In Spirit and Truth

Monday - August 2nd

Scripture to Read Today: John 4:1-42

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Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers

will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth,

for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship

in the Spirit and in truth.

- Jesus

John 4:23-24

Centuries ago, the imposing iron key to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City was entrusted to one of Jerusalem's most prominent Muslim families - the Joudehs. This church is believed by many Christian traditions to be the location of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Many Christians consider the church to be the holiest of all Christian historic sites.

Members of the Joudeh family date the arrangement back to Saladin, the Muslim conqueror who seized the holy city from the Crusaders in 1187. The only evidence, beyond oral tradition, supporting the history of this arrangement dates back to the early 1600s.

Another of the city's oldest Muslim families, the Nusseibehs, was entrusted with the duty of opening and closing the church doors, a task they perform to this day. It requires a bit of strength: The key is 12 inches long and weighs half a pound.

For millennia, groups representing various religious sects have fought over supposed holy sites, like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

In a conversation with the Samaritan woman that He met by the well outside of the town of Sychar, Jesus addressed the idea of holy sites as places of greater worship. Unfortunately, the woman tried to distract Jesus from the Good News of Who He was and why He came by dredging up an old argument between the Samaritans and the Jews. She reminded Jesus that the Jews said worship must happen in Jerusalem, but her people said it had to be on Mount Gerizim.

Jesus' response shocked her. He made it clear that the time had now come that true worshippers would gather to worship anywhere and everywhere to worship in spirit and in truth. The geographic spot and its significance would no longer be the focus.

Worship today continues to be about lifting up God wherever you are but doing it in Spirit and in truth. That speaks of our connection through God's indwelling Spirit to God Himself and to our keen understanding of Who we worship through the truth of His Word.

Spend some time today lifting up the Lord. Praise and thank Him for some of the attributes or qualities we know the Scriptures teach us about Him. Consider these: holiness, grace, mercy, justice, power, peace, knowledge, sovereignty, compassion, etc.

We do not need to be in some specific place to worship. We simply need to do it in spirit and truth!