His Work and Our Response

When we think of the work of God we usually immediately think of the cross and resurrection. There is good reason because it is a culmination of the redemptive work of God seen in God's purposes throughout history.  Even though God's past works are in redemptive history, we still must be aware that He continues to work His wonders among us today with the same power, might and majesty of the past.  It is true there are no more burning bushes, no atoning sacrifices or resurrections.  But God still works today, even in the ordinary.  Ordinary gathering of God's people in praise and prayer and we experience the glory of God.  Ordinary preaching brings the spiritually dead to life.  When God's people gather we are giving Him another opportunity to work among us, changing lives and glorifying His own name.

In covenants throughout God's Word there are always two parties.  God speaks and delivers and we then respond in faith and repentance.  But actually even faith and repentance are not our part, as God even grants faith and repentance.  But He does call for us to respond; growing in grace; remaining faithful to the end.  

Wonderfully we find the Psalms demonstrate over and over that dialogical sense of worship.  When God demonstrates His wondrous works in creation, preservation, judgement, and redemption the response seen in the Psalms is confession, praise, thanksgiving, lament, and whatever else might be an appropriate response to the Divine.  

Vagueness about the object of our praise will always lead to making our own praise the object. Praise can become an end in itself if we are caught up in our own "worship experience" rather than being completely caught up in the God whose character and acts are the only proper object of our worship. 

God is faithful to meet His people in Christ as the Holy Spirit works through the people's worship: confession of sin, declaration of forgiveness, songs of praise, confession of the faith, preaching leading to obedience, prayers, and sacraments.  The Person and Work of the Triune God must always be front and center in our worship.  What we prefer or "feel" at the moment becomes sentimental individualism, rather than God-focused worship.  He works . . . we respond!  mjm

His Majesty Speaking

Last blog we talked about our prayer spawned by the modern hymn . . . "Speak, O Lord".  In John's vision, recorded in Rev. 1:9-19, we see the transcendent glory of the appearance of Christ that is a description of His Majesty!  We need such a vision of Christ in our worship that not only informs us of the vision of the church as it is, but as it can be.  We need a 21st century vision of His Majesty, Christ the Lord, that will unveil a new and fresh encounter with Him in worship.  

If a king or even the president of a country entered the room, we would sit up, take notice, and seek to honor the office of the person.  And yet every time we enter the room gathered with God's people for worship, we are in the presence of the King of all Kings in all of His glorious majesty.

Having a new vision is not a sensation-seeking ecstasy or a form of escapism.  It is the confronting of the King of all Kings - a stark, earth-shaking, staggering shaking of our senses with a fresh, very realistic encounter with His Majesty, Lord of the Church!  This worship doesn't include tameness, predictability, numbing formality or our own prison-like presuppositions of what worship is.  It must begin with a private encounter of total upheaval in our own personal experience, allowing Jesus to deal with us in a private setting, preparing us for gathered worship.  The reason for this is so that the same realities that gripped John can grip us:  Experiencing the reality of the Majestic person of Christ, the reality of His position of authority in our lives, and the reality of His glory and power found in His completeness.

God is waiting for those who would dare to hunger and thirst for an unusual visitation of His Majesty to our 21st century generation.  He desires us to seek His glorious power and might in every culture, every nation, and every church.  Are we prepared for His Majesty to speak?  Are we prepared to seek Him with everything that we are in Christ?  Do we really hunger to honor and glorify Him?  He is so ready.  Are we?  mjm

Speak, O Lord

"Speak, O Lord" - That should be our prayer when we worship privately and when we gather as the Body of Christ for worship.  Just today I dedicated this song to our pastor as he has faithfully preached God's Word to my family for some 30 years in two different churches where we have served together.  This song is another of the great modern hymns that have been penned by Keith and Kristen Getty and Stuart Townsend.  In this blog I want to pull some lines from this wonderful hymn and speak to them.

"Speak, O Lord as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy Word.  Take Your Truth, plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us in Your likeness."  Why?  So that Christ might be seen in us in deeds of love and faith, fulfilling His purposes for His glory.  May that truly be our heart's prayer over time  as we gather for worship.  

The text goes on to challenge us to full obedience, reverence and humility, testing our thoughts and our attitudes.  This is the true result of . . . "Letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom; singing Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs with thankfulness in your hearts." (Col. 3:16)

On this Memorial Day Weekend, as we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, we need to consciously and consistently pray that His words of power that can never fail or come back void - His truth - will prevail over unbelief in our nation today.  

