THE USE OF THE IMAGINATION IN WORSHIP

One of the most terrifying places for me is on the dentist chair. What do I do? I pray! How? Well, I find myself conjuring up in my mind images of Jesus extending His arms to me. However, I then recall the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman:

·       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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 ESV)

This makes me think that perhaps I shouldn’t be exercising my imagination by conjuring up comforting images. Perhaps instead I have to trust in my Savior through His truths, the Words He has given us to trust. Truth is not a matter of man’s imagination but the inviolable property of God.

However, mystics often claim that if we imagine that we are in contact with God, then we will be. They believe that we can get what we want from God through the exercise of our imagination. In Celebration of Disciple, mystic Richard Foster insists that:

·       As with meditation, the imagination is a powerful tool in the work of prayer. We may be reticent to pray with the imagination, feeling that it is slightly beneath us. Children have no such reticence. (172)

·       Since we know that Jesus is always with us, let’s imagine that he is sitting over in the chair across from us. He is waiting patiently for us to centre our attention on him. When we see him, we start thinking more about His love than how sick Julie is. He smiles, gets up, and comes over to us. Then, let’s put both our hands on Julie and when we do, Jesus will put His hands on top of ours. We’ll watch the light from Jesus flow into your little sister and make her well. (173)

Do we have scriptural permission to imagine and channel Jesus in this manner? According to the renowned theologian, J.I. Packer, we do not:

·       How should we form our thoughts about God? Not only can we not imagine Him adequately, since he is at every point greater than we can grasp; we dare not trust anything our imagination suggests about him, for the built-in habit of fallen minds is to scale God down. (Growing in Christ; 243)

Although the imagination can be used profitably in other areas, Scripture never gives us the freedom to use imagination in worship, as Jeremiah warned:

·       This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The Lord says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts [“walketh after the imagination of his own heart;” KJV] they say, 'No harm will come to you.'” (Jeremiah 23:16-17; Ezekiel 13:2, 17; Luke 1:51; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (KJV))

Packer points out that the prohibition against the use of imagination is actually inscribed in the Ten Commandments:

·       Hence, the second commandment, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything.” This forbids… imagining the true God as like yourself or something lower. God’s real attack is on mental images… If imagination leads out thoughts about God, we too shall go astray. No statement starting, “This is how I like to think of God” should ever be trusted. An imagined God will always be more or less imaginary and unreal. (244)

How strange the theology that insists that we shouldn’t worship material images but then encourages us to worship the images of our imagination! Consequently, we are not free to worship our God in any manner that feels right to us. Instead, worship must be grounded in scriptural truth, as Jesus insisted (John 4:23-24).

We must worship God in truth, according to who he is. This is not optional; it’s a requirement. We have no permission to imagine the God we would like to worship. Likewise, I am not free to love my wife using the mental images of my first flame. Instead, I must love her for who she is in truth! Nothing else will satisfy her or any other relationship.

Packer redirects the reader back to the Second Commandment for another look:

·       “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

Ours is not an indulgent God but a jealous and chastening one who demands our complete allegiance. (A love that does not jealously protect the beloved is not a love):

·       And how should we keep this one [commandment]? By reining in our disordered imaginations and reverently accepting that God is as he says he is. How unready and slow we are to do that! Yet we must learn to do it; for it is only as rose-colored fantasy is abandoned, and realism takes its place, that true worship – worship, that is, in truth – can begin. (Packer, 245)

To not rein in our imaginations is a form of idolatry, a worship of another God. This is forbidden by the first two Commandments. Moses explained:

·       “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female…” (Deuteronomy 4:15-16)

God purposely didn’t manifest Himself physically to Israel at Mt. Sinai (Horeb) lest Israel would try to visually depict what they had seen and worship their depiction. God hadn’t forbidden the creation of all images but just those that Israel might worship. Instead, He had commanded Israel to make images of cherubim for His Temple (Exodus 25:18-20).

Besides, if Israel were to make any object meant to represent God, it would inevitably have become one elevated for worship. There was even a danger that objects like the sun could be turned into objects of worship, as Moses had warned just a few verses later:

·       “And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” (Deuteronomy 4:19)

The “sun and moon and stars” weren’t the problems but how Israel might regard them. This also demonstrated that mere created images weren’t the problem but the use that Israel might make of them. We can even see problems arising from our portraits of Jesus. Our Black, White, or Asian Jesus leads to division and deflects from what is really important – the Words of our Lord and the true worship of Him.

I am convinced that conjuring up mental images of Jesus is idolatrous. Consequently, when I’m on the hated dentist’s chair, I remind myself of His scriptural assurances:

·       “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you…” (Isaiah 43:4-5)

BORN TO WORSHIP

 

It seems that worship and service have been written into our DNA. Bob Dylan had written a song, "You Gotta Serve Someone," and it appears to be true.

We are devotees, some to gurus and others to rock stars. A video of Michael Jackson fans reveals adoration to the max - breaking through police lines to just get a glimpse of their god.

