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This Is Worship
THIS IS WORSHIP This is worship. It is to seek to give to God the glory which is due to his name. Indeed, the best biblical definition of worship I know is to "glory in his holy name" (Psalm 105:3), that is, to revel in the unique wonder of who he is and has revealed himself to be. If worship is right because God is worthy of it, it is also the best of all antidotes to our own self-centredness, the most effective way to "disinfect us of egotism," as one writer put it long ago. In true worship we turn the searchlight of our mind and heart upon God and temporarily forget about our troublesome and usually intrusive selves. We marvel at the beauties and intricacies of God's creation. We "survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died." We are taken up with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us to do this in the Lord's Prayer, whose first three sentences focus not on our needs but on his glory, on the honouring of his name, the spread of his kingdom and the doing of his will. Because we are normally so turned in on ourselves, we will not find this easy. But we have to persevere, since nothing is more right or more important. - John R. W. Stott, in CHRISTIAN BASICS, Eerdmans, 1969, p. 119. Have a great week, Chip Stam Pastor of Worship and Music Chapel Hill Bible Church Chapel Hill, North Carolina |