Finally, "speak, O Lord, and renew our minds, help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us."  I have always loved and tried to live by the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths." And Proverbs 16:3 in the Amplified Bible: "Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed."  I have held on to that in the past and continue for the future, praying that God's Kingdom and "Church will continue to be built and the earth be filled with His glory!"  What a song!  What a life!  What a Lord! mjm

A Full Spectrum of Worship

There is insight to be had about the mystery and majesty of worship in all styles of worship and worship music.  I'm reminded of that with Paul's words: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been His counselor?  Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever! Amen" (Romans 11:33-36).

God has gone past finding out; more powerful and holy and gracious than we can imagine.  He has gone beyond our highest thoughts and deeper than our most intense emotions.  And yet. . . He calls us to worship Him.  Though mortal, flawed, fallen creatures, we are to offer our worship to God - the eternal, perfect, all-wise Creator and Lord of all!  Churches and many in the church approach worship differently.  Given our limited perspectives, how could it be any different?  Until we see Him face  to face, our worship will always be partial.  Until we know fully as we are fully known, our worship will always be incomplete.  As we worship Him to the best of our ability, that will differ among His chosen ones as they worship.  Because of where I have led worship for the last 25 years and my belief in multi-generational, blended worship, I think there is something for us from most all of the differing approaches to worship.

First the Formal-liturgical kind of worship reminds us that worship is vertical, Biblical, and Godward in approach.  That is not a bad thing for us to contemplate as we worship Him.

Second, there is the traditional Hymn-based worship.  There is a theological richness found in the musical, texted form of hymns that must not be neglected by the worshipper.  And they don't have to all be only the old hymns.  The Gettys and Stuart Townsend, as well as others, are providing wonderful new hymn expressions with theological depth that we need in our spiritual walk.  We need both old and new.

Third, there is "contemporary" worship. . . which is somewhat of a nebulous term because it means something different to different people.  For the most part it uses the musical and stylistic language of the present generation to lead people into an authentic expression of worship, and sometimes into a keener awareness of the presence of God in our midst.  It has given expression directly to God where many times the hymns were expressions about God.  So it does expand our worship expression in a meaningful way.  The danger is worshipping it as a style, rather than worshipping Him, and it becoming more performance-oriented with small "praise teams" and bands.

Then there is the influence of Charismatic worship.  The good of this is that it points out that worship without the Spirit is dead.  The goal is that worshippers experience some measure of the fullness of God, including the Holy Spirit.  The pervasive problem is some of the shaky charismatic theology that goes along with it.  This kind of worship will be more faithful to God's Word if it lets go of the outcomes in worship, allowing God's Spirit to "blow wherever and however He pleases" (John 3:8) and rejoices in the true role of The Spirit in pointing to Jesus - especially His victory through suffering.

Then there is Blended, Multigenerational worship.  Worship is both divine and human.  Blended worship hopefully tries to blend the best of all the different approaches in an effective way.  It is divine in God's grace standing behind, motivating and empowering worship.  In that sense it is all about God.  But it is human in that we as worshippers must recognize His worthiness and seek to give expression to that worthiness in ways that please Him.  There is a hopefully gentle tension between the different styles that is inclusive to all generations and the body who gathers and worships together willingly yielding to one another's tastes and approaches.  This yielding is Biblical. 

As Jesus-followers we want and need the written Word of God to guide us in matters of faith and practice, including worship with discernment and sensitivity to the Spirit, realizing the vastness of His mystery and majesty in worship.  mjm

Wherever . . . I'll Follow

In one of the first blogs five years ago I talked about Matt. 4 when Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."  As I said earlier we tend to emphasize the last part neglecting the first part.  Jesus call for us to come to Him is really our call to worship.  If we are to experience the leading and power of God in our lives we must first come to Him. The more literal translation is come follow to me.  It is 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.  Jesus is both the journey and the destination!  Col. 3:4, "Christ . . . is our life."  This is our invitation to be true God-worshippers.  The pursuit of Jesus and following Him with all our heart, mind, and soul is true worship.  

That is what I have tried to do with God's call on my life.  If you count when I became church pianist and accompanist for the adult choir in my home church, I have been in music ministry for right at 54 years.  One Sunday night as a junior in high school, determined to be a band director, God spoke to me as I was playing "Wherever He Leads, I'll Go" for the invitation.  I left the piano, went to my pastor and told him that God wanted me in music ministry.  I followed through with all of my adult years being spent in music ministry in Texas and Oklahoma.  I spent some 7 years as a music missionary to Zimbabwe.  At God's leading I came to FBC, Rockwall 25 years ago.

