Symphony of Worship - Part Two

(no transitioning –  just continuing from part one)

When Church leaders set apart worship from everything else, I fear that we are sending a message that conflicts with the whole life concept of worship before God.

This is easily remedied by those same spiritual leaders teaching and using a truly simple approach to scriptural truths.

Let us see a simple scripture with such powerful truth.

Romans 12: 1 says it all,

          Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as

          living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

…No organs, no flair, no flash, no amps, no lights…Just our spiritual act of worship. How beautiful and freeing this truth is that I can worship any time, any place because giving myself (body) to the Lord as an act of worship. What if I do this every day and have a mind like this ongoingly?  Can’t this attitude of worship be in my life at all times? Of course it can. And it is then that I begin to understand more of how that worship is my life, not just a 30 minute a church service or a two hour concert.

Not too long ago as I was studying, I read an interesting phrase written by Sally Morgenthaler (a worship leader specialist who really got it).  After years of teaching on worship, she wrote these words, “Worship must finally become, as Paul reminds us (in Romans 12:1), more life than event.”

From this, we can gather that she is saying that worship is not just a scheduled event, but rather it is a way of life for every day that we live. I believe that this is what the Bible is teaching in this verse. We are to worship when we are working or driving a car; when we hold hands and kiss; when we are on the computer; and when we…well, do everything else.  Bringing this truth into our daily lives is so pivotal, that it would transform our marriages, homes, and churches in a supernatural way if allowed too.

In the scriptures, a worshipful heart and spirit is tied to everything else that believers in Christ do when they are sincere before the Lord. Worship, at times, can be an event with other believers, but even then it is what flows from our everyday living as we have been worshiping the Lord all the time in our lives already. It is difficult to allow worship to flow freely on Sunday, if it has been ignored all the rest of the week.

But let’s take a minute to look at this from another approach.  In the Old Testament, the Temple was built for the purpose of housing God’s presence so that the people could come there to sacrifice and worship the Lord God.  Most Christians are familiar with that teaching in the Bible.

So then, how does that knowledge apply when we read what Paul writes in this passage?

          I Corinthians 6:19  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy        Spirit,  Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? ………..

I believe that it applies this way: Since worship goes on in God’s presence, and since we are the temple in which He dwells, then everything we do should translate into worshiping Him.  If we are not doing so, maybe there is something going on inside of us that hinders the worship that should be flowing from our lives.

Can I go to the movies and worship?  Sure.  What about when I am shopping or planting a garden?  Yes, I can worship during that too.

People who glitch up at this truth have not yet understood the truth of Romans 12:1. 

Romans 12: 1

          Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as

          living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

The whole worship thing can also be shut down by more than just faking it….unresolved sin can also cut off our ability to worship. Worship is a spiritual act: ….not a fleshly one …not sinful.

          The words “holy and pleasing” have more to do with forgiveness than     with perfection. You see, when we have confessed and received forgiveness from the Lord, it is then that we are “holy and pleasing to God”.

If we keep sin close to ourselves, we can be sitting in the most fantastic place with a great “atmosphere of worship”, but still be faking it with empty motions.

Can I worship during the impure thoughts that occur when that gorgeous babe or hunk walks by?

Not so much so.

Probably not.

Of course not…..

What about when I have unresolved issues between me and my wife?  ....Another stopper.

No matter how reverent or loud the place of worship is, it won’t cover unresolved sin.

Stuff like this clogs up the spiritual pipes…worship stops right here.

Repent, confess and let Jesus fix it.

It is great and fun to have choirs, worship teams, drums, and bands!  I love them all!  And I say the louder the better!! (personal preference)

But just realize this about them, these things don’t define the worship experience alone and make it exclusive to themselves.  Some of the people I know get this, but sadly, there are still a great many who don’t. 

So then, what do we do? Draw from the scripture our teaching of worship. Replace the western culture definition of worship with a scriptural definition of worship, and then just live that life of worship of the Lord every day. What is wrong with that?

