Wow! The weeks are flying by and our time together is such a joy for me. I sure hope our Lord is speaking to your heart, and opening your eyes to see His glory and the incredible privilege we have to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!!!
Are you getting it? Worship is praise to God, but exemplified not solely in the direct act of engaging Him with thanksgiving, offering and sacrifice, but also by expressing His love toward others, His words of encouragement, His help, His courage, His joy, His power, as we act in obedience before Him. When God's glory is manifested, it is worship! The glory of Christ is rising in the hearts and people of New Heights!!!
For those of you who check out the blog...this is a heads up!!! In the brief review at the start of class, you will be 'filling in' the blanks for each week's learning. Now, before you think about not coming until late, if you are late, you will miss out on the hugest blessing and reward for your participation. So be there early and be there often!
You can review the previous week's learning by going reviewing the previous week's blogs. Thanks for all of you who invest additional time in your spiritual transformation via this class!
This week, as we discussed what makes our worship acceptable by God, the key issue is that God lets us know that He has accepted our worship! This cannot be accomplished if we do not engage Him in conversation, listening, and just plain relationship. Thanks again to those who participate verbally and non-verbally in class. As we discussed the answer to the question, you are all 'right on'.
What Makes our Worship Acceptable to God?
-our attitude
-The condition of our heart
-humble
-selfless
-contrite
*belief in Christ as Lord!..ah, Ya
Yet it was pointed out that we know many who are humble, selfless and contrite who without the connection to Christ, are just doing 'good acts', which may or may not have eternal benefits, but for believers definitely will have eternal benefits!!
So worship requires:
1. Belief in Jesus Christ as our savior.
2. Coming before God in an active relationship
3. Pursuing the goal that everything we do will bring glory to God.
4. A responsive, contrite heart before our Lord.
5. Acceptance of one another.
6. Remaining in communion with God and fellow believers.
Practically speaking this means:
+Knowing what acts are considered by God to be worship.
+Focusing on what is true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy to and with God.
+Engaging with God truly seeking to know if He accepts our worship.
+Setting our hearts and minds on Christ.
Scripture points out, practically and directly how some of this is best worked out.
First Peter 2:4-5
4 As you come to him, the living Stone —rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
and Romans 15:7-9 clearly point this out.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs 9 so that the Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy
In addition, in Isaiah 57:15.
15 For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. 16 I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me—the breath of man that I have created.
Remembering, as I pointed out the definition of acceptable there are two interesting parts of the definition...
1. capable or worthy of being accepted.
2. pleasing to the receiver; satisfactory; agreeable; welcome.
Or the other part…
3. meeting only minimum requirements; barely adequate: an acceptable performance.
4. capable of being endured; tolerable; bearable: acceptable levels of radiation.
...and you guessed it, we want to be in the first part, not the second part of the definition. God does tolerate us, but what is incredibly glorious and humbling is that He loves us and enjoys the pleasure He gets as we do what is pleasing to Him. This alone is worship!!!
So, in the upcoming week, we will be discussing places where Godly worship occurs. You may be surprised at the answer unless you are getting the big picture, of our time together. I pray for His blessing to fall on you as we go through our week with a heart of worship in everything we do.
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