While some worship celebrities, others seek self-worship. While some worship by pursuing autographs from their idols, educated others disdain these forms of worship in favor of the worship of SELF-attainments - university degrees, the acquisition of knowledge, money, power, influence, and the adoration of others. 

Nevertheless, it seems that we are all in the worship business, but which form of worship is the most beneficial? Has our DNA been programmed to grant us a survival advantage? Well, what advantage do we accrue through self-worship or the worship of others? One breeds arrogance and eventual disappointment; the other vulnerability to abuse.

However, the worship of the God of the Bible is associated with many benefits - physically, mentally, and even sexually. Perhaps this is the form of worship our DNA had in mind.

SEPARATING SCRIPTURE FROM ITS AUTHOR

How would you answer this challenge:

·       “Yes, Scripture is important. But, frankly, truthfully, it is not part of the Godhead. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God, Scripture is not. Our salvation is from God, not from Scripture.”

You are needlessly and un-scripturally driving a wedge between God and His Word, I responded. Instead, they are a package deal. We cannot have God without His Word. Paul explained that they must go together:

·       How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:14; ESV)

Besides, we cannot love God without also loving His Word:

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. (John 14:23-24)

How else are we to love God? I can give my wife a backrub, sweep the floor, do the dishes. However, I can only love God by keeping His Word. Therefore, for God, the supreme test is whether or not we abide in His Word:

·       I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name [essence] and your word. (Psalm 138:2)

This same postmodern Christian responded:

·       “So I therefore conclude that adherence to a particular interpretation of Genesis 1-11 is NOT critical, or even necessary to find salvation, know God and love Him.”

Here is my response:

·       While I agree with you, we are left to wonder where a “Christian’s” heart is, when they dismiss the many clear NT references to the historicity of the Genesis account in favor of evolution. Do they truly love God?

·       We also have to wonder how these blatant compromises will impact their lives, even if they are saved.

WORSHIP, PRAYER, AND ALLURING GIMMICKS

 The Christian life isn’t easy. In fact, we are promised that if we want to reign with Christ, there is a price – suffering (2 Cor. 4:10-11). Consequently, when we suffer, it often feels like our world, along with our faith, is coming apart. We become convinced that something is terribly wrong, either with us or our attempts to draw close to God in faith.

Our despair makes us vulnerable to the allurements of false teachers like the Quaker Mystic Richard Foster:

·       Often we assume we are in contact [with God] when we are not…Often people will pray and pray with all the faith in the world, but nothing happens. Naturally, they are not contacting the channel [to God]. We begin praying for others by first centering down and listening to the quiet thunder of the Lord of hosts. Attuning ourselves to divine breathings is spiritual work, but without it our praying is vain repetition. Listening to the Lord is the first thing…(Celebration of Disciplines, 34)

Such teaching serves to undermine our confidence in the Lord. Foster insists that if our prayers go unanswered, it means that we are not in contact with our Savior. Once Foster is able to convince us that we are missing out, we become vulnerable to adopting his set of unbiblical techniques.

Meanwhile, Scripture assures us that everything we need to serve the Lord is contained in Scripture:

·       All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; ESV)

If Scripture is able to make us “complete, equipped for every good work,” then to teach that we also need additional techniques and gimmicks is to violate Scripture. In this sense, Foster is adding to Scripture (Deut. 4:2) by claiming that his techniques are necessary to make contact with God.

In contrast to Foster, Paul warned “to not go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6). Similarly, Isaiah 8:19-20 taught that we must go to God’s Word for our guidance:

·       And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

If we want to glorify God, we must speak according to His Word:

·       Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles [the Word] of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:11)

There are no scriptural warnings about not having the right prayer techniques. Instead, Jesus warned against the use of various pagan gimmicks:

·       “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)

Gimmicks should not be of any concern. Why not? Because, the “Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Therefore, the techniques are of no consequence. Besides, He will give us beyond what we ask for:

·       Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. (Ephesians 3:20)

God is able to compensate for us when we pray wrongly (Romans 8:26). Well then, what does God want from us if prayer is not about using the right techniques? Knowing and trusting in our Savior and not in gimmicks:

·       "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD…But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah 17:5-7)

·       What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

·       "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.’” (Rev. 3:7-8)

Gimmicks will not open the door to God’s grace. God is not looking for techniques but for “truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51:6). He wants to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, as Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman at the well:

·       "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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Nowhere does Scripture require the popular mystical techniques of repeating one word, visualizations, imaginations, analyzing dreams, changing our brain-states, practicing silence, or listening intently for the voice of God. Instead of such practices, Scripture instructs to know and obey His Word:

·       Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:1-3)

·       “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." (John 14:21)

Instead of gimmicks, it is God’s Word that must direct our prayers and worship. However, we must always put God and His Word first in our lives:

·       But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

He will provide for our needs and honor us as we honor Him. No room for gimmicks here!