"What if Worship is..."

What do you think of when you hear the word worship? Do choirs, songs, sermons and prayer come to mind? May be you have walked with Christ long enough to have had your vision of worship expanded outside the "worship service" to understand that worship is anything I do for others in the name and love of Christ. For instance, the Bible reminds us that giving a cup of cold water in Jesus' name is worship.

Certainly worship looks up to God and out towards others. But what if there is another aspect of worship that involves both the upward and outward look at the same time? What if God also desires our worship to be witness? What if worship as worship should be should be is as strong a witness as it is anything else?
Would you take some time between now and Sunday to think and pray about your worship being a witness? Perhaps there is no more important day for us to consider this than Easter Sunday. On the day when people who normally do not attend worship suddenly find themselves there, what better day for Followers of Christ to make our worship witness?

To make our worship witness means we outwardly express what God is doing in us. We make sure that even a stranger knows that we believe in a God who so loved the world that he died on a cross and overcame sin and the grave to give us new life now and forever! And because we believe that, we can sing when the world says we should cry; we can praise God when the enemy says to curse God and die; We can celebrate the victory that we have in Christ before we see the victory come to pass.

So, this Sunday, Follower of Christ, do not hold back! Sing loud even if you can't sing! Praise God will all your heart and mind! Put your whole Body into it...that is why often you see me raise my hand in worship...as I sing words that ring true in me, I raise my hand to say, "Yes, yes...I know that is true!" The only wrong way to worship God is to hold back. Make your worship witness this Sunday and just may be somebody sitting next to you will hear a sermon much more powerful than any words I could speak. Don't underestimate the power of your worship both in heaven and in earth.

Finally, why would we do anything less in our worship? After all, Jesus died for you and overcame the grave for you, so why would we hold back? Watch out...I am about ready to shout my praises to God...in fact, I think I will...HALLELUJAH! PRAISE GOD! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH YOU, LORD! CHRIST IS RISEN!