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(pic credit: ©2017 Pemberton Photography. Used with artist permission)

 

Adoration and Worship… the Scriptures don’t really come out and define Adoration and Worship, so it will be difficult to ‘build a framework’ (see Blog Part 1 from March 2017, and the Worship quotes)… but necessary to give a common launch-point in all our discussions.

This provides quite a challenge: If Scripture doesn’t define it, how do we build a framework? Scripture has three ways in which it ‘speaks to us’: commands, story-examples-descriptions, and by implication. It rarely ‘defines’…

In the area of Adoration and Worship, the Scriptures… and the living One who enlivens them… all three of the ‘speaking’ paths are in abundance, helping us towards a frame-work.

 As I study the Scriptures, I have come to see that there are three distinct arenas of Adoration and Worship…

   [1] God-ward Adoration and Worship, (really good)

   [2] Self-ward Adoration and Worship, (bad)

   [3] False-god-ward Adoration and Worship (tied to #2, really bad, also called idolatry).

As we build this framework, we’ll need to be careful to clearly distinguish ‘God-ward Adoration and Worship’ from the other two.

God-ward worship… One key-stone Scripture in the book of Romans (12:1-3) calls out elements of good, pure, right, acceptable and healthy towards a framework. Get this; the passage has nothing to do with songs, music, or a church service. Rather, being a ‘living sacrifice’ is called the ‘acceptable worship’… AdoreTheLord Blog will be trying to un-pack that as we go along…

Many Bible scholars and writers have proposed various working definitions and frameworks of Adoration and Worship thru the years…

Here’s my attempt at the ‘thesis statement’ for the framework…

God-ward Adoration and Worship IS…

[verb]

…the created and creation,

loving and serving the Creator-God

in a two-way, dynamic, Shalom-filled relationship

with sacrificed lives, grateful hearts and expectant joy

in the Presence, Goodness and Glory of God

 

And, a lesser consideration in this framework…

[noun]

the “thing we’ve made it”^^ in the twenty-first century.

 

SO… ?? thoughts on the ‘thesis statement’ for the framework?

TAKE-AWAY:

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD. 

Psalm 150:6

 

written by crisbaj

© 2017 by crisbaj/AdoreTheLord.blog  All rights reserved.

All Scripture references from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.

 If you re-post or use material from this blog, please be honest and give author citation + AdoreTheLord.blog  as the  source… thanks!!

References:

^^Song ‘Heart of Worship’ by Matt Redman

Published ©1997 by Birdwing Music/Thank You Music LTD, CCLI #: 2296522

Genesis 28:12-19

Psalm 27:8, 29:2

Isaiah 6:1-10

Romans Ch. 12

Phil 3:8

Rev 4:1 thru 5:14

Rev 7:9-17

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