The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship is a wonderful book, an easy yet thought-provoking read on the subject of worship. How critical is it for Christians, for believers, to understand worship? It is essential as Tozer argues!
The chapter titles:
- The Tragedy of Human Depravity
- Searching for Man's Lost Identity
- Discovering the Heart of Man's Nature
- The Various Paths to Worship
- Religion Versus Worship
- Seekers After Truth
- What Came First: Workers or Worshipers?
- The Components of True Worship
- The Mystery of True Worship
- The Natural Dwelling Place of God
- The Absolute Worth-ship of Christ
- The Authenticity of Ownership
- The Lord of Our Worship
- Maintaining a Vibrant Worship Lifestyle
Favorite quotes:
Worship is man's full reason for existence. Worship is why we are born and why we are born again. Worship is the reason for our genesis in the first place and our regenesis that we call regeneration. Worship is why there is church, the assembly of the Redeemed, in the first place. Every Christian church in every country across the world in every generation exists to worship God first, not second; not tacking worship at the end of our service as an afterthought, but rather to worship God primarily, with everything else coming in second, at best. Worshiping God is our first call. (46)
When a man falls on his knees and stretches his hands heavenward, he is doing the most natural thing in the world. Something deep within compels him to seek someone or something outside of himself to worship and adore. In his unredeemed condition, man has lost the way and cannot clearly define the object of his wistful adoration, and so his search takes him far from God. When he does not find God, man will fill the void in his heart with anything he can find. That which is not God can never satiate the heart exclusively created for God's presence. (52)
Worship acceptable to God is based upon knowing the nature of God. (63)
Many religious people mistakenly assume a relationship to God that does not exist. They think and teach that we are all God's children, and they talk about the God and Father of mankind. However, the Bible does not teach that God is the Father of mankind; in fact, it teaches the exact opposite. To assume a relationship that does not exist prohibits a person from really knowing God. (63)
God is infinitely more concerned that He has worshipers than that He has workers. (95)
Worship is to feel in the heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe. Worship will humble a person as nothing else can. (108)
Worship pleasing to God saturates our whole being. There is no worship pleasing to God until there is nothing in me displeasing to God. (128)
By nature, worship is not some performance we do, but a Presence we experience. (177)
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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