标杆人生 第13天 讨神喜悦的敬拜
Hi , day 12 is missed.
Worship That Pleases God
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Mark 12:30 (NIV)
God wants all of you.
God doesn't want a part of your life. He asks for all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God is not interested in halfhearted commitment, partial obedience 1, and the leftovers 2 of your time and money. He desires your full devotion, not little bits of your life.
A Samaritan woman once tried to debate Jesus on the best time, place, and style for worship. Jesus replied that these external issues are irrelevant 3. Where you worship is not as important as why you worship and how much of yourself you offer to God when you worship. There is a right and wrong way to worship. The Bible says, "Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him." The kind of worship that pleases God has four characteristics:
God is pleased when our worship is accurate. People often say, "I like to think of God as . . . ," and then they share their idea of the kind of God they would like to worship. But we cannot just create our own comfortable or politically correct image of God and worship it. That is idolatry.
Worship must be based on the truth of Scripture 4, not our opinions about God. Jesus told the
Samaritan woman, "True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.'
To "worship in truth" means to worship God as he is truly revealed in the Bible.
God is pleased when our worship is authentic 5. When Jesus said you must "worship in spirit," he wasn't referring to the Holy Spirit, but to your spirit. Made in God's image, you are a spirit that resides in a body, and God designed your spirit to communicate with him. Worship is your spirit responding to God's Spirit.
When Jesus said, "Love God with all your heart and soul" he meant that worship must be genuine and heartfelt. It is not just a matter of saying the right words; you must mean what you say. Heartless praise is not praise at all! It is worthless, an insult to God.
When we worship, God looks past our words to see the attitude of our hearts. The Bible says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
Since worship involves delighting in God, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship him with deep feeling-but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. God hates hypocrisy 6. He doesn't want showmanship or pretense 7 or phoniness in worship. He wants your honest, real love. We can worship God imperfectly, but we cannot worship him insincerely.
God pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal. We use both our hearts and our heads.
Of course, sincerity 8 alone is not enough; you can be sincerely wrong. That's why both spirit and truth are required. Worship must be both accurate and authentic. God-pleasing worship is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal. We use both our hearts and our heads.
Today many equate 9 being emotionally moved by music as being moved by the Spirit, but these are not the same. Real worship happens when your spirit responds to God, not to some musical tone. In fact, some sentimental 10, introspective songs hinder worship because they take the spotlight 11 off God and focus on our feelings. Your biggest distraction 12 in worship is yourself-your interests and your worries over what others think about you.
Christians 14 often differ on the most appropriate or authentic way to express praise to God, but these arguments usually just reflect personality and background differences. Many forms of praise are mentioned in the Bible, among them confessing, singing, shouting, standing 15 in honor, kneeling, dancing, making a joyful 16 noise, testifying, playing musical instruments, and raising hands. The best style of worship is the one that most authentically 17 represents your love for God, based on the background and personality God gave you.
My friend Gary Thomas noticed that many Christians seem stuck in a worship rut-an unsatisfying routine-instead of having a vibrant 18 friendship with God, because they force themselves to use devotional methods or worship styles that don't fit the way God uniquely
shaped them.
Gary wondered, If God intentionally 19 made us all different, why should everyone be expected to
love God in the same way? As he read Christian 13 classics and interviewed mature believers, Gary discovered that Christians have used many different paths for 2,000 years to enjoy intimacy 20 with God: being outdoors, studying, singing, reading, dancing, creating art, serving others, having solitude 21, enjoying fellowship, and participating in dozens of other activities.
In his book Sacred Pathways, Gary identifies nine of the ways people draw near to God: Naturalists 22 are most inspired to love God out-of-doors, in natural settings. Sensates love God with their senses and appreciate beautiful worship services that involve their sight, taste, smell, and touch, not just their ears. Traditionalists draw closer to God through rituals, liturgies 23, symbols, and unchanging structures. Ascetics 24 prefer to love God in solitude and simplicity 25. Activists 26 love God through confronting evil, battling injustice 27, and working to make the world a better place. Caregivers love God by loving others and meeting their needs. Enthusiasts 28 love God through celebration. Contemplatives love God through adoration 29. Intellectuals love God by studying with their minds.'
There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to worship and friendship with God. One thing is certain: You don't bring glory to God by trying to be someone he never intended you to be. God wants you to be yourself. "That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship."
