Spirit and Truth

I have been in a season of life lately where my external circumstances are hard, unchanging, and all together discouraging; but where spiritually I find myself growing deeper and stronger. We have been attending a PCA church for 6 months now and I've been soaking up their deep love of scripture, theology, and solid teaching. I have grown up "experiencing" a lot of God, but, knowing and unknowingly at times, not really having a solid foundation of Christ in my mind. The Bible warns us that to not be grounded is to be swayed by every new wind. I have seen that tendency in my life.

One new teaching that I've been "chewing" on for the last week is our pastor's sermon on worship, "Thoughtful Worship". He taught from John 4:19-26 where Jesus is talking with the woman at the well. They are discussing how to worship and where, as that was a huge point of contention between the Samaritans and Jews of the day. Jesus point blank tells her that she and her people worship in ignorance ("what you do not know"), thus making the statement that there is a right and wrong way to worship God. That idea, in and of itself, is becoming very unpopular in our post modern world. Jesus goes on to say that "a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (NIV)." I won't take the time to re-preach Pastor Bates' sermon, but the nut-shell version is that to worship God in truth is to worship Him according to who He is as He's revealed to us in scripture and not how we would like to imagine Him being. To worship God in spirit is to engage your heart and emotions and to not let your worship become rote. Pastor Bates made the inflammatory statement that to worship God without truth is idolatry and to worship without spirit is blasphemy. 

It has really impacted my thinking and worship. I've grown up in a tradition that has embraced the worshipping in the spirit side, while sacrificing some truth. I want to worship God as He is and not as I want Him to be. The other stand out point of the sermon for me was when P.B. mentioned that as we get to know God better that there will be things that we don't like about Him or are uncomfortable. He even went so far as to say that if you like everything about God then you probably don't know Him all that well. It reminds me of C.S. Lewis' Aslan, "He's not a tame lion, but He is good." I need to be ok with wrestling with aspects of God and never giving up in that struggle. For as I wrestle I learn so much more.

For those of you who'd like to hear the whole thing, here's the link. It will definitely give you something to ponder for awhile! 

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=8308164819