A week of worship and humility

Greetings,
Sadly, I have no new photos to post, but I've been compiling some of the pictures taken by my fellow classmates and will be able to upload those this coming week.
Last Sunday, I attempted to go to a local Catholic, but after waiting an hour and nothing happening, I walked back to the house. The good news was that I had a great quiet time (It also was quite fun to longboard to church.)

Like it says in the title, this weeks lectures were on Worship and Praise, and what it means to worship (and it's not just the music you play or listen to).
To start off with, we learned some Greek and Hebrew words that all mean either worship or praise, but there is a physical act that accompanies it. There were seven Hebrew words (which I spelled all wrong) but you can find the words and meanings here, and it will be a lot clearer than I could write it.

This was very important because when I worship I rarely raise my hands, never kneel, and never even thought about falling on my face. And yet this is all part of worship.  (The Hebrew word for worship, Shachah, literally means to bow down.)

This week was also one of the most humbling experiences in my life. I won't go into to much detail, but taking a physical position of vulnerability such as kneeling or lying on your face gives you a very different perspective, and for me at least was transforming. It's not a natural thing, at least in the American mindset to kneel and bow before anyone, as we are all equal. Well, when you enter into the presence of your creator, there's not much else we can do. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it brought me another step closer to understanding God's love and sacrifice for me, and His bigness.

One phrase stuck out and really spoke to my heart. "You have a choice. You can either humble yourself before God willingly, or you will be humiliated before Him on the Day of Judgement." We looked at Philippians 2:10-11 and see a prophecy of what will happen. I found it difficult, physically painful to kneel. How much more so when it will it be for those that don't believe and yet still have to bow. Something to think about.

Finally, in closing, true worship requires sacrifice. Something that you really care about and will miss. Looking at the Passover for example, the Jews were told to take the spotless lamb and care for it. They were then to sacrifice it as atonement for their sins. In 2 Samuel 24:24, David won't sacrifice something that cost him nothing. We clearly don't sacrifice animals anymore today, so what are we to do then. Look to Psalm 51:17, and we see that a broken heart and spirit are what God wants as sacrifice. My pride was getting in the way of being able to worship, but God humbled me and brought me out new.

That's it for this week!