First and foremost do not be alarmed! My skills for cooking are almost null and I will not be handing out any recipes or ideas for making Biriyani. Now you might be wondering, about what in the world I may be talking about! Well the idea is simple and my response to the idea is equally simple.
Recently after I had reformed and had decided to get baptised, I kept hearing this thought from my non reformed friends. Although surprised by this idea, I was told that this was not a new food for thought (no pun intended), but actually an old idea that had been floating along for some time. Basically the idea is as follows,
One is never satisfied with eating the same kind of food every day and so one tries something different. Probably once a week or maybe even once a month and it could be something like Biriyani,(or whatever exotic food you might think of). So similarly one would be never satisfied in worshipping God the same way so would require a different way of worshipping God, maybe once a month.
"Disclaimer: First of all, I know that Biriyani is commonplace today and it can be found almost anywhere and so inturn it has lost it's "uniqueness" that it once held. But the stance taken by this "theory" is that Biriyani is rare and cannot be had everyday."
So anyone who reads this, I hope can understand what my non-reformed friends are talking about. Simply put, they find that they cannot do only with their traditional worship of standing for an hour or two with the smell of burning incense but would also like to have charismatic worship as well. Maybe once a month or if they are feeling especially brave, maybe even twice. My blood boiled with rage because of what I'd heard. I was absolutely insulted that they had compared worshipping the Almighty with food and how they grew "weary" or used to worshipping God a certain way. I at that moment knew what the psalmist was saying when he wrote the following verse,
Psalm 69:9 "for zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who insult you fall on me."
I had tried to comprehend on what had actually possessed them to say it. Was it something that they actually genuinely believed in or something they had conjured up to defend their actions of not making a firm decision on what their theological or even spiritual stance was. I will not waste valuable time on the latter part but would like to give a response to the former view, if that is actually something they genuinely believed in. Let us visit the gospel of John 4:23-24
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Jesus Christ is really clear on this matter. So clear in fact, that there could be no misunderstanding or confusion on the matter. There is only one worship that is present and that is the worship in Spirit and in Truth. Nothing else remains. So here is my much awaited response. If there is only one worship (worship in truth and spirit) and if supposedly you find yourself bored with worshipping God in a particular way, it could mean only one thing. And that one thing is that you are no longer worshipping in spirit and in truth but rather "in" something else. Because if you are genuinely and whole heartedly worshipping God in spirit and in truth, my brothers and sister, you need not look any further any longer for any Biriyani or any other factor but rather stay right there.
And one final point I feel the need to make is that, "Worship" is not something for you (i.e the person). It is for God. You do it, to give glory to God and there is nothing for you to get out of it. Now enjoying worship is another thing. Yes you can definitely enjoy worshipping the Creator and this worship could be liturgical or charismatic. Whatever the form of worship is, one thing is vital to understand. And that is, one needs to worship in Spirit and in truth. If one does not, then it becomes a meaningless expression of adoration when you do things only out of duty rather than gratitude. And if one does prefer worshipping in a certain form, then I suppose wouldn't one forsake one and embrace the other, instead of playing this "in-between" game.
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