What would you say if God asked you if you wanted to go on a fun adventure? The following paragraph is a "fun test."

Don't accept God's invitation to join us unless you sense it is from God. Those who do not hear God's invitations tend to slow everyone else down. As much as we embrace Jesus' heart for leaving the 99 for the one, we are content to let you not join us until you are convinced you have heard from God. If you do hear God's invitation, understand that you're likely to bump into yourself while on this journey. Maybe that's the point?!

I hope you laugh easily and feel a lighter spirit; if not, that's another reason for you not to join us, at least not at this time. Maybe after you figure everything out! :-)
 

Clearing my throat, coughing... did everyone pass the fun test?

If you want to get a head start on everyone, jump straight to the Foundations page for a quick check-in and then move on to the One-Anothering page. Scroll down until you bump into Dr. Tom Wadsworth. He will provide some explanation about One-Anothering. If you have time, hang out on the Early Church page before you move on to the Foundations page. Spend some time with our buddy, Maximus the Confessor, who provides some important context. If you have time for context!

This fun journey's invitation starts with reconsidering how we think about the word "worship." How does our understanding of "worship" change in comparison to God(F,S,S)'s invitation to participate with One-Another? Good question. Hopefully, in our One-Anothering, we can help each other laugh, smile, and walk a little lighter.

If we continue to use the word "worship," maybe we will use it differently. We can use this word with a more God-honoring understanding, if we use it at all. 

I'm not suggesting it is a four-letter word that we should never speak. But it is past time for us to revisit it. Should we stop singing songs about God loving us? Absolutely not. Should we still call it worship? Another good question. Maybe. Maybe not.

Let's take a look at defining "worship," not as something that God needs or expects from us, but as something God invites us to participate in. It is better understood as a gift. Maybe One-Anothering is a more fitting term for what God(F,S,S) has invited us to participate in. Maybe what God cares about the most and has invited us to participate with the F,S,S in is something we can't afford to miss. We can experience it as a way of life, a spiritual posture that allows us to stop feeling alienated from God(F,S,S).  This sounds like it is something God wants, even something God would be willing to die for.

The mentality behind most pushback against this thought is that the definition of "worship" should be oriented around God deserving our "worship." Of course, God deserves our devotion, admiration, and attention.  That, however, is not the question I see God most concerned with in Scripture. The by far better question is about what God wants, not what God deserves. For argument's sake, we can say that God deserves what God wants! The failure is in believing that God is more interested in being "worshiped," when we see that is not the case throughout much of Scripture. We see throughout Scripture the prevailing sentiment that our worthy God deserves our worship, which is not untrue as a statement. But is that it? Is it a dead end? As if God needs our "worship." We see very little curiosity about what God has communicated about what God (F,S,S) desires.
 

Others and I will argue that it is the voice or filter of the writer (storyteller) who is imposing their own paganized (not meaning the author is a "pagan," but the pagan influence on the author is relevant to understanding the context of what is being communicated. The influence of pagan imagery is overlaid or imposed on God (F,S,S). To the contrary, the Logos of God (Jesus) presents God(F,S,S) most often in an opposite manner. The pagan approaches to "gods" are the very approaches Jesus is inviting us out of and away from. We see these invitations early in the Old Testament. We certainly see this in the revelation of the Logos (Jesus).

Hosea 6:1-3 describes chastisement as a brief "pruning" for revival—"He will heal us... we shall live in his sight"—yet people often twist this into endless retribution.

Hosea 6:6: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." This rebukes Israel's superficial teshuva (not "repentance" as is frequently translated - not a responsibility to feel guilt or shame and turn away from "sin." Repentance as we think of it is not an accurate interpretation) and offerings. Teshuvah means to return. 

Matthew 9:13 and 12:7: Jesus quotes Hosea to Pharisees, saying, "Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'" critiquing their legalism over compassion for sinners.​

1 Samuel 15:22: Samuel tells Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice," as God rejects Saul's excuses and partial obedience.
 

