The Lord be with you!
Well... it appears that Seminary has begun! Today was my first day... and a great day it was! I'm so excited to get back into the swing of things. I have a great deal of work ahead of me, but I know that the Lord will be my strength and my supply as I work, learn, read, study, write, read, and then read some more.
I look forward to writing about the many things that God is showing me throughout these next few years...
If you could please pray for me as I work on getting organized and back into the swing of things for this semester, that would be fantastic! God has shown his abundant goodness in many things leading up to this time, and I know He will continue to be faithful each and every day!
Grace and Peace...
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Worship Matters
So your friend asks, “What is worship?” It seems like such a simple question doesn’t it? I think that we often think to ourselves that we have to go to church and worship… or we’re going to a worship service… or because we are singing it is the “worship part” of the service. But what is worship really? I think that the answer is much more complicated than just singing, praying, or anything that brings worship down to just one thing.
This question is a lot like if I were to ask you to explain Football, Baseball, or any other sport to someone that has never seen the sport played. You couldn’t just say “You throw/catch/run the ball” or “you have to score a touchdown/basket/run.” Neither of those would be an ample explanation for what is going on during the game. Neither could you just hand your curious friend a book and tell them to read it through so that they understand without the hassle of your explanation.
What do we do then, in response to our friend’s inquiry about what we do every Sunday morning? Could we show them a bulletin and try to explain the whole thing to them? This might help a little bit to know what is going on in that particular service. Could we just send them to a Pastor? Perhaps he would have a rather informed answer for our inquisitive friend, but I think it more important for us to know about what it is that we do when we worship… and for that we must turn ourselves to the Bible.
The Psalms seem to be the first logical choice to turn to; they seem to be overflowing with “worship language:”
Psalm 7:17 “I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.”
Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
Psalm 29:2 “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.”
Psalm 95:6 “Come let us Worship and Bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker…”
Psalm 109:30 “With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.”
Psalm 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.”
So worship is Praise, Prayer, singing, kneeling, clapping, and even bowing? It would seem that if you look to the Psalms for direction in worship, it would suggest a very physical response to worship. In fact, the words that the Hebrews used for worship are suggestive of that as well. In fact, the Hebrews, when the Word of the Lord was read, would stand in reverence, and would bow with their faces to the ground in times of prayer.
Looking to the New Testament, Jesus, and later the Apostles, takes the idea of worship to the level that it was intended to be. Worship was never intended to be simply an event that was limited to a single day, week, festival, or celebration… worship was meant to be a way of life! Jesus points this out to the religious leaders in Matthew 15 when He quotes Isaiah saying, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Later, Paul talks about giving our lives to God in what has become one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Worship isn’t something that we should be saving for a Sunday morning… worship is a life transforming act. When we sing songs, pray together, and hear the Word, it is to be something that changes our lives each and every day. Remember: WORSIHP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT and just as athletes have to change their lives to train and play the game well, so we need to refocus our lives on God, read the Word, Pray, Sing, and train for our lives for worship as well!
This question is a lot like if I were to ask you to explain Football, Baseball, or any other sport to someone that has never seen the sport played. You couldn’t just say “You throw/catch/run the ball” or “you have to score a touchdown/basket/run.” Neither of those would be an ample explanation for what is going on during the game. Neither could you just hand your curious friend a book and tell them to read it through so that they understand without the hassle of your explanation.
What do we do then, in response to our friend’s inquiry about what we do every Sunday morning? Could we show them a bulletin and try to explain the whole thing to them? This might help a little bit to know what is going on in that particular service. Could we just send them to a Pastor? Perhaps he would have a rather informed answer for our inquisitive friend, but I think it more important for us to know about what it is that we do when we worship… and for that we must turn ourselves to the Bible.
The Psalms seem to be the first logical choice to turn to; they seem to be overflowing with “worship language:”
Psalm 7:17 “I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.”
Psalm 9:1 “I will praise you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
Psalm 29:2 “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.”
Psalm 95:6 “Come let us Worship and Bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our maker…”
Psalm 109:30 “With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.”
Psalm 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.”
So worship is Praise, Prayer, singing, kneeling, clapping, and even bowing? It would seem that if you look to the Psalms for direction in worship, it would suggest a very physical response to worship. In fact, the words that the Hebrews used for worship are suggestive of that as well. In fact, the Hebrews, when the Word of the Lord was read, would stand in reverence, and would bow with their faces to the ground in times of prayer.
Looking to the New Testament, Jesus, and later the Apostles, takes the idea of worship to the level that it was intended to be. Worship was never intended to be simply an event that was limited to a single day, week, festival, or celebration… worship was meant to be a way of life! Jesus points this out to the religious leaders in Matthew 15 when He quotes Isaiah saying, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”
Later, Paul talks about giving our lives to God in what has become one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Worship isn’t something that we should be saving for a Sunday morning… worship is a life transforming act. When we sing songs, pray together, and hear the Word, it is to be something that changes our lives each and every day. Remember: WORSIHP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT and just as athletes have to change their lives to train and play the game well, so we need to refocus our lives on God, read the Word, Pray, Sing, and train for our lives for worship as well!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Worship Matters
During these hot summer months, I am reminded of my times playing little league baseball and what that all entailed for my family: Pain staking, hot practices in which we practiced catching pop-flies for hours on end, practice on throwing the ball straight, and long games at night or early on Saturday morning. We put in a lot of work to get the results that we were seeking… A WIN!
I remember one other part of my short and limited baseball career, my parent’s involvement. They would be sure that I got there, my clothes were clean and on correctly, but then they would just sit there and watch while we did the work. Now, for the record, I am not discounting my parents at all… but bear with me for the sake of the topic…
My teammates and I practiced a lot and our results were team work and the ability to play together. Had my parents tried to just get up and play with the team (especially in the later years) their actions wouldn’t have really been of much benefit to our team. They were spectators, like most of us at sporting events… we come, sit, and are entertained by what is happening on the field that day (good or bad).
Sometimes I wonder how much that resonates with our church life as well. Do we come on a Sunday morning with clean clothes that are on right and then just sit in the stands and watch things happen (good or bad)? I think too often we do. We want to sit and be entertained, to get out of church what we want to hear from the pastor, to sing our songs, but not really get involved. We aren’t truly seeking life transforming worship or opening our hearts to the Spirit, it’s really all about what we want.
Is this right? NO!!! WORSHIP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!!
We cannot just show up and sit in our seats and expect to worship. We can’t just sing some words and expect them to affect us. We CANNOT just idly listen to the words in the sermon and expect to be changed!! We NEED to get out of our seats and get into the game!!! It’s time that we put off the things of this world that seek to distract us… It’s time that we open our hearts to the Spirit’s transforming work… It’s time that we put Jesus back at the center of our lives… It’s time that we really worship!!
In our look at the Fruits of the Spirit, Paul writes to the Galatians to “walk by the Spirit…” and implies that by doing this we will be not walking in the desires of the sinful nature. To me this implies an active, meaningful effort on our part. James writes, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This too implies that we have to make some sort of effort.
Now, I am in no way suggesting that we can get to God by our own effort, for we all know that this is not true. We only have access to God through the Blood of Christ. However, if we are truly seeking to worship, to be transformed by the Spirit, and to be renewed by the saving power of God Himself, we need to do our best to make sure that we are in a place in which that work can be done! The words we sing need to be more than words… they need to be truth for our lives. The Word we read needs to be more than a book… It needs to be truth to our lives. Our Sundays, and every day, needs to be more than just sitting and being entertained… it needs to be active, meaningful, worship!!
WORSHIP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!!
I remember one other part of my short and limited baseball career, my parent’s involvement. They would be sure that I got there, my clothes were clean and on correctly, but then they would just sit there and watch while we did the work. Now, for the record, I am not discounting my parents at all… but bear with me for the sake of the topic…
My teammates and I practiced a lot and our results were team work and the ability to play together. Had my parents tried to just get up and play with the team (especially in the later years) their actions wouldn’t have really been of much benefit to our team. They were spectators, like most of us at sporting events… we come, sit, and are entertained by what is happening on the field that day (good or bad).
Sometimes I wonder how much that resonates with our church life as well. Do we come on a Sunday morning with clean clothes that are on right and then just sit in the stands and watch things happen (good or bad)? I think too often we do. We want to sit and be entertained, to get out of church what we want to hear from the pastor, to sing our songs, but not really get involved. We aren’t truly seeking life transforming worship or opening our hearts to the Spirit, it’s really all about what we want.
Is this right? NO!!! WORSHIP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!!
We cannot just show up and sit in our seats and expect to worship. We can’t just sing some words and expect them to affect us. We CANNOT just idly listen to the words in the sermon and expect to be changed!! We NEED to get out of our seats and get into the game!!! It’s time that we put off the things of this world that seek to distract us… It’s time that we open our hearts to the Spirit’s transforming work… It’s time that we put Jesus back at the center of our lives… It’s time that we really worship!!
In our look at the Fruits of the Spirit, Paul writes to the Galatians to “walk by the Spirit…” and implies that by doing this we will be not walking in the desires of the sinful nature. To me this implies an active, meaningful effort on our part. James writes, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This too implies that we have to make some sort of effort.
Now, I am in no way suggesting that we can get to God by our own effort, for we all know that this is not true. We only have access to God through the Blood of Christ. However, if we are truly seeking to worship, to be transformed by the Spirit, and to be renewed by the saving power of God Himself, we need to do our best to make sure that we are in a place in which that work can be done! The words we sing need to be more than words… they need to be truth for our lives. The Word we read needs to be more than a book… It needs to be truth to our lives. Our Sundays, and every day, needs to be more than just sitting and being entertained… it needs to be active, meaningful, worship!!
WORSHIP IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!!
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