AUTHENTICITY!

Ann Rice, a famous American author, left the Catholic faith at the age of eighteen. She no longer believed in the church or God. For 30 years Atheism was her desert where no water could satisfy her thirst. In 1998, she returned to the Catholic faith and a deeper commitment to Christ only to leave the church again 10 years later.

But wait! Her leaving now is not for the reasons one might think. She is not vacillating! “Tossed to and fro,” Eph. 4:14. “Organized Religion,” “the institutional church,” and “Politics in Religion” and all that goes with these terms could not satisfy any more than Atheism. She hungers for God, Psalms 42:1, and for a deeper relationship between her spirit and the eternal deity.

And God is looking for the same relationship. (John 4:24) God is spirit and He is seeking those who want to worship Him in spirit and in truth. God has always sought us for that relationship. Listen to the prophets Amos, Hosea and Micah. “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?”

Buildings with adequate lighting? A sound system and projections on cue? Carpet? Pews or Chairs? New songs or old Hymns? What do these have to do with authentic worship from the heart? I have to ask myself: “Were these concerns on the hearts of the first century Christians as they worshipped in the Catacombs of Rome?”

Worship is fellowship and communion with each other but more importantly it is “coming into his courts with Praise!” Psalm 100. It is to declare, “I am an unclean man with unclean lips!” Isa. 6:5. Should it not be a time to “wait upon the Lord [to] renew our strength, [to cause] us to mount up with wings as eagles; [to make us] that we should run and not be weary; to walk and not faint.” Isa. 40:31. May our worship be “in spirit and in truth” and draw our spirits closer to one another and to God.
–Hugh Price