Bob, Bill, Doug and I sat around Bill's dining room table last night and talked about Leviticus 8-10. (Yes, I said Leviticus - the same book that derailed your last two attempts at reading through the Bible in a year. Don't feel bad. It's done me in too.) We were together because the icy roads had kept us from traveling 50 plus miles together to join dozens of others for Bible Study Fellowship in Wichita. Rather than skip a week, the four of us met to discuss our lesson.
So we're talking, answering the questions laid out for us, sipping coffee and munching on homemade cookies and God jumps into the middle of our conversation and speaks to us about worship.
We were examining the requirements for Israel's worship. We talked about how clear the instructions for worship were in Leviticus. Aaron and his sons, the priests, were told exactly how to handle all things religious. There were rules for sacrifices and priestly conduct. Moses got specific instructions from the Lord and passed them on to his brother and his nephews. "This is what the Lord requires. This is how to do it. Put the blood of the bull here. Eat the meat there."
Something - I think it was a comment from Doug - got us talking about what God requires of us in worship today. Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman whom he met at Jacob's well came to mind. He'd been asked by this outcast among outcasts where the right place to worship was - on "this mountain" or in Jerusalem.
Our Master's reply: "Believe me woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:21; 23-24)
What is required for worship today? What is the one obligation God places on us? Jesus says we must worship God in spirit and in truth. What does that mean? It means setting our heart on God. We're not just going through the motions of religion once a week - sing three songs, take an offering, sing another couple of songs, listen to a sermon. Any pagan can do that and go home unchanged. We're giving God more than Joe Blow can offer. We're giving him us - who we are, our dreams, our failures, our sins, our triumphs, our weaknesses. True worship is giving whole-hearted, whole-souled, whole-minded, whole-strengthed love to our Maker every moment of every day. It's denying ourselves on any given morning. It's exalting and honoring and obeying God every hour, every minute, every second of our lives. That's worship in spirit and in truth.
Are you worshiping God in spirit and in truth? It's what's required of true worshipers today. Every other kind of worshiper is fakey, false, failing. Many are the false worshipers. That's why God is seeking true worshipers.
Why don't you be one he can find?
"God is spirit, and his worshipers MUST worship in spirit and in truth."
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