quotations about worship
Christian worship is not an act of self-achievement, an act in which we set out to impress a deity. Nor is worship an act of obeisance to placate a deity. Instead, worship is more like a personal covenantal encounter between the church and its Lord, all made possible through the work of the Spirit.
JOHN D. WITVLIET
"The Cumulative Power of Transformation in Public Worship: Cultivating Gratitude and Expectancy for the Holy Spirit's Work", Worship That Changes Lives
By lifting our hands we symbolically receive everything God is doing in our lives.
BOB SORGE
Exploring Worship: A Practical Guide to Praise & Worship
God is to be praised with the voice, and the heart should go therewith in holy exultation.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
The Treasury of David
If we are going to worship in Spirit, we must develop a spirit of worship.
MICHAEL CATT
attributed, The Spirit, Soul & Body of Worship
Our activity should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to Divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the Eternal Word.
MADAME GUYON
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
A life of kindness is the primary meaning of divine worship.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
EDWARD GIBBON
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Oh! must it not be a sight at which angels rejoice--to see crowds of worshippers pressing into the courts of the Lord?
ASHTON OXENDEN
Sermons on the Christian Life
Christian worship has recognizable parts and any attempt at worship renewal that ignores or rejects the biblical and historical foundations will eventually fail. Christian worship can be both formal and informal and still be genuine worship. Yet, both formal and informal worship ought to be done in humility by worshippers who are constantly in search for the true meaning of worship.
GARRY E. MILLEY
"A little bit of liturgy ... please!", Christian Week, February 25, 2016
That worship which is directed by divine precept is performed without the desire of reward.
BUDDHA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Man always worships something; always he sees the Infinite shadowed forth in something finite; and indeed can and must so see it in any finite thing, once tempt him well to fix his eyes thereon.
THOMAS CARLYLE
Essays
So many times we stand in the way of really stepping into the secret place of worship with God. Just abandon tradition and the "expected" ways of Praise & Worship and get lost in the holy of holies with the sole intention of blessing the Fathers heart.
JESSICA LEAH SPRINGER
attributed, Made in God's Image to Live for His Glory
Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life.
GRAHAM KENDRICK
attributed, A Heart of Worship: Experience a Rebirth of Worship
Friends, worship is as essential in order to accomplish God's purposes in human life as is faith. John 4:23-24 suggests to us that "the Father seeketh such to worship Him." God longs for the adoration and expressions of love and praise that come from honest and sincere hearts.
HEATHER GARNER
"Glorifying God by our worship", The Clarion, February 3, 2016
So shall they build me altars in their zeal,
Where knaves shall minister, and fools shall kneel:
Where faith may mutter o'er her mystic spell,
Written in blood--and Bigotry may swell
The sail he spreads for Heav'n with blasts from hell!
THOMAS MOORE
Lalla Rookh
If God existed (a question concerning which Jubal maintained a meticulous intellectual neutrality) and if He desired to be worshiped (a proposition which Jubal found inherently improbable but conceivably possible in the dim light of his own ignorance), then (stipulating affirmatively both the above) it nevertheless seemed wildly unlikely to Jubal to the point of reductio ad absurdum that a God potent to shape galaxies would be titillated and swayed by the whoop-te-do nonsense the Fosterites offered Him as "worship."
ROBERT A. HEINLEIN
Stranger in a Strange Land
Those who believe that Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship the same god tend to argue that imperfect worship is still a form of veneration. The Trinity may be the true, revealed form of the one deity, but Jews and Muslims, as peoples who trace their religious traditions back to Abraham (all that matters is that they say they do), in fact do pay homage to the same divinity. In short, while Christians have the fullness of revelation, their shared patrimony with Jews and Muslims makes for a special relationship, a love of the same god, something not shared with Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, pagans, and others.
CHASE PADUSNIAK
"Christians, Muslims, and Jews, Oh My!", Patheos, March 30, 2017
Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
The Philosophy of Ingersoll
Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
An attack on one house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship.
PIERRE ATLAS
"Plainfield mosque vandalized", Kokomo Tribune, February 29, 2016