God is pleased when our worship is thoughtful. Jesus' command to "love God with all your mind" is repeated four times in the New Testament 30. God is not pleased with thoughtless singing of hymns 31, perfunctory praying of cliches, or careless exclamations 32 of "Praise the Lord," because we can't think of anything else to say at that moment. If worship is mindless, it is meaningless. You must engage your mind.
Jesus called thoughtless worship "vain repetitions." Even biblical terms can become tired cliches from overuse, and we stop thinking about the meaning. It is so much easier to offer cliches in worship instead of making the effort to honor God with fresh words and ways. This is why I encourage you to read Scripture in different translations and paraphrases 33. It will expand your expressions of worship.
The best style of worship is the
one that most authentically
represents your love for God.
Try Praising God without using the words praise, hallelujah, thanks, or amen. Instead of saying, "We just want to praise you," make a list of synonyms 34 and use fresh words like admire, respect, value, revere 35, honor, and appreciate.
Also, be specific. If someone approached you and repeated, "I praise you!" ten times, you would probably think, For what? You would rather receive two specific compliments than twenty vague generalities. So would God.
Another idea is to make a list of the different names of God and focus on them. God's names are not arbitrary; they tell us about different aspects of his character. In the Old Testament, God gradually revealed himself to Israel by introducing new names for himself, and he commands us to praise his name.'
God wants our corporate 36 worship gatherings 37 to be thoughtful, too. Paul devotes an entire chapter to this in 1 Corinthians 14 and concludes, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way."
Related to this, God insists that our worship services be understandable to unbelievers when they are present in our worship gatherings. Paul observed, "Suppose some strangers are in your worship service, when you are praising God with your spirit. If they don't understand you, how will they know to say, `Amen'? You may be worshiping God in a wonderful way, but no one else will be helped. "10 Being sensitive to unbelievers who visit your worship gatherings is a biblical command. To ignore this command is to be both disobedient and unloving. For a full explanation of this, see the chapter on "Worship Can Be a Witness" in The Purpose Driven Church.
God is pleased when our worship is practical. The Bible says, "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship." Why does God want your body? Why doesn't he say, "Offer your spirit"? Because without your body you can't do anything on this planet. In eternity 38 you will receive a new, improved, upgraded body, but while you're here on earth, God says, "Give me what you've got!" He's just being practical about worship.
You have heard people say, "I can't make it to the meeting tonight, but I'll be with you in spirit." Do you know what that means? Nothing. It's worthless! As long as you're on earth, your spirit can only be where your body is. If your body isn't there, neither are you.
In worship we are to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices." Now, we usually associate the concept of "sacrifice" with something dead, but God wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to live for him! However, the problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar, and we often do that. We sing, "Onward 39, Christian Soldiers" on Sunday, then go AWOL on Monday.
In the Old Testament, God took pleasure in the many sacrifices of worship because they foretold 40 of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross. Now God is pleased with different sacrifices of worship: thanksgiving, praise, humility 41, repentance 42, offerings of money, prayer, serving others, and sharing with those in need.
Real worship costs. David knew this and said: "I will not offer to the LORD my God sacrifices that have cost me nothing."
One thing worship costs us is our self-centeredness. You cannot exalt 43 God and yourself at the same time. You don't worship to be seen by others or to please yourself. You deliberately 44 shift the focus off yourself.
Real worship is rooted in the word,
When Jesus said, "Love God with all your strength,' he pointed 45 out that worship takes effort and
energy. It is not always convenient or comfortable, and sometimes worship is a sheer act of the will-a willing sacrifice. Passive worship is an oxymoron.
When you praise God even when you don't feel like it, when you get out of bed to worship when you're tired, or when you help others when you are worn out, you are offering a sacrifice of worship to God. That pleases God.
Matt Redman, a worship leader in England, tells how his pastor 46 taught his church the real meaning of worship. To show that worship is more than music, he banned all singing in their services for a period of time while they learned to worship in other ways. By the end of that time, Matt had written the classic song "Heart of Worship":
I'll bring You more than a song,
because the song itself is not what You've required.
You search much deeper within
than the way things appear.
You're looking into my heart.
The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart.
DAY THIRTEEN THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE
Point to Ponder: God wants all of me.
Verse to Remember: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30 (NIV)
Question to Consider: Which is more pleasing to God right now-my public worship or my private worship? What will I do about this?
