We see the transformation from the Law to the Heart in John 4:23-24. Here our Lord tells the Samaritan woman that worship is not found in a formula or a place. We need to resist the temptation of asking “how it works” and concentrate on “how HE works”. He works in the lives of individuals and He is not limited to a place and time. We need to embrace the reality that Jesus fulfilled the law and invites us to engage in a life of worship, a life of worship that must be founded in daily interaction with our Creator and centered on who He is as God.

The reason we do not worship on Sunday is because we do not worship all week. Though God intended us to be in a state of worship, the modern church has confined the act of worship to “the songs we sing before the preacher speaks”.

Worship is not singing... and when we define worship in connection with singing we set ourselves up for a week of non-worship. Again when we define worship as what we do before the message, we teach the congregation to live a week of non-worship. After all; with our jobs, our families, our chores, our obligations, even our church activities, the unexpected among many other things... who has time to “worship” by this definition? Yet, if we worshipped “IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH”, this would have been a wonderful week, as oppose to a chaotic week.

God calls for THE SINCERE WORSHIP OF OUR INNERMOST BEING, for how great is a thank you with an ungrateful heart. When we live a life of worship, abstract phrases like “pray without ceasing” will begin to make sense. Then as an expression of our individual week of worship we will get together and celebrate in corporate worship as an OVERFLOW and NOT IN PLACE OF a week of worship. With the law, we sang a song of desperation. With the GRACE OF GOD we sing a song of celebration.

The late Archbishop of Canterbury stated “For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” In short, we must teach to live first and to sing second. For what is a Love song, without a Lover?                

Angel Miranda                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

A thermometer measures temperature while a thermostat establishes and maintains a desired temperature. The question is: Are you a “thermometer” simply relaying the spiritual temperature of your environment or are you a “thermostat” establishing and maintaining the spiritual temperature you desire to see in your environment?

The Princess Bride (one of my favorite movies) tells us that “as you wish means I Love You”. And I am here to tell you that they are right. As you wish means I Love You – In Luke 22:42 Jesus is praying to God the Father regarding His soon to be crucifixion and says “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Simply put – “not my will but yours be done” is Jesus’ way of saying “AS YOU WISH”.  There is no better example of Love than that of Jesus saying to God the Father: I love you and your children so much that I will do “AS YOU WISH” and lay down my life so that they may have eternal life. I know what Jesus accomplished when He loved the Father and us enough to say “AS YOU WISH”. But I wonder what God could accomplish through us if we loved Him enough to truly say to Him “AS YOU WISH”