Trinitarian Worship

It would be understood, I assume, that the Trinity is very important in approaching worship.  There is much we don't fully understand about the Trinity and much understanding we haven't attained in worship.  God draws us into the three-person life.  

C. S. Lewis says, "An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers.  He is trying to get in touch with God.  But if a Christian, he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God:  God, so to speak, inside him.  But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God - that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him.  You see what is happening.  God is the thing to which he is praying - the goal he is trying to reach.  God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on - the motive power.  God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal.  So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary Christian is saying his prayers."

So, God is at work prompting us, encouraging us, and even when we don't know what to pray - praying through us, as seen in Romans 8:26.  It is God simultaneously doing the praying in me, receiving the prayer and in that exchange agreed to in me, inviting me into the Christ life of the redeemed. 

What does all of this have to do with worship?  In a simple statement:  God actively prompts, receives, and perfects our worship.  Hallelujah!  mjm

Worship . . . Seeking God's Face . . . Not His Hand

There are evidences of both seeking God's face and seeking God's hand throughout Scripture.  Too many times we as believers are more concerned about seeking God's hand than we are about seeking God's face.  Authentic worship would lead us to seek God's face first and foremost.  

God's hand is always associated with God's actions in Scripture - whether it be for good or destruction.  It is by His hand that His power is demonstrated.  God's face is associated with seeking God in His fullness.  Not seeking "a hand out of trouble" but seeking Him for who He is.  When we are seeking God's hand we are looking for results, answers, or an experience.  When we seek His face we are seeking Him for Himself, to abide in Him, aware of His fullness within us and His presence dwelling in us in glory. When we seek God's face we will feel the blessings from His hand in natural progression. But too many of us go straight for the blessing over the Blesser.  We are more interested in the gift than in the Giver. 

Second Chronicles 7:14 makes it very clear that we can't come face to face with God apart from          1) humbling ourselves, 2) praying, and 3) turning from our wicked ways.  In seeking God's face we are seeking His heart and mind. We can only do that by coming clean before Him! He longs to have relationship with us, rather than our just looking to Him as a big Santa Claus with a bag full of "spiritual treats".   

As we approach our personal and corporate worship let us hear what Augustine had to say: "Essentially there are two kinds of people, because there are two kinds of love.  One is holy, the other is selfish.  One is subject to God, the other endeavors to equal Him.  One is friendly, the other is envious.  One wishes for the neighbor what it would wish for itself; the other wishes to subject the neighbor to itself.  One guides the neighbor in the interests of the neighbor's good; the other guides the neighbor for its own interests."  Psalm 27: 8 says, "You have said, 'Seek my face.'  My heart says to you, 'Your face, Lord, do I seek.'" In today's worship, the two kinds of people described above are simply the ones who seek God's hand and the ones who seek God's face (heart and mind).  Which are you?  mjm

Reverence, Idols and Worship

As our Pastor begins a series on The Ten Commandments, I began thinking about those commandments and worship.  We talked a little about reverence in the last blog. The very foundational principle of the Ten Commandments is reverence for God.  Jesus reaffirmed this quality in indicating man's approach to God in the first petition in the Lord's Prayer.  "Hallowed be Thy Name."  We live in a day where people are too flippant about the name of God and use it in a trivial way.  

We also find that any sort of idolatry is absolutely forbidden by God.  These ten commandments were the basis of the Hebrew Law and Covenant.  Four of them have to do with our attitudes and relationship to God and six of them have to do with our attitudes and relationship to our fellowman.  Jesus gave us a "cliff notes" version of all of them in two commandments - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with All thy Heart and Soul and Strength and Mind; and thy Neighbor as Thyself."

