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Pastor Chris White says to all of you: HELLO MY FRIENDS. May the Lord bless you today.
HOLA MIS AMIGOS. Que el Señor los bendiga.
The idea of worshipping the Lord “in spirit and truth” comes from Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4:6-30. In the conversation, the woman was discussing places of worship with Jesus, saying that the Jews worshipped at Jerusalem, while the Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerizim. Jesus had just revealed that He knew about her many husbands, as well as the fact that the current man she lived with was not her husband. This made her uncomfortable, so she attempted to divert His attention from her personal life to matters of religion. Jesus refused to be distracted from His lesson on true worship and got to the heart of the matter: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him” (John 4:23).
The overall lesson about worshipping the Lord
in spirit and truth is that worship of God is not to be confined to a single
geographical location or necessarily regulated by the temporary provisions of
Old Testament law. With the coming of Christ, the separation between Jew and
Gentile was no longer relevant, nor was the centrality of the temple in
worship. With the coming of Christ, all of God’s children gained equal access
to God through Him. Worship became a matter of the heart, not external actions,
and directed by truth rather than ceremony.
In Deuteronomy 6:4,
Moses sets down for the Israelites how they are to love their God: “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might.” Our worship of God is directed by our love for Him; as we love, so
we worship. Because the idea of “might” in Hebrew indicates totality, Jesus
expanded this expression to “mind” and “strength” (Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27).
To worship God in spirit and truth necessarily involves loving Him with heart,
soul, mind and strength.
True worship must be “in spirit,” that is,
engaging the whole heart. Unless there’s a real passion for God, there is no
worship in spirit. At the same time, worship must be “in truth,” that is,
properly informed. Unless we have knowledge of the God we worship, there is no
worship in truth. Both are necessary for God-honoring worship. Spirit without
truth leads to a shallow, overly emotional experience that could be compared to
a high. As soon as the emotion is over, when the fervor cools, the worship
ends. Truth without spirit can result in a dry, passionless encounter that can
easily lead to a form of joyless legalism. The best combination of both aspects
of worship results in a joyous appreciation of God informed by Scripture. The
more we know about God, the more we appreciate Him. The more we appreciate, the
deeper our worship. The deeper our worship, the more God is glorified.
This melding of spirit and truth in worship is
summed up well by Jonathan Edwards,
the 18th-century American pastor and theologian. He said, “I should think
myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections [emotions] of my hearers
as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but
truth.” Edwards recognized that truth and only truth can properly influence the
emotions in a way that brings honor to God. The truth of God, being of infinite
value, is worthy of infinite passion.
Thank you to Got Questions Ministries
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