In a couple of hours, all the saints of the Loop 287 Church of Christ in Lufkin, Texas will assemble. We’ll do our best to honor God and pay respect to all that He’s done. The beautiful hymn, “Lord, We Come Before Thee Now,” perfectly expresses how strong that desire should be.
True worship, extended in the proper manner and spirit, edifies all of us and intensifies our hope of heaven. Worship that is not taken seriously is not only ineffective, but also tends to worsen us spiritually. To “fake” worship is a serious matter (1 Corinthians 11:30).
When saints assemble, the Lord is with them. Therefore, whatever hinders His people from worshiping Him affects Him. The heart of the problem may be a lack of love or desire. Some are only present because someone coerces them. Usually, any problem in worshiping God is caused by a lack of appreciation for the sanctity of worship.
Am I being too bold to suggest that worship should be the most significant event of our lives (Psalm 27:4; 138:2; cp. Acts 2:42-47)? If you stop and ask yourself why you are not as devoted as the early Christians, your heart will tell you that it is neither ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never intended it to be that way.
William Barclay quotes William Temple, the archbishop of Canterbury, as defining worship as “quickening the conscience by the holiness of God, feeding the mind with the truth of God, purging the imagination by the beauty of God, opening the heart to the love of God, and devoting the will to the purpose of God.”
Worship is a blessed privilege that should be guarded with love, zeal, and a realization of its worth and value (Psalm 29:2; 56:10). Our actions can either hinder us or others from realizing that worth and value, or it can increase it. Join us for our period of heartfelt worship today.
Kyle Campbell
