By Nature Children Of Wrath

VERSES FOR PONDERING AND MEDIATION REGARDING DEPRAVITY: 


"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, ESV, emphasis mine). 

"They have gone deep in depravity ...  He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins"  (Hosea 9:9, NASB). 

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"  (Jerimiah 17:9, ESV, emphasis mine).

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart"  (Prov. 21:2, ESV, emphasis mine).  

"No man can justify himself before God by a perfect performance of the Law's demands--indeed it is the straight-edge of the Law that shows us how crooked we are" (Rom. 3:20, J. B. Phillips, emphasis mine).

"The LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts"  (cf. 1 Chronicles 28:9). 

"... God withdrew from Hezekiah to see what was really in his heart"  (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:21).

"... God left him [Hezekiah] to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart"  (2 Chron. 32:31, ESV).  

"Being made then free from [the power of] sin, ye became the servants of righteousness [Christ]"  (Rom. 6:18, KJV).

NOTE THAT WE ARE SINNERS BY NATURE, BY BIRTH, AND BY CHOICE! Augustine said we are, in Latin, non posse non peccare, or we're unable not to sin--all we can do is sin!

WE ARE SINNERS NOT BECAUSE WE SIN.  RATHER, WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS, ACCORDING TO A FAMOUS THEOLOGICAL AXIOM.

Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10, ESV,   "But by the grace of God I am what I am...."  We are what we are by nature, just like a pig is only acting according to its nature when it wallows in the mud after cleaned, we act consistently with the nature God gave us:  whether we are sanguine, choleric, melancholy, temperamental, even easy-going, or happy-go-lucky!  The good news is that our God always acts according to His nature and that means He acts perfectly according to a perfect nature, and He cannot act contrary to it.

"See,  this alone, I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes"  (Eccl. 7:29, ESV).  For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (cf. Rom. 3:23)!  If sin were a color like red, we'd be all red--you cannot be only a little depraved, no more than a little pregnant. We are radically corrupt, with no peripheral goodness to boast of in God's presence--our righteousness is as filthy rags and His gift to us, not our gift to Him. We are as bad off as we can be with our hearts totally evil and corrupt, that includes our will, mind, and affections.  They say we are totally depraved, but not utterly depraved--we're not as bad as we can possibly be, but as bad off.

We soon find out in life that we all have feet of clay and the adage that to err is human and that no body's perfect.  But we tend to compare ourselves with others and the run-of-the-mill sinner seems to estimate himself a saint compared to the likes of Hitler, the paradigm of evil in our times.  We have solidarity in Adam, sharing original sin and the effect of that sin in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden.

Depravity is God's estimation of man, not our own self-estimation!  Some people indeed think they're okay in their estimation and don't even think they've sinned.  However, man is not basically good, but inherently evil and our sin permeates our very core of being.  The complete heart is depraved: the emotions in Psalm 37:4; the will in Exodus 7:20; and the intellect in Matt. 15:19.  In other words: Sin permeates our very being and our reasoning power is dead (cf. Rom. 8:7); our conscience is corrupt (cf. Tit. 1:5); our will is stubborn (cf. Rom.1:32); our desires are selfish and base (cf. Col. 3:5); and our thoughts are evil (cf. Gen 6:5).  Our minds, wills, bodies, and spirits are corrupt--our total soul and being.  We must expose the dark side to see ourselves for what we are--fallen creatures!   We have no intrinsic goodness nor intrinsic merit nor value nor dignity, but only extrinsic worth and dignity because we are in the image of God and are clay in the Potter's hands.

The trouble, someone has said, is that most people don't see how bad they are, and the catch-22 is that we must see how bad we are to be good and qualify for goodness, and we don't know that till we've tried to be good and seen the futility of the attempt without God.  Man never ceased to be man with the power of choice, but ceased to be good!   Indeed we are bad, but the good news is that we are not too bad to be saved, if we will only confess it and confession or homologeo in Greek means to say the same thing as we need to agree with God and come clean with Him.  Man's basic problem in thinking he's good is that he thinks he does good deeds (Isa. 64:6 says they are filthy rags!), and God says no one does good, no not one!  He is delusional in his self-estimation and is only being self-righteous.

