistaken. Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is called worship and therefore it becomes a lifestyle; the way your life is lived, not just part of your day before you go to bed.
Realizing that worship is a lifestyle of bringing pleasure to God reveals that worship isn't actually for us, it is for the Lord. When we understand this we can approach worship as a giving of ourselves to please God rather than a taking to please ourselves. Of course through worship we gain a lot personally and there are a lot of benefits, but the intention is to please God.
Our church (Orthodox, more specifically Coptic Orthodox) is very rich in its traditions, rituals and practices. But often, and I've heard this a lot and its been said and discussed many times over, we get so caught up in the routine of these rituals that we forget their meaning, we do them like chores with your mind wandering elsewhere. The ritual lacks heart and commitment and becomes meaningless and we need to wake up ourselves and be aware that this isn't the way to please God, by thinking about something else while we automatically spew "prayers". We need to build a lifestyle where God is the essence and His pleasure is our goal.
This lifestyle will stem from one small thought. Last chapter we said that to glorify God we need to act in a manner that Jesus would have were He in our position. Today we learn that if we want to create a lifestyle of worship then everything we must do, it must be as if it's done for Jesus and not just done for Him but while communicating with Him constantly through it all. Its a relationship. A very illustrative example given is when you truly love someone, they become everything on your mind, you hear their voice, see their face, talk to them in your head and they reply to you, you see them in everything, you think about them wherever you go and in whatever you do. That's the lifestyle and relationship we want to build with God, we want to fall in love with Jesus, that's how we will be able to worship Him in every moment of our lives and in everything we do.
May God fill our lives with His presence and make us aware of it in a way where we can't help but reach out to Him and talk to Him and think of Him all the time. Amen.
posted by Shine | 12/20/2006 12:42:00 PM
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