It is God’s will that all may come to know and enjoy the love of Jesus.  That is what worship is.  It is what God created us for.  To completely revel in our Father’s love is the final outcome of creation. 

But can we as fallen, sinful beings understand what true worship actually looks like?  Is worship a specific feeling or song or Christian buzz word, or is there something deeper we are missing altogether? 

The answer is found, like everything else, in our ultimate authority: the Bible.   Throughout the 66 books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, there are nine different words that have been translated into the English word “worship.”  In this study we will briefly touch on eight of the nine, and then go into a bit more detail with the last one.

As we move forward take time to reflect on how you think God wants us to worship.  What do true worshipers look like?  What are they thinking?  Are they happy?  Remember to ask yourself these questions as we look at different passages that discuss worship.

The first eight words of worship are as follows: (We will not study these tonight.  In order to truly understand the significance in these passages you should read the chapter where these verses are taken from)

• Exodus 34:14:  (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)… The Hebrew word “shachah” is used which means a deep reverent fear in which the worshipper physically falls to the ground in awe of the Lord.  This is the most common word in the Old Testament for worship.
• Jeremiah 44:19: And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men? Hebrew “ateab” meaning something humans fashion to bring glory to something or someone else.
• Daniel 3:5: That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up.  Hebrew “segid” is used five times in the book of Daniel, always in reference to the worship of the king and not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• Matthew 15:9:  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  Greek “sebomai” meaning a religious devotion.
• Luke 14:10: But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.  The Greek word “doxa” is unique because it refers to honor and glory the Father bestows upon his humble servants. 
• Acts 24:14: But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.  Greek “latreuo”: to serve or minister to someone or something.
• Acts 17:23: For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.  Greek “eusebeo”: to show respect towards something. 
• Colossians 2:23: Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will- worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.  Displays “ethelothreskeia”: a voluntary, arbitrary, and unwarranted means of praise. 

The common theme throughout all of these definitions (except ethelothreskeia) is that true worship is not something that we do to bring glory to ourselves.  Worship is a selfless act through which we can move into the background and let God take center stage.   

Suppose a high schooler saves all their money to buy a new 2007 Porsche.  For months this person has been discussing prices of tires, carburetors, hoses, axles, and all the other car parts with his friends at school, bragging on the soon-to-be-his muscle car.  When the student finally drives the long-awaited vehicle into the school parking lot he immediately earns a ton of cool points and a free ticket into the “popular crowd.” 

The Bible says that when Jesus Christ is lifted up He will draw all men to Him (John 12:32).  Worship, therefore, does not just bring us closer to God.  Worship also acts as a tool for evangelizing the lost because our worship exclaims to the world that God is what we adore; not money, cell phones, or Porsches. 

The final definition of worship used in the Bible is found scattered around the New Testament: “proskuneo”.  The text we will consider here is John 4: 19-23.

The woman said to [Jesus], "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.   But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  (English Standard Version)

Proskuneo worship involves action and not lip service.  Proskuneo worship means physically falling down before the Almighty God in adoration.  It can also mean when a lesser figure kisses a greater figure.  The best example of such proskuneo worship is actually that of a dog licking the hand of his master.  It has been said that a dog is a “man’s best friend;” who will willingly follow wherever their master leads them.  It is a beautiful sight when you know that your dog is fully content just to be known as yours.    

And is that not exactly how we are to act as children of God?  When the truth is disclosed and we come to the heart of worship we begin to realize how powerless we are in the grand scheme of things.  In at most ninety years we will all be gone from this earth, our flesh and our automobiles and our computers and our money will rot away and we will stand before the Master of all Creation with only Jesus to defend us from an eternity of torture and wrath.  Do not walk away from this session without asking yourself two questions:

1. Have I truly given my life to Jesus, or am I living a lie which will one day forever separate me from His love?
2. When was the last time I literally fell down in utter adoration of the holiness of God?

Proskuneo is the only form of worship used in the book of Revelation.  The word can be found in Revelation 3:9; 4:10; 9:20; 11:1; 13:8, 12, 15; 14:7, 9, 11; 15:4; 19:10; 22:8, 9.  The reason this is significant to us as believers is because the book of Revelation is a shadow of the life to come (how God will bring closure to history and what will happen after).  God dare not reveal to us what will specifically happen because it is too much for us.  I would even be scared if it was revealed to me all that would happen next week, for fear I might live differently today.  So He has given us a book of symbols that point to the future.  BUT there is one thing we can know for sure from these passages: proskuneo is the kind of worship we will practice before the Father for the rest of eternity.  By God’s grace we will be so awe-struck by His holiness and beauty that we will forever dance in His love.  And just as a dog that licks his master’s hand, we will be content.  Tonight and forevermore may this be our prayer:

We fall down

We lay our crowns

At the feet of Jesus

The greatness of

Mercy and love

At the feet of Jesus

And we cry “Holy, holy, holy”

We cry “Holy, holy, holy”

We cry “Holy, holy, holy”

Is the Lamb.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them...Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised.  Amen...You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.                -Romans 1:18-19,24-25; 2:1

