More Sunday Reflections

I love conversations with people who love Jesus.  I had a good meal and great conversation last night with a friend and those times always leave me wanting to seek God's will at deeper levels than before.


The idea of worship is floating in my head the last few days so I'll throw out some more things I'm thinking about.  (Just a reminder, it's still my blog for the things on my mind - not a place where truth, wisdom or good guidance is intended to be imparted.)  I picked the church I went to Sunday based on the website.  The church's site was updated and contemporary but what struck me were their belief statements - not defenses of how or why they worshiped but open proclamations of their belief in God, His Son, the Holy Spirit and the Word.  One of the other church sites I visited listed all the proof texts for their acts of worship and defenses of their singing and communion.  Now, I don't disagree with their beliefs but their approach to them gave me a sense of what that church was about.  It reminded me of a quote I saw the other day, "if we spend more time defending our beliefs than living them, we are missing the point of the Gospel message."  I digress.


OK, the phrase that struck me and one I have heard forever on the second church's site was "we worship in spirit and truth" which seems to mean their worship is justified by the actions they partake in and/or avoid.  This is where I really felt the rub because at the point Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman about worship, He's not talking about the "acts of worship" but that God is spirit and our worship to Him needs to flow from the heart and be focused wholly on Him.  Jesus had been talking to her about living water, not something physical but something spiritual, that would fill her up inside.  What Jesus had to give her wasn't about the physical, it was about the heart.  Jesus goes on to say that our worship won't be in this physical place or that physical place but in spirit and truth.  Spiritual, not physical.  So why do churches try to tie that scripture to something that is physical?  There's not enough space or time in this blog to explore that question but I am determined to understand what Jesus wants from me at a deeper level than I do today.


One last thought about spirit and truth worship.  I do not believe our worship assembly is for me to feel better, it is for me to put all my energy in praising the LORD.  I want to sing songs that praise Him, I want to put energy and time and thought into praising Him.  I believe in doing so I will have a worship experience that does lift me up because I am a child of His and He lives in me but it is not about me, it is about God.  In that sense, I don't want to get caught up in the amount of time it takes, whether I'm going to miss a part of the Cowboy game or the other church groups will beat me to the lunch line.  I want to worship God.  Some of the people I worshiped with Sunday clapped during the songs, some raised their hands, some closed their eyes, some did very little.  Some of those things resemble me, some don't but when I walk out of worship, I want to be excited about what is before me and filled up with what I just did.  On Sunday, I thought about the basketball tournament I had just been to the night before.  During the games, people were on their feet, they were shouting, cheering, clapping, raising their fists in the air.  Should I be that excited at a basketball game that means nothing and not be more excited, more jubilant, more engaged in a worship time for the God of creation who has provided me eternal life in a place of constant joy?


It's on my heart to learn how to worship God in spirit and truth, not just Sunday morning but including the time I gather with brothers and sisters and lasting into every hour of every day.  I want to be more comfortable showing and sharing the excitement that is bursting in my heart for God everyday in every place.

Again, I say all this knowing little and only expressing things that are on my heart.


Grace and peace to you.