Worship

Today we had a wonderful chapel. Reverend Sunder Krishnan spoke to us about worship. I didn't have a notebook with me, so I couldn't take notes, but this is what I remember...

Worship is for our benefit. Rev. Krishnan talked to us about how God doesn't need us to worship him - we don't praise him to puff up his ego. He commands us to worship him, not for his own self fulfillment, but because it changes us. Krishnan used the analogy of a beautiful national park that he and his wife visited. He talked about how the mountains and rocks and trees were all so beautiful, and they just stopped and stared at everything, and how they would never get tired of looking at it. Then he asked us, "What if we had stayed inside, playing videos and watching tv? The park would have been just as glorious and magnificent without our awe an praise, but WE wouldn't have benefited from it. We wouldn't have been changed and awe-inspired."
His second point is that we become like what we worship. He gave an example of his dad, who, because he was Hindu, worshiped idols for 80 years. He said his dad hardly ever spoke, and didn't care about anything. Nothing mattered to him. And then three days before he died, he accepted Christ as his savior. His family had never seen him more alive then in those last three days when he was dying of cancer in the hospital. When we worship something 'dead,' any idol, we die a little. But when we worship the true and living God, we become more alive.
His third point is that we live out worship in everyday life. He said the secular use of the word is more accurate then the way we use it sometimes - "Why do we say praise and worship as if they were two separate things? Or why do we say we like the sermon but not the worship? or the worship but not the singing? They're the same thing." He gave an example of someone who loved sailing, and bought a sail boat. If someone said, "Oh, John worships his boat," we would all know what they meant. It would mean that John loved his boat, and wanted to spend as much time with it as possible, and always read about sailing, and got magazines, and took classes, and cleaned it, and talked about sailing a lot, and told stories and experiences - that John finds his greatest joy in life when he is sailing. Worship doesn't just mean going to church once a week, but it's everything we do. If we enjoy a good meal because we appreciate it as a gift from God, that's worship.
Rev. Krishnan had more points, but I can't remember them all... I just wanted to write down the ones I do remember and share them with you all =).
God Bless!