RE: [Worship] Why does God want worship?

["Marty Kendall" <mkendall@flexi.net.au>]

Greetings from Australia.  You have quite an active list going here!

It's good for us to go back to basics and question why we do what we do.  My
favourite Bible verse,
Romans 12:1, says "...in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of
worship."

I don't think God necessarily wants or needs our worship.  What we sing or
do does nothing for God in the same way that the burning carcases in the Old
Testament did nothing for God either (see Isaiah 1:11-17).

Worship to me is what we do naturally in response when we grasp God mercy,
his grace, all that He is and all that He has done for us.

And how do we honour God and acknowledge His worth when He everything we
could try to give him is already owned by him?  I believe it is by honouring
those who he made in his image (1 Tim 5:4, James 1:27).

Marty


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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-worship@praise.net [mailto:owner-worship@praise.net]On Behalf Of
Maureen Pranghofer
Sent: Thursday, 31 August 2000 11:41
To: Kunkle, Bruce W; worship@praise.net
Subject: Re: [Worship] Why does God want worship?

Hi
I've thought about this question and in doing so think of Jn:14:15: If ye
love me, keep my commandments.
And to worship God is clearly one of them "Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy
God only and Him only shall Thou serve." Mat 4:10.  And since GOd is love, I
think His command asking us to worship Him only is one born out of love and
personally I have found that when I am worshipping and praising God for
those few moments when I am truly focussed only on Him I forget about the
circumstances around me.   And I think that worship as a way to be
encouraged is a gift from God given out of His great love.
Maureen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kunkle, Bruce W" <Bruce.Kunkle@us.pilkington.com>
To: <worship@praise.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 2:39 PM
Subject: RE: [Worship] Why does God want worship?


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Ironside [mailto:kironsid@mweb.co.za]
> One of the people involved asked this
> question: "Why does God tell us so many times to worship
> him? Is he some
> kind of ego maniac that needs everyone to bow down to him?
> If someone on
> earth behaved that way, I'd think he was weird"
>
> Ken,
>
> One biblical answer is that we love God because He first
> loved us.  Our love properly reflects itself in worship toward God.
>
> But I don't think that answers the real question, which
> seems to be, "Why does God *demand* worship from us?"  First, let me point
> out that in John 4:23 the Father seeks *worshipers*, not worship itself.
> That is, he seeks for us to enter into the right relationship with him.
> Psalm 100 tells us that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture and
> that it is He who has made us and not we ourselves.  Our relationship is
> that of sheep to Shepherd or created being to Creator.  But, as His
> creation, we have all turned away from Him (Romans 3:10-23)  Yet God, died
> for us so that we could have His righteousness imputed to us (Rom 5:8-11).
> All there is left for us to do is acknowledge Him as Lord (of course, that
> includes believing in Him, trusting Him to cleanse our sin, admitting that
> we have sinned and devoting ourselves to Him).
>
> It is completely natural that we should worship God because
> of the way He has shown us His love.  But the question isn't really why
> should we worship-most anyone would admit that we probably should worship
> God, but why He would insist upon it in a way that would be arrogant
> presumption from a man.  But God is not a man and for us NOT to worship is
> simply wrongheaded of *us*.  Does He command us to worship Him?  Yes, of
> course-He does this because it is His right but also because it is what we
> need to do.  We must acknowledge Him as God and stop acting as if we were
> little gods ourselves.  Naturally then, when we do this, He shows us His
> love.
>
> Bruce Kunkle
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