Grant could it not be said that true worship that God desires would flow from the heart ?
Anything else added would simply become a tool or form in which one is using in their worship.
I have begun to worship my Heavenly Father form the heart and then later I began to spin a little and sway and move about...... does this make my worship void from these things ? No but then we cant say that these things are the true worship God requires of us either.
My point is simply this.......... I agree with you that it must come from the heart..........
anything else we do is simply an added event........example.......I am sitting at the keyboards and I begin to praise and worship Him.......I am lost in this worship and then feel led to play something on the keyboards. My hands get lost in my worship and the sounds become a sweet sweet sound unto His ear..........
The music was not the main focus or point of worship........My voice from my heart was BUT the music was still a apart of it.......
Grant I am not arguing with you one bit. If anything simply putting all things into a perspective that maybe everyone can accept and agree on............
Hope your days have been filled with Peace and relaxation........
God Bless My Friend
Jim
Yes, that's precisely it, the true worship which God desires flows from the heart - that's the core truth that I feel we have to hold on to.
What I have in mind is worship in the assembly, collective worship. Paul says, "Let all things be done to edification." (1 Corinthians 14:26). Worship flows from the heart to God, and the outward expression of it should be for edification. If a brother prays, he prays out loud so that the assembly can benefit. If we sing, we sing together. If someone has an impression, they speak about it. If someone has an interpretation, they share it. And so the body is built up. The assembly, as we see it in the scriptures, is a place of peace, order, and edification.
If we consider the issue in practical terms, I think we see why what appeals purely to nature - instrumental music, art, oratory, and so on - is excluded from any description of or instruction about the assembly in the word of God. If we bring what's purely of nature into the assembly, it's divisive. Take music, for example. You might like a certain kind of music, I might be fond of a different style, Euphemia might have different tastes, Penion might enjoy something different again. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, we all have our likes and dislikes. But if we bring that into the assembly, then it can only disrupt and divide. We see that plainly in Christendom. So many denominations, so many different tastes indulged. Many professing Christians seem to choose their church in line with their musical preferences, or their taste in art, or the kind of society they like to move in. In contrast to all that is the spiritual gifts that we see described in the word of God all have one thing in common: they unite and build up the saints together. We should all be of one mind and thinking the same thing, and the activity of the Spirit tends to that. But bringing in elements which appeal only to nature is bound to be a source of stumbling for many. I don't know how many times I've heard Christians say they left a certain church because the music had changed and it was too raucous, or that it was too quiet and they want to go somewhere more lively, or that they don't like the new pastor's style of preaching. The public breakdown of the unity of the Church is something that's just accepted in Christendom, and in part that's because so many of us believe that our tastes and predilections are far more important than they really are. The world has infected Christendom with the leaven of individualism, and the notion that self must be asserted in every area of life. That's not how Christ's assembly operates. This is what Paul is addressing so strongly in the first epistle to the Corinthians. They were carnal, and bringing their natural tastes into the assembly.
To conclude on a positive note, we needn't be in the dark about this. Studying the scriptures and praying for greater understanding and appreciation of what the assembly is will no doubt be rewarded.