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?  Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil"  (Jer. 13:23, ESV).   None of us even lives up to our own standards and perfectly obeys his own conscience:  Ovid said, "I see the better things and approve them, but I follow the worst."  All you have to do is read Romans 7:24, ESV, which emphatically says: Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?") to see Paul's struggle with evil within.  We are great sinners, but there is a Great Savior!

The point in salvation is that we cannot clean up our act and that Jesus sees through and penetrates our veneer or masquerade.  We must realize that we are never good enough to be saved, but bad enough to need salvation by grace with nothing we can do to contribute to God's accomplishment on our behalf.  We assume God grades on a curve, but we are all in the same boat known as the universality of sin and all have fallen short of the ideal standard set by God through His Son.  We can't play games with God or fool Him!  God judges our motives, and even good deeds can be done for selfish reasons or evil motive, even to gain the approbation of God.  "And he [Amaziah] did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart"  (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:2).  Our solidarity in Adam always gives us away!

God sometimes lets man go his own way:  "But they say, 'That is in vain!  We will follow our own plans, and everyone act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart'"  (Jer. 18:12, ESV);  "'But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.  So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels"  (Psalm 81:12, ESV).

The reality, which is a paradox, is that man is not born free, but born a slave and in bondage to sin and the old sin nature; "... People are slaves to whatever has mastered them" ["... For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved"  (2 Pet. 2:10, ESV)]  (cf. 2 Pet. 2:19);  "... You belong to the power you choose to obey" [... "you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness" (Rom. 6:16, ESV)] (cf. Rom. 6:16). We "by nature children of wrath," according to Ephesians 2:3.

We need to be set free from our own wickedness and nature, and this can only be done by the power of Christ transforming our souls upon salvation.  "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, ESV).   Paul says, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace"  (Romans 6:14, ESV).

However, the problem of man is that he doesn't see his own sin and must be convicted (only the Holy Spirit can do this too), because man instinctively justifies his own sin and fails to see his shortcomings, but tends to think too highly of himself, in the best possible light, and that he is basically good, and not inherently evil through and through with no inherent goodness intact.

As Christians, we have been set free from bondage to Satan and our sin nature and don't have to obey sin or be its slave.  "... [A]nd let no iniquity get dominion over me"  (Psalm 119:133, ESV).  "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!"  (Psalm 19:13, ESV).    Soli Deo Gloria!

Life With A Capital "L"

ARE YOU EXISTING OR LIVING, IF YOU DON'T KNOW CHRIST YOU HAVE NO LIFE, PERIOD.  TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE, HIM AND THE HAPPIEST, MOST FULFILLED PEOPLE ARE THOSE IN LOVE AND HAVE PURPOSE FROM GOD, THAT IS BIGGER THAN LIFE.
Christians don't have to sin and have the power to overcome by faith:  "Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness"  (Rom. 6:18, KJV).  


Jesus came to bring us life, and life to the full, i.e., a more abundant life per John 10:10 and most Christians are living defeated lives, succumbing to the so-called Anfectung (German used by Luther), or attack of Satan, our adversary, and opponent. Eternal life isn't just in reference to time but begins upon salvation and we share in God's very life!   Christians don't have the right to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit!  When we sin, we don't show our freedom, but demonstrate our slavery, if we are overcome by a sin, and if any brother is caught in a sin (Gal. 6:1, ESV, says, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted"), not leading to death (1 John 5:16, ESV, says, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask...") we should pray and restore him.  To live the abundant life you must learn to walk with God like Noah did:  "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."  "Enoch [also] walked with God, and was not, for God took him" (i.e., raptured him to heaven!).

