Quotes About Worship

You should not pray to Eidolon. Or Ormazd, or any other god. You should pray to the stars, to the universe, for ourselves and for our lives, brief and imperfect as they are. Give thanks for the astonishing miracle that there is something rather than nothing. That we exist at all in the endless void. We should worship one another. We should worship our sameness as well as our uniqueness. We should worship what makes us truly human. Compassion. Courage. And truth.

Diogenes's central point is in effect the same as mine: that officially sanctioned religious records only tell you when worship seems to work and excise all evidence to the contrary.

Perhaps a century of the ascendant self, of the self's progressive liberation from any trammels not explicitly conceived to protect other selves, perhaps this progression, when wedded to the magic of technology serving not the state or even the corporation but the individual ego, perhaps it could reach no other logical endpoint, but the self as its own object of worship.

just as human doing does not place a demand upon the actions of God, so, too, human gazing on the visible objects of creation and history does not deliver a right conception of the divine.

Open, Lord, my mouth to bless your holy name; cleanse my heart from all empty, evil, or distracting thoughts; enlighten my mind, enkindle my heart, that I may recite this Office worthily, attentively, and devoutly, and may merit to be heard in the sight of your divine majesty. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen." Latin

The Bible reminds us that God wants—and deserves—to be the defining center of both these things. When I live out of a biblical sense of who I am (identity) and rest in who God is (worship), I will be able to build a healthy relationship with you. These are not abstract theological concepts. We're talking about the content and character of our hearts.

Who you tell yourself you are has a very powerful impact on the way you deal with the big and small issues of daily life. In the same way, where you find your identity will have everything to do with how you respond to the hard work of relationships with others. Either I get my identity vertically, out of my sense of who God is and worship who he has made me in Christ, or I will seek to get my identity horizontally, out of my circumstances, relationships, and successes.

Although most of us have affirmed that God is the Creator of all things, it is quite easy to worship him as Creator on Sunday and curse his work during the week. We do this when we are dissatisfied with the way God has made the people we relate to every day. When we fail to worship God as Creator in our relationships, we try to ascend to his throne and do all we can to recreate others in our own image. This always leads to frustration and failure.

Good relationships are always built on the foundation stones of identity and worship.

When I live out of a biblical sense of who I am (identity) and rest in who God is (worship), I will be able to build a healthy relationship with you.

Either I get my identity vertically, out of my sense of who God is and worship who he has made me in Christ, or I will seek to get my identity horizontally, out of my circumstances, relationships, and successes.

Worship is first an identity before it becomes an activity.

Ultimately, my real problem is a worship disorder.

Your Thorny, sinful responses to life grow out of a heart that has defected to worship something else.

If I am going to love you as I should, I must worship God as Sovereign

To love you as I should, I must worship God as Savior

The call we have considered in this chapter is not just a call to ministry; it is a call to worship.

Human beings are always tempted to love and serve things in the creation rather than the Creator. So often, we think of false worship and idolatry only in terms of things that are obviously sinful. While this can be the case, Romans 1:25 indicates that idolatry is often the result of taking good things in creation and making them ultimate things.

Our hearts are so often captivated by paltry God-replacements that matter to us more than the true God. When we start to see this, it is the beginning of change and the pathway to freedom.

While it may sound spiritual, the common practice of telling people to forget their lives over the past six days so that they can truly worship God for the next hour smacks more of Greek dualism than a biblical view of a spiritual person. Our lives over the past six days are what God is most interested in! A recognition of the Heat we all face will lead us to bring our messy lives before him.

Imagination opens things up so that we can grow into maturity—worship and adore, exclaim and honor, follow and trust. Explanation restricts and defines and holds down; imagination expands and lets loose. Explanation keeps our feet on the ground; imagination lifts our heads into the clouds. Explanation puts us in harness; imagination catapults us into mystery. Explanation reduces life to what can be used; imagination enlarges life into what can be adored.

Paul and Silas sang hymns in the Philippian jail. You can only do that if you have remembered that your welfare and freedom are in the hands of an all-powerful God who is your Father. Much of the drama of God's people is a drama of identity.

The reason we fail to keep commands 4 through 10 is because we have failed to keep the first three. If you break commands 1 through 3, you will break commands 4 through 10. Your Thorny, sinful responses to life grow out of a heart that has defected to worship something else.

The more religious people are, the more they believe in black magic. (Aleister Crowley)1