As most of you know, I’ve been grappling with all things having to do with worship over the last few years. So it was a particular delight to drop in on an old friend’s blog and find her writing on some related things. Here’s a quote:
But as I think of worship – even beyond the musical element of it – I am intrigued by the use of the word ‘worship’ as found in the book of Exodus. When God appointed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt He said a certain phrase over and over and over again, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” I’ve read through the journey of the Israelites’ mass exodus out of Egypt countless times, but never remember seeing the so-that part. God delivering His people from Egypt was all about worship. We might expect something more along the lines of “Let my people go, so that they can tithe more, or keep the rules more comprehensively, or go to church every Sunday, or feed the poor, or subscribe to Christian magazines… I don’t know, you can fill in the blank, but you get the point. God could have made freedom about anything, but He made it about worship.
You can read the rest of the entry here. It’s worth your time.
Full Contact Christianity 
The link is broken.
I’ve always thought of worship being captured by what I Corinthians 10:31 says. That all of life, in Christ, can be offered up as an act of worship.
Bobby,
Thanks for the heads-up on the link. It’s fixed.
Re. worship: I agree, with a little added nuance. It starts in the Heavenly Sanctuary, and flows out into the world: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We assemble ourselves in worship (Heb.10) and then we go out, continually praising, doing good, and sharing (Heb. 13), which are New Covenant sacrifices whether offered in church on Sunday morning or on a skid row steam grate late Thursday night. We are priests who minister before the face of God — and His eyes roam to and fro over the whole earth; they are always on the righteous.
Amen, Tim!
My comment presupposed everything you said 😉 ! It’s an awesome thing to think that we are seated in the ‘heavenlies’ with Christ right; where He has gone as our forerunner and High Priest, to be participants and partakers of the divine nature — and now as we live here, we only ‘really live’ as we do so by the Spirit and ‘out of’ the vicarious life of Christ which He gave to and for us! I really like the language Paul uses in Rom 15:16 calling his ‘Gospel ministry’ a ‘priestly’ ministry; we’re into exciting stuff here . . . I’m going to go and worship 🙂 (wait a second, I just did).
Thanks for fixing the link.