Tuesday, August 28, 2018

From the VCC 6-18-2018 newsletter: What is Worship?

What is worship? The term worship can be applied to the entire life of a Christian, all that we do and everything we are should be an act of that gives God glory.

There are several words in our Bible that are translated as “worship,” each with its own unique nuance. This means our single use of the word gives us a very limited view of what worship is all about. Over the next few weeks I plan to look at the words we translate as “worship” and look at how real worship helps us convey to the Lord his worthiness worthy of our praise, adoration, service, attention, trust, and so much more.

First we begin with our word Worship: it has its roots in the medieval title of honor, weorthscipe, given to those who were of high rank in society.  It was akin to calling someone a lord or lady. It was meant to denote someone who was worthy of respect and honor. Therefore the early Bible translators sought to translate the many Greek and Hebrew words associated with temple acts through a single word to communicate a single overall concept, believing the ideas attached to those many words would be understood by the context. This is unfortunate because we have lost many of the mental pictures the different words were meant to communicate. My hope is, as we learn about these words, that  it will give you greater freedom of expression and deepen your experience of God through experiencing these new acts of worship.

Join me next week as we learn about the words abad and latreuo and what they tell us about the connection between worship and service.

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