Today's Passage - John 4:19-23

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english John 4:19-23   "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  "Woman," Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.   It is God's will for us to worship Him alone.  In the church, we have many styles of worships.  It's like what the woman said here: "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  Some churches stress that on traditional hymns are true worship hymns and some churches more modern and lively music to worship; some churches forbid any instrument besides piano, as they believe that all other -- instruments are from the devil, and some churches even forbid pianos and make everyone sing without any instrument, because all instruments belong to the world.   These, however, are all human thinking.  We like to come before God with our own will, opinion or custom, but we don't think about the true purpose of worship.  Is the purpose of our worship to exercise our own custom and opinion?  Everyone feels that they must insist on their own opinion, just like how the woman thought that worship should take place on the mountain, but not in Jerusalem.  Jews, however, thought that worship should take place in Jerusalem, not on the mountain.   Churches often quarrel on this type of questions too, and they may even criticize and judge each other, resulting in no unity among the churches, how pitiful that is!  We like to argue about these details, but overlook the true meaning of worship.  When we worship, we want seek to please God wholeheartedly.  If traditional hymns can help us to free our heart and soul to worship God, isn't that a beautiful thing?  If drums and contemporary hymns can help us to completely open up our hearts to worship God, isn't that also a beautiful thing?  The most important thing is whether our love for the Lord becomes deeper when we worship Him!   May God give us an open heart; the Lord said here that we should worship in spirit and in truth, which means that worship must come from our heart.  Let us use all kinds of psalms, hymns and God's word to praise and worship Him from the depth of our soul, because only He is worthy!       Pray with Pastor Tong           Dear Lord, may you teach us to worship you in spirit and truth, with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.  Let us lift your holy name high in our daily life, so that your will may be done.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!