Lately I have been grappling with the idea of the wrath of God. If I have indeed been chosen before the beginning of creation to minister to the flocks of the Almighty God then it is important to be able to teach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God.  My kettle of Christianity has been fearfully stirred as of late to ponder the riches of being a child of the King of kings.  Too often I have sung praises to God through music, prayer, and testimony and forgotten how awful my life was before Jesus the Christ saved me from damnation.  My friends, it is a terrible thing to given over to our sinful desires and taken out of the favor of the Creator God.  Unfortunately that is where too many find themselves.  Jonathon Edwards in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" makes the point of how incalculabe the wrath of God is and of our dire helplessness against it.  Edwards likens it to an oncoming torrential tidal wave held back only by the dam that is the patience of Jehovah.  At any time He can remove that hand, for it is His decision to make and not ours when the end shall come.  But should this great tsunami of divine wrath make us worried and nervous and fear for our lives?  Yes, it should!  Not only must we be on guard (because we who pass judgment do the same things these idol worshippers do), constantly keeping our spiritual selves in check, but we should burn for the billions of souls who will be swallowed up by these waves.  Inside even the worst of sinners God has placed specific attributes that His evangelists (and by evangelists I mean all Christians) must look for and utilize in order to lead them to Jesus.  He is the answer they have been searching for at the bottom of their beer bottles and pill cans and philosophy books.  God has made it plain to them that there is more to life than just living.  What has happened to Christians is that we have forsaken our call to the white fields of Earth.  To how many of us will Christ say: "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love" (Rev. 2:4).  If we do not preach our utter hoplessness and dependence on God then we have no point in preaching at all.  The Apostle Paul says that he "resolved to know nothing while [he] was with [the church at Corinth] except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2).  Now Christ died to satisfy God's wrath, so therefore it is at the wrath of God is where we must start in the preaching of the Gospel, holding nothing back for fear that the floodwaters of eternal damnation be released at any moment.  Let us as Christians dance and sing harder and longer because Christ has purged us from an eternal death!  Such praise is our greatest tool in evangelizing the world.  May the work of the Kingdom move forward with all diligence and to God be the glory!              

Thursday, June 24, 2006

   How great is the God we serve!  He is the same God the Israelites worshipped at Mt. Sinai, who demonstrated His amazing power on Mt. Carmel, and who is worshipped on every side of the globe.  I woke up this morning and prayed for my loved ones on the other side of the world, because God is both with me and them.  Today was a wonderful day, full of fun in the Lord.  In Samboleni, only children were present for the program, so I decided to change the Bible story w/preaching to a skit of the Good Samaritan.  The kids seemed to enjoy it, and luckily we had just the right amount of youth from Camarasu to fill all the parts.  Miraila, Mike, and Theophilus came with us to Samboleni first.  Also with us was my God-sent friend from Detroit, Lumi. I met Lumi after speaking at her church, and she told me she was going to be in Cluj (where she is from) for the month of June visiting family.  Lumi didn't really have any plans, and I knew that God would allow us to hook up in Cluj.  Lumi has been a wonderful translator for us, and she has enjoyed every minute of it.  Hopefully she wil be able to find a ticket to go home a week later than planned, but if not she will leave Monday.
   After Samboleni, we went to Naiou (stopping at Camarasu to pick up little Alin - a new but unbelievably strong Christian).  Paul and I rode in the back - the trunk of Daniel's car - and almost fell out a couple of times!  But Naiou was fantastic!  Only two or three adults actually listened to my entire Bible storying, but many came for the game and craft.  The only Christian in the gypsy part of Naiou that we visit is sick and is having surgery in July.  He is a wonderful man.  I could barely understand him, though what I did understand was very encouraging.  He thanked me personally for speaking to his family, and I was deeply honored.  The Baptist Church we attend on Thursday nights in Cluj is called Bethany Baptist.  The pastor is a true man of God, and the church is always very welcoming.  I love worshipping there, as I can recognize all the songs.  Also, with it being a strong Baptist church, the songs are usually slow enough that I have little trouble singing along.  Thursday nights are prayer meetings, and so after every song five or six people will pray.  Unfortunately prayers move so quickly I can only catch words like God, Lord, faith, repenter, etc.  It is still wonderful to hear God's children pray, and I enjoy Bethany.  What is very hard to believe is that many Romanian Christians don't believe that gypsies have souls, and therefore there is no point in making them pastors or sending missionaries to them.  I pray that the hearts of these people may be softened, even though the prejudice and hatred of gypsies goes back a thousand years.
   Daniel leaves for Poland tonight on the midnight train, giving us a week by ourselves to explore the age-old city of Cluj-Napoca.

Domn al Domnilor
Rege al Regilor
Glorie, Aleluia!

Isus, print al pacii
Glorie, Aleluia!

I will be returning to Romania June 11 - August 4.  Through the unbelievable mercy of the Holy One, the way has been provided so that yet again I may receive the rich blessings of working with the most beautiful people on the planet.  Therefore I have decided to refresh my memory of life with the gypsies, I will publish on xanga one entry from my journal last summer each time I am on xanga.  It is entirely up to you, reader, if you wish to read on.

