I think it's interesting that ever since Christ left us here and returned to heaven a lot of people have been chomping at the bit, waiting for the clouds to part and for Jesus to come back. Even the disciples repeated constantly that He would come back in their day and age. Then the martyrs that Fox's book refers to. Then the Roman Catholic church, then the Puritans. In recent years we have seen a few different groups try to guess when it will be. We had that huge thing recently where a lot of people sold everything they owned only to be told the day after that it had been a spiritual rapture. That everyone who had been confirmed for heaven were now accounted for. But we aren't leaving this world yet, unfortunately for those who had given their life savings to those they trusted. But that's an interesting idea. Those they trusted. The people that sold everything they had believed that the end was nigh because they trusted someone else's ideas. Their interpretations of the signs around them instead of looking at it for themselves. Another thing that I wonder about is what did Jesus do for the first 30 years of his life? Was he coming to terms that he was the Messiah? That he had a mission that was going to pull him away from everything he knew and put him in world where the old rules of social living were no longer aspects of his reality? Jesus spent 3 years walking around with 12 dudes, some women that we rarely hear about, and a flock of people sometimes. Didn't have his own house, his own transportation, his own food, his own water. He completely depended on what would be brought to him through the day. In some of the cities that didn't like him he probably went without food, water or shelter consistently. But he had the lucky ticket. He was the lucky one that was called to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. After 3 years of homelessness, starvation, dehydration, and self deprivation he was hung on a cross for breaking into temples and throwing all of the 'business peoples' money on the ground. He was the one out of all the others that was chosen for a specific purpose, not for his own glory, but to bring glory to those around him.
Now...when you give yourself for the glory of another what do we call that? Worship.
When you adopt someones idea that the rapture is imminent and Jesus is coming back, to the point of selling off your life savings and everything you own, you are acting on faith on that which you don't immediately see. I would call that worship.
So when someone tells you what to believe or how to feel about something you can choose to worship that belief or that person by conforming to it.
But should we worship every idea that is proposed to us? Should we believe every person that claims to have a vision? Jesus had a vision, Buddha had a vision, Judas had a vision, Ghandi had a vision, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. (haha! gotcha!)
Let's go back. Many people over the last 2000 years have been telling us that Christ is coming back any day now. What if he's already here? What if he is going through the same possible self realization that he could have gone through 2000 years ago? No one really knows for sure what he did. Maybe he just waited patiently to speak. But we know what he did once he did start speaking at 30 years old. He started a mission which was nothing but service (worship) for everyone around him every day until he was crucified. So, in the analogy of Willy Wonka, who do you think has the golden ticket? Who is going to be the special one that gets to go on that one mission that no one else gets to go on? Here's the real question. If it was you would I worship you? Would I support you even to my own self deprivation? Even to my own death? If it was me would you worship me? What has your day reflected so far? What has your heart reflected so far? If you were Christ, would you worship like he did? Or would you expect to be the recipient of worship by others like he worshiped the pure light in each person he tried to save before he was killed? That's a hard truth to ask Rhett. I know...I've been living it for 7 months. I wanted a new experience and this is what I got. I wanted to be able to relate with Jesus in a real way and I got what I asked for. What experience are you asking for? Thank you for reading :)