Journey of Worship

Posts Tagged ‘christianity’

From Henry Blackaby in Experiencing God Day-by-Day from January 25:

“We can spend many hours debating and discussing issues related to the Christian life, but this means little if we never actually step out and follow Christ!

“Christianity is not a set of teachings to understand. It is a Person to follow”

Consider the concept of an advocate. How many of us really understand that concept? While advocates still exist in our society today, most people don’t think they will ever need an advocate. An advocate is someone who supports or speaks in favor of something. The advocate concept comes from the legal world. Attorneys were to speak in favor of their client’s case.

We see the advocate role still working today. In hospitals, there will be people serving as patient advocates when a family member is not available. For children in abusive and neglectful situations, the welfare and DFS systems play the role of advocate.

But dig a little deeper and discover that the meaning of an advocate is much richer. An advocate is also someone who acts or intercedes on behalf of another. We have a hard time accepting this truth, but as humans we are in desperate need of an advocate when it comes to having a relationship with God. We cannot speak for ourselves before God because our lives are marred by sin from the moment we are conceived. Without an advocate, we can never hope to enter into God’s presence, gain forgiveness of sins, or know the power of God at work in our lives.

God knew this and gave the role of advocate to Jesus Christ. As our advocate, Jesus throws open the doorway to heaven. He makes it possible for us to enter boldly into God’s presence as we place our trust fully in Him. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 10:19-20).

As our advocate, Jesus is constantly before God on our behalf interceding for our sins. We will continue to struggle with sin until the every end, yet Jesus is before God on our behalf as we confess and seek forgiveness. Without the blood of Christ interceding for us, we would not have any hope of forgiveness and cleansing. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous (1 John 2:1). Christ does what we cannot as our advocate.

Jesus is uniquely suited to fulfill the role of advocate before God because He has conquered sin and death. All power is given to Him over all things. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else-not only in this world but also in the world to come (Ephesians 1:21). There is no one who can take that power away and no one who can usurp that power. As we trust Jesus as our advocate, we can have confidence that He has the ability and power to do it.

If we grab on to the reality and depth of Christ as our advocate, it could revolutionize our perspective and understanding. To realize that we have, interceding on our behalf, He who has conquered the chains of death and sin is huge. Take some time today to give thanks to God that He gave His Son as our advocate and that we can rest secure in that. Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend (Job 16:19-20a).

Thank Jesus today for being your advocate before our Holy God and go boldly into His presence through Jesus Christ.

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

We’ve developed this church perspective that worship = music. While music and singing are a huge part of worship expression, worship is far more than music. It’s something that I am discovering both in the Bible and in looking at the history of worship expression in churches across time. Two of those expressions that we should revisit are those of prayer and scripture.

The worship languages of prayer and Scripture have always been important to me, and I have been privileged to be a part of churches that have valued those things, even if maybe not to the point of the Church of the past. These languages played a huge role in the life of the early church, both corporately and individually. For them, life drove prayer. Read the rest of this entry »

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

I’ve been thinking (and learning) about the value of remembering lately. God repeatedly told the Israelites to remember what He had done for them, and they repeatedly forgot and got into trouble. I have found myself making fun of the Israelites and wondering what their problem was, only to realize that we do the same thing. It just looks a little different.

Dan Wilt has said that “one of the greatest evidences that we are a fallen race is our tendency to forget.” I know that’s true in my own life, and in the life of the people I minister with and to each week. That’s why as a worship/creative person, I at times what to have people do something physical or take something home to engage with and remember a concept. How many of us have rocks and cloth and little crosses from past spiritual experiences? Read the rest of this entry »