BLOG # 83 Worship

Blog # 83 Worship Love is a personal response to a particular relationship. We have many relationships in our everyday experience of human life. We meet a burgler on a dark street. We view the Grand Canyon from the south rim. We win the lottery. We stand in a long line at the checkout counter of the grocery store. Our response to these experiences might be expressed by fear wonder joy patience, etc. Our relationship to God is somewhat similar to our relationships with fellow human creatures and with all of creation. Our relationship to God and others on particular occasions may be expressed by praise thanks petition and in the case of disobedience or sin on our part, by reparation. I praise a neighbor for the paint job he has done on his house. I thank another neighbor for the gift of tomatoes from his garden. I ask him what type of fertilizer he used to produce such wonderful tomatoes. I express my sorrow and ask forgiveness for having stolen some of his tomatoes. Similar patterns are played out in our reponse to our relationship with God. The praise and thanks we give, the breadth of our petitions, and the depth of our reparation to God is greater than that given to others, but yet is similar. With love,however, we have an essential difference. Our love for God is not merely a more fervent or higher degree of the same type of love we give our neighbor. Our love for God stands alone in its unique category, essentially different from all other love we may experience. As the CREATOR of ALL that EXISTS, ALL gifts are gifts from God, and God is worthy of ALL praise and thanks. We can seek ALL we need and legitimately desire from God, and EVERY evil is an offence against God. The love we have for God in response to our relationship to God as our creator is total, which means unconditional. Only God deserves and is worthy of such love. The name of our unique love for God is WORSHIP.