Isaiah 1:11-17: God rejects Israel's sacrifices as "abominations" amid injustice, commanding, "Learn to do good; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, "judge" the fatherless, plead for the widow." He promises restoration: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." "Justice" (mishpat) means setting right relationships, not vengeful punishment.

Micah 6:8: "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" This counters offerings without ethical living.​

John 15:2: Jesus describes God as the vinedresser who "prunes" fruitful branches to make them bear more fruit, a restorative process for believers, not punitive destruction (v.6 applies to unbelievers).
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Jeremiah 7:3-11: God says false trust in the temple ("This is the temple of the Lord") ignores His demand for justice and mercy; He compares it to thieves' den.​

Jeremiah 23:16-17: False prophets say "No harm will come" despite sin, but God corrects: They speak visions of their own minds.​

Amos 5:21-24: God hates feasts and offerings without "justice roll down like waters," showing His desire for righteousness over shows.

Psalm 147:3 promises, "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds," portraying God's justice as emotional and spiritual mending, not retributive harm.
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Ezekiel 34:16: God as shepherd "seeks the lost... binds up the injured... strengthens the weak," but "destroys the fat and the strong" as pruning for flock health—not pagan retribution.​

Isaiah 53:5: "By his wounds we are healed," shifting punishment to Christ for peace, revealing God's heart against human ideas of direct retaliation.​

Psalm 103:3-4: God "forgives... heals... redeems," contrasting Israel's sacrificial system that wrongly assumed God craved penalty over pardon
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Prophets like Nahum or popular views in Ezekiel 18 frame justice as "punishment" for sin, but God clarifies His delight in "lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 9:24; Micah 7:18), not vengeance. Pharisees in Jesus' time demanded retributive "eye for an eye" (Matthew 23), ignoring restoration like the Samaritan woman's encounter (John 4), where mercy triumphs.
 

We choose to serve each other, not because we are expected to, but because that is what we see God doing in us and for us! We choose to experience ourselves in alignment with the Relationship of the F,S,S. We can appreciate God's presence with&in us to be God's gift to us, not the result of something we do. If we choose to serve another person, it is because it resonates with us more as a joy, not as an obligation.

We sense God's delight in being present in our lives in the inner room of our being. This room is otherwise known as the temple of God. It's also called the Kingdom of Heaven (Kingdom of God). This is the place where God's will (desire) is expressed. It is our moment-by-moment invitation and opportunity to see, hear, and speak what God sees, hears, and speaks! 

This does not happen because we do something special, not because we've achieved some elevated spiritual status, but because we've simply stopped getting in our own way. We finally recognize that our "personality," ego, the version of us that's constantly afraid, wanting, and needy, is the source of all the noise that blocks us from recognizing and embracing God(F,S,S)'s presence with&in us.
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The idea of us "worshiping" God is no longer a burden of something we are supposed to do "for God." It now becomes something we get to do "with God" for ourselves, for each other, and for God in the sense that it is God's joy for us to participate. We finally realize that God doesn't need us to fall prostrate on the floor. How many times do we see people in scripture falling on their faces before God, and God says, "Get up. Don't be afraid."
 

This is not God giving us permission to be self-centered. It is God's power, released in us, to accomplish our healing and restoration, so that we can participate in God's love for ourselves and others. This participation is God's joy! This is when "worship," as we have been conditioned to think of it, becomes One-Anothering!

One-Anothering is not just us "being nice" to someone else. It is us finally surrendering to the experience of being who God has created us to be. It is what it means to be reborn. It is us living from our identity revealed in Jesus, not us trying to earn an identity from God.

We no longer see others as obstacles on our journey to God; we see them as the point of our journey with God! There is no joy or fun where there is no freedom to experience each other as the F,S,S sees us!  There is no freedom where sacrifice is understood as a requirement instead of a gift.