We don't just have the selective indwelling, but the permanent residence of God in our hearts to stay in sync with God and on the same page as the Spirit!  We are filled by God in order to accomplish a God-ordained and given task to His glory; we don't walk around on cloud nine or with our heads bowed in holiness.   We must cultivate the fruit of the Spirit and it is grown by grace, not all at once, but over time--we must be patient.  Love is the ultimate fruit of the Spirit, and the other eight winsome graces are but manifestations of it in various forms.  We walk in love, speak the truth in love, do deeds in love, and demonstrate God's love by loving our neighbor and people will know we are disciples by our calling card of love as the keynote.  ("They'll know we are Christians by our love!")

God gives us richly all things to enjoy per 1 Tim. 6:17 and will withhold no blessing from us that is for our own good (cf. Psalm 84:11 ) "... no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly [walk with God!]").  We are blessed in all our endeavors and God makes it fruitful as we bear fruit that honors God in our work, which is done to bear the image of God.  There is a false,  prosperity theology, that says we can cash in on God's riches and we are automatically guaranteed riches and financial prosperity if we are right with the Lord.  But this is not what being prosperous and successful is.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta says, "God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness."

God doesn't want our achievements, he wants us and our obedience!   We don't do anything for God, He only uses us as vessels of honor to accomplish His will and glory; for our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, according to  The Westminster Shorter Catechism (ca. 1646).  God says for us to open our mouths wide and He will fit it in Psalm 81:10 and many times says He will satisfy our needs and meet them when we are in His will (cf. Phil. 4:19).  God satisfies us with good things to enjoy, just as He gives food to all creatures.  Even our appetite comes from God, for some people have lost theirs and no longer enjoy food, which was meant to be our portion of blessing, along with our work, according to Eccl. 3:13.

This is our portion: to find purpose and meaning in life through Christ--there comes a time of maturity when we aren't looking for fun, but meaning and impact, and we want to leave a legacy, not just be thrill-seekers, living for the here and now; we are to live in light of eternity and live for something bigger than ourselves--that's the key, not to just live for yourself, in your own little world and reality. Living for self or having selfish ambition is a recipe for disaster and a formula for suicide.  We are meant to love others, not just ourselves!  Albert Schweitzer said that the only truly happy persons are those who have learned to serve others.

When God gives us a ministry to our brethren and/or a mission to our lost friends and neighbors, we commence to live and realize our potential in with the aid of the Spirit's filling and anointing. Paul sums it up in Col. 1:10, ESV, as follows:  "... bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God [Note that good works and knowing God are correlated!]."  Soli Deo Gloria!  

By The Grace Of God

"[H]e predestined us ... according to the purpose of his will"  (Ephesians 1:5, ESV). 

Paul would not boast, but in the Lord, but he was forced to tell of his sufferings for Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 11) as if they were the marks of Jesus, a crown, and not just a feather in his cap.  Jesus warned him of the great things he must suffer for sake of His name upon his salvation experience in Acts 9:16.   We are all that we are by the grace of God, not just Paul. "By the grace of God, I am what I am..." (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).   George Whitefield said, upon seeing a man dragged to the gallows, what he thought:  "There but for the grace of God, go I." That's humility, thinking of others rather than yourself, (if God were to withdraw His restraining grace from us, we'd be all worthy of prison or worse!), and thinking of your unworthiness compared to the grace of God.

None of us was elected conditionally, but unconditionally, and not according to anything we did or didn't do, or any work or righteousness in the flesh.  "Grace reigns through righteousness." (Cf. Rom. 5:21), and that means that grace is sovereign and when God decides to send grace it's irresistible and effectual in its purpose according to the will of God. God's sovereignty is over everything and absolute and is not limited by our freedom--what He says and decrees will happen according to plan! We have "believed through grace" (cf. Acts 18:27), and God quickened faith within us, as we received faith or were given it,  and didn't achieve it--it's a gift, not a work!  If it were a work we would have merit to boast of.  Merit is opposed to and counter to grace; we cannot earn salvation, didn't deserve it, and can never pay God back for it.

