Purpose Driven Life

[kayre]

Summary: Worship that pleases God has four characteristics. 1) It’s accurate (i.e. based on Scripture). “To ‘worship in truth’ means to worship God as he is truly revealed in the Bible.” 2) It’s authentic. 3) It’s thoughtful. 4) It’s practical. God knows we’re human, with bodies, jobs, money, relationships-- worship has to reflect who we are.

My thoughts:

“We cannot just create our own.. politically correct image of God and worship it; that is idolatry.” “To ‘worship in truth’ means to worship God as he is truly revealed in the Bible.” I’m sure Warren would now condemn me as an idolater. First of all, even if one sticks to a Biblical view, there’s a tendency to edit which parts of it are taken. I doubt that Warren really worships the God who struck Israelites dead by the thousands during the Exodus, according to the stories (if he does, that’s REALLY scary). Secondly-- Methodists don’t agree that Scripture is the only means of revelation of God. There’s also Christian tradition (and many of us respect revelation through other religious traditions too), reason, and experience.

“Today many equate being emotionally moved by music as being moved by the spirit, but these are not the same.” One of the rare points where I agree. As a church musician, I walk a tightrope, knowing that music always impacts the emotions-- it can assault them, set them free, or manipulate them. My chief discomfort with most contemporary worship is not the musical quality, but rather the tendency to be emotionally manipulative. He also points out that we are all different, so we won’t all worship the same way. (Gee, does that include not all being helped by the same book, by any chance?)

“If worship is mindless, it is meaningless. You must engage your mind.” I agree, if we’re talking about thoughtlessly “going through the motions”....

“God gradually revealed himself to Israel by introducing new names for himself”... hmmm. Jewish friends, any thoughts on this?