So Much to Think About on a Saturday Morning!

My, my, my ... your nom de plume certainly is apropos.

And what's up with me? Two French words in one sentence?

As I read over your past three posts, I see two major themes:

1. What is "worship" in the human sense -- how would we define it, what does it look like, how is it conducted, etc.
2. The relationship between "election" and "free will" as it relates to believing.

Both are deeply challenging topics. The second is so overwhelmingly so, I may just opt to avoid it altogether. But we'll see ... I've only had one cup of coffee this morning.

On Worship

The good folks over at dictionary.com offer two definitions for this word:

• "The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object"
• "The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed."

I think that's important because the two are not necessarily linked with one another. I can envision cases where people can deeply revere God and not participate in any recognizable ceremonies or activities; and I can easily imagine people engaging in "religious forms" without having any real reverent love in their hearts. Of the two, the latter is probably (or likely) more prevalent.

Cases in point: Jews and Catholics. I'm fairly confident you would find a good many people who call themselves Jews or Catholics are people who merely go through the motions. I personally know one Jewish man who faithfully observes the Sabbath and other holidays, yet confesses no particular belief in the underlying reason behind the ceremony. I've spoken with other Jewish people who confirm this to be quite common. Same thing with Catholics: they were raised to go to mass and go to confession, yet when you inquire after their personal beliefs it becomes clear they really don't have any. It's all just rote mechanics to them. That's sad.

Of the two, I more often fall into the latter category, to my discomfort and shame. And to "heap coals on my head" (Romans 12:20), I find myself engaging in the latter -- with or without true reverence in my heart -- somewhat infrequently.

The Bible makes it clear -- in many specific places and as a broad theme -- that of the two, God would prefer the former to the latter. One of the themes of the Gospels is Jesus being very critical of the Pharisees for their blind observances of ritual to the exclusion of any true sense of God or his real desire, which is that we love him with all we have and love our neighbors as ourselves.

So, what does it mean to "love God with all we have?" I don't personally know the answer to that. But I sense that it is not a binary switch. We do not one day start loving God perfectly. It is a process of learning and seeking, of trials and testing, of further seeking and continued growth.

And it strikes me that that might be the "meaning of life" -- to learn how to love God.

After all, it is, as you say, not in our nature to either worship God or to love God. Many people scoff at the notion of our being "fallen," or "inherently sinful." But honestly, does any other explanation more fully answer the basic question why we are how we are?

If I were pressed to define what "love God" means, I would distill it down to a single word: trust. To love God is to trust him completely, and when we come to recognize the benefit of that trust, we find ourselves expressing outwardly the things many people might call "worship." Now, by itself, that's not very helpful ... "trust" is no more self-revealing a word than is "love." Perhaps a few examples would help.

• Years ago, I had a dog. One night the dog had fallen down into a confined area in my basement. He was quite old at the time -- 15 or so years old. Had he fallen in head-first, he would have likely died during the night. As it was, he fell rump-first into the confined area, so while he could barely move, he was able to bark. The basement was two floors removed from where I slept, so that I even heard him bark was somewhat of a miracle. Nevertheless, I awoke with a start, heard the faint bark, and immediately went down to see what was wrong. When I found him, I saw in his eyes a recognition of who I was, and a look of trust that whatever I was to do at that point, it would be in his best interest. The only way I could lift him out of the confined area was to grab him by his fur and lift him out -- something that was no doubt painful. Yet he did not squirm, yelp or cry out. His trust in my care and concern for him was complete. I was quite moved by it at the time.
• A few years back I was scheduled to drive 11 hours up into Canada. As it would happen, the two nights prior to my departure I got no sleep whatever. That meant that on the morning I was to depart and drive the 11 hours, I had been awake for 48 hours. That was cause for some concern because to doze off at the wheel could mean my death. I remember climbing into the car the morning of my departure, sitting at the wheel for a moment, and then dropping all pretense of my having any ability to do the drive. At that moment I experienced a moment of rare sincerity in prayer, and told God that I could not honestly do it, and that I needed him. 11 hours later, I was in a hotel room up in Barrie, Ontario -- and throughout the drive I had an unusual sense of strength and alertness. The lesson here is that I honestly and truly trusted God that day.

The Bible has many, many references to God desiring that his people simply trust him without reservation. Two examples:

• In Exodus 16 is the story of God provding manna from heaven. The Bible indicates that the instructions were that the Israelites were to gather only enough manna for that day, but not more (in other words, no hoarding). "In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions." (NIV, Exodus 16:4) Or, said another way, God was testing them to see whether they would trust him to provide.
• In the Lord's prayer, we see a reference to this: "Give us this day our daily bread." Of all the things one might pray for, Jesus instructs us to pray for the very most elemental thing -- the food for this very day. Again, an instruction to trust in God.

The ultimate expression of love through trust is when we trust in Christ's saving work on the cross as an atonement for our sins. It's when we truly and honestly give up thinking that we can somehow work or earn our way out of our debts -- when drop to our knees and cry out, "Lord, I can't do it" -- that we acknowledge our trust that God, not us, is the ultimate power in this universe.

It's a hard, hard thing to trust, particularly as an adult. This may be why the NT speaks of being "like children" when we seek to believe in Christ. I suspect, deep.thought, that you've seen trust for you in the eyes of your daughter, and that investment of trust in you to do right by her probably melted your heart. Is it possible to see a parallel there in how God might view us? Perhaps that's one of the "created in God's image" things you were asking about -- in the same way we find deep satisfaction in receiving the trust of our children, God himself is deeply satisfied by our truth and faith as well.

On Worship in Heaven

One of the key things we have to remember is that in heaven we will be in our perfected, or glorified states. The struggle we now experience in trusting -- in loving, or worshipping God -- will be gone. We will stand in the presence of Christ and we will worship effortlessly and in a way that will be deeply satisfying. Or so I've come to understand, if not yet fully believe.

On Election and Free Will

Nah ... no chance I can do this justice. Not because of lack of coffee, but because of lack of knowledge. There are many, many very scholarly works that speak of this. Two I'll mention here that I have personal experience with:

• "Know the Truth: A Handbook of Christian Belief" by Bruce Milne
• "Essential Truths of the Christian Faith" by R.C. Sproul

Both speak of the issue of predestination, election and free will. None, I'll confess, in a manner that left me without further questions. I suspect this is another case where there's a deep mystery, one left unrevealed by God for some purpose we can't yet understand.

On Converting Non-Believers

There is a certain freedom that comes from the idea that one comes to trusting faith in Christ only by God's election -- it frees us as Christian witnesses from feeling the responsibility falls on our shoulders. All we are to do is present our human face as a reflection of Christ's, and to help the non-believer as they seek. But we cannot pursuade them to believe.

I came to Christ at the age of 43 or so. For decades before that I experienced more than a few occasions where people tried to "thump me over the head" with a Bible in an effort to convert me. It did little more than drive me away. It took the accumulated weight of my having witnessed several sincere believers -- true humble servants of Christ -- along with endless hours of seeking on my own -- to see the Truth. The message here is that God does the real work, we are simply there to be examples of humble, sincere servants of His.

Many would argue that it's important to be more forceful. Perhaps. But I feel that a more forceful, argumentative approach drives 99 away while perhaps netting 1. It may be a personal preference.