Praise

Psalm 100 (The Message)

1-2 On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

4 Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

The heart of worship has to be a deeply held belief that we are part of something so much bigger and greater than ourselves.

But let's be clear...we're not just talking about "something," we're talking about a very specific and someone bigger than us.

God has personality, attributes, and can be described and known.

God is completely beyond our imaginations and yet personally available.
If we have the capacity for love, it is because God is love and has first loved us. If we have the capacity to know beauty and to be beautiful, it is because God is "sheer beauty" himself. God is the very definition of the concept and the reason for its existence.

God made us, we didn't make him.

And we human beings have the deep-down, cellular level need to acknowledge that truth.

The consumption-driven world in which we live can color our thoughts about worship. Sometimes, Christians believe that worship is the primary product of a church's staff. We apply the world's model to church...we pay for worship, and we expect to consume a good product.

What a shame.

The heart of worship isn't consumption...it's offering.

The people gather and do their "work" of connection to the source. We sing songs, because it's a powerful physical expression of our thanks and praise to God. We pray prayers, lifting our hearts to God. We give from our money as an act of worship and trust, acknowledging that we're just caretakers of that which God has first given us. We bring our laughter and fellowship and acknowledge that only God can make us a real community. And we bring open hearts, a willingness to be shaped by the scripture that we hear.

That is worship.

That kind of understanding...of participation and offering, not worldly consumpion...could go so far toward healing many hurts in the churches of today.

It's about God...not style...not place...not the preacher...or the choir...or the band.

It's about our need to be thankful, and to offer back some portion of the beauty God has shared with us.

Prayer: God, we pray that this day and every day we might learn to enter your courts with thanksgiving and praise. Show us your goodness, deliver us from evil and help us to respond with joy and worship.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.

No blog tomorrow, but we'll see you at SOTH this Sunday! Worship at 9 and 11 AM with Sunday School at 10:15.