{"id":116,"date":"2019-01-18T23:10:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T23:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceamazingly.wordpress.com\/?p=116"},"modified":"2019-03-28T10:40:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T10:40:16","slug":"come-now-is-the-time-to-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/2019\/01\/18\/come-now-is-the-time-to-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Come, now is the time to worship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Christians sing Come, now is the time to worship<\/em>, what do they mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a collective thing. They invite others to come and worship together. It\u2019s a nice tune too. And there is a further thing, they worship, they say somebody or something else is really really fantastic they put this person or thing up somewhere prominent, and they give this person \/ thing all their attention, and shower praise to him \/ her \/ it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Been there, done that? When I had the opportunity to lead an international conference of a research society, I felt an enormous gratitude for the opportunity, and I contributed more and more to the life of the society for the following decades. Having this opportunity is not quite to the same extent as something you want to praise God about, but it is somewhat similar in that the opportunity was completely unexpected. I didn’t deserve it neither, and there were many people far more qualified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come, now is the time to worship.<\/em> What me? now? worship? <\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Based on what the Bible (New Testament) says, we can see that the Christians are worshiping Jesus – the one, the only one to whom everything in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth bow down on their knees to recognise his power and greatness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curiously, it\u2019s not the power and greatness that human\nusually think of. The New Testament also says Jesus is Lord. Boss? Sounds like\nso. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians worship Jesus because he is so powerful and great that everything bows down to him, not because of fear, but because he makes everything \u2013 or he causes these other things to become. Wow. Boss? No longer so, much much more than boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He gives them life in the first place, and freedom. He also can give you freedom from the entanglement of life caused by the limits of our own condition \u2013 that which we feel we are just short of good enough, let alone perfect. Christians call it sin. You might not agree with the word \u2018sin\u2019. I can acknowledge there are lots of things in my life where even if I know what those things are and I want to control them for good purposes, I can\u2019t always do it. It\u2019s will power, well, no, not always. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point, you will reach your limit; you can\u2019t continue. It could simply be because you need some sleep; or maybe you think you should change track. Really, back track a few days or weeks and start anew. Yeah, I will be fine then. But you never know that second chance, whether it is the second second chance. I don\u2019t think we have the capacity to be God, or be like God, to parallel human existential experiences and say I\u2019ve done better this time. Actually, I\u2019d rather not know. Because it might be worse decision second time. It\u2019s a different kind of \u2018keep trying, better next time\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Time. When I sing \/ play this song, indeed it is time. Even if it is not time, for example, I play it back on the CD or computer, and I am on my own, it\u2019s not exactly \u2018come together\u2019 alone. I am able to realise enough of who and why I worship, and I come, the way I make it purposeful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be \u2018mindfulness\u2019. Indeed, mindfulness leads me to\nrealising purposefulness. To come, to worship, because He is, anything aside\nmeans everything else meaningless, purposeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And still, the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly choose Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, another verse from the Bible, now the Old Testament, makes sense: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we gladly\nchoose Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not when I come now to worship him that then I worship him. Rather, because he is, I will come now to worship him. As he remains, and he does, I will come always (now) to worship him. I worship him so long as he is, not because I am in the capacity to worship him although that might be useful, but because of he is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Christians sing Come, now is the time to worship, what do they mean? It\u2019s a collective thing. They invite others to come and worship together. It\u2019s a nice tune too. And there is a further thing, they worship, they say somebody or something else is really really fantastic they put this person or thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-hymn-song-a-z","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elts.org.uk\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}