My daughter posted this quote on her Facebook status a couple of weeks ago:
“The idea that the service to God should have only to do with a church altar, singing, reading, sacrifice, and the like is without doubt but the worst trick of the devil. How could the devil have led us more effectively astray than by the narrow conception that service to God takes place only in a church and by the works done therein…”
I was in wholehearted agreement. We do tend to equate worship with what we do in church. I’m guilty myself. But what blew me away about the quote was the author and the date. Do you know who said this? Its attributed to Martin Luther! That’s the Martin Luther who’s the father of the protestant reformation. He’s the leader who dared challenge the Catholic church, nailing 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany on the eve of All Saints Day, October 31st, 1517. It sounded to me like a quote from one of our modern church personalities.
Romans 12:1 should be all we need as reference to know that the first act of worship is to be a living sacrifice to God. If every Christian lived as if everything was done in service to God, maybe we wouldn’t have so much debate on what’s done in the service on Sunday morning. We’d be so ready to gather and celebrate what God has done that the “who” of worship would consume our hearts and minds and not the “how.”
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Colossians 3:23-24 ESV