It is important to be grace-oriented to get away from the paralysis of legalism and the mentality that we have a performance-based faith and works earn favor with God or that we can ingratiate ourselves with Him.  "The faith you have is the faith you show, they say in theology.  Christians aren't saved by good works, but unto them and in order to do them as a result of gratitude and a changed heart.  We are indeed saved by faith alone, as the Reformers taught, but not by a faith that is alone!  Faith without works is dead, according to James 2:17 and we are not saved by them, nor without them, for they prove our faith as fruit--as a sign of a good tree.  (Ephesians 2:10 says we are "saved unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, that we should walk in them.")   God's providence guides us to a productive life of good deeds and works.

We cannot believe, except by grace, because Jesus said that we can do nothing apart from Him:  "Apart from Me you can do nothing"  (cf. John 15:5).  Every good thing comes from God, the Ultimate of Goodness or Supreme Good (of Plato), and source of all blessings; and every perfect gift is from grace to us to be stewards of.  Our righteousness, then, is not a gift or offering to God, but His gift to us!  "Who makes you to differ?  What do you have that you didn't receive?"  (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).  If left to ourselves, none of us would've chosen Christ (cf. Matt. 22:14, "Many are called, but few are chosen" and cf. John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you"). We weren't inclined to come to Him, and our destiny is ultimately in the hands of God, not ours!

The good works we do are God working through us as vessels of honor doing His bidding and will.  "I will not venture but to speak of what Christ has accomplished through me"  (cf. Romans 15:18).  "... you have done for us all our works"  (Isa. 26:12, ESV).  Our fruit is from God per Hosea 14:8 and the fruit of the Spirit is God's blessing on our lives as He cultivates us and causes us to grow; gifts are given, fruits are grown.  We don't automatically exhibit all the fruits as infant believers, but must grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, as 2  Pet. 3:18 exhorts.

Understanding grace is paramount to comprehend that salvation is all grace  (the work of God according to John 6:29, ESV, which says, "... This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent..!) and not our work:  "Salvation is of the LORD," according to Jonah 2:9 and that means it's not synergistic or a cooperative venture with God, nor a work of man alone apart from God's aid, but wholly accomplished by God;  salvation is the accomplishment of God, not the achievement of men, which is religion trying to gain the approbation of God and reach out to Him--Our God took the initiative and reached down to us in grace, seeing our hopelessness, and desperateness without His intervention.  He called us, not because of our works [of righteousness or pre-salvation works], but according to His purpose and grace (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9).  Works say "Do," while God says, "Done."

 No one can pat themselves on the back or give themselves kudos for achieving salvation as if they were wise, good, virtuous, or even intelligent!  It remains a mystery why God chooses some and not others ("the elect obtained unto it and the rest were hardened" according to Roman 11:7 and Acts 13:48 says that "as many as were appointed unto eternal life believed."

The Golden Chain of Redemption from Romans 8:29-30 makes it patent that God loses no one in the shuffle from foreknowledge to glorification--all who are called are justified, not some lucky ones who endure through trials or don't "lose their salvation." These verses militate against the prescient view that God elected us because we had or would have faith, instead, we are elected unto faith, not because of it--there is no room for any merit in our salvation.  You must distinguish between the inward call of God, which is always effectual, and the outward gospel call given by us to the lost to exhort them to repent and believe in Jesus, which can turn on deaf ears and be ineffectual.

And so none of us has the right to get a big head, even Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him from getting one, and we are all one in Christ, with no elite believers who are privileged or especially blessed--God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Rom. 2:11; Acts 10:34).  If we think we came to Christ on our own and by our own ability without being wooed, we probably left alone too and don't have the Spirit.  If we don't need regeneration or grace to believe, what good is it and who needs it?  The only ones who get the call are the ones the Father grants can come to Him and the ones He draws or woos (elko or to drag in Greek--implying force). 

There is no second blessing, or higher life, or work of grace, as some holiness-movement believers (Neo-Pentecostal or charismatics) will have you believe--nowhere are we commanded or exhorted to seek the "baptism" of the Spirit.  "We are all baptized into one body by the Spirit"  (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13).  There is one Lord, one faith, and only one baptism according to Eph. 4:4!  Soli Deo Gloria!  

Who Does Jesus Think He Is?

