Worship - The Lifestyle

by Barbara Richmond

The scene was chaotic. Seven men, their faces masked with makeshift disguises, stumbled as they ran to a dilapidated and dented van, its engine coughing repeatedly as the driver tried to force it into action. "Yalla, yalla!" a woman’s voice shouted through the open window on the passenger side. Cursing and muttering under their breath, each of the seven climbed in through the back doors as the van began to pull away from the scene of their crime.

As the dust churned up by the departing vehicle settled back on the primitive road, the fading light of day revealed nine bodies piled together carelessly on a grassy area beneath a lone sycamore tree. Blood- soaked and unmoving, these were the latest to join the parade of contemporary martyrs giving their lives for their faith in Yeshua, Jesus the Christ. They had been beaten, tortured and finally killed because they refused to renounce Jesus and worship Allah, the deity of Islam. The event went unnoticed by most of the world but it was a Thursday in late January in the year 2000 . . . just weeks ago.

There was no soft music playing in the background during their torture, no praise band serenaded their heroism, no banners waved, and no one danced. Yet pure and holy worship ascended before the Throne of God as each refused to bow to anyone but the God of Israel, the Lord of Glory. As their blood soaked into the earth beneath them, heaven stood at attention to welcome their spirits into the presence of God.

Worship–what do we think when we hear that word? Does it conjure up thoughts of slow, moving melodies set to words of Scripture, led by anointed worship leaders in beautifully appointed sanctuaries? Is this what worship really is?

The Hebraic roots of our faith teach us otherwise. Worship is not a matter of music although anointed music can and does help us to express our worship. It is not a matter of stunning banners and powerful choreography although these also can enhance our worship experience in the congregation.

Worship is at heart a lifestyle of dedication and careful obedience to the Lord Himself through His Word. Join me in a walk through some Old Testament experiences in worship.

In Genesis 22, God "tested Abraham" by asking him to offer up his son, his only son, Isaac, on the altar. We cannot begin to imagine the turmoil in the heart and soul of Abraham as this call of the Almighty gripped his senses. On the appointed day, the Bible tells us he went to the land of Moriah with his son and two of his young men.

As they approached the mountain, Abraham said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the lad go yonder to worship . . ." Not to sacrifice, Abraham said, but to worship! No music, no dancing, no orchestra; just a father, a son, and God.

The word worship in Hebrew means "to bow low with your face to the ground in total surrender and service to the Lord." There is no true worship without sacrifice and obedience in our personal lives. Worship is not a matter of singing louder or singing better. It is a lifestyle of surrender and obedience to the revealed word of God. This is why study can be worship, work can be worship, fellowship can be worship, prayer can be worship; everything we do in obedience to the Lord is worship when done with a heart of love and desire to please Him and Him alone.

This understanding is at the heart of the first commandment which says, "I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before Me." It is not necessary to have a statue of a false god enthroned in your home to find yourself in defiance of this commandment. It suffices simply to have any other priority in command of your life. Anyone or anything that demands your allegiance rather than the word of the Lord to you qualifies as an idol and interrupts what should be a life of worship to the One who created and redeemed you. Well did Jesus say to those in His day who had reduced worship to a prescribed set of rules and regulations, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." You see, it is dangerously possible to sing with the best of them, shout and dance with extravagant enthusiasm, and yet be found not to have worshipped the King. The issue is: Where is your heart?

Please do not misunderstand. I am not against music and dancing, shouting and clapping; in fact, I thoroughly enjoy it, participate in it, and believe we must have more and more vibrant worship expressed in the church. We have been far too restricted and inhibited. But music is not worship; it is designed to be the expression of the worship that lives in our hearts when no one is watching, when we are alone in our prayer closet during the week, when we lay down our lives to serve another, when we are called upon to sacrifice our convenience and comfort for the sake of obeying the King.

When worship lives in the heart, music becomes true worship in the congregation. Without submission of heart, we have performance, entertainment, or at most, some lively praise, but not biblical worship. Jesus said that the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23). Shall we not give Him what He seeks?

In the days of the Babylonian captivity, three young men attained prominence and positions of responsibility under the rule of the pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar. After the evil decree forbidding worship to any but the golden image set up by the king, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego continued to worship the God of Israel. When their lives were threatened for this undivided loyalty to their God, their reply was brilliant. "Our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace and out of your hand, O King," they declared. "But even if He does not . . . we will not bow!"

I wonder if listening angels broke out into spontaneous applause! I do know this: the Lord of heaven took notice and Himself came down to walk with them in the midst of the fire, for the pagan king testified, "I see four men loosed, and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm and the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25).

"Therefore I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship" (Romans 12:1).

"They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their own lives even unto death," wrote John the apostle in Revelation 12:11. As he was divinely inspired to pen these words I wonder if there on the Island of Patmos, John paused and remembered the three young men of centuries gone by who lived out the truth of this verse long before it was ever written.

Pure and holy worship ascended before the throne of God from a blazing furnace in Babylon. Pure and holy worship ascended before the throne of God from a mountain called Moriah. Pure and holy worship ascended before the throne of God from a secluded place in a dry and arid land in January of 2000. Pure and holy worship ascends before the throne of God every time we lay aside self-serving and self-promoting attitudes and behaviors to submit ourselves in love and devotion to the call and requirements of the King of Glory. "When the music fades, when all is stripped away . . ." wrote Matt Redman, the young worship leader from England, "it’s all about You, Jesus, it’s all about You."

While we enjoy an unprecedented abundance of anointed worship music, breathtaking banners and pageantry, and outstanding worship opportunities in our day, may we never fall into the trap of thinking that without these there is no worship or that worship pleasing to the Father cannot be attained without the latest of worship tools.

Was there ever a worshipper like the boy David, singing and crying out to the Lord alone on the hillsides of Bethlehem with none to hear but the sheep? His private worship lives on forever in the book of Psalms, and we benefit today from his personal communion with His God. We are able to peek into the worship life of the man after God’s own heart.

Worship is our high calling; it brings us to the place of intimacy with our God that satisfies every longing, fills every void, and transforms the ordinary into the supernatural. We are invited by the Father to live in this kind of relationship with Him. Will we answer the call?

Barbara Richmond, director of For His Glory Ministries, is a dynamic communicator for conferences and seminars around the world. A former Catholic nun, school teacher, Christian school principal, and Bible College dean, her ministry has come to focus on the nation and people of Israel and the Jewish Roots of Christianity, promoting the reunion of Jew and Gentile in the Messiah. Barbara who has four grown children, lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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