We all worship, whether we worship God, or something else. Think about it. What comes first in your life?

A very interesting point. I think one of the things that complicates the concepts that surround worship is the religious jargon that we tend to express our ideas in. The question "What comes first in your life?" or as latour 999 expressed the highest value in life really touches the essence of our worship.

The how I suppose is in the ways we demonstrate that value in our lives.

I worship with my voice - singing praises, speaking my adoration to God. I worship with my hands - when I serve someone else, when I reach out to encourage another - basically, being the hands and feet of God. I worship with my heart - offering myself as a sacrifice of praise to God. That means being willing to let Him have control and use me as He sees fit. Not easy, and not always accomplished, thanks to my selfish nature

What I say, what I do and who I am

This is my time with him and I give him my full attention

another interesting aspect --- the paying of attention to. In this day and age you have to have quite a product to warrent someones full attention. Are there any other thoughts about "paying attention"?
JOA

We all worship, whether we worship God, or something else. Think about it. What comes first in your life?

Hmmm. The only thing that I can honestly say comes first in my life is my family. I guess that means I worship my family.

Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing else.

I'm not a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Muslim. The God I worship has no Name. How do I worship? By abandoning myself, and my concerns, my needs, my wishes, and my desires. That's hard to do, even after twenty-odd years of practice, and I imagine it will be especially hard to do for the age range you specify. But I've found it opens doors I wasn't even aware existed.

As to the anile comments of Iconoclast...

The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.

Leave a fool to his folly, as you would a dog to its vomit.

As a senior citizen, and a realist, I have definite ideas about God and HIs place in our lives. These are views I keep to myself ,however, and/but I can say that I do worship a good being who has held my hand every day for years (a discussion on my views would take hours). In fact it would not have bee n possible to overcome a crippling illness without Him (that was long-term).

On the other hand (being the realist again), I do not worship in church as a)I do not want to share a pew with hypocrites,b)do not want to listen to sermons telling me what I already know, and c)find the church weak in its philosophies and its leadership.

Perhaps I'm a hypocrite too but I don't see the need for constant whingeing about my sins when the church (most), could be doing more for the poor.

So, I do have a faith but I would not make a good teacher of faith. I do pray and mostly for others not as fortunate as me;I do try to give to the poor;I do try to sympathise with others and be nice to them:Ergo, I'm a private Ch ristian.
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worship in the traditional sense

I'm not so certain what the "traditional sense" is?

I suppose when I first began worshiping God, I had to, like Icon mentioned, believe God existed, and that He existed as an entity rather than a person or thing.

I consider worshiping to be a more spiritual thing rather than a group or religious thing. I figure, how can you worship something as a group if you dont know how to relate to the thing you're worshiping personally as an individual.

I talk to God today, just as I learned fundamentally that to worship, you need to be able to communicate with your worship"ee".

I had to learn when I worship God, that 1) I talked to him in my mind, and 2) that God dosent speak to me personally in a voice or by using human speech. I visualize the events of Christ's, life as I mentally talk to God. Then, at some point, let it be instantly or some future moment, I would receive God's reply, generally in the form of a thought (like; serendipity, moments of instant wisdom, instant understandind...etc).

The more I talk to God as I grow older, the stronger my connection with Him becomes.

If I were to advise anybody how to worship God it would be to: 1) Know that God is in fact out there and that He DOES hear everything you address to Him. 2) That it's what you're thinking in your head that God hears when you address Him, even if you speak aloud. He knows whats in your heart, and you can not try to trick Him with your toungue. (I NEVER make promises to God, or try to "bargain" with Him) 3) Do not expect to always, if ever, have a conventional conversation with God, as you would with another person. It may be like this for you, but it never has been so with me. I expect my anwsers from God to be absolute, that arrive as instentaneous thoughts of complete understanding; some of which will continue on at various points in my life (what I mean to say here is that I will recieve an answer to my prayer, but perhaps at that moment I'm not ready for the entire or complete answer and that will come to me at various stages latier on).

Yeah, you need to talk to God as an individual if you ever plan to worship in a community environment.

Citizen)EmperorofIceCreamDecember 25, 2006 11:34:22

So YOU'RE the troll who's been dredging up old articles.

The quote I used is just as valid as the one you used.

Worship to me is both done personally and corporately. We see Jesus worshipping with his disciples and without them. We see the same later with the disciples. They were worshipping as a group of 120 for 10 days before Pentecost in Acts.

We were never ever called to be lone ranger Christians. God wants us to be surrounded with fellow worshippers for encouragment, strength and protection. I can see how this works as I see the happenings all around me. Those that fall away struggle much more with their spiritual and physical lives than they have to. Now there are times when going off by ourselves (for a short while) to concentrate more fully on God alone is a good thing. We must be careful tho, Satan loves to divide and conquer. That's when he does his best work. We see this in the temptation of Christ. Here's another example.

I'm seeing two families now falling apart. The men are upstanding and well thought of in the community holding high positions here. Both were too busy for church having other things that took them away most Sundays. They came occasionally but never really got involved much. The Pastor spoke to both in the past warning them about what he saw down the road for them. They were fine they said.

Fast forward about two years later. I saw one of these men walk out of church this past Sunday with tears in his eyes. He looked away from me when he walked out. The Pastor saw him and took him aside to pray with him and to encourage him. He has been now coming faithfully these past few months with his youngest daughter. His two older HS girls are going astray and it's pretty bad.

The other Dad, left his family two days before Christmas. He has a beautful family and was brought up in church his whole life. This is a shocker for all. Both men fell away from worship both individually and corporately. The effect has trickled down to their families.

Worshippng God is what we were created to do. God's greatest attribute is Love. He created us to love us. In return he wishes us to love HIM back. Sometimes we worship something else. That's when we get into trouble and pay the consequences. If not now, later.

Great thoughts X---. Thanks. Fresh, real, loved your last point about never finding corporate worship without developing a personal relationship first

So YOU'RE the troll who's been dredging up old articles.

The quote I used is just as valid as the one you used.

leave the drama elsewhere Ic_

joa