I have always known ahead of time when God was about to lead me in a new direction.  A few months ago, he began working on me again.  I had asked Him for the last two or three years to please let me know when it was time to retire from full-time ministry.  Note:  not retiring from ministry, just full-time ministry.  God has given Fran and me a complete peace that now is the time. God's peace has amazed me as I have had to face what I am walking away from.  God is so good and merciful.  Thanks to so many of you who have been so faithful to pray for us all these years of ministry together.  I am not worried in the least about you because if God has made it so clear to me that this is the time, then He has something much better for you.  God's richest blessings on you as you continue to worship Him with all your heart, mind, and soul.  mjm

Worship Only God!

One of the gravest dangers I have seen in the resurgence of the emphasis on the worship life of the believer and the church over the last few years is that if we are not very careful we can end up worshipping a way of worship, style, even a "worship leader" or form of worship rather than worshipping Him!  Worship is not about worship; it's about Him!  It is not an event but a lifestyle.  It must be cultivated daily in our lives, not just once a week.  It is not a performance done but a presence experienced.  Unless in both our personal/private worship and in our gathered/corporate worship we have experienced the presence of God it cannot be Christian worship.  There is no worship apart from God Himself.

When our focus is on the actual manifest presence of God, our interest in certain forms, styles of music, styles of worship, all our contrived bells and whistles are of little interest.  When our personal worship is nurtured on a daily basis it feeds and fuels the gathered worship of the body as we gather weekly and experience the presence of God Almighty! I have often said the church's worship is not dependent on how well the preacher, music leader, worship leader, worship choir, etc., does their thing.  No, the church's worship as we gather is totally dependent on the nurtured daily worship of the body of Christ before we gather.  When a congregation full of people have been with God and then gather together, God will be in the house in all His glory!

If it's that important, let's review some musts in personal nurturing of our daily worship lives:

Quietness - We each must find a place in our lives without distraction, withdrawing for a time from the world and finding our peace in God Himself.  Our lives are too full of noise and commotion. Yea, even our churches are.  Finding a quiet place is a challenge but it is well worth the effort.  We must learn to be still; only then will we know He is God.  We must learn to wait patiently and quietly on God.  Noise is the enemy of our soul nurture.  Some of the old saints would practice what was termed "tarrying."  They would get on their knees and tarry in God's presence until the light broke forth into their hearts.  

Scripture -  All our worship begins and ends with the Bible.  The Bible must have a prominent place in the daily life of every believer.  It is the divine roadmap leading us to Holy God.  Our reading of it must not be a marathon but a slow, deliberate soaking in the message.  To use a cooking term, the scripture must be allowed to marinate in our minds and hearts, nurturing our hearts.  We must always approach it realizing that God is speaking His living Word to us.  And we must not fail to meditate to the point of memorization . . . "hiding His Word in our hearts."  

Prayer -  Our prayer lives must move beyond "getting things" from God.  It must become not simply getting our prayers answered but fellowshipping in the overwhelming presence of God. Prayer is not a monologue but a dialogue of intimate fellowship.  Tozer once said, "The key to praying is simply praying," . . . engaging the very God of the universe in wonder and adoration, resulting in spontaneous worship.  

Hymns - Yes, we live in a day when some have come to disdain hymns.  At the risk of sounding old and out of touch:  after the Bible the hymnal is one of the most important and valuable books for meditation and worship.  You need not wade through heavy theological treatises to become a theologian.  Just spend time meditating on some of the great hymns of the faith and you will become a growing theologian.  

Finally, devotional readings of some of the great saints are important to our personal worship. Simplifying our lives is also important to our personal worship.  Too much activity or just too many things in our lives can suck the life out of us.  We must constantly go through our schedule and eliminate, putting certain activities on the altar of sacrifice that we "may know Him."  And then lastly, friendships can be one of the most potential dangers to our worship life.  Our chosen friends can make or break our deeper walk with Christ.  Cultivate your dearest friendships with people who make Him their priority and constant companion.  "I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things.  And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.  But he said, 'No don't worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book.  Worship only God!'" (Rev. 22: 8-9) mjm

A Song and a Prayer

Yes, I know there are songs with those lyrics, but I want to discuss the idea of a song and a prayer from Revelation 5:8ff.  In this passage we see the church represented by the twenty-four elders, with their leading the members of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation in worship of the Lamb.  

But what did these lead worshippers carry with them into the presence of Holy God?  What were the two things that gained them entry into His glorious presence? "...the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense."  The harp is representative of a song or music and the incense represents the prayers of God's people.  With music and prayer in hand they proceeded to sing!  Praise is only half the battle.  Without the offering of incense, a choir and a church committed to prayer, it is impossible to adequately worship Him.

