What is worship? Some will say it is attending services at their synagogue or church; some will say it is praying to God; and some might say it is believing in God and that Yeshua is his Messiah.
And yeah, it is all of those things; but in my opinion, the best and truest form of worship is living one’s life the way that God said to live it.
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In life you will have to be obedient to something; at first, to your parents, then to your boss, and (if you follow one) to your religion.
And, if you are smart, you will share obedience to each other in a marriage.
Being obedient to your parents or boss is something that you often have little choice in, meaning that if you disobey either one of them you will suffer consequences, and they won’t be pretty.
But, in a religion, if you follow the religious tenets and rules and ceremonies you will find that you are respected by your fellow “worshippers”, and even occasionally sought out for advice.
The problem is that when you follow a religion, is that religion following God?
“How can a religion not be following God?”, you may ask. Well, let’s consider that in Christianity there are some 64,000 different forms, all supposedly doing as God said to do, the same God who the Bible says never changes.
So, nu? If God never changes, then what he says to do never changes, right? OK, so why are there 64,000 different ways to obey him?
And let’s not forget my fellow Jews, who have 6 sects within Judaism, all with different rules and what is OK and what is not OK, all (supposedly) according to the one Torah that we all follow.
We read in the Bible how God was not satisfied with the blood of bulls and sheep because the people weren’t obeying him (Psalm 40:6–8; Isaiah 1:11–31; Jeremiah 7:21–23); but when they slaughtered the bulls and sheep, wasn’t that in obedience to the rules in the Torah for sacrifice (Leviticus 1-7)?
Yes, they did what they were supposed to do, but their hearts weren’t in it, and they also sacrificed to the false gods of their neighbors, which was disobedience to God’s commandment not to worship other gods (that’s the second one in the Big Ten!)
Yeshua said we are all slaves to something (John 8:34), and the choice comes down to being a slave to sin or a slave to God. If we choose wisely (that being a slave to God- DUH!), then as a slave, obedience is required.
Shaul (Paul) and Kefa (Peter) both wrote about how a slave should be obedient to their master as a way of showing their worship of God.
In addition to that, our obedience should not be to avoid punishment! Obedience to parents, bosses, spouses, and anyone else in authority over us should always be demonstrating our worship of God.
Have you ever done something for someone you love just because you know it would please them? That is (to me) the most important reason why we should obey God.
Obedience to God should not be to earn salvation (which can never be earned), and not just to show our dedication (which is a valid reason to obey), and not just because what God says we should do is for our own good (which it is).
I believe the way to show true worship of God is to live every moment of every day showing our love for God by how we treat others and through obedience to the rules, commandments, regulations, and ordinances that are in the Torah, defining how we are to celebrate, do business, administer justice, and just generally treat others.
If you believe yourself to be worshipful, are you being worshipful every day or just going to services once a week? Are you being worshipful by treating those who are annoying and even nasty to you with respect and compassion? Are you being worshipful by reading the ENTIRE Bible, challenging what you are told (by everyone), and constantly studying God’s word on your own so that you can tell what is true and what is false?
If you aren’t doing that last thing I mentioned, then you are probably being misled and your worship of God is impotent.
Worship isn’t something that you do in church or shul, it is how you live your life. And if you want to live your life in proper worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which includes accepting Yeshua as the Messiah he promised to send, then you need to follow the Torah because that is the ONLY place where God, himself, dictates through Moses what we are to do to properly worship him.
Choose as you will to follow God or a religion, but understand that when you follow a religion, you are probably not really worshiping God, you are worshiping that religion.
God has NO religion; men created religion in order to have power over other men, so choose who or what you will worship.
Thank you for being here and please remember to comment and like these messages to help this ministry get more exposure on the Internet, and to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!