Intimacy in Worship

Intimacy in Worship
The heartbeat of God's Word is worship. The driving message of God's Word is
worship. The only thing God seeks is worship. The purpose of salvation is
worshiping
the God of Heaven.
With heart quickened by God's Word ponder William Temple's definition of
worship again only this time and measure our personal worship temperature
and health:
"[Worship is] to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the
mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God,
to open
up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God."
Key to the New Testament church was awareness that God was with them,
leading them. We must emphasize that they were not imagining this. God was
truly present.
And the realization that he was physically in their midst had a massive
impact on their exercise of faith. Great saints since have also experienced
God's
presence. In John Bunyan's church in Bedford, England, there is a poem
framed in the wall of the anteroom from which the preacher exits to walk to
the
pulpit. It reads:
Enter this door As if the floor Within were gold, And every wall Of jewels,
all Of wealth untold, As if a choir, In robes of fire Were singing here; Nor
shout, nor rush, But hush, For God is near. And so he is! This is what we
need.
Maybe we are in such a hurry on Sundays we don't pause in our hearts, and
look upward into the face of God? How could we start? Try these simple
steps:
list of 3 items
. When you come in, find a seat and then immediately stop and offer to the
Lord a prayer reflecting on how much you love and adore Him.
. Then try to preview some of the hymns to prepare your heart to
meaningfully ascribe them to God.
. During the preaching of God's Word ask the Lord to speak to your heart
through His Word, say 'Speak Lord, Thy servant is listening!'
list end

The word worship is full of meaning, expressing the idea of falling down,
prostrating oneself, and kissing the feet or the hem of the garment of the
one honored.
Steps To Grow Into Worshiping Jesus All The Time
Cultivate worship. First worship must become a daily habit. learn to
practice noticing God's presence sometime each day.
1. Ask God to enable you to follow Paul's words,
"Pray without ceasing" I Thess. 5:17.
2. Punctuate every moment with inward whisperings of adoration, praise, and
thanksgiving.
"Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will
hear my voice." NASB Psalm 55:16
3. Schedule times of personal worship and confession and Bible study and
attentiveness to Christ, your always present Teacher.
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching
and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing
with thankfulness in your hearts to God." NASB Colossians 3:16
4. Bring this atmosphere to our public worship so that our gathered
experience of worship just becomes a continuation and an intensification of
what you have been trying to do all week long. Psalm 42:1-2
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before
God?" NKJV
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Dr. John Barnett
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