I was reading Luke 2 this morning and it talks about 2 old persons: Simeon and Anna. The Holy Spirit was with Simeon. How beautiful is this! If the bible gave him such a comment (also righteous and devout), he must be really righteous and devout, not just on the outside, but also from the inside. Anna was introduced as worshiping night and day (note the order, night and day, not day and night, a usual order as in Gen 1), fasting and praying. NASB, New Chinese Version and NRSV use "serving" instead of "worshiping". I don't know Greek but probably these two are similar words. How many times we think "serving" is "doing things" "for God" (sometimes, even the "for God" part is missing)? How many times we think "worshiping" is singing? Although we may say, "we will now continue to "worship" by our offering (monetary)", I doubt whether it's a "slogan" or really thinking offering is worship. Anyways, side tracked too much...
But Anna, fasting and praying were her "serving" and "worship", nights and days! Luke seems to link devout with Holy Spirit, worship/serving by means of fasting and praying. (Note: NRSV: "worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day"; NIV: "worshiped night and day, fasting and praying" <-- fasting and praying are describing the act of worship). Not just devout, but devout from young to old! How blessed are they!
How about myself? What is my worship/serving? Does mine include fasting and praying? I think I should resume my weekly fasting/praying.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Have you noticed that Churches use Service instead of Worship. I often use them together: Service Worship. Our English Church's website uses and I quote: "Worship Service: 11:15 am - 12:45 pm."
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, Service & Worship should always go hand in hand. For both are closely and intimately related and for this reason also inseparable. Yet, the are different in a way that they're not equal to each other in a way...did I make this confusing?
Service is good if it means "serving God and each other". However, in our consumeristic society, people may think of "solely receiving service" instead. Like when you are on highway and you see "Service Station", you will think of "receiving" service (and you pay in return). You won't think of "serving" other fellow drivers.
ReplyDelete