Invitation To Worship

We have been “bought with a price.” We are no longer our own. We have been purchased by God to serve His purpose. This is a concept that we often loose sight of in the daily routine of our lives. By loosing sight of this fact we fall short of our potential purpose. That is why we spend so much time “spinning our wheels” trying to get Gods attention through some frustrating work or deed that has not been required of us. By the death and resurrection of Christ, God has gone to great lengths to deliver us from the despair and hopelessness that comes from the tiresome labor of dead works. His mercy offers us the liberty without fear or dread of serving the One who now owns us. 1 Peter 2:9 declares that this price was paid so that we could “show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” You were “bought with a price” so the invitation to worship the living God could be placed in your hands. This is a royal invitation given only to those who by faith have laid hold of the salvation offered by Jesus. No others may enter. The King now requests YOUR presence to respond to His great mercy by offering the sacrifices of praise, which is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks. We are invited into the Kings presence as loved and honored members of His family. Think about this. We no longer belong to ourselves, but to Him. Were it not for His act of mercy in our lives, we would be doomed to an eternity of certain death and hell. We do not owe it to ourselves or to God to take up a life of religious rigor and works that has no greater outcome than making us proud. Instead He now requests that we come before His presence of our own accord bringing with us a heart full of joy, gladness, appreciation, thanks and praise. God is always the object of our worship. That is not in question here. But, let us never forget that we are always the ones who receive the greater blessing when we are obedient to the simple, uncomplicated requests that the King makes of us. We are invited to enter the presence of the all-sufficient King. He is in need of nothing we have to bring. All that we offer will make Him none the better or richer. However, we are in need of EVERYTHING He has to offer. The Bible tells us, “In His presence there is fullness of joy… pleasures forevermore.” Being in His presence brings the fulfillment to our purpose for being created. The presence of God enriches us with blessings beyond our capability to comprehend. That is why He invites us into His presence. He wants us to be blessed and enriched. Don’t hold Him at arms length and miss the blessing of why you were created. Accept His invitation and come boldly before the throne of grace. The simple surrender of your heart in worship will be the beginning of wisdom, blessing and joy.
Drink deeply,
JP

Our Priority In Ministry

Worship is ministry to the Lord. We can sincerely offer little definition of worship. The Bible gives clear definition and examples of how our praise is to be conducted. Words like "joy" "gladness" "singing" "dancing" "playing instruments" "clapping our hands" "shouting for joy" etc, etc. give rich understanding of all that is appropriate as a means of expression when offering praise.
Worship is a different thing...
Consider the fact that no one can really tell you how to love your wife, or husband. You have to grow in that relationship experientially. There is no manual provided at a wedding ceremony that gives newly wed couples that "how to" on successfully loving a spouse.
Worshipping God is kind of the same. It has to be experiential.
And just like we can understand being created for a marriage relationship... we were created for just the same to be worshippers of God.
I cannot emphasize enough that our purpose for being created is to offer up sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips giving thanks, that ministers to the heart of our loving Father. Jesus emphasized this important element of our purpose by stating that the Father is seeking those who will worship in spirit and truth. Obviously God wants it; therefore, we should be quick to respond by giving that which ultimately pleases Him, rather than seeking our own methods. In the 44th chapter of Ezekiel we find that ministry to the Lord is not to be taken for granted, nor to be regarded as secondary to the value of ministry to people. Ministry to people is vital to the work of the Church, but it is never to be considered our highest priority. When looking at the passages in Ezekiel 44 we see that God punished Israeli priests for profaning the temple by taking away their rights to minister to HIM in their daily duties. This left them only the responsibilities of ministry to people.
Isn't that odd?
God left the priests with the duties of ministry to people. But prohibited them from ministry to HIM.
Most people have the impression that ministry is "all about the people."
Ministry to the Lord is our first priority in this life.
Ministry to people can become as burdensome as a prison sentence when it does not spring from ministry to the Lord first. Ministry to the Lord refreshes and energizes. Let’s take our purpose and calling seriously and enter the house of God with the desire to worship Him first and foremost. After making that our top priority, we will see that ministry to people will flourish as the result of our spending time worshipping Jesus.