I don’t know- I’ve been thinking about it and it comes to mind that if God were to make a list of the greatest sins, these 3 would be somewhere near the top.
1) Robbing God of Worship.
Our meetings (services for those of you not in TSA) are not for our enjoyment. In fact, they are not for us at all. We gather together on Sundays to worship God. I believe "the worship" is God’s favorite part of our meetings. Have you ever heard people say something like; "I may be a little late, but I’ll be sure to make it for the ‘Word’" (the message)? For God, it would be the other way around- something like: "I’ll be sure to soak up all your worship, but I may just leave when you stop or go on to other things."
When we do anything but worship in our meetings, we are robbing God of his due. When it becomes rote and we walk through the motions just to do what’s expected of us, we are robbing God. I am sure robbing God is a horrendous thing to him! What do we do in our meetings that could be dropped without missing a spiritual beat? I believe there are quite a few that God wouldn’t miss at all.
2) Making the Worship of God Boring.
God made people to be extremely creative- that’s part of the "in God’s image" stuff that makes us so special. When we allow our worship to get old and/or dry; when it lacks creativity such that there are people (kids especially) who "zone out," I am sure God gets furious! I don’t want to be around anyone standing before him on judgement day who has been responsible for boring worship! In fact, I duck now (watching out for the lightning bolt), when I sit through meetings of this nature.
3) Holding People Back from Their Best Worship.
I think meeting leaders and planners are mostly responsible for this one. When we design the meeting with too many items (especially those irrelevant to the flow of worship); when we take too much time talking about anyone but Jesus (Mother’s and Father’s Days come to mind); when we create an atmosphere that stifles people’s freedom in worship (etc), we are holding people back from offering their best worship to God.
Scripture talks about it being better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown in the ocean than to hinder one of God’s children. That sounds like God takes it all very serious to me!
The greatest sins? I bet some of you were thinking I would mention murder, "the unpardonable sin," Satan worship or some other issue like that. Nope. If there were such a list, I believe the worst sins to God would be those that keep him from receiving his due worship. May none of us ever be held accountable for these.
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2 comments:
Interesting thoughts. It seems that when you say "worship" you mean "singing." I was wondering recently - why do we sing? Is singing really a necessary component of church? I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
Well, in the larger sense of my meaning, I'm not just referring to "Praise & Worship singing." But I can understand how you get that from my words. And in actuality, we Christians kinda make our worship just the singing time.
We have a section in our program "dedicated" to worship. There are many things we do, including prayer, united readings, listening to God, etc. Worship is so much more than just singing- it involves expressing our deep love for God. I think my best worship is when I just sit still and try to wrap my spiritual arms around God.
Why do we sing? I think God wants us to. There is awesome singing in heaven and God enjoys it- especially when it is focused on him!
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