Great Worship Today!

Almost every Sunday, someone says something like this to me, “Great worship today!” You don’t have to be a Greek or Hebrew scholar to interpret the meaning of those words. They usually mean, “I really liked the music today.” Generally, I don’t stop and enter into a theological discourse about the implications of that short phrase. I usually simply accept it as a compliment, say “Thank you,” and continue greeting others as they leave the worship center. But for just a minute, I would like to explore with you what it means to be engaged in “great worship.” Two words should stand out to you in this discussion, recognition