By the way, you can teach this to your friends too.

Yep, you really can worship when you wash the car, or change a baby’s diaper, or fix the tractor, or even while being intimate with your spouse.

For the one with an open, loving, and right relationship with the Lord, all the beautiful sounds of every part of their lives come together for a symphony of worship.

C ya,

Dan

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A Symphony of Worship - Part One

What your brain pictures when you read the title above will definitely influence what you think I am going to write in this blog.  But what I am hoping for, is that as we process these thoughts together, new ones may emerge to challenge and stretch our thinking. 

These new thoughts might even make you a little uncomfortable.  Knowing people as we do, there are some of us who are very comfortable where we are in life and really don’t want to entertain challenging truths.  However, for all of us that hunger to know more, and want to grow in understanding, I invite you to come and explore deeper roots with me.

At some time in history, words and titles like worship band, worship leader, worship service, and worship pastor did not exist.  They were created later to describe an act, person, or position.  While I fully believe that all of these titles were designated with wonderful intentions and have served us very well in the church, I also believe that sometimes the true view and meaning of worship has been skewed because of misunderstanding and lack of meaningful teaching.

I fear that many, in their church experience, have accidently been given the idea that worship goes something like this:

          Get up.

          Get ready.

          Go to the church building. 

          Get out of the car. 

          Say “hello” to my friends.

          Grab some coffee.

          Go to the auditorium. 

          Hear some great and powerful Christian music. 

Sing, clap, raise their hands and be excited.

          Then, worship stops and the preaching begins.

And, in reality, they may have focused on worship or, on the other hand, they may not have done anything more than just have a social, religious activity that feels really good.

We need to be aware that sometimes what we do in a church service could easily be done without the Spirit of the Lord even being present. Our self sufficient tendencies push us toward the direction that if the Lord decided to not show up at our church services, we could carry on just fine without Him.

When was the last time that someone you know sat in a dry, dead church service, and during the meeting they spoke up and said, “Hey everybody our worship sounds so manufactured and artificial, let’s just stop this service and pray for the presence of the Lord before we do another thing!”  (You probably won’t need a calculator to add up the amount of times you have heard of this being done.)

Fortunately, there are plenty of churches that are not dry and dead, but then again, so very many are because they have slipped into a comfortable blur of repetition based more on self gratification rather than on worshiping the person of Christ.

When a church service is carried on that way, who is it that has the courage to speak up in such a meeting? Normally we just let the service go on and hope for better next time. Some people just decide to leave such churches (they may not even know fully why) and then try to find another church that hopefully does “church” better.

Sometimes in our zeal and quickness to grow the church, we leave off some necessary teaching from the scripture – by accident or neglect—no matter, the result is the same.

Here is an example:  Many of us have the idea that worship is something we do at the church or in a home on any given day (usually Saturdays or Sundays) of the week.  Just step up to the average Christian and ask them when do they “go to worship.”  Most of the time, their answer will prove what I just said is right.

Usually when someone brings up the idea of worship, our minds run to envisioning a place, guitars, key boards, singing, and such, or it may go to organs and choir lofts. 

Now please don’t get me wrong, I love all of this stuff too! I admire all the gifted musicians and singers that God has given us for such wonderful enhancement to our church services. Some of the Godliest people I know are worship leaders, and I really do appreciate the great effort they put into designing a time during which we can worship the Lord together.  God has gifted them in such a special way.

But understand this fact, no building, piano, drum, choir robe, or worship leader/pastor is necessary at all for worship.  The problem comes to us when we begin to think that they are necessary.

I have sat in many church services when someone in leadership got up after the singing and said “Boy, that was some great worship today!” Usually when this is said it is referring to the great singing, not really to genuine worship. That person unknowingly has just reinforced several confusing ideas to not only the young or unlearned Christian, but also to the lost.  (Sadly, I too have done this …..before I knew better.)

Some of the wrong ideas promoted are:

         

          --Worship is always done before the preaching and is apart from everything

             else.