"And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes"  (Mark 1:22, ESV).

"The officers answered, Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46, KJV), who reported to the authorities.  Jesus was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (cf. John 10:33), even claiming that the Father and Him were one [in essence].  In one sense the triune God is a threesome or three (in one), but in another, it is a unity of one being with three persons in a relationship.  Elohim, the plural of God (El) is used by God in Genesis and God refers to Himself as a unity of one in Deut. 6:4, using the Hebrew echad, meaning one as in a cluster or unity.  They are one in Spirit and one in purpose and will, but three in self-distinction and personality.

Jesus didn't go around advertising that He was the Son of David, or the Son of God, though He never denied it (He was forced to confess it at His trial as the Son of the Blessed One). Note that with all due respect to the founders of all the other world religions, only Jesus claimed to be God (cf. John 8:58, says, "Before Abraham was, I AM" and  John 8:24 really says, "Unless you believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins" and in John 14:9 He says, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father"), and this is why the authorities despised and hated Him and were jealous of His powers and influence of the people--they knew what He was claiming!  "If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him..." (John 11:48, ESV).

Jesus usually used figures of speech, but He didn't always beat around the bush by indirect claims but spoke plainly enough for his disciples to recognize Him as the Messiah or Christ the Lord.  Peter confessed Him as the Son of God.  His favorite title for Himself was Son of Man (cf. Daniel 7:13), showing Him identifying with us as the Messiah, as this was a known messianic title from Daniel. George Gordon, Lord Byron said that "if ever man was God, or God man, Jesus Christ was both." He wasn't half God and half man, but the God-man (theanthropos in Greek), being all God and all man in one permanent incarnation or personification.  Some find it incredible to believe a man could become God or deified, but they can accept the historical fact of the incarnation when God became man! They besought Him to tell them plainly and He did, but they wouldn't listen or understand. John 12:37 says that even though he performed many signs, they would not (not could not) believe in Him.

The most striking aspect of His teaching and some just saw Him as a good teacher ("... Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God:  for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him"  (John 3:2, KJV). It is patronizing to think of Him only as a good teacher or moral leader or even martyr for a good cause--these are not valid options to consider concerning Him.  "You call Me Lord and teacher, and so I am."  He never prefaced His teachings with "thus saith the Lord" but directly said it as if speaking as God, not for God.  He didn't speak by authority, but with authority, and no man ever spoke so audaciously before; others would commonly quote the authorities, like renowned and learned teachers and Pharisees.  When He spoke it was not introduced by phrases like "It is said," but "I say unto you."  The critics would just mutter, 'Who does He think He is?"  In respect to His teaching:  "[F]or he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not their scribes"  (Matt. 7:29, ESV).

About calling Himself the Son of God and not denying it (John 1:49 says, "... Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel"), He pointed out that we are all sons of God in the sense of being His creatures and challenged them: who was David's Son? When He referred to Himself as the Son of Man, the Pharisees knew very well that this was a messianic title and just who He was claiming to be.  Indeed, the teachers and Pharisees got the message and weren't as clueless as they pretended--they even remembered that He predicted His resurrection, which the disciples didn't understand or anticipate.  Even Nicodemus, the so-called "teacher of Israel," didn't know where He was coming from at first, but after the encounter at night came over to sympathize with His cause, and took His side--even helping to anoint and bury Him.

Normally you don't believe someone who makes claims of deity or divinity which they can't substantiate (Father Divine of Philadelphia, now deceased, and Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church of Korea and whose followers are called Moonies, for instance), but Jesus' claims were consistent with his credentials and the witness of signs and wonders.  There have been numerous wannabes and would-be messianic figures, but they are easily dismissed.   If Jesus had been a devil, a madman, sincerely deceived teacher, or a liar, wouldn't the disciples had figured it out and had Him pegged after three years of close contact; familiarity normally breeds contempt!