When we believers look at contemporary idolatry we usually bring up money, status, sports, man-made heroes and celebrities, etc.  But, as believers we forget some of the idols we tend to carve out in our own image, minds and hearts, especially those having to do with worship.  We have lived through a time where believers have literally had wars over styles and practices of worship and styles of music, allowing our own cultural or sub-cultural biases and personal tastes to make worship about us rather than about Him.  Is your worship idol . . . traditional, modern, blended, classic, evangelistic, contemporary, southern gospel, ancient,  . . . all of these ideas and words conjured up by us in trying to describe "my" kind of worship?  May we be reminded again - that this is just another form of idolatry.  Worship is not about me or my personal likes or dislikes, ever - it is about Him! May we extol and lift Him up in Worship!  Nothing belongs in place of Him.  mjm

Reverence and Awe . . . Acceptable Worship

I came across a verse in my daily reading of the Word this week that caught my attention.  I was reading from Hebrews 12: 28-29 - "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."  In this chapter we've seen Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith; challenged in not growing weary with the hostility of sin and sinners or the discipline of the Lord; and then the passage shows us our inheritance of being a part of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.  And, at the very end of all of this - talks about our acceptable worship.  

Notice the two things about our acceptable worship - reverence and awe.  The word denoting "reverence" is used some 13 times in scripture and the word "awe" some 15 times.  According to the dictionary reverence is a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; the outward manifestation of this attitude; a gesture indicative of deep respect; to bow- which crosses into the Biblical meaning of worship.  The meaning of the word "awe" - goes to an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, and healthy fear having to do with great power.  Awe has the power to both inspire and restrain.  Think a moment about the meanings of these words having to do with worship.

In our day and time the "awe" factor has been greatly accepted in worship practice, but unfortunately the "reverence" factor as been abused by many worship leaders indicating that reverence equals dead in the practice of worship.  This is truly unfortunate.  It is clear in this short passage that acceptable worship includes both reverence and awe.  Let us think on those attitudes and feelings in our own practice of worshipping Him.  mjm

Our Profound Alleluia!

Fred Pratt Green, a British Minister and Hymn writer in the 20th century, went to be with the Lord in 2000.  He left us with one of my favorite hymn texts which we don't sing very often because it is not well known.  The hymn is - When in our Music God is Glorified.  I want to look briefly at some of the text and comment on it.  It is based on Psalm 69, verse 30 and following.

"When in our music God is glorified

And adoration leaves no room for pride

It is as though the whole creation cried

Alleluia"

We are reminded that all of creation gives adoration and praise and we are invited to join in.  And, heart-felt, passionate adoration leaves no room in our lives for pride.  

"How often making music we have found

A new dimension in the world of sound

As worship moved us to a more profound

Alleluia"

God made us creative. His intention is that we continually create new sounds in His gift of music that will bring praise and worship to Him.  And,  authentic worship will always move us to a more profound alleluia!

"And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night

When utmost evil strove against the light

Then let us sing for whom He won the fight

Alleluia!

Jesus paved the way for us to sing the song of victory over death and darkness.  And we are challenged to sing Alleluia to the one for whom He won the fight!

"Let every instrument be tuned for praise

Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise

And may God give us faith to sing always

Alleluia"

We all know that we are challenged to use all instruments and everything that has breath to give praise to the Lord.  That includes every rejoicing believer's voice to be raised.  The question is . . . Are our voices "tuned for praise"?  And in closing, may God truly give us faith to sing always the Alleluia song -- both here in the now (so others will see and hear the song) and for eternity (as we sing Alleluia before the throne)!  mjm

Copyright 1972 Hope Publishing Co. CCLI #547964

Close Encounters of A God Kind

At the end of Exodus 34 we see Moses coming down from Mount Sinai after a "close encounter of a God-kind".  He had experienced such a revelation of the living God that God's glory was shining on his face.  What is the insight for us?  That a deep revelation of God brings change to those who experience Him.  He was given access to the presence of God, removing the veil covering His face, and he became a transformed worshipper - glowing with the glory of God.  

God removed a veil on the day of the crucifixion that gives us the same kind of access.  And 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit".  God invites us into an amazing place in worship.  His desire is to transform us into His likeness.  But, it can only happen as we allow ourselves to spend quality time with Him.  

