The Object of Worship

Ken Stoltzfus, June 23, 1985

 

 

Every human worships.

Man was created with a need to worship someone (or something) beyond and greater than himself

 

Worship carries with it the expectation of reward,

the sense of connecting with someone (or something) that will make one whole.

 

In worship, man offers up his heart, his life, allegiance, and affections,

to God or to a god.

 

Man’s highest calling, and his highest privilege,

is to commune with God in worship.

No other part of creation can commune with God.

 

A human is fully human only when he worships God.

God would say “When you worship Me, the life that is in Me flows to you.”

Without that life, man is incomplete.

 

God seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth, that is;

in humility and sincerity, without reservation or pretense; in all of life, whether a   “worship service” or a surrendered heart in work, play or family settings

 

He seeks those who will lay down their lives and yield their spirits up,

to receive LIFE through His life - - rather than through their own life

 

By exalting Him as their Source, and giving Him that place in their life, they worship Him;

because whatever becomes man’s source, becomes his object of worship

 

But man has always had a problem with other gods,

those who promise life without death.

 

“Life to it’s fullest” they shout,

“Through self-rule, self-satisfaction, self-assertion and self-fulfillment.”

“Get power, security, prestige, houses, money, fame and more, by developing your human resources and potentials.”

 

They continue, “Find fulfillment by experiencing your senses and desires to the fullest.”

In that, they confess the object of their worship.

 

Man was created to have dominion over the earth, and to worship God.

In refusing to worship God, and to recognize Him as the source of life;

And in looking within himself and to the world around him to find life,

man lowers himself by worshipping that which he was created to have dominion over.

 

   Born in 1940, Ken Stoltzfus has worked as a pilot, ordained Christian minister, businessman, missionary to Africa and writer. This is #4 in the section, "Poetry and Piety", at www.flyinghigher.net, and is one of many short writings that can be found there.

 

© 2003, Ken Stoltzfus, flyinghigher.net, P.O. Box 548, Apple Creek, OH 44606 USA. May be printed for personal use and may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes without further permission if proper acknowledgment is given and a copy is sent to the author.