Pastor John W. Stevenson in his book defines a worshiper as the one who is intimately acquainted with, and has a daily relationship with God exhibited through obedience. He said, "You were not created to do. You were created to be".
The first time you find "worship" in Scripture is in Genesis 22:5 It reads: "Stay here with the donkey, Abraham told the servants. The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back". It is important to note that Abraham was not going up with musical instruments to sing a song with Isaac. He was going up there to put the most treasured possession in his life to death. Simply because Gos ask him to do it! So as you can see worship involves Faith, Sacrifice and Obedience. These three elements set the foundation for all Christian Worshipers. God never intended for worship to be "synonymous" with music and arts. Christians tend to "compartmentalize" worship. For example worship seminar tends to focus on the "doing" rather than Christian living. Why do worship workshops attract only musicians, singers and worship leaders? The reason is that Christians have drawn a line of demarcation between worship and Christian living. True worship is a life of obedience and out of that life will flow songs of worship, which will delight the heart of God, rather than repulse Him as in the following Scriptures: "Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, and an endless river of righteous living". - Amos 5:23-24 You see, there really is no difference in singing a song out of a hymnbook or singing a song that is projected on a screen. The real difference is in the heart of the person singing. Singing "worship" songs does not make you a worshiper! Having a worship team does not make you a worshiping church! All of that can become a religious exercise if we are not intentional to keep our hearts engaged in the exchange and remain in passionate pursuit of the ONE we are worshiping - JESUS! it is our daily relationship with Jesus that makes our worship to God genuine and authentic. I believe the church has entered a season in which the Holy Spirit is confronting us about the things we have taught in many ways have moved us away from a worship relationship and a worship life to a place more focused on worship activity. If we are going to help bring about change in the Body of Christ, it must start changing our own models, our vocabulary, and our teaching on worship. Worship is not about doing! It is a lifestyle that flows from dwelling in the very presence of the Lord. The worship life of the believer is living with the awareness that we are daily in that Presence. It is living in the reality that we are in Him and He is in us. When we worship Him, we are not trying to work our way into His presence. We are acknowledging that we are already in His Presence and our worship of Him is what gives us access to relate to Him. "If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you, says the LORD". - Jeremiah 29:13-14 What does it take to be a worshiper of God? Considering our definition of a worshiper, we realize that to focus on the elements of music and the arts reduce worship to something less than God intended and something far less than He deserves. If a worshiper is one who is intimately acquainted with and has a daily relationship with God exhibited through a life of obedience, we must move beyond songs, instruments, banners and art to something deeper and grander; we must move to something encompasses all of life and it involves faith, sacrifice and obedience!
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AuthorWarren Jhun Ocampo Archives
September 2017
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