Defining worship by what it is not

A couple of months ago I was doing a little study with a particular question in mind, What is worship? I found that a lot of the words that are translated into "worship" come from greek and hebrew words that often mean to bow down, which was catching my attention especially at the time because of the book "Facedown."

However, I also found that in the Torah (also called the Pentatuch, the first five books of the bible) God seems to talk a lot about how not to worship or who not to worship, in order to establish how His people should worship Him and Him alone. I encourage you to go onto biblegateway.com and type in worship for a search. You'll see what I'm talking about within the first two pages of results. There's quite a few facedown type examples as well.

These passages about idolatry bring to mind the fact that we were made to worship, so if we don't worship the One who made us, the One who saves us, then we will worship someone or something lesser. It is very easy for us humans to fall into giving our worship to something other than our true Creator, no matter what culture we're from. However, it seems a lot of American culture commits idolatry in such a way that we don't recognize it as idolatry.

I remember an American missionary to Nigeria saying how when he first got there he saw a lot of the people in the village burning fires at night up in the hills and performing ancestral worship, witchcraft, etc. during the week. Then he saw a lot of these same people coming to church on Sundays to worship God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And He thought to himself what hypocrisy, and what a mess this was and it needed to be dealt with. Then on a visit back to the U.S. he realized the same thing happens here with many Christians, but it just doesn't look as obvious as the African's idolatry, which somehow I think might make it harder to break free from. Then many of the same people that worship those lesser American idols during the rest of the week show up to church on Sunday to pay a little bit of homage to the One who says "You shall have no other gods before Me."

What idols do we bow down to, give our hearts to, our minds to, raise our hands in praise for, offer our bodies to, give our time to, depend on for our provision? What needs to happen for this to change (boy that's a loaded question, but it needs to be addressed)?

Facedown Part 2

Thanks to all who left some good commentary on the first Facedown post.  I want to address a specific point that was brought up.  The overall idea expressed was that yes body language is important, but the condition of the heart is what really matters to God.  Absolutely, especially since so many people today and throughout history have gone through religious motions without truly giving their hearts and lives to God.  A great passage that teaches us about worship and the heart is found in Psalm 51:16-17, "You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise." 

So no matter how great your acts of worship and good deeds appear, God doesn't receive them as a right response to Him if your heart is not humbled and set apart before Him.  Verse 19 continues saying, "Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you..."  David goes back to saying that once the heart is in the right place, then the outward expressions of our faith will delight God, so you should still bring those to Him.

To revisit Facedown, note what Matt says later in chapter one.  "Facedown worship always begins as a posture of the heart... When a soul is so captivated by the Almighty, to bend low in true and total surrender seems the only appropriate response."  Not facedown because man causes them to be, but because their hearts are open to the Father and His revelation of Himself in their lives brings them to that place.  So you commentators out there are just so sharp that you made this point before I got to share it from the book. 

For those of you that still aren't sure that facedown worship is as significant or relevant as its being made out to be, take a look at Revelation 7:11, Ezekiel 1:28 , and Matthew 17:5-6. These are a few examples of people who who hear from God, see Him in some way, or are literally before his throne.  Now if through Christ we are able to worship in spirit and truth and approach the throne of grace, wouldn't it make sense that at least sometimes our response to Him would be similar?  If not, what keeps us from responding to Him in this way?  Why would we sing songs about kneeling and bowing in worship if weren't actually going to worship like that in reality?     

Facedown Part 1

I recently began reading a short devotional book called "Facedown" by Matt Redman.  It captures a lot of ideas that I think God has been stirring in my heart for a while.  It occurs to me that even though this book is several years old, the messages so far regarding worship are extremely relevant to me, to Christ's Church, and probably to much of the church throughout North America and beyond.

In some ways the title says it all, "Facedown."  When was the last time you were face down before the One and only Holy, Awesome, Merciful, Loving, Almighty, (there aren't enough adjectives to describe Him) God of the Universe?  My hope is that some would respond, "oh, just this morning."  However, I have a feeling that a lot of us haven't found ourselves in that place in quite some time or possibly ever.  Before I go any further, please hear me - I'm not trying to attack anybody's current prayer life or corporate worship postures, or have a holier than thou attitude.  Like I said, the thoughts in this book are definitely convicting and applicable to my prayer/worship life, but I'm sure I'm not alone.  Since we're on this journey together my hope is that we can think and pray about these ideas, truths and practices and wait expectantly to see how God will move in our midst as we seek to worship Him in spirit and truth.  After all, it is all about Him.

Matt makes a strong point in chapter 1 that, "Every posture in worship says something of both the worshiper and the One being gloried in...When it comes to expressing our worship, what we do on the outside is a reflection of what's taking place on the inside."  

I think that's enough to start a conversation right there.  Do you agree with these statements?  Disagree?  What postures of worship do you take or have you seen?  What do they say about the worshiper and the one being worshiped?