Good morning. I pray that your heart is being prepared for a time of worship with your Lord today. While it is certainly true that every day contains the opportunity for worship, it is on Sundays that we come together to enjoy worship in more splendid ways.
There is no shortage of good books (and bad) on the theology of worship. Among the best, in my opinion, is David Peterson’s Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship (IVP, 1992). Peterson’s book is not a practical how-to on worship planning, but rather an in-depth, exegetical look at the Biblical understanding of worship.
Peterson makes the point that, “The starting point for reflection is the conviction “that God fully and finally manifested himself in the person of his Son. Jesus Christ is at the center of New Testament thinking about worship.”
Jesus is at the center of all worship intention. He is the mediator between God and man. Jesus is the one who provides for blessing and salvation. He is the new temple in which all true believers gather, and it is through Him that a new and vital relationship with God the Father is possible.
Jesus removes the need for ceremonial efforts and provides the love for our intimate and personal worship of God. When Jesus draws us near to the heart of God, worship is not a choice that we make, worship is the natural and unavoidable event that we are drawn to. We read this in Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
When we choose to worship, we come to God in all of His fullness. We join with the angels of heaven. We join with the faithful of all generations and nations. We come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Jesus, whose blood allows us to enter God’s presence seeking intimacy with no fear of His anger.
Worship the Lord today, in Spirit and in Truth, worship well.
Vern