Worship

I was a member of a Lay Renewal team back when I was an older teen. We called it Worship Service back then. I really liked that term. When we would have our "debriefing sessions"...some of us would say, "The Holy Spirit was really working in this!" And others would say, "You really think so? I couldn't see it!" And yes, we were at the same church on the same weekend.

Why is that? Why do some people have a consistent and wonderful worship experience when others yawn and fall asleep whenever they even think about worship?

I believe it is a question of maturity. When I was young, I had zero attention span when it came to worshiping. But, now I love to worhip my God.

How can anyone look at God's creation and not fall down in reverence and awe and worship?
So what is it? I did a study and found some interesting things. It would seem that God was teaching the Israelites in the OT that worshiping was different than anything else mentioned along with it.

Starting with Abraham in Genesis, Worship is mentioned 185 times. He and the lad would go over there and worship and then return. Now, that would have included sacrifice of "the lad" since that is what Abraham's purpose was in going there. They "bowed low" most of the time to worship. The 70 elders of Israel had to worship at a distance from God. In Exodus 33:10, all the people would "arise" and worship when the cloud descended to the tent. Then in Judges, the sons of Israel worshiped and served the Baals. Uh Oh.

We see in 1 Samuel 1 that sacrifice by itself is not worship because "to worship and sacrifice" is used. David went into the house of the Lord and worshiped and prostrated himself before the Lord ... (this was after his son by Bathsheba died so we can infer that repentance would be part of worship, right?) Now we know that bowing low is a good position for worship, that sacrifice by itself is not worship and also worship can be done at a distance. And that repentance is a good start for worship. To be continued as I study...