Journey of Worship

Posts Tagged ‘Bible’

We’re in the third week of the “Be People of the Word” series as we focused on the value and benefits of the what the Bible offers us as an owner’s manual for life. We tackled Psalm 119 (all of it), and approached it be first focusing on the blessing of obedience that comes from studying the Word and then presenting a number of “tips” based off of the main themes in Psalm 119.

We began with Welcome and Announcements, and then as part of the Call to Worship, I took a teachable moment focused on why we sing when we gather (because we are instructed to and because it helps us to remember and declare the truth of who God is and what He has done). I mentioned that the songs we sing are from Scripture, some of them exactly, and that the reason we often put verses on the screen during musical interludes was to help people connect the songs with their Scriptural basis. I then read a medley of Scriptures (Col 1:19, John 3:35, Phil 2:9-11, Eph 1:21, Col 1:16, Rom 14:9, Col 2:10, John 1:16). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post about our Sunday worship services. Not intentionally, it’s just that when things get busy, some things don’t get the attention they did before. Blogging happens to be one of those things. Which is probably why I’ve had a whole bunch of posts over the last few days – getting some stuff out that’s been waiting.

Anyway, with the new year, we started a new series called “Be People of the Word.” Each year, our senior pastor wants to focus people back on the importance of the Word and prayer in our spiritual journey.

This week we focused on what it means to be truly blessed and the role the Word of God plays in that. I tried video-taping the service this week, so click to check out the video and for more info. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

We began a new three week mini-series this week. The Bible has much to say about prayer and the God we pray to. Unfortunately, we develop these boxes in life that we put prayer in, and ultimately put God in too. When we put God in a box, we forget how powerful and awesome He is, and how much He desires for us to trust Him with amazing and wonderful things. As a result, we pray these anemic and pitiful prayers and miss out on seeing God do some amazing things.

Beyond the Lord’s Prayer, the New Testament is full of great prayer examples of how we (as Christ-followers) can be praying for God’s will on earth and for our fellow Christ-followers. Join us as we expand our vision and discover what’s outside the box.

For the first week, we looked at the prayer Paul prayed for the church in Ephesians 3:14-21 and were reminded of the power of the love of God at work in His people.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things that’s not clearly spelled out step by step in the Bible is how to worship. For us in North America, that’s tough because we like to have processes and procedures clearly spelled out. If we do this, then this will happen.

As a result, we’ve created some definitions and mythos about worship that may not entirely capture the fullness of what it is. We read the desire of God that we express our love, devotion, gratitude, thanksgiving, and appreciation through worship to Him alone, but we don’t always grasp the expansive nature of that.

Despite not giving us a step-by-step list of how exactly to worship, the Bible does give us a ton of insight into the actions and attitudes of acceptable worship offered to the Creator of the Universe and Redeemer of our lives.

I came across this over at ExperiencingWorship.com. It’s a thorough review of the different Hebrew and Greek words used in the writing the Old and New Testaments as it relates to worship, praise, and so forth.

If you’ve never thought about that, check it out. It’s incredibly enlightening. If you are familiar with some of this, take a moment to reconsider how these things are played out in your life.

Go here to read the article. This is one you’ll probably want to print, save, bookmark, share, whatever.

How are you worshipping?

In an age of inclusivity and equality, it is good to be reminded of the supremacy and trueness of God. The fact is that God and _____ (fill in a diety from another religion here) are not the same, even though many will try to say that all are.

Dwayne Moore over at Next Level Worship has a great post talking about the differences between the God of the Bible and Allah. Using the Bible and the Quran to compare and contrast, he clearly shows that the two are not the same, and that only the God of the Bible is worthy of our worship.

Check it out and be encouraged.

The Bible tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing through Christ (Eph. 1:3). The Bible also tells us that in Christ we are made complete with all the fullness and power that comes from our union with Christ (Eph. 3:19 and Col. 2:10).

If that is so, then why do we struggle so much with being content. Or maybe it’s just me. We can call it what we want, but the reality is that we are often looking for the next thing. The next job/ministry, the next method, the next relationship, the next gadget, the next raise, the next …

Some of these things aren’t necessarily bad. Sometimes we need to be looking ahead. Until they become what takes our eyes off of the sufficiency and completeness of Christ and we walk down the road of thinking the next “thing” will be the the thing. But if I have everything I need already in Christ, then why do we think that there is anything else that could top that?

I was at a meeting tonight, and someone shared a great point. The Apostle Paul was content. With wherever God took him. Even in the dark, dank, grungy, horrific Roman prison system. I doubt it was anything like what a prison today looks or functions like. Remember, these were people who regularly beat people within an inch of their lives, and had turned crucifixion into an art form.

If Paul could be content with wherever God had him and with whatever God had him doing, then shouldn’t we?

Maybe there isn’t so much mystery to it after all.

It was the final week of our Irresistable Influence series. Our senior pastor was back and preached the final message as we focused on unending poverty and Deut. 15:11 and 24:17-22. We looked at what the Bible had to say about the presence and needs of the poor, both in regards to physical resources and being poor in spirit.

Leading up to the message, we spend some time remembering and celebrating God’s grace and mercy toward us. We tried our hand at the acoustic set today with piano, acoustic guitar, and congas. We also had two vocalists. It was different, but I think it went well. I’m not sure I did the best job getting the “acoustic feel” as opposed to just doing our normal style with less instruments, but we’ll probably do it again from time to time. Read the rest of this entry »

Mike Cosper, who is worship pastor at Sojourn Church in Kentucky, has a great article about the significance (and theological accuracy) of some of the phrases we use when leading people in worship.

I admit I’ve used some of these phrases, and this article was very eye opening. Check it out.