I overheard the question, in regards to a meeting tomorrow, “Who’s doing worship?”

Valuing His ability to set things right over and above the circumstances of life.  

We Christians generally think of worship in a positive manner, as in ascribing worth to Papa God; our Creator, Sustainer, Father.  However worship is ascribing worth to one thing which therefore by definition debases other things. The new found “glory” of the object of our worship blinds our eyes to everything else.

Worship can take many forms; Clamorous, glorious, raucous, abandoned, wild, radical, crazed, outrageous, zealous, awestruck, humbled, ruined, bowed, silent, laid down, dumbfounded, intoxicated, captivated, enthralled, silent, somber, joyous, dancing, paralyzed, energized, laughing, crying, reeling, overwhelmed, carried away, enraptured, ecstatic, solemn, contemplative.
At a recent meeting I observed many of these ways of worship. Both during the time when there was music and during the time when the man was speaking. In fact, earlier during the day I witnessed these expressions of worship in various places. People all give praise and worship all day long to many different perceived “sources”.  It’s just what we humans do, we worship constantly and with great abandon.  Most of us just won’t admit to it in our “regular” life.  Seriously when did you last see a football game, or concert?
Oh yeah we “officially worship” at the church, the synagogue, the temple, but all the other times when we ascribe worship to the many “sources” in life during our regular walking around day to day life we are just doing life, we tend to see that part as the secular part of life…… Hey what about doing life in the midst of our worship and keeping our focus on the Father of lights all the time? Now there’s a way to live!

It’s how we will spend eternity……

I, like so many who’ve studied worship, always looked at the form of worship in the midst of the Temple, David’s Tent, etc.  That was the real meat of what worship looked like and how it was to be done.  Stan Firth has looked at what people were doing before they were worshiping, in other words, the context of worship and then what they did to worship.  I had focused on the formal settings in Bible passages so many times for my picture of worship when in fact that was a small portion of the times when people worshiped in the Bible record. For only a portion of Israel had access to the Temple or tent of meeting more than just three times a year. Worship happened in the normal course of life much more than in structured services.

From: Custom and Command by Stan Firth
“So I went through the Bible, looking at every example of people worshipping. To my surprise, I found that biblical references to worship taking place were, usually, quite unconnected with what you might call “religious meetings” or “services”! IT BECAME CLEAR TO ME THAT WORSHIP WAS ALMOST ALWAYS A SPONTANEOUS EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION TO THE LORD, FROM AMIDST WHATEVER SITUATIONS BELIEVERS FOUND THEMSELVES IN, RATHER THAN SOMETHING WHICH HAPPENED AT FIXED TIMES OR PLACES. ”
“Eventually I concluded that, basically, worship in the Old Testament was a spontaneous response of appreciation, when the good and wise dealings of the Lord were experienced or recalled. Worshippers of the Lord were those who consciously gave Him credit in their on-going situations”

Kinda takes you back to the beginning, the Shema (Deut 6:4-8)
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Life is to be lived in His presence day by day, worship flows from the junction of life and the divine wherever and whenever.

So, how do you worship when you disconnect from the institutional church system? I’ve struggled with this for two years now, since leaving a lifelong journey through one version or another of that institution.

We are so programmed into the mindset that we must have a band or choir up in front of us and a special place to “enter in”. We somehow need to be in one of those groups either on the platform or out in the congregation to “really” worship. So when we leave that system it can feel odd to worship in other ways. The uncomfortable sense of the familiar being gone and the uncertainty of what Holy Spirit wants us to do can lead to feeling disconnected.

However, if we believe that living life in a Christ honoring way is in itself worship, then coffee with a brother or a volleyball game with friends can certainly be worship. The underlying question for me is “Am I currently giving glory to God with my life?” If the answer is yes, then I’m worshiping indeed. Are our lives meant to be segmented into sacred and secular? Are we not supposed to redeem the time and live mindful of Papa’s presence (in the sacred) all the time?

Now, is there value in gathering with brothers and sisters and singing songs or celebrating Jesus together? Absolutely!!! But if you look at the early Church, they met tougher in homes and public places to fellowship (live life together). It was not about the place they met or the activity they did, but the assembling together in groups of two or more wherever and whenever the Spirit led them. For wherever two are three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst.

It’s all worship!

I’m currently standing for healing of some funky gastrointestinal thing where pain seems to come and go randomly. But in the midst of that battle , I found a new appreciation for worship this afternoon. Y’all know my definition of worship is a bit broader that the 4 walls on Sunday morning. This afternoon I found, Close to the Edge (Yes) on Spotify and listened to the whole thing waiting in the HEB lot for the family to finish shopping while I rested.
It was amazing how that music with all it’s oddity and intricacies had me marveling at the creative genius Papa put in those men so many years ago. Yes of course we could argue about the form or possibly even their motives but in the end I prefer to let the creative expression bring glory to Papa God regardless of the vessel He’s used to bring it about. For worship is after all seeing Him in everything and everywhere and give Him the honor due His name. Freedom is indeed found in seeing His hand on everyone, His moving through the creative gifting He has bestowed on all people is an expression worship and communion.

There’s a place of beauty and rest in the Holy presence of Papa God.
It can come to us in a flash of lightning or streaming in like a gentle breeze.
But the result is always the same, in the sense that He is never the same, always fresh and new, desiring to bring us into new realms of glory. Papa delights in the heart that draws near to Him, the heart that seeks His lap or his enfolding arms of love.

When Heaven touches earth in this way we are forever changed. There is a longing in every heart for this kind of tangible weighty glory. We know down deep inside that His presence is where we belong and once we experience it we never want to leave.

What do we have to do to come here? That’s the mystery of the ages, He’s right here in our midst, in His people all the time without condition, without limit. We strive for new ways to “bring His presence” to “step into the throne room” when all along the Holy of holies is right with us, Holy Spirit living in us empowering us to be with Papa at any moment because we are walking in the presence. We literally speak His name with every breath. Let every breath be worship to Papa God.

Worship, true worship is circular in nature, in and out of His manifest presence, deeper and deeper we go. I think it is because our human frame can only endure His pure holiness and joy to a certain point and that is in relationship to our depth of desire for Him. We set our hearts on Him and His glory, His beauty and majesty and He pours our a deeper desire to get ever closer and closer to His heart.

This song shows this reality so well:
Set a Fire down in my soul
That I can’t contain that I can’t control
I want more of you God
I want more of you God

How awesome is it that we can seek more of Him and ask for a deeper desire to chase Him longer, stronger, further than we have ever gone before and He sits back pleased because His kids are in love Him just because of who He is. We can actually bring joy to the King of the Universe, The Holy one of Israel, The Lord of lords and King of kings. Rest assured that our pursuit of Him is a two way journey of pleasure and joy in the sweetness of His presence. Flowing in and out of the cloud of His glory, experiencing the Shekinah and Shalom only available in intimate fellowship with Papa God. We really can’t get enough of His presence, once experienced it is addicting, truly better than any experience on earth.