“True worship doesn’t put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn’t forced, isn’t half-hearted, doesn’t keep looking at its watch, doesn’t worry what the person in the next pew is doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.”

N.T. Wright

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”

A.W. Tozer

“I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.” This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the public service which now passes for worship among us.”

A.W. Tozer

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”  Matthew 13:44 (ESV)

It was customary in Jesus’ day for a man to hide his wealth in some part of his house or in a field so that no one could find it. Often times a man would go on a journey or to war and die with no one knowing where he had hidden his treasure. Thus it was not uncommon in that day for someone to be digging in a field where he thought a treasure might be hidden. Should a treasure be found, the person would keep the discovery to himself and purchase the land making it and the treasure his own possession. Jesus alludes to this custom in his description of the kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God). Continue reading

“In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in this unfolding of His eternal plan; nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its peculiar fitness for its place in the working out of His purposes; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and accumulation of His praise.”

B.B. Warfield