People will die for what they believe is true, but these men were in a position to know the truth, fanatics and religious extremists aren't.  Napoleon thought he could conquer Europe, but languished on St. Helena in exile, reading and studying the Bible, contemplated Jesus:  "I know men, and I tell you Jesus was no mere man." When anyone considers the evidence the only credible hypothesis is that Jesus is the Son of God, but acknowledging this is not salvation, you must know Him, love Him, and follow Him as you trust in Him as Savior and submit to Him as Lord.

Other religious leaders are self-effacing, while Jesus was self-advancing or promoting and His teaching was self-centered.  You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and the faith remains intact, but Christ is what Christianity is all about; its essence is that Christ is God in the flesh!   Actually, the whole of Scripture is all about Jesus on every page and in every book.  It wasn't just Jesus who was His own witness: the Father and Holy Spirit gave approval of Him, and said, "This is My beloved Son...."

His miracles were really signs of His deity and were consistent, not helter-skelter, for prestige, personal gain, showy, fantastic, haphazard, capricious, without any reason, ostentatious, nor for personal gain or profit, but out of love as the motive to confirm faith.  He did everything that you would expect a God-man to do and was everything you'd expect Him to be.  I rest my case: there's no reason to doubt due to lack of evidence or irrationality.  If one is willing, God will authenticate the truth--He's no man's debtor--"seek and you will find" (cf. Matt. 7:7).

The conclusion of the matter is that anyone can make claims and do to be a somebody, and many have claimed to be Israel's Messiah, but their lives have to be consistent with their testimony and not belie it.  Jesus' life was of such caliber and moral uprightness that there is sufficient reason to believe he wasn't a deluded madman, lunatic, liar, or mistaken because he invariably practiced what He preached and preached what He practiced.  Usually, familiarity breeds contempt, but not in this case, the disciples recognized His holiness and no one could convict Him of sin or convince Him of it, they verified in their writings that He was without sin.  One disciple says to Christ:  "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man."

They willingly verified and proved the veracity of their witness to His resurrection by the sacrifice of their lives in martyrdom--people don't normally lie when threatened with death.  Just like Elvis impersonators are easy to spot, it is easy to realize that Jesus will never be surpassed or equaled (neither by predecessor nor by disciple nor by wannabe nor even rival).  You don't compare others with Him, but you contrast them with Christ.

Fanatics and religious extremists will die for what they believe is true, but they are not in a position to know the truth, as the disciples were, and they died to prove their veracity concerning their witness of the resurrection and the risen Jesus.   You don't normally believe someone was born of a virgin either (Buddha claimed his father was a white elephant and Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar claimed their fathers were serpents!), but if they lived like Jesus there would be ample reason to believe it. Soli Deo Gloria! 

Heart Of Worship

"... [Shout] unto God with the voice of triumph"  (Psalm 47:1, KJV).
"I WAS glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD"  (Psalm 122:1, KJV).
"Blessed is the people who know the joyful sound..."  (Psalm 89:15, KJV).
"Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with song of praise" (Psalm 95:2, ESV).
"Blessed are the people who know the festal shout [call to worship]"  (Psalm 89:15, ESV).

The heart of the matter of worship is that it's a matter of the heart; it reflects the condition of your heart and the extent of its surrender and offering to God, not how much of the Spirit you have, but how much of you the Spirit has.  When someone says that he didn't get much out of worship, it only reveals his ignorance of its purpose--to glorify, extol, and lift up the Lord--that your motives are wrong and your worship for the wrong reason.  The reason we worship is that we are designed for it and it is only natural--we are called homo divinus, or homo religiosus, meaning we are fulfilled and meant for worship as religious beings--much more, we will worship someone or something, if not God; however, God is the only one worthy of our worship.  "Worthy are you ... to receive glory..." (Rev. 4:11, ESV).

Worship is about having an encounter with the God who is there; in fact, Christianity is not about believing in God,  but the God who is is there.  Francis Schaeffer says, "He is there, and He is not silent."  Indeed, God melts us, molds, fills us and then uses us in worship as we recharge our spiritual batteries and get our checkup in the corporate worship experience of the local body of believers that we congregate and assemble with regularly. There is no one-size-fits-all for worship and that's probably why there are so many worship experiences; some are demonstrative, some stoical, but God sees the heart, while man looks on the outward appearance (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7).  Posture and gestures can be important, but mere lip service is vain and fruitless.  We don't want to be  like Israel:  "... 'Is the LORD among us or not?'"  (Ex. 17:7, ESV).