         

          --The only way to have great worship is with a really good band and loud music.

                  

          --If I am really worshiping, I must raise my hands or dance around.

          --If I am quiet and reserved, then I must not really be worshiping.

To me, when a ministry (knowingly or unknowingly) is promoting this understanding of worship, it allows Satan to gather several advantages over us.

Some are listed here:

          --He (Satan) will tell the untaught that prayer is not worship---it is just…well

                                                                                                            prayer.

          --Listening to the sermon is not worship, it is just learning.

          --Bringing my broken, weeping heart before God can’t be worship, because there

                                                                                    is no joy or praise involved.


(Part Two Next Week)

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Lie to Me…A Little Bit

            Isn’t it amazing how that we try to design our lives in the best possible way to milk approval and acceptance from others?  Believe it or not, we will willingly accept being lied to in order to get this from others.

            This is a concept that we developed early on in our lives from the flesh controlling us before we became believers in Christ.  It still tries to intimidate, control, and trouble us as we daily live our lives.

            Now, those of you who came to know Christ early in life may not have as strong a problem as mine, but you still live in a fleshly body that irritates and troubles you too.

Sometimes it really kicks our butts!

            ……… enough of theology for now; I don’t want you falling asleep on me!

But the truth really is, we like people to lie to us about certain things.  Most of the time, we Christians like to use a word that is more comfortable to us—exaggerate.

            Put yourself into this situation:

            A wife tries on a new pair of jeans, then turns to her husband and says the most dreaded words he can ever possibly hear.

            “Honey, do these jeans make me look fat?”  Immediately his mind starts racing toward answers while subconsciously considering suicide.

 Answers like these begin to pop up in his terror filled mind:

            A.  “Well Honey,  yea…a little.”

            B.  “Honey, I heard a noise outside and I need to go check it out.  You look fine.”

            C.  (Lie today, live tomorrow) “Of course not, dear!  You are looking thinner every

                   day!”

Her expectations of an answer are also running through her mind as she really desires affirmation:

            A.  “Please!! – I sooo want to not look fat!”

            B.  “Don’t answer if I do look fat because I like these jeans so much.”

            C.  “Honey, if you really love me, lie to me – a little bit.”

Hopefully he says the right thing in order to live another day, and so that his dear wife will feel good about herself.

            Sometimes we all think like this in the different situations of our lives.  We all like to be lied to – a little bit.  No one wants to be told that they have on an ugly shirt, or that their hair looks goofy today.  We subconsciously think, “Just tell me I look fine.”  (Lie to me—just a little.)

            Recently, I was in a meeting where that I was not lied to, not even a little bit.  It was a six month training class where I was learning how to be a better chaplain, pastor, and caregiver to those who naturally come into my life.  Part of the intent of this class was that we had to evaluate ourselves and each other very honestly.  Because these people would not lie to me and pamper my ego, at times it was very uncomfortable and I just wanted to run away to my safe place.

            One of the most important things that happened early on was one of the students (who happened to be a preacher also) looked directly at me and said, “Dan, I sense that you have a lot of pain in your life.”  I was taken aback and stunned…because he was absolutely right!  I thought that I had it hidden so well, but the Lord knew that it was time that I faced the truth.

            Immediately I had a strange, almost overwhelming urge to get alone with the Lord and weep before Him because of the hurt associated with my pain.  Later, when I did get to spend time talking to the Lord, I received a peace that I had not known so fully for a long time.  I felt free from much of the pain in my life.

           

Jesus’ words tell us in John 8:32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord had a “truth” meeting planned for me on that special day.  While being drawn by the Lord to face my pain, I experienced the grace of His forgiveness and tender healing of my heart.  You see, deep down, I had blamed the Lord for a lot of my pain.

            In my life, what I wanted was for others to lie to me and tell me that I was OK.  Usually people cooperated with my act very well and encouraged me that all was great, but really, the truth is, I was just hiding and managing all my pain.

