To Believe in Jesus – Part 20
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 4:23-24
23འོན་ཀྱང་། ཡབ་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་པའི་དུས་ཤིག་སླེབ་ངེས་ཤིང་ད་ལྟའི་དུས༌ཡིན་ཏེ། བསྙེན་བཀུར་རྣམ་དག་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཡབ་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། ཡབ་ཀྱིས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་མི་དེ་ལྟ་བུ་རྣམས་འཚོལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཡིན། 24དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ཡིན་པས་ཁོང་ལ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་དང་བདེན་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱེད་དགོས་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།།
John 4:23-24
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Continuing Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well on the subject of worship – how did Jesus define worship?
We discussed worship in the context of relating to God and scripture truth have been consistent in pointing out the way to relate to God is to obey His words His teachings and that will means sacrifices of our time, resources and even our-self.
As we approach God to worship Him the first thing God will address is human sin and this is where we need Jesus’ power and grace for atonement of our sin so that we can approach God in peace and acceptance.
This is also a fundamental basis of believing in Jesus – we believe Jesus’ death and resurrection is the infallible proof that Jesus is the Messiah chosen of God to atone for our human sin and that He (Jesus) conquered sin and death to grant us peace with God and the path to eternal life!
The Gospel of John started with identifying Jesus as the Word of God, and since Old Testament time there is that established pattern of trusting in the words of God for redemption and atonement for sin.
Let’s consider the background and development of Psalm 63
གསུང་མགུར། 63:1
1༼དཱ་བིད་ཀྱིས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱའི་དབེན་སྟོང་དུ་བརྩམས་པའི་མགུར༌མ།༽ ཀྱེ་ཀྱེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཁྱེད་ངའི་དཀོན་མཆོག༌ཡིན། །བདག་གིས་སྙིང་རུས་བསྐྱེད་ནས་ཁྱེད་རང༌བཙལ། །ས་ཆ་སྐམ་ཞིང་ཉམ་ཐག་ཆུ་མེད༌སར། །བདག་གི་ལུས་སེམས་གཉིས་ཀ་ཁྱེད་ལ༌གདུང༌།།
Psalm 63:1
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
No doubt the composer of Psalm 63 is ascribed to King David of the Old Testament and the context did points to being pursued by his enemy and the two possibility were either his own son Absalom or Saul.
If Psalm 63 was with reference to Saul then it was before David officially rules as king of Israel and it was a period of time when he pursued God’s will with strong passion and knew of his many trials and testing before God.
But if Psalm 63 was with reference to Absalom it points to a dark history of David when he seeks repentance before God knowing he had fallen into judgement.
The reference to Absalom illustrated sever consideration over life and death by the will of God, to acknowledge one’s sin before God, and to acknowledge the present danger as the will of God for judgement to repentance before eternal condemnation.
Psalm 63 can be used for teaching about trusting the words and promises of God for grace and redemption in times of discipline and judgement.
When we do actually recognize the time and circumstance of discipline and judgement how do we want to response?
While David was fleeing Absalom, the remaining army that stood with him was still as formidable and could overpower those that switch camp to the enemy. But David choose to flee and withdraw in acknowledgement of his sins before God and received as punishment from God the present danger and pray if God would forgive and let him live another day.
It was a very embarrassing moment for David who was once a popular king of Israel, being put to shame and that sense of humiliation can be overwhelming.
Lesson to be learn – our God is an awesome God and also to be feared.
As we approach God to worship Him we learn of God’s grace and mercy and also of His justice that we must fear and honor.
Let’s look at what was written in Hebrews that teaches us to fear God –
ཨིབ་རི་པ། 12:28
དེའི༌ཕྱིར། བདག་ཅག་ལ་གཡོ་མི་ནུས་པའི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ཐོབ་པ་ཡིན་པས། བདག་ཅག་ནི་དྲིན་གཟོ་བའི་སེམས་དང་ལྡན་འོས་ཤིང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་ཐུགས་དགྱེས་པ་བཞིན་དུ། དད་གུས་དང་འཚེར་སྣང་བཅས་ཁོང་ལ་ཞབས་ཏོག་བསྒྲུབ་འོས་སོ།།
Hebrews 12:28
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,
The message of Hebrews ought to strike a solemn note.
How do we make distinctions between worship that is acceptable to God and what is not?
The most obvious difference is that we do not worship God like pagans do with their false gods! Pagans worship their man-made gods with intention for personal gains and greed as according to one’s own desire, nothing concern with the will of God, and nothing concern for God’s moral law. So when pagan worshipers assume they don’t get any favorable response from one party they will be quick to pick another, therefore there are numerous and endless man-made idols of false gods. How pagans worship their idols and gods there are no permanent basis for loyalty and commitment.
But the foundation for true Christian worship must starts from our human will to relate to the one and only true living God who created the heavens and the Earth and all living creatures.
Our approach to God through worship must be of our willing hearts and minds to serve God through obeying His teachings and to live according to His will and especially in acknowledging God’s moral laws as fair and just. And it is God’s moral laws that deal with human sin.
Our Christian foundation of faith in believing Jesus is His God ordained appointment to atone for our sins!
To be continue ….
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 