Worship is what church is all about, even in our giving we are doing it.  And going to church should not be considered something on our to-do list or something we do perfunctorily, but something we gladly and willing do; you could say we "get to" worship God, not that we have to.  Some say that they can worship God in the cornfield, so why attend church?  Worship is more than music (Jubal invented in in Gen. 4), and some think they only go to church to hear a sermon, but we must realize that there is a purpose for each part of the service in our worship experience.   They haven't discovered the power of corporate worship and that whenever two or three are gathered together in His name, Jesus promises to be present.  Hebrews 10:25 exhorts us not to forsake the assembling together of ourselves--this is a command--God gives no advice, suggestions, or hints.

Worship is important to us because we learn to connect with God and it changes us, not God--God invites us to join Him in His joy and gladness (cf. Neh. 8:10).  The call to worship is to focus on who God is and what He has done as we thank Him for His actions, and praise Him for His being.  We have the right attitude when we are in awe and humble ourselves before Him in Spirit and in truth.  Remember, worship is about God, it's not about you!  We learn to seek the presence of the Lord and His face and to be used by God in our surrender to bring Him joy.

We need to be reminded of the Spirit on a regular basis to keep in touch and not lose track of our fellowship--it's easy to drift off and backslide without regular fellowship and corporate worship--none of us is a rock or an island that needs nobody else--we all need each other for expression and mutual ministry  Remember, worship is active and not passive, not something we listen to, but take part in and put all that we are able into it.  Some have a form of godliness in so-called will worship, but deny the power thereof (cf. 2 Tim. 3:5).

Church, then is not a place for the goody-goodies to gather or those who think that it's a crutch for weak people or losers--indeed, no perfect people need apply, as God calls not the righteous, but sinners to repentance and church should be viewed as a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints.  They say that it's filled with hypocrites too, but we should tell them to join in because they'd feel right at home!   We don't abandon church or Christ as believers, but we can drift away slowly and should know the warning signs, like our worship becoming routine and perfunctory and hypocritical.  The church is our lifeblood and the means of our renewal because the body needs each member and we are all in it together to glorify God and fulfill the Great Commission.  The church is not meant to be a comfortable place for sinners to feel at home, but where the gospel is preached and people are enjoined to come to a decision, and making no decision is making a "No!" decision.

We must realize that "God inhabits the praises of His people"  (cf. Psalm 22:3) and that we enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with joy (cf. Psalm 100:3) and that we should bless Him with all that is within us--all our being (cf. Psalm 103:1)--and be ourselves, not hypocritical.  God thrives on worship and "The Lord takes pleasure in His people"  (cf. Psalm 149:4a, CEV).  We must worship God "in Spirit and in truth" (cf. John 4:24).  The essence of worship is bringing joy and pleasure to God, and whenever we feel this joy in the Spirit, no matter what our endeavor--even working--it is worship and brings glory to God. "... [W]hatever you do, do to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31, ESV).  When God smiles on you, or you feel His pleasure, you're worshiping.

You can go to church to worship God or you can go to the factory to worship Him, for authentic worship is the offering of ourselves the way we are in our daily lives--we live and breathe worship! We must see the whole world as His temple and fertile territory for worship.  Wherever we sense awe, love, respect, and fear we have the right attitude to come before His presence in thanksgiving for what He's done and praise for who He is and put ourselves in the frame of mind to worship.  Our life is an offering to God as we present ourselves to Him in devotion and live to His glory as vessels of honor!   Let all that is within us praise the Lord!

Just like prayer, worship should change us, not God, and one should say that they realize we have been in the presence of God or have been with the Lord, as your "cup overflows."   Finally, we must realize our need for worship and that it is a litmus test of our spiritual growth and condition, and we cannot thrive or grow without it having its rightful place. Soli Deo Gloria!