quotations about worship
The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.
C. S. LEWIS
A Mind Awake
Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. If he worship not the true God, he will have his idols.
THEODORE PARKER
Critical and Miscellaneous Writings
It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords and killed one another. They have invented gods and challenged each other: "Discard your gods and worship mine or I will destroy both your gods and you!"
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
The Brothers Karamazov
Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Worship is the community's cult in its purest, most inward, most subjective form--a cult in which objectivity is, as it were, consumed and digested, while the objective content, now stripped of its objectivity, has become a possession of mind and feeling.
GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL
Aesthetics
Those who believe that Christians, Muslims, and Jews worship the same god tend to argue that imperfect worship is still a form of veneration. The Trinity may be the true, revealed form of the one deity, but Jews and Muslims, as peoples who trace their religious traditions back to Abraham (all that matters is that they say they do), in fact do pay homage to the same divinity. In short, while Christians have the fullness of revelation, their shared patrimony with Jews and Muslims makes for a special relationship, a love of the same god, something not shared with Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, pagans, and others.
CHASE PADUSNIAK
"Christians, Muslims, and Jews, Oh My!", Patheos, March 30, 2017
God ... produced the greatest display of amazing love that could ever be. Worship is the only proper response.
STEVE ELLISON
"Steve Ellison: Turned Over", The Chattanoogan, February 27, 2016
An attack on one house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship.
PIERRE ATLAS
"Plainfield mosque vandalized", Kokomo Tribune, February 29, 2016
Worship is first and foremost for His benefit, not ours, though it is marvelous to discover that in giving Him pleasure, we ourselves enter into what can become our richest and most wholesome experience in life.
GRAHAM KENDRICK
attributed, A Heart of Worship: Experience a Rebirth of Worship
So many times we stand in the way of really stepping into the secret place of worship with God. Just abandon tradition and the "expected" ways of Praise & Worship and get lost in the holy of holies with the sole intention of blessing the Fathers heart.
JESSICA LEAH SPRINGER
attributed, Made in God's Image to Live for His Glory
Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
The Philosophy of Ingersoll
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Nature
One of the lies of the contemporary worship movement is that worship is a homogeneous, exclusive endeavor that targets a specific generation. "Traditional" worship is for older people, "contemporary" is for everyone else. This mindset kills the church, even if the congregation is unaware. A church that prides itself on only featuring old favorites (or current hits) has chosen a toxic path. Call it a sing-along. Call it fellowship. Just don't call it worship. We all must sing.
JONATHAN AIGNER
"8 Reasons Churches Should Sing New Songs", Patheos, February 17, 2016
Get a prayer-book in your hand,
And stand betwixt two churchmen.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard III
When we find that God's ways always coincide with our own ways, it's time to question who we're really worshipping, God or ourselves.
CRISS JAMI
Killosophy
The oldest and wisest of human communities show most respect to the gods, and are most careful of their worship.
XENOPHON
attributed, Day's Collacon
So shall they build me altars in their zeal,
Where knaves shall minister, and fools shall kneel:
Where faith may mutter o'er her mystic spell,
Written in blood--and Bigotry may swell
The sail he spreads for Heav'n with blasts from hell!
THOMAS MOORE
Lalla Rookh
Prayer and worship is the most intimate thing you can share.
BYLLE BREAUX
"Jessi Colter: The Psalms", Elmore Magazine, March 30, 2017
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
Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings
Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don't. Everybody worships; it's just a matter of what, or whom, we serve.
PAUL DAVID TRIPP
Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands