Adoration

“Ad” means “to.” “Ora” means “mouth.” Thus the literal meaning of adoration is “to one’s mouth.” Romans performed the act of adoration by raising the hand to the mouth, kissing it and then waving it in the direction of the adored object. The word adoration came to mean, homage paid to one held in high esteem, as in worship. The early church felt that adoration was for God alone; feeling that adoration for any one or thing other than God was idolatry. However, controversy arose distinguishing adoration for God alone, from veneration which was accorded to the saints. In 787 the Second Council of Nicaea concluded adoration was for the worship of God alone, ruling the practice was not to be applied to earthly rulers, angels or saints. Seems to me we have reverted to the early church controversy. It was written of the disciples of Jesus, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him” (Matt. 28:17). To earthly leaders, pastors, evangelists, counselors, ministers, helpers, etc, let us respect, honor, admire, and follow when such is due. But let us worship and adore Jesus only.

Join me in remembering the following global concerns before God this week:
• Pray for missionaries and family members in Macau who have H1N1/A swine Flu.
• Pray for those who work with refugees. More than 4,000 refugees have crossed a border from Myanmar into a neighboring country to flee persecution.
• So many missionaries serve in high security locations without the name recognition received by others – prayer lists, etc. Pray for these known-only-to-God servants.
• Pray for missionaries and Kharkov Baptist Union pastors as they meet Tuesday morning for prayer.
• Missionaries gave over 100 Bibles and books during the summer to people in Greece and Cyprus. Pray that the Word will not return void.
• Pray for R and K as they await their new overseas assignment.