Journey of Worship

Archive for the ‘Ponderings’ Category

It’s been said that our life betrays what we believe. Or that our beliefs are betrayed by our life. Either way, most, if not all, Christians say that Christ is the most important thing to them, but their living says they are more concerned with life, work, status, homes, cars, retirement plans, etc. Most aspects of life reflect a forgetting of our Maker, Redeemer, and Savior. I’m not here to tell you how a life that has Christ as the most important thing will be played out in you specifically, but to simply cause you to think.

This aspect of drift and forgetting is a common occurrence in all of our lives. The issue isn’t so much if it has happened (because it will at some point), but recognizing it and making appropriate course corrections.

The season of Lent, at its core, calls us back to God, back to basics, and back to the spiritual realities of life in Christ. Back to the things that we say we believe in. It’s a time when we can ask Christ to once again put to death sin and indifference toward God and others so that we might fulfill the Greatest Commandment to love the Lord our God with all of who we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We can once again enter fully into the joy of the Lord Who is our strength. Read the rest of this entry »

What does worship look like?  As the practical, pragmatic, and action-oriented Americans we are, how do we do this thing that is supposed to draw our attention to God so that we can give Him all glory and honor with our whole being?

The event of worship takes many forms.  One of the biggest ways that worship happens is through music.  This is true today and has been for centuries.  Psalm 69:30 tells us that “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.”  Music, in its various forms, provides an avenue where worshippers can open their hearts to God and one another.  There is power in the corporate application of music.

Martin Luther (the one who nailed the 95 theses to the door and kicked off the Protestant Reformation), was a huge proponent of the role of music in worship.  Charles Moss in The Musical Reforms of Luther writes that “Martin Luther viewed music as having powers to repulse evil and to glorify God at the same time.”  In the forward to his Symphoniae, Luther himself wrote that “next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.  It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits. “

As vital as music is, there is a downside to the association of music with worship.  Unfortunately, we have made worship about music and the two have become synonymous in our minds.  Instead of music being an aspect of worship, worship is music.  Then we find ourselves in a place that says we can’t worship without music.

The fact of the matter is, as songwriter Paul Baloche says, “worship has more to do with relationship than with music.  Worshipping God with music is simply a tool to help us connect relationally to a living God.”

So, we return to our original question of what does worship look like.  We know one way is music.  But what other ways can we connect with the living God?  How about things like reading, hearing, and applying the Word of God, tithing, living generously, serving, loving others, meditating on who God is, making our prayers more than just requests, developing an attitude of thankfulness, surrendering full control of our life to God, and responding to the truth of God by living it out in our daily lives.

There’s a reason why the event we attend each Sunday is called a “worship service.”  All of the elements that take place in it should facilitate our whole self connecting with God and choosing to live for Him.  It’s not called a “music service” as music is but a part of the whole.

Worship looks like a lot of things. We can connect with God in a variety of valid ways both corporately and personally.  We should not be limited in our ability to worship the living God based on whether there is music available or not.

What does worship look like to you?  What helps you connect with God?  Let me know in the comments.

It’s the time of year when we look to new beginnings. We seek to gain a greater understanding of some things, and in other things seek to do better at them. For some people, we might desire certain revelations to come about that will cause pieces of the puzzle of life to fit together better.

One of the greatest revelations of all time is celebrated at this time of the year. Whether or not it actually happened date wise at this time of the year isn’t important. What’s important is that it happened.

What is this that I write of? The time of the Christian year known as Epiphany, or the time when God appeared.

