More from J. P Moreland:
I live about twelve miles from Disneyland, and I have a season pass that entitles me to visit the park several times each year. Disneyland is no mere theme park. Compared to other parks of amusement, Disney land is just different. From the restaurants and shrubbery to the Indiana Jones ride, the par k exudes excellence. For example, Disneyland employs one crew to do nothing but change light bulbs throughout the park year-round. The crew has a catalogue listing the life expectancy of the thousands of light bulbs in the park, and they make sure to change each and every bulb at 80 percent life expectancy so no one ever sees a burned-out bulb! I have been to Disneyland about one hundred times and have never, ever seen a burned-out bulb.
If Disney can impart this sort of spirit of excellence to its bulb changers, we Christians can afford to do no less when it comes to worshipping the living God. We need to increase our expectations of excellence when it comes to corporate and private worship. And if we do, the proper cultivation of the mind will be a crucial dimension of our excellence in worship. Loving and worshipping God includes the total personality, including the mind. We worship God with our minds when we struggle to read something so we can love and serve Him better, when we understand the contents of the hymns we sing, when we activate our minds and make them ready to hear before given something to which to respond in the worship service. Without the bulb changers, Disneyland would be just another amusement park. Without an intellectual component, worship becomes a less than total expression of adoration to a God who deserves a lot more effort than Disney insists on at its park.
I live about twelve miles from Disneyland, and I have a season pass that entitles me to visit the park several times each year. Disneyland is no mere theme park. Compared to other parks of amusement, Disney land is just different. From the restaurants and shrubbery to the Indiana Jones ride, the par k exudes excellence. For example, Disneyland employs one crew to do nothing but change light bulbs throughout the park year-round. The crew has a catalogue listing the life expectancy of the thousands of light bulbs in the park, and they make sure to change each and every bulb at 80 percent life expectancy so no one ever sees a burned-out bulb! I have been to Disneyland about one hundred times and have never, ever seen a burned-out bulb.
If Disney can impart this sort of spirit of excellence to its bulb changers, we Christians can afford to do no less when it comes to worshipping the living God. We need to increase our expectations of excellence when it comes to corporate and private worship. And if we do, the proper cultivation of the mind will be a crucial dimension of our excellence in worship. Loving and worshipping God includes the total personality, including the mind. We worship God with our minds when we struggle to read something so we can love and serve Him better, when we understand the contents of the hymns we sing, when we activate our minds and make them ready to hear before given something to which to respond in the worship service. Without the bulb changers, Disneyland would be just another amusement park. Without an intellectual component, worship becomes a less than total expression of adoration to a God who deserves a lot more effort than Disney insists on at its park.
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