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Thursday Thoughts

February 29, 2024

Have you ever stopped to think about the places where you worship? Maybe you think of a church sanctuary right off the top of your head. Maybe you worshiped in all sorts of sanctuaries. Within the last few months, I have studied or worshiped in a former bank building made into a church, whose treasure is the people who come to worship the one true God, a hardware store now dedicated to repairing people's hearts and souls, a movie theater renovated to now tell the best story ever told, a beautiful old sanctuary whose walls are made of ornate stained glass windows, small country churches with simple furnishings, all beautiful sanctuaries including our own. We gain strength by being in a holy space with other believers. No matter the space in which we worship, our focus should be on why we are attending worship. As beautiful or as plain as the setting, the purpose of worship is to give thanks, ask for forgiveness, and renew a right spirit inside of us. Everything we do in worship should be an offering to God. Our attitudes, the spoken word, the music, and the fellowship should be a sweet love offering. Our very bodies and the lives we lead is an act of worship. "I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship."Romans 12:1-2

 Sanctuaries don't have to be made by man, scripture teaches us that even nature worships the Lord. In Psalm 19:3 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." Some of the most reverent places I have ever been have been in nature. The Painted Desert, The Grand Canyon, a quiet beach early in the morning, the top of a mountain trail overlooking a breathtaking vista, or sitting in the back yard under a shade tree watching and listening as the day turns into evening.

 How are we to worship? We already read in Romans that we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. In the Gospel of John, Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at the well. We know that was a radical act in that culture. Jesus tells her about the living water he is offering and she will never be thirsty again. Of course, she thought he was referring to physical thirst. He told her he knew about her life, shocking her so she changed the subject by talking about where they were to worship, Jerusalem or Mt Gerizim. Jesus answered her, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Worship in church is a real and important part of our way of life, but we must remember that God is not in some place that we go to visit. We are to live our daily lives to reflect God's presence, when we do we will show honor, respect, and gratitude to God. He is Spirit and is wherever we are as he lives in each of us. "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" 1 Corinthians 3:16

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he wanted to drive this point home to these new believers. They were used to living in a promiscuous culture filled with carnal sins. So he tells them again that their bodies belong to Christ who paid the price for their sin."Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 2 Corinthians 6:19-20

 Did you give up something or add something for Lent? How are you doing? Has it brought you closer to God, the whole purpose of the sacrifice? It is a good reminder in this season of Lent that we remember who we worship and do so with an attitude and thanksgiving and obedience. Psalm 95:1-7a is a beautiful song of who we worship. Verse 7 encourages us to worship with an understanding of who we are and who God is: "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of the pasture, the flock under his care."

 As we strive to live our lives as an act of worship we can sing this beautiful Psalm 100, "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

                                                                       Blessings,

                                                                           Becky

Bridgewater UMC 

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