A few days ago I received an group email from Dan Wilt, a leader and scholar in the world of ancient/future worship, talking about the significance of Epiphany and the new year. With his permission, I’d like you to read what he wrote… Read the rest of this entry »

Advent is the time when God breaks in on us with new surprises and touches us with a renewing and restoring power. –Robert Webber, Ancient Future Time

It’s the time of year when we enter into the season of Advent, which comes from the Latin adventus, meaning arrival or coming. Advent is traditionally a time when people slow down and take time to celebrate and prepare for Jesus’ birth at Christmas time. Many religious traditions choose not to sing songs of Christ’s birth until Christmas Day since Advent is not a time of joy, but of longing for the coming of the Savior. Read the rest of this entry »

I have heard about you, LORD, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. Show us your power to save us. (Habakkuk 3:2 nlt)

Something that has struck me as important recently is the significance of remembering. When I lead, I’ll often ask God to help us remember who He is, what He has done, and how He wants us to live. I do this rather frequently. You may wonder, why?

The aspect of remembering is huge for us. We go to great lengths to remember things that are important like significant moments in life, treasured relationships, birthdays, and more. We do so through pictures, videos, treasures, and conversations to help jog our memories. We feel sad when people forget about events that were meaningful to us, and it’s heartbreaking to watch some people forget as they age. We will also go to great lengths to block memories of situations that were painful, hurtful, or destructive.

Remembering is a huge necessity in our lives. We need to remember the stories, memories, and commitments of our life because we are forgetful people and are easily distracted. When we don’t remember, we lose a part of ourselves. We forget how God has used the events of life to shape us and reveal Himself to us. Author Robert Webber once wrote that “forgetting brings death, but remembering brings life.”

God knew this about us. As sin entered the world, He knew that we would need help in remembering who He is and what He told us. You can trace this theme throughout the Bible. God constantly told the Old Testament Israelites to build monuments to remind them and their children of the great things He did for them. He encouraged them to takes steps to remember His grace and mercy so that would not get distracted by other gods. He wrote down the 10 Commandments so they would not forget the essential things to live a God-honoring life.

As the early church began to meet, they meet weekly on the first day intentionally so that they would not forget the importance of the resurrection. Meeting together in fellowship was important throughout the week so that they would not forget each other or what God was doing. The writer of Hebrews recognized the importance of this as he told his readers to not give up meeting together. God’s message for us was that when we stop meeting together, we stop remembering and begin to forget.

So, why is remembering the greatness and character of God so important? When we remember, we are not distracted by temporary things or drawn away into sin. I think author David Powlison captures it well. “If you could remember just one true thing in the moment of trial, you’d be different. Bible ‘verses’ aren’t magic. But God’s words are revelations of God from God for our redemption. When you actually remember God, you do not sin. The only way we ever sin is by suppressing God, by forgetting, by tuning out his voice, switching channels, and listening to other voices.”

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (Psalm 103:2 niv)

I read this the other morning, and wanted to share it.

It is my experience that the totality of our Christian lives-our entire attitude as person–must be towards the worship of God!

If you do not know the presence of God in your office, your factory, your home, then God is not in the church you attend either!

I became a Christian when I was a young man working in a tire factory in Akron, Ohio. I remember my work there–but I remember my worship there too! I had plenty of worshipful tears in my eyes. No one ever asked me about them, but I would not have hesitated to explain them.

You can learn to use certain skills until they are automatic. I become so skillful that I could do my work and then I could worship God even while my hands were busy.

If the love of God is in us and the Spirit of God is breathing praise with us, all the musical instruments in heaven are suddenly playing in full support! Even our thoughts become a sanctuary in which God can dwell.

Dear Lord, I pray that Your Spirit will so fill me today that my heart and mind will overflow in praise to You.

These words were written by A.W. Tozer, a pastor and author in the mid-20th century. His was a voice that called people to pursue God and live for Him fully. His words still carry weight today. You can find more writings like this in Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings.

Harvey Mackay was waiting in line for a taxi at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie and freshly pressed black slacks, Wally the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back door. Harvey noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside — spotlessly clean.

As Wally slid behind the wheel, he said, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.”

Jokingly, Harvey said, “No, I’d prefer a soft drink.”

Wally smiled and said, “No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.”

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, “I’ll take a Diet Coke.”

Handing Harvey his drink, Wally said, “If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.”