Wednesday, June 23, 2006

   This is the first of hopefully many entries in this journal - a documented account of my two and a half month stay working with the gypsies of Transylvania (the mountain region of Romania).  I have been here since June 1, and have so far loved every minute of it.  Daniel Byrd is the missionary I and my partner Paul live with.  He is a wonderful man of God - a true prayer warrior.  I shall not write of how I came to be here - only that it is through the harul lui Dumnezeu (the grace of God) that I am allowed to serve yet again with Team Romany.
   Cluj is a wonderful city - the fourth of fifth largest in Romania and very much a college town.  Kids from all over Romania, indeed all over Eastern Europe, come to study here.  I am told that college is free for those who score high enough on exams, and therefore the quality of education is wonderful in this country.  Politics in Cluj is interesting, also.  The proper name for the city is Cluj-Napoca, due to the Hungarian influence.  41% of Cluj's population is Hungarian, so there is both a Romanian and a Hungarian square - complete with opera houses, churches, and administrative offices.  Last Tuesday, actually, we decided to go to a Hungarian opera.  It was very interesting, though incomprehensible.  Due to the large Hungarian population, the city's administration shifts from Romanian to Hungarian every four years!
   But enough about the environment for now.  The reason I am here is to minister, as I have said, to gypsies.  Last March I went with a team from my school, Union University, to Braila (near the Black Sea) and fell in love with the gypsies.  Their faith is so natural, so genuine, so real.  I came to the US a changed person, one who had seen the face of Christ in poor, gypsy villages.  Paul was also on that team, and he and I decided to come back for the summer. 
   Sometimes, many times, I wonder as I preach to the Roma Krestin (Christian Gypsies) "Who am I, Lord, that you should have me stand before these gypsies who face daily persecution (and rejoice when you give them a bag of chips like you just bought them a ticket to the fair) and bring Your word?  When a gypsy becomes a Christian his village turns its back on him.  No longer a good Orthodox, the Roma Krestin fight each day against unbelievable odds.  The youth in our main mission point, Camarasu, astound me.  One girl, Miraila, became a Christian last year.  In the gypsy culture it is common to marry around 14-15 years old.  She is 16, and daily fights with her parents who are pressuring her to get married.  Miraila, though, is waiting on God's timing to find a Christian husband.  
   Mike (pronounced Mihai) is one of the few gypsies who has stayed in school and will most likely qualify for college.  In a world where gypsy children are told not to go to school by both teacher and parent, Mike refuses to stay home and live his parents' life.  What a joy and an encouragement he is!
   Our other two mission points are Naiou and Samboleni, which have maybe 5 belivers between the two of them.  Samboleni is very attentive to the Gospel and we are praying that one day a church might be planted there. 
   I have learned a great deal of Romanian, enough to be able to communicate simple thoughts atleast.  My goals are to learn all of "Dumnezeu e taria mea"/Our God is an Awesome God in Romanian and also to be able to preach a short lesson in Romanian.  These are lofty goals, but I serve a big God.

Pentruca oricine crede in El sa nu piara, ci sa aiba viata vecinica.     -Ioan (John) 3:15 

<Cameron to Self>: You know what?  Why don't we offer up a post for the cyborgs of cyberspace?
Self:  But what to say...what to say?
Cameron:  Hey buddy, you went to Romania.  Talk about that?  Its a broad topic but I'm sure you and your amazing writing skills can narrow it down to something readable.
Self:  Okay boss.

What could I possibly have to say about the most amazing experience of my life to date?  I first became involved in missions with the gypsies of Romania through a one-week mission trip in 2005.  I don't know how to explain it, but there I found life, real life; the kind of life that radiates joy and contentment even through the worst situations.  I saw my Christianity lacking in those exact areas, and watched as gradually my King renewed that joy and showed me firsthand that true contentment, both for the poorest of the poor in Romania and the richest of the rich in America, is possible.  I longed to be a part of that joyful spreading of the Word of Life.  And God heard my prayer.

On May 31, 2006, I and my friend Paul Cornwell, also from Union, set out for two and a half months to live and work in the midst of the Lord's gypsies.  It is often the case for Americans that we must know what we are getting ourselves into - the teacher must explain the syllabus and how the student's work will be evaluated.  But I had none of this.  Not knowing what was coming next was an advantage for me, because had I known how many times I would preach, visit homes, and study I probably would have nixed the thing weeks before I got on that plane to Bucharest.  But preaching and teaching to the gypsies the things God spoke to me made me feel more alive than I have ever felt in my life, and I was proud to be called a child of the Most High.  Limitless opportunities arose for Paul and myself to witness, even in the most obscure places.  For my part, God fed me so much of His Everlasting Manna that I left Romania having been through the largest spiritual growth spurt of my life. 

Acts 4:20 echoes perfectly my message, as well as that of anyone who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is in the center of God's will: "For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Dumnezeu sa te binecuvinteze, fratii.  Cu Dumnezeu, toate lucrurile sunt posible.  Amin.