False Assumptions about Life, God & Worship

I ran across a great quote the other day while reading Worship By the Book by D.A. Carson. He was quoting from a book called Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. This sums up the attitude of many today!

If we know the characteristic sins of the age, we can guess its foolish and fashionable assumptions – that morality is simply a matter of personal taste, that all silences need to be filled up with human chatter or background music, that 760 percent of all American people are victims, that it is better to feel than to think, that rights are more important responsibilities, that even for children the right to choose supersedes all other rights, that real liberty can be enjoyed without virtue, that self-reproach is for fogies, that God is a chum or even a gofer whose job is to make us rich or happy or religiously excited, that it is more satisfying to be envied than to be respected, that it is better for politicians and preachers to be cheerful than truthful, that Christian worship fails unless it is fun.1

In regards to the last clause: Of course, worshiping the Lord with our lives and praising him with our bodies can and should be downright fun at times. But that is not the point or the goal of worship. Rather, surrendering everything and always to God – however inconvenient or uncomfortable that it may be – that is still the test and the definition of real worship. Oh, that the people of God would understand and settle for nothing less than that kind of worship in their lives, be it “fun” or otherwise…

1Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids: Eardmans, 1995) 126-127