“Many evangelicals today believe that the church exists either to meet the spiritual needs of Christians or to reach out to the world. Both of these are by-products of true worship: biblical worship does bless believers and evangelize the lost. But the true and primary reason to come to church is to fulfill our priestly role of offering worship to the true and living God, who is worthy of all our praise.”
Richard D. PHillips
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96:4 (ESV) Continue reading
“When God has a rod in his hand, a godly man will have a psalm in his mouth. The devil’s smiting of Job was like striking a musical instrument; he sounded forth praise. . . . When God’s spiritual plants are cut and bleed, they drop thankfulness; the saints’ tears cannot drown their praises.”
Thomas Watson
“To give God oral praise and dishonour him in our lives is to commit a barbarism in religion, and is to be like those . . . who bowed the knee to Christ and then spat on him.”
Thomas Watson
“What the mind cannot understand of the things of God, the heart worships and adores, delighting in God’s infinite wisdom and giving glory to him in every situation and circumstance, knowing that nothing ever happens except by the express will of God.”
John Owen
“Christ is magnified in my death, when in my death I am satisfied with him–when I experience death as gain because I gain him. Or . . . Christ will be praised in my death, if in my death he is prized above life.”
John Piper
“This is worship: to act in a way that shows the heart’s valuing the glory of God and the name of the Lord Jesus. Or . . . worship means consciously knowing and treasuring and showing the supreme worth and beauty of God.”
John Piper
“You worship God . . . when you come to hear a sermon, or spend a half an hour or hour in prayer, or come to receive a sacrament. These are the acts of God’s worship, but they are only external acts of worship, to hear and pray and receive sacraments. But this is the soul’s worship, to subject itself thus to God. You who often will worship God by hearing, praying and receiving sacraments, and yet afterwards will be froward or discontented, know that God does not regard such worship, he will have the soul’s worship, in this the subjecting of the soul unto God. Note this, I beseech you: in active obedience we worship God by doing what pleases God, but by passive obedience we do as well worship God by being pleased with what God does. Now when I perform a duty, I worship God, I do what pleases God; why should I not as well worship God when I am pleased with what God does? ”
Jeremiah Burroughs
