Good Thursday morning! Ah, the late autumn racket of the outside cat trying to fit into the household once more! Of course, she sniffs around to find the most irritating place to steal, mine or the other cat's in that order. The inside cat is giving her a good smack down just for being here I think. A cool night to be sure. Something we are not quite accustomed to this year. I see 25°F on the display this morning... and a breeze is blowing to make sure that you feel every bit of it.
A tough verse today. Meaning that we struggle to understand the depth and simplicity of something that Jesus is telling us.
"But the time is coming - indeed it's here now - when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way." John 4:23
What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? Since the Father is looking for that type of worshiper, how do I become one of the those? Some possibilities for worshiping in truth are:
1. Don't lie to God in your heart. He knows all; what good does it do us to try to hide something from God?
2. Don't go to church for the wrong reasons. Many go to make business contacts, others treat church as a kind of Sunday morning (Saturday evening, Friday night, et al.) social club. Still others think that simply going to church makes them good. And let's not leave out those who treat church as their favorite napping spot.
3. Related to the first one: tell God everything you feel. Pour out your heart to God as David did in his psalms.
I have a suspicion that by worshiping in spirit Jesus didn't mean that we should all give our heads a good bonk so that we can worship the Father as ghosts; it ain't that kind of spirit. Apologies to the winos and drunks, but I don't think he meant distilled spirits either. You may get to see dancing pink hippos when you have too many drinks, but that isn't worshiping the Lord. What I do believe is that we must be given the Spirit in order to teach us how to worship in spirit. Romans 8:16 - The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And Romans 8:26 which tells us that we have help from the Spirit.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
One weakness that we have is that we don't know how to worship God. The Spirit gives us help and intercedes with the Father on our behalf. We will also come to John 14:6 where Jesus tells us that he is the truth. The verse may be as simple as saying that God is searching for those who will worship him in Christ and the Holy Spirit. When we accept the salvation of Christ, we believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit in our hearts. But there we must be careful about changing the words of Jesus. If Jesus had wanted to say, "Worship in the Christ and in the Spirit..." I'm quite sure that he would have said exactly that. Perhaps the simplicity is in God wanting our hearts to be truthful and our spirits to be focused on Him when we worship.
Glory to God as we go about our day!
Bucky
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