A friend recently got me thinking about the difference between celebration and worship. We've become a culture that uses them interchangeably, but they are very different. Worship is God centered while celebration is "us" centered. I love a good celebration as much as anyone, but I'm beginning to see how God might love it when we worship Him according to His word, and not according to the spirit of our "celebrations".
It seems like throughout HIStory He has given us much to celebrate. But in turn, He has given us many reasons to worship Him through obedience and truth. Throughout scripture, we see example after example of the consequences of not listening to God. We see false fire brought before Him by Aaron's sons--they get zapped. We see what happens to the faithful--Moses--when he struck a rock God DIDN't tell him to strike, adding to something God had told him. After everything Moses had done, he would never enter the Promised Land because of that one act of disobedience. But "God knows our hearts", we often say. God knew Moses' heart too. I just can't help but make a connection that thinking and doing are two very different things.
It's not always about what He tells us to do, but often about what He DOESN'T tell us to do. So what does His word NOT tell us to do today, that we feel compelled to do because of tradition, and is it contrary to how He tells us to worship?
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Celebration or Worship?
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3 comments:
Hmmm, very thought provoking. Maybe this is why that whenever a holiday approaches I start to feel like I'm being backed into a corner, and forced to do something that doesn't seem right.
Holidays were never really a worshipping God thing growing up and now not with my extended family, so it's very hard for me to get into holidays because something just doesn't feel right. I try to for my children, but I look at worshipping and celebrating God as a every day occurrence. Thanks for getting me thinking.
Blessings, Melissa
www.homeschoolblogger.com/melissal89
I'd encourage you to look up celebrate and celebration in your Noah Webster dictionary. I disagree that celebration is "us" centered.
Today was a very worshipful and celebratory day for our family.
I believe the point is that apart from how "celebration may have been defined in 1828, it has "come to mean" dressing up, decorating, exchanging gifts, rituals, etc., all in the NAME of worship, while those things have little or nothing to do with God proclaimed worship. That, to me, is US centered. It's about how WE want to worship or CELEBRATE. Not how God tells us to REMEMBER.
This is what I was referring to regarding Moses and even the sons of Aaron. They "with all their hearts" just thought they'd add a little something. It didn't turn out so well for them.
I don't in any way claim to have all the answers. Please don't think that *I* think I do. I know I don't! I encourage everyone to seek ALL things out for them selves as the disciples were taught to do (Acts 17:11). That is what *I've* tried to do, and this is what I'm seeing when I look at ALL of scripture as one story in relation to what we are instructed to "remember" and how...and WHEN. What God has to teach *me* is what I'm most concerned with. I share it because that is my heart--that His word may be proclaimed boldly (Eph. 6:19-20)--even if it's not popular.
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