Something For The Rest Of Us

“You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time ... 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.” John 4:22-23 NIV

Some people today don’t know who or what they’re worshiping – but they do it anyway. Others know who they worship, but don’t really think much about how to worship. Then there are some who think they’re the only “true worshipers” – sure they’re right, and just as sure everyone else is wrong. And then there are the rest of us.

At a Bible camp a while back, I asked five young Christians – a small sample of the “rest of us” – to answer these questions: Who do you worship? How do you worship? How often do you worship? What is worship? They easily answered the “who” question: God; The Lord; Jesus; The Father; The Savior. Their answers to the “how” question were more varied: By going to church; By thinking about Him; By listening to praise music; By reading the Bible; By listening to the sermon. The “how often” question brought these responses: Weekly; Daily; All the time; Every time I think of God; When I go to church. The answers to the “What is worship?” question led to some good discussion: What we do Sunday morning; Adoration and praise; Remembering who God is and what He did; What God wants from us; I’m really not sure what worship is.

If you’re sure you already know everything about worship, you probably found the above questions and answers boring. If that’s the case, this month’s Features may not interest you either. But if you’re like “the rest of us,” you might find them helpful to answer some of your questions, question some of your answers, and bring you a little closer to being “the kind of worshiper the Father seeks.”

By Larry Ondrejack