He desires an intimate relationship so that His glory might be seen.  Jesus reiterates this in Revelation 3:20.  "Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me."  Too often we take this passage to be evangelistic for the lost; however, Jesus is inviting His people to a greater intimacy with Him.  There will be a whole different dynamic in worship if we will fix our eyes on Jesus.  And to see Him is to reflect His glory.  It is only then that we can truly be "making His Praise known"!  Our worship with the gathered body every Sunday is dependent on how many of us have paid the price to be with Him intimately - to the point of HIS glory being on our faces in worship.  May we be faithful! mjm

Confession in Worship

Worship does not come naturally for us, basically, because we are sinners.  Our relationships with God, with our neighbors and friends, and with God's creation are all flawed and damaged.  God's original purpose for us has been destroyed.  Confession of sin and His assurance of pardon is very important because it is the part of worship where relationship with God and people are restored.  Christ redeemed and reconciled believers to God so the way for us to worship "in spirit and in truth" would be reopened.  When we come before God in worship with an attitude and heart that says, "Lord have mercy", and pray - "Create in me a clean heart, O God," . . . then God's Spirit creates new paths for both reconciliation and joy.  Unfortunately in these days, there are worship leaders who don't feel you should ever use confession of sin and assurance of pardon in a service, in prayers or songs, because they are judged to be depressing.  But in reality, the very act of confession and affirmation of assurance  is a celebration of the identity of community of baptized believers.  Brothers and sisters in Christ are able to rejoice together in the grace that makes their relationship with God and with each other possible.

Unconfessed sin is an obstacle to worship.  The great missionary, Bertha Smith, used to greet people with the words, "are you confessed up to date?".  She knew the importance of confession to break down the dam of sin into glorious worship.  When people are asked why they don't feel like worshipping, the natural response is to point to someone else's failure: the minister, the musician worship leader, or some "Christian" they knew.  When broken relationships and personal failures control us we are unable to worship as God intended.  Confession is the only Biblical way to experience forgiveness, grace, and unhindered worship. mjm

The Book of Songs

I have the joy of reading from the Psalms every day.  For a long time now I have committed to reading through the Psalms and Proverbs every month in addition to my other Bible reading.  The Psalms give us a good grounding in our personal experiences and feelings.  

In our day people are looking for experience over rationalism.  Scientific knowledge has lost its pervasive hold over our western culture.  Experience, even to the point of mysticism, has gained significance  in people's minds.  To a great extent thinking has given way to feeling.  It was natural that the pendulum would swing, but there are inherent dangers.  We still must hold on to objective truth and of course our feelings can greatly mislead us.  But, the Psalms provide us with a Biblical model of how to properly balance heart and mind.  The Psalmists constantly bring the intensity of their feelings and invite us to experience along with them, never surrendering to mindless emotion.  The Psalmists always bring their feelings in the context of God's revealed character and will.

We also see the importance of our experiencing both highs and lows in emotions and feelings in the context of objective truth.  This is highlighted in Psalms 42 and 43.  This chorus shows up three times in these two Psalms:

"Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."

Here we find a song written out of an experience of an intense sadness of heart.  In fact, it is a psalm composed by someone in the midst of deepest depression.  But when we study the whole of these two Psalms, we see that in this man's experience, depression was not the enemy of spirituality.  But rather, paradoxically, it was the seed or catalyst of spiritual growth and development.  

Our worship is not all joy, nor should it be.  We see that in the reading of the Psalms.  There are songs of the night and songs of the day.  When there are songs of the night, joy comes in the morning.  We can learn much about how we should worship in the midst of our own experiences in this great song book.  mjm

A Personal Word . . .

I was given the privilege and honor of being asked to be guest conductor for the Greater Rockwall Symphony Orchestra for a concert last night.  It was a great time of fun making music with around 60 professional and auditioned musicians.  I was grateful for the experience.

However, . . . I was reflecting on it in the shower this morning.  And I thought to myself:  You know that was a really fun and meaningful experience, but it was not at all the same as what I get to do all of the time, which is . . . seek to glorify the Lord in the midst of His presence with His people.  Wow!!! There is nothing that can compare with that experience.  

I entered the worship center this morning about 6:30a and the band and vocalists came in and we started rehearsing.  Within moments, I was in tears weeping because of what I was experiencing that is so totally different than what I experienced last night.  I realized that even though I had college professors (in a Baptist School)  who encouraged me to not waste my musical ability on church music, that I am, and have always been, right where I am supposed to be - doing exactly what God intended before I was fashioned in my mothers's womb.  Praise to the Lord!  There is no music that can compare with HIS SONG!  It is inspired music.

Thanks to the First Family for continuing to let me do what God made and called me to do!  mjm