- Society has a right to expect obedience of the law.社会有权要求人人遵守法律。
- Soldiers act in obedience to the orders of their superior officers.士兵们遵照上级军官的命令行动。
- He can do miracles with a few kitchen leftovers.他能用厨房里几样剩饭做出一顿美餐。
- She made supper from leftovers she had thrown together.她用吃剩的食物拼凑成一顿晚饭。
- That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
- A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。
- The scripture states that God did not want us to be alone.圣经指出上帝并不是想让我们独身一人生活。
- They invoked Hindu scripture to justify their position.他们援引印度教的经文为他们的立场辩护。
- This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
- Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
- He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
- He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。
- You can't keep up the pretense any longer.你无法继续伪装下去了。
- Pretense invariably impresses only the pretender.弄虚作假欺骗不了真正的行家。
- His sincerity added much more authority to the story.他的真诚更增加了故事的说服力。
- He tried hard to satisfy me of his sincerity.他竭力让我了解他的诚意。
- You can't equate passing examination and being intelligent.你不能把考试及格看成是聪明。
- You cannot equate his poems with his plays.你不可以把他的诗歌和他的剧本相提并论。
- She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
- We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。
- This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
- The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。
- Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
- Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。
- They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
- His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。
- Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
- His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。
- After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
- They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
- She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
- They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。
- Gina: And we should give him something 2 authentically Taiwanese. 吉娜：而且我们应该送他有纯正台湾味的东西。
- A loser is one who fails to correspond authentically. 失败者则指那些未能做到诚实可靠的人。
- He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
- She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。
- I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
- The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。
- His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
- I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。
- People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
- They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。
- Naturalists differ much in determining what characters are of generic value. 自然学者对于不同性状决定生物的属的含义上，各有各的见解。 来自辞典例句
- This fact has led naturalists to believe that the Isthmus was formerly open. 使许多自然学者相信这个地蛱在以前原是开通的。 来自辞典例句
- Politicians recite their liturgies in TV studios. 政客们在电视演播室里朗诵祷文。 来自互联网
- The Martyrium was a five nave basilica terminatedapse and a and festive liturgies were celebrated. 殉道者大殿是全部五大殿之一，一直通到另一个圆秃型的神殿人员公署。 来自互联网
- How does Paul's teaching differ from that of the ascetics about celibacy? 关于独身，保罗的教导与禁欲主义的教导有什麽分别？ 来自互联网
- Nevertheless, it is known that Hindu ascetics occasionally visited Greece. 然而，众所周知，印度的苦行僧偶然会拜访希腊。 来自互联网
- She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
- The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。
- His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
- Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
- All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。
- A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册
- He gazed at her with pure adoration.他一往情深地注视着她。
- The old lady fell down in adoration before Buddhist images.那老太太在佛像面前顶礼膜拜。
- This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
- It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。
- At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
- I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句
- The visitors broke into exclamations of wonder when they saw the magnificent Great Wall. 看到雄伟的长城，游客们惊叹不已。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- After the will has been read out, angry exclamations aroused. 遗嘱宣读完之后，激起一片愤怒的喊声。 来自辞典例句
- If you want to grasp English, you must carefully discriminate synonyms. 如果你想掌握好英语，你必须仔细区分同义词。
- Study the idioms and synonyms l wrote down before your test. 学考试前我给你写的习惯用语和同义字。
- Students revere the old professors.学生们十分尊敬那些老教授。
- The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven.中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。
- This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
- His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
- His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
- During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。
- The dull play seemed to last an eternity.这场乏味的剧似乎演个没完没了。
- Finally,Ying Tai and Shan Bo could be together for all of eternity.英台和山伯终能双宿双飞，永世相随。
- The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
- He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。
- She foretold that the man would die soon. 她预言那人快要死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Must lose one joy, by his life's star foretold. 这样注定：他，为了信守一个盟誓／就非得拿牺牲一个喜悦作代价。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
- Humility often gains more than pride.谦逊往往比骄傲收益更多。
- His voice was still soft and filled with specious humility.他的声音还是那么温和，甚至有点谦卑。
- He shows no repentance for what he has done.他对他的所作所为一点也不懊悔。
- Christ is inviting sinners to repentance.基督正在敦请有罪的人悔悟。
- She thanked the President to exalt her.她感谢总统提拔她。
- His work exalts all those virtues that we,as Americans,are taught to hold dear.他的作品颂扬了所有那些身为美国人应该珍视的美德。
- The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
- They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。