created to love Him...

  (Taken from, "How to Worship a King," by Zach Neese) What is worship? The word itself - worship - is a smaller form of the Old English word, worthship , and it literally means to give something worth or value, especially to a deity or god. That's easy enough to remember. We " worthship " God by communicating and demonstrating His value.  Demonstrating value costs something. To value something, we have to put a price on it. That is why worship is so often partnered with sacrifice. We make a sacrifice only for something or someone that is important to us, something valuable.  Worship is sacrifice. The first mention of the worship in the Bible is in Genesis 22:5 when Abraham is bringing his son Isaac up to the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to God. Abraham told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship and then return to you."  WORSHIP??? What he really means is, "I will offer God the greatest sacr...

  Praise will be my breakthrough. My song will be my triumph. Worship is my warfare. My victory is in You, Jesus, my victory is in You.   This week I heard some news about a loved one that is really hard and has an unknown outcome. My mind feels wobbly, going back and forth between faith and fear. I've learned that right in the middle of the unknown, that uneasy, uncomfortable place is the best moment to worship. It's so simple and easy to worship when all is sunny. This is no sacrifice on my part. It's when my moments feel unsure, unsafe, disappointing, painful, etc. that worship becomes a sacrifice of praise.  I've been thinking about King David this morning. When he was a young boy, Samuel the prophet came to him and anointed him to be king of Israel. In between this moment and the actual coronation was the unknown process God used to prepare David for the palace. Many years passed before David was crowned. In fact, so many circumstances during this time of waiting l...