A Collapsed Worship Equals a Weary Life

Is it not true that a barrenness of spiritual life brings more barrenness?  When vain repetitions become habit, we repeat all the more? That we look for the novelty in worship and that just tempts us to give way to more novelty?




“Faith Doesn’t Have Any Excuses”

And the Lord said unto Noah: "Where is the ark which I have commanded thee to build?"

And Noah said unto the Lord: "Verily, I have had three carpenters off ill. The gopher-wood supplier hath let me down -- yea, even though the gopher-wood hath been on order for nigh upon 12 months. What can I do, O Lord?"

And God said unto Noah: "I want that ark finished even after seven days and seven nights."

And Noah said: "It will be so."

And it was not so. And the Lord said unto Noah: "What seemeth to be the trouble this time?"

And Noah said unto the lord: "Mine subcontractor hath gone bankrupt. The pitch which Thou commandest me to put on the outside and on the inside of the ark hath not arrived. The plumber hath gone on strike. Shem, my son who helpeth me on the ark side of the business, hath formed a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japheth. Lord, I am undone."

And the Lord grew angry and said, "And what about the animals, the male and female of every sort that I ordered to come unto thee to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?"

And Noah said: "They have been delivered unto the wrong address but should arriveth on Friday."

And the Lord said: "How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by sevens?"

And Noah wrung his hands and wept, saying: "Lord, unicorns are a discontinued line; thou canst not get them for love nor money. And fowls of the air are sold only in half-dozens. Lord, Lord, Thou knowest how it is."

And the Lord in His wisdom said, "Noah, my son, I knowest. Why else dost thou think I have caused a flood to descend upon the earth?"

 I think that God wanted His people to understand what worship was meant to be and to do. Archbishop William Temple said this -

Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.

And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.

Worship binds all of life together and gives it a single focus of:
     –Conscience
     –Mind
     –Imagination
     –Heart
     –Will
•Worship responds to guilt, for with reverence we come to God for forgiveness
•Worship goes beyond pleasure, pleasure has it weariness
•Worship guides our feelings, they need to be bounded and informed by truth
•Worship needs to know who God is, we need to come to Him as Holy Father
•Worship counters the sense of loneliness, for it binds all our passions

Remember Eric Liddell in "Chariots of Fire?"  Before he went as a missionary to China, he ran in the 1924 Olympics and won gold.  When asked why he practices so much, he said, “God has made me for a purpose, for China. But He has also made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.”

Worship is coextensive with life. Here the sacred and the secular meet and our cry meets the cry of God.