The Great Commandment and Great Commission

Recapping last blog, the invitation or call to worship is literally "Come follow Me to Me."  The blessing is Jesus, Himself.  The result is "He will make us fishers of men."  When it's all of Him in all of me, I will be a fisher of men.  So it is a call to worship before work.  This dovetails with The Great Commandment and Commission.
The Great Commandment in Mark 12:30-31 says, "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength."  Worship is all about loving God with all that we are.   The Great Commission in Matt. 28:19-20, states, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing . . . and teaching them to obey."  The commission is summed up in loving people.
The Great Commission is the fruit of The Great Commandment.  Neither trumps the other.  They are in essence one command.  Evidence of this is Jesus' following the great commandment with, "the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself."  It is impossible to be a God Worshipper and not be a missionary.  True worship results in missions.  However, "Missions is not the goal - worship is.  You can't neglect worship and expect to be truly fruitful in missions.  It's impossible.  Worship is the fuel of missions.  The road to missions is paved with worship," states Gary Wright.  More in our next blog. mjm

Questions/Comments: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

Come Follow Me - A Call to Worship

In Matt. 4 we find Jesus saying to Peter and Andrew, "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."  We sometimes tend to put the emphasis on the last part.  But we need to see that Jesus' call to follow is really a call to worship.  The first requirement of walking with Jesus is to "come".  He doesn't say do this or do that, but simply "Come to me".  We must first come if we want to experience the power of God in our lives.

When Jesus sets out to call his disciples He says in the most literal translation, "Come follow to me."  Jesus is giving not just an invitation to follow Him, but to get to know Him.  "If you follow me, I will lead you to myself",  follow me to me.  Gary Wright says, "The journey and the destination are both the same - Jesus!"  As Col. 3:4 says, "Christ . . . is our life."  This is our invitation to be true God-worshippers.  The invitation is to Follow Me to Me and the gift is Me - Jesus.   The pursuit of Jesus is true worship.  Wherever the focus of our hearts and affections are directed, that is what we are worshipping, plain and simple.  Jesus' invitation for us to Follow Me to Me  is an invitation for us to turn all of our affection, attention, and effort toward Him.  He's leading us to Himself.  Praise be to God, it's all of Him in all of me.  May it be so.  More on the second part of this next time.

mjm

Any comments or questions: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

The Presence of God in Worship

When the people of God gather for worship, the purpose should be to recognize the presence of God.  We gather as the redeemed and agree that "God is here".  If worship is dead, it is because of a lack of true recognition of God's presence. Singing is just singing and preaching is just noise and all of it a waste of our time if it is not flowing from the recognition of God's presence.  The church can gather and merely hang out doing meaningless ritual or we can gather in true recognition of God's presence.

Tozer wrote, "If you do not know the presence of God in your office, your factory, your home, then God is not in the church when you attend."  Also Tozer, who had a passion for worship, states, "If you major on knowing God and cultivate a sense of His presence in your daily life and 'practice the presence of God' daily seeking to know the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, you will go a long way in serving your generation for God.  No man has any right to die until he has served his generation." 

Bottom line, if we don't actively acknowledge the presence of God daily and attend to personal private worship, we will probably not experience the presence of God when the body gathers.  Let's do all we can do to pray and prepare for worship that engages the presence of our Lord.  Psalm 89:15-"Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord." mjm


Comments or Questions: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org

Igniting a Passion for the presence of God

Our worship leading choir has committed this year to praying, preparing musically and spiritually with a passion for the presence of God in our worship as a church.  If we don't pray expecting His presence who will?  If we don't prepare in our own private worship time during the week, who will?  And if we don't pursue God with passion, who will?
Every believer in the body is a worship leader for others in the way they participate in worship.  In fact in Psalm 40 we find that even the unbelievers are watching to see us "sing unto the Lord a new song", with the result of "many fearing and trusting in the Lord."
We don't gather for a "religious service"; that would be the religion Pastor Steve talked about this Lord's Day.  No, we gather as the body to engage a living Lord worthy of our worship.
George Barna found in studies that less than one out of five churches rated worship to be a top priority, and that most of those in attendance did not experience the presence of God.  We are not about playing big church.  The essence of worship is engaging the presence of God.  Psalm 100:2 is saying to us, "Worship the Lord with joy or gladness, sing yourself into His presence. " I Cor. 14:15 says, "I will pray in the spirit with understanding and I will sing in the spirit with understanding."  May the Worship Leading Choir and the Worshippers (Congregation) both, pray, prepare, and gather in His presence weekly, igniting a passion for the presence of God.
mjm

Comments or Questions: michaelj@fbcrockwalltx.org