Principles of Worship from the Torah


The worship of our God, the only true God, YHVH, the Great “I Am,” has almost 6,000 years of history which from its beginning God let us know how He desires to be worshipped.  One of the primary ways that God instigated for worship was the sacrifice.  There are a number of Hebrew words for “sacrifice”, but one word used to designate something that is to be sacrificed is the word “Korban” which literally means “to draw near”.  This gives us a clue as to the purpose of the sacrifice which is to be able to draw near to God and Him to draw near to us.  The altar of sacrifice is a meeting place, so to speak, between God and His people. Of course, the ultimate sacrifice became God’s very own Son, Jesus, through whom we truly can be near our God by the indwelling of His Spirit.

But even though the animal sacrifice system and the Temple is not there now, there remains the principle of sacrifice in worship which will please God.  So what kind of sacrifice do you bring to worship?  Jesus spoke of a widow who gave sacrificially as part of her worship which pleased the Lord.  We also speak of bringing a “sacrifice of praise”.  Well, it can only be called a sacrifice if it cost you something, so how can your praise be called “sacrificial?”  I think this encompasses a lot of things, but when you have to make special or even difficult preparations to come to a time of worship, or perhaps you don’t feel your best or you don’t feel you have much to offer, then you have an opportunity to bring a praise offering to God that actually cost you something!  And when we do that, God takes our offering and multiplies it like the loaves and fishes.  2 Samuel 24:24 says, “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."   When you sing your praises to God, expend your energy, your mind, your heart, your soul and all your might beyond what is convenient or comfortable.  Offer unto God a true sacrifice of praise and see if you are not brought near to the Lord when you do.

Blessings,

Dan

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Persecution of the Church Begins By Teaching That All Church-Goers Are The Church

Image
  I saw this article online and it naturally caught my attention.  It was written by Moises Mendez II who, according to his own profile is "a recent graduate from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is a freelance journalist based in New York City writing about everything from music to LGBTQ issues." What is your reaction to this statement? "Sunday morning after church is the worst type of customer... you won't change my mind."  My first thought was, "Well, that's one guy's opinion and he has a right to it, but he would have to already have a bias against Christians to make such a blanket conclusion about all people who go to church on Sundays."  Mr. Mendez is not the one pictured here, but he included in his article this video by a Tik-Tok-er named Saint_Hypnos as "exhibit A" for his post: If the video won't play, go to  Servers Say 'Sunday Morning After Church' Are the Worst Customers (dailydot.co
Read more

D.S. al Coda is Back!

Image
After a three-year hiatus from writing this Blog, I have picked up D.S. al Coda once again.  I left off this blog site as I wrote a weekly column for the Lexington Chronicle since January of 2019.  I felt somewhat restricted from being able to write solely about the most important things in life to me--our Heavenly Father and the salvation we can have through Jesus Christ, His Son. I enjoyed the experience of writing for the paper and felt I should do so as my father, Rev. Bert Williams wrote articles for years for the Orangeburg T & D.  And I recently compiled and published a book called, "A Year of Sr. Living--52 articles form the Lexington Chronicle 2019-2021".  I would love for you to have a copy of this book.  It is on sale for $10 at this website: www.RestoringHisTruth.com . Postage is free and I will be happy to mail you a copy or simply sell it to you at Lexington Baptist Church. I enjoy writing.  I had a professor who said 3 words that I never forgot: “Be a write
Read more

The Greatest War Hero of All Time

Image
Today is Memorial Day.   This national holiday began after the Civil War in 1868 and was originally called Decoration Day since it began as a practice of decorating the graves of soldiers in the national cemeteries.    Since it originated in the north by those wanting to memorialize the union soldiers who had died, the southern states began having their own Confederate Decoration Day traditions, but by the 20th century the two competing factions merged into a unified Memorial Day to honor all Americans who had died in military service.    After many years of Memorial Day being observed every year on May 30, no matter what day of the week it fell, in 1968 Congress passed a law making 4 national holidays to always be on a Monday to give us four 3-day weekends.   So, Memorial Day is now always on the last Monday of May, and it marks the beginning of summer in America.     Do you have any idea how many Americans have died in combat over our 241-year history? 1.1 Million.
Read more