As the taxi pulled away from the curb, Wally handed Harvey a laminated card and said, “These are the stations I get and the music they play if you’d like to listen to the radio.” As if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey the air conditioning was on and asked if the temperature was comfortable.

The driver then advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. Wally also let Harvey know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

“Tell me, Wally,” the amazed passenger asked, “have you always served customers like this?”

Wally smiled and looked in the rear view mirror. “No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru Wayne Dyer on the radio saying that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining. Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.”

“So I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers unfriendly and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.”

“I take it that has paid off for you,” Harvey said.

“It sure has,” Wally replied. “My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year, I’ll probably quadruple it.”

Wally the cab driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like a duck and to start soaring like an eagle.

When I first read this story, I was immediately struck by the parallels between the cab driver’s choice in living his life and our choice in how people choose to live as Christ-followers. For some, the choice is to quack like a duck in complaining about how bad things are getting, what’s wrong with the world and society around us, and how everything is changing in life (and often in church). For others, they choose to rise above the complaining and grumbling to live a life of justice, mercy, and love in the name of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. They choose to live the abundance spiritual life Christ promises so that they can in turn point people to the living God.

But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31 niv)

That’s a life of worship. May we soar life eagles in the days before us.

Story via Mikey’s Funnies daily email. Subscribe here.

The thought occurred to me the other day as I was reading in Matthew 15, how often are we like the Pharisees as Jesus applied the words of Isaiah the prophet to them?

The Lord says:

“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.”

Isaiah 29:13 NIV

• Following a form, but not the function.
• Concerned with looks, but not substance.
• Adhering to the letter, but not the spirit, of the commands of God.
• Casting something in a “spiritual” light that really is in opposition to the revealed truth of God because we’ve convinced ourselves “God told me so.”

The Pharisees lived this way every day. Matthew 15:1-7 paints a clear picture for us.

Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”

Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God? For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.

Matthew 15:1-6a NLT

We often chastise the Pharisees for not getting it or having the wrong focus, but how often do we find ourselves standing right next to them?

May each day be a day we worship, not according to traditions or forms, but with pure and transformed hearts that draw close to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ in accordance with the revealed truth of God.

“Worship demands purity. Over and over we have seen that the prerequisite to the privilege of entering God’s presence is the recognition of personal sinfulness and a willingness to abandon that sinfulness. A consuming desire to be pure and clean is the normal result of being with God. The closer we draw to God, the more overwhelmed we become with our sinfulness…

If the corporate worship in the church leaves people unchanged, the church is not really worshiping. If what goes on in the church service does not spur the saints to greater obedience, call it what you will, it isn’t worship. Worship always results in a transformation, and the church is edified by it.”

- John MacArthur, Jr.

Do you agree or disagree? How is participation in corporate worship transforming you? How is your church body being enlightened and uplifted (both together and individually) by the worship that you do corporately?

One of the things that has been on the front burner lately for me and for our church is helping people to understand that worship is more than a Sunday morning in church thing.

I had the opportunity to teach this morning in a Sunday School class we are doing during the summer to equip people to be mentors. The topic was a lifestyle of worship. It was a little intimidating to approach this topic because it is so vast and complex, yet at the same time I realized there is a unique simplicity to it when we grasp it.

Anyway, the class went really well. The challenge was keeping in the time frame and yet handling the subject well. There was a lot of stuff that I didn’t necessarily end up including.

One thing that I came across was a series of article by Dwayne Moore who wrote the study Pure Praise: A Heart-focused Bible Study on Worship. He has posted three articles on his blog. They have some great content and insights.

If you are looking to gain a greater understanding of what it means to have a lifestyle of worship (which is a necessary discipline for the growing Christ-follower), then I encourage you to check out what he wrote. Let me know what you think.

Three Directions of Lifestyle Worship, Part 1

Three Directions of Lifestyle Worship, Part 2

Three Directions of Lifestyle Worship, Part 3