            Apparently, the Lord loved me too much to leave me hurting in the way that I was, so He called me out to face it.  In His kind, gentle way, He soothed my hurting heart and healed much of my pain.

            Oh, now don’t get me wrong!  There is no doubt that I still have issues (probably a lot of the same ones as you), but now I am learning to run to the Lord for His forgiveness and healing of my heart.  There is nothing else like it.

Jesus said these beautiful words to us:

            “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”

            “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

He is willing to set you free from your pain also……are you ready for your “truth” meeting?  Just go to Him with an honest, open heart.

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About the Business..........

        Some wise people have given us memorable sayings throughout history.  A great many of these have been passed down through time to help anyone who might happen to pay attention to their wisdom. We usually are better off when we pay attention to them.

          Today, we also pass down phrases to remind us of things that we enjoy or like.  You might recognize one of these:  “I’ll be back,”  “Inconceivable!”, and “Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.”  (Terminator, The Princess Bride, and The Wizard of Oz)   These phrases usually tie together faces, movies, and events that we once were exposed to and, at the moment, have some sort of meaning to us.

          Eventually, we all find ourselves quoting phrases of some sort or other.  Sometimes it is just because we know them and that they are fun to say.  One saying that I like to quote is, “Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies.”  This phrase happens to be from one of my favorite books and, believe me, I have no earthly idea why a preacher should be saying this…..but I still like to quote it….

          Recently, while I was praying over a subject to speak on, the Lord impressed on my mind a thought from scripture that keeps getting my attention every time I think about my own life.  It is found in the Book of Luke, chapter 2, in and around verse 49.

          Jesus happened to be twelve years old at the time and on a family trip to Jerusalem to attend the Passover festival that his family went to every year. After a few days the festival finally was over, and now it was time to go home.  As the story continues, we get the indication that Jesus was acting like a normal kid—probably horse-playing or doing something with his cousins, and as the whole group started traveling home, Mary and Joseph thought that Jesus was somewhere among all the relatives.  After a day’s travel, when they began to look for Jesus, it was discovered that he was missing.  As any loving parents would, Mary and Joseph turned around immediately and went back to Jerusalem.  Frantically searching, it took them another three days to find Him!  (Imagine the fear in a parent’s heart when their kid is missing for three days.  In verse 48 the word “anxiously” has the idea of “terror” in it.)

          After the scolding (yep, it’s there), Jesus said to His parents, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”  The meaning of the word “business” here is house, affairs, or things. A literal translation records it as “……busy about the affairs of my Father.”  Jesus said, in the first recorded conversation that we have of His life, that He had to be busy about the affairs of the Father, and this phrase evidently guided the rest of His life.  Everything else He did from then on involved being busy about the affairs of the Father.

          As God’s children, I believe that this is a shining example and pattern for us all to follow.  When Jesus gave the call to others of His day (and eventually us also), to follow Him, this was a part of that call: continually concerning ourselves with the things of the Father.

         

Now, get a full picture of what I am saying about this.

          When I go to work each day as an executive (or whatever else I am),  I should be purposefully about my Father’s business.  When I go to work each day as a manager of people, waitress at a restaurant, or a checkout clerk at Walmart, my mindset should be about the things of my Father.  You see, the Father has a plan how each of these professions can be used to bless us personally, further the Kingdom of God, and just generally be used by Him to carry the gospel to others in a very powerful way.

          Of course all of this is good, but now let’s allow our thoughts to go even farther.  How do you think that it would affect my spouse or my children if I approached them as part of my Father’s business for me to love and care for them?  How would it affect me also as I dealt with them from this mindset?

          And what about the things I look at on the computer or who I talk to on Facebook, Twitter, or my iPad?  How would these relationships be changed if I approached them as things of my Father?  Would my language change? My thoughts? Would my desires in life find changes in their order of priority?

          Jesus’ whole life was defined by this phrase:

          “I must be involved with the things concerning my Father.” 

I ask ever so kindly, what kind of phrase describes the life that you are living now?

And……..

What does that phrase say about you?

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