After reading Jim Cymbala's book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire some 20 years ago I became convicted that our worship choir needed to be a praying people if we were ever to lead worship effectively. My desire was that our worship-leading choir become known as a praying group of people and that we fervently pray for the worship in our church.  In 2 Chronicles 20 we see that we are to be the lead warriors as members of God's choir and it is impossible for us to do that apart from a devoted prayer life.  We would have to be a people of prayer.  

Part of the job description for worship leaders is that we be prayer warriors.  The very weapons of our warfare in breaking through to worship are praise, prayer, and prophecy ("telling forth" the truth of God's Word).  Without prayer we are in danger of bringing incomplete and unacceptable offerings of worship to God.  Unfortunately, many times we have the harp in one hand and nothing in the other. As a worship-leading choir, God's choir, we must see the value of prayer.  We must pray constantly, and with all our heart be models of this for the church we lead in worship.  It will unify us in purpose and in song.  May we always have ...a harp in one hand and golden bowls full of incense in the other.  mjm

God's Choir

Dave Williamson talks about three kinds of choirs.  I want to take the basics of what he has said and enlarge upon it from my own experience in church choirs for the past 53 years, starting as the accompanist of the church choir in my home church.

There are basically three kinds of church choirs seen in my lifetime.  The Volunteer Choir, the Commitment Choir and the Covenant/Worship Choir.  All three of these approaches have certain characteristics and purposes.  

First of all there is motivation and agreement:  In the Volunteer Choir it is between you and yourself.  In the Commitment Choir the motivation and agreement is between you and others, but in the Covenant/Worship Choir your motivation and agreement is between you and God.  The reasons for becoming a part of the choir for the volunteer is to sing and develop friendships.  For the Commitment Choir it is those same things plus being a part of a worthy organization.  And then there are all of those things plus the most important: a calling to lead worship. That is the Covenant/Worship Choir.

Then there are the reasons for staying with it after joining.  The volunteers stay because the director meets their expectations and not too many expectations are placed on the volunteers.  For the Commitment Choir the organization itself meets expectations and acceptable expectations are placed on the choir member.  For the Covenant/Worship Choir the choir member is faithful no matter what expectations come from the director and/or others because his faithfulness is determined by his covenant with God Himself.  Expectations vary among the three.  The Volunteer Choir member shows up occasionally - as is convenient.  The Commitment Choir member almost always shows up. The Covenant/Worship Choir member is always looking as to how he can contribute in meaningful ways with a full commitment of preparation to lead others to the throne in worship.

The most meaningful outcome of each of these three:  The Volunteer Choir has a good experience singing and has the congregation's applause.  For the Commitment Choir it's about good use of time with good singing and building relationships.   However, for the Covenant/Worship Choir the best outcome is growing in personal worship and enhancing and enabling the congregation's growth in worship.  

Finally, the primary focus for the three - The Volunteer Choir's focus is to sing and have fun.  The Commitment Choir has a sense of purpose, singing for Jesus and seeking to develop relationships. But the Covenant/Worship Choir has all of those plus: worship and leading worship in spirit and in truth so that the congregation might experience His presence and power! I am so thankful that I have the privilege of leading a Covenant/Worship Choir.  Does every choir member see it that way?  No, but the majority do.  Praise be to Him! mjm

God's Calling to Lead Worship

When we talk about God's calling to lead worship many people assume we are talking about the person who leads worship rather than those who lead worship.  Yes, I was called to lead worship at a young age and prepared to do that.  However I have always  believed, according to Scripture, that the choirs of the churches I have served were also called, and no less than myself, to lead worship.  God lays out a divine plan and then calls and equips His people to carry it out. I believe - on the foundation of God's word and with every fiber of my being - that people who sing in the worship choirs of their churches are called out to do so.  That is why I have never asked for volunteers.  And I have noticed over the years that people who consider themselves volunteers don't last.

Also we see in God's Word that calling always leads to covenant.  I love what Dave Williamson has to say about the definition of covenant based on God's call:  "A covenant is created by the intentional, unconditional acceptance by man or woman of something spiritually significant which has originated in the heart of God and which He has requested of you, and empowered you to do." When a person accepts and responds to God's call a covenant is created.  

The very reason I constantly talk to our worship choir about two big picture issues is because of the above.  I constantly stress prayer as it keeps us connected to God's call and our covenant with Him to lead worship.  And I constantly remind the worship choir that our primary purpose and role is to prepare musically and in prayer to lead and usher our people into the manifest presence of God in worship.  If we aren't prepared musically, we're too concerned with the music.  If we haven't prepared through prayer, we are not anticipating and expecting the manifest presence of God.  If you are a choir member, remain faithful to your calling.  If you are one of the congregation, please be faithful to pray for the worship-leading choir and the worship services every week.  mjm