Monday, September 28, 2009

Worship- christiansquoting.org.uk

Overvalue not therefore the manner of your own worship, and overvilify not other men's of a different mode.- Richard Baxter

Remember the perfections of that God whom you worship, that he is a Spirit, and therefore to be worshipped in spirit and truth; and that he is most great and terrible, and therefore to be worshipped with seriousness and reverence, and not to be dallied with, or served with toys or lifeless lip-service; and that he is most holy, pure, and jealous, and therefore to be purely worshipped; and that he is still present with you, and all things are naked and open to him with whom we have to do. The knowledge of God, and the remembrance of his all-seeing presence, are the most powerful means against hypocrisy. - RICHARD BAXTER

Of what significance is it to us that, on this particular occasion, at this particular time, there are but half a dozen of us, or thirty of us, or a hundred of us, gathered together for the breaking of bread and for prayers,when these acts themselves unite us with millions who have repeated them daily throughout the centuries and now gather unseen at our side?--Harry Blamires, The Tyranny of Time

See, therefore, how, reguarding the faith, men must by no means bring forth anything from their own brains, but must simply content themselves with what God shows them on the subject...St. Paul declares that the man is the head of the woman,as Jesus Christ of the man, and the covering a sign of that subjection, then all dispute is laid low; unless one cares to contend with God, who is the author of these rank and distinction that St. Paul makes here... So if Women are thus permitted to have their heads uncovered and show their hair, they will eventually be allowed to expose their entire breast, and they will come to make their exhibitions as if it were a tavern show they will become so brazen that modesty and shame will be no more; in short they will forget the duty of nature...'if a woman goes bareheaded, she dishonors her head' he says. And what shall we say, except that she has lost all shame, and that she has cut off her own nose by mocking everyone, and that she is altogether exposed in her shame, and that it doesn't bother her if people stick out their tongues at her. Now then, when a woman acts this way, she dishonors every man on earth...Yet consider now, whether women are not quite past sense and reason, when they want to rule over men. In a word it is a madness...he adds by way of conclusion, that 'the women must have power on her head because of the angels.' This word 'power' seems obscure on the face of it. Nevertheless, there is no doubt but that Paul is referring to women's veils or head-coverings...And let this passage be carefully observed in which St. Paul says that the veil is for a sign and a testimony of a higher power, which should humble a woman and cause her to lower her head. And this is why, when Abimelech reproved Sarah for not telling him in the beginning that she was Abraham's wife, he told her that now he would be aveil to her, which means that it was to refer to her husband, and she was to keep under his shadow and protection. For, if a woman renounces the covering which God has given her, surely she is exposing herself recklessly. This is also why modesty is a woman's chief virtue...St. Paul now continiues with the subject he had begun: namely that women must have the decency not to come to thepublic assembly with their heads uncovered; and that men must also be decently attired so that ther be no beastly confusion. To confirm it, however, he adduces further reason. 'Does not nature itself teach that if a woman have no head covering, it is a shame to her? he says. One would surely say that a woman was mad, if she came without hair. When he says 'her hair is for a covering,' he does not mean that as long as a woman has hair that should be enough for her. He rather teaches that our Lord is giving a directive that He desires to have observed and maintained. If a woman has long hair, this is eqivalent to saying to her "use your head-covering, use your hat, use you hood; do not expose yourself that way! Why? Even if you have neither headcovering, nor hood, yet you already have something to conceal yourself. You see then that it would not be fitting to go bareheaded; that it is something against nature" This is how this passage of St. Paul must be understood.
With reguard to men, he says just the opposite: 'it is a shame to them if they where long hair'...If we suggest that this is of no great importance, we see what God says about it by his Prophet: namely that He will reform the strange clothes.--John Calvin For Men Women and Order in the Church

Let us remember therefore this lesson: That to worship our God sincerely we must evermore begin by hearkening to His voice, and by giving ear to what He commands us. For if every man goes after his own way, we shall wander. We may well run, but we shall never be a whit nearer to the right way, but rather farther away from it.
John Calvin, Sermon 155: Deut. 28:9-14, "Seperation unto Blessing", Thursday, March 12, 1556

We may be truly said to worship God, though we lack perfection; but we cannot be said to worship Him if we lack sincerity. - STEPHEN CHARNOCK

I will not urge anyone to comform to the Puritan style of worship or to any other style. ...Rather, I shall present the regulative principle as one that sets us free, within limits, to worship God in the language of our own time, to seek those applications of God's commandments which most edify worshipers in our contemporary cultures. We must be both more conservative and more liberal than most students of Christian worship: conservative in holding exclusively to God's commands in Scripture as our rule of worship, and liberal in defending the liberty of those who apply those commandments in legitimate, though nontraditional, ways. John Frame Worship in Spirit and Truth p.46.

You can either bow down before God or shove up against Him. - W Philip

God did not put his glory on display in creation and redemption in order that it might be taken for granted as a foundation beneath the building of our church activity, or the school of our academic enterprise, or the clinic of our psychological technique, or the house of our leisure. Woe to us if we get our satisfaction from the food in the kitchen and the TV in the den and the sex in the bedroom with an occasional tribute to the cement blocks in the basement! God wills to be displayed and known and loved and cherished and worshipped always and everywhere and in every act. --John Piper, Preaching as Worship

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart. - Plutarch.

Christ, in His divine innocence, said to the woman of Samaria, 'Ye worship ye know not what' -- being apparently under the impression that it might be desirable, on the whole, to know what one was worshipping. He thus showed Himself sadly out of touch with the twentieth century mind, for the cry today is: 'Away with the tedious complexities of dogma [doctrine] -- let us have the simple spirit of worship, no matter of what!' The only drawback to this demand is the practical difficulty of arousing any sort of enthusiasm for the worship of nothing in particular. -- Dorothy Sayers

A holy reverence checks our speech,
And praise sits silent on our tongues.
Isaac Watts

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