I have heard many people fuss and complain over the way other people worship God.
However, the funny (and tragic) thing is that people say the same thing about each other.
We have a tendency to look at our own form of worship as the only proper way of receiving God's favor.
I myself have found myself immersed in Worship only to open my eyes and see people staring at me as if I'd grown a third eye. It occurred to me that my form of worship was not as accepted as maybe the person next to me who was anguishing in their sobbing rants of worship.
I myself don't necessarily find it odd that they choose to worship in that way. What I do find odd is that for some reason people seem to think you have to worship exactly the way they do. I think worship is as unique as we are as individuals.
I actually encountered not long back someone handing a Kleenex to me at the altar and telling me to cry. I was in shock. So much so that I turned around and went back to my seat thinking to myself oh my!
Then words starting filling my brain like Fake, Pretending, Pharisees....etc.....
I will not pretend to feel or act in a way that does not come from my heart. God is way more than an outward emotion to me and much more than a feeling or a tingle.
I would be fearful to engage in an act that didn't come from my heart. I'm thankful for discernment that cometh from the Holy Spirit that alerts me when things are just not right.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
If we want the Lord in our life, personally, all we have to do is seek Him with a pure heart, and He will be there.
But with a community it is harder, for not everyone has a pure heart, and thus the community lacks many of the blessings the Lord desires to bestow upon it.
But there is even another more tragic situation taking place within our communities.
And that is that many who believe are being deceived into finding fault with the other person's method of worship.
We lovingly accept anyone who desires to come.
We worship together as Baptists, Methodists, and various others.
Sometimes, I have a different way of looking at things than you do.
And at times, you have differing ways of viewing each other's practices.
But together we have learned to function in love.
There are very valid reasons for each of us thinking and reacting the way we do; but if we have a pure heart in seeking God, then our worship is acceptable to Him, no matter the form in which it is presented.
We also need to go beyond our own church.
We need to seek harmony with others who truly seek the Lord, that within the community, our collective worship is acceptable, even if offered up in differing ways in different churches.
And we need to encourage them to do the same, and not argue with them over our differences.
And if some are hard of heart, that should be just that much more encouragement to us to bestow upon them even more of God's love.
God wants all of His created beings to come to Him.
We must be careful that we don't discourage them or, even worse, chase them away.
Love can overcome all kinds of differences, for in God's eyes there is only one Church, His church.
Amen.
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