September 28 - Miriam

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is John 3-4:45; Luke 3:19-20.

A couple of the most well known verses in the entire Bible are in today's passage - most notably John 3:16.  It may, in fact, be the best known verse next to "Jesus wept."  A different verse stood out to me today, however, and I found a commentary that examines each verse of the entire book of John here that shed light on this verse for me and may further explain things that stood out to you in the passage as well.

Scripture:  John 4:23-24
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Observation:
The Samaritan woman spoke to Jesus about whether the Samaritans were right to worship on the mountain as their fathers had or whether the Jews were right and they were to go to Jerusalem to worship.  The verse is the latter part of Jesus' answer to that question where he says the Jews have been correct but a time is soon coming where the place of worship will not be what is important, but the manner in which people worship.  From the commentary noted above:
Note that Jesus’ statement also implies a change of the Mosaic Law. The Law clearly required worship in a specific place, and Jesus says that teaching was true. But by saying that soon would not matter, He was indicating that the law in this matter would soon change. This change occurred when He died on the cross, removed the Old Testament, and instituted the New Testament.

Application:
God is a living spirit, who thinks, chooses, loves, acts, and communicates with man. As such, He is not limited to any specific place, so under the New Testament He would not restrict worship to a place.

Because God is spirit (not physical), He wants worship that is in harmony with spirit as well as truth. Truth is God’s revealed will in the gospel (John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16,17), so worship must harmonize with God’s will. Any unauthorized acts in worship displease God (Matt. 15:9; Gal. 1:8,9; 2 John 9; Rev. 22:18,19; etc.). This was the problem with the Samaritan worship in context – it was not based on truth.

However, worship must also be in spirit. It must emphasize spiritual concerns, proper attitudes, sincere meaning from the inner man. God does not want outward pomp, splendor, and display for the sake of show and enjoyment of man’s senses. He wants a sincere heart that expresses itself in harmony with the teachings of His word. There exists too much worship that involves going through outward motions without proper regard for the condition of the heart.

It's easy, with everything we have going on in our daily lives, to spend some or even much of the time that we should be spending worshipping, planning and thinking about other things instead.  We're easily distracted from the service, showing that our focus is all too often on earthly things rather than on heavenly things.  Or we are too focused on the details of the service in church to pay much attention to the attitude or spirit of the worship.  Or we're busy lamenting about what the church does or doesn't have (both the building and the people within it) instead of keeping in mind that the purpose of being there and being with those people is about fellowship and worship and not about the hymnals, the instruments that are or are not played, or who's doing what. 

I doubt that I'm the only one who could use an attitude check some Sunday mornings, or before Bible study, or any other time when worship and prayer and studying the Bible come into my day or my week.  Too often I find myself disappointed in the energy or the accompaniment of the music in church to properly focus on what the message of the song is and to whom I am supposed to be singing it, as an example.  While we should get enjoyment, fulfillment and fellowship from spending time worshipping together with other Christians, we must always remember that the main purpose of the service is to worship GOD.  It's about HIM, not about ME.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we know that you see our hearts.  You know our attitudes, our priorites and our focus in every area of our lives.  We pray that when we come to worship you that we would set our distractions and other priorities aside, whether it be for our church service, a praise and worship evening, a Christian music concert, a Bible study, or our own devotions.  Help us to focus on you, to align our attitude and our spirit with worship in a truthful and honest way, and to remember that it's not about the place, the time, or the accoutrements.  It's not for our enjoyment or entertainment, but to bring glory and honour to You.  In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
 
Tomorrow's passage:  MARK 1:14-15; MATTHEW 4:12-17; LUKE 3:23; JOHN 4:46-54; LUKE 4:16-30; MARK 1:16-20; MATTHEW 4:18-22; MARK 1:21-28; LUKE 4:31-37; MARK 1:29-34; MATTHEW 8:14-17; LUKE 4:38-41; MARK 1:35-39; LUKE 4:42-44; MATTHEW 4:23-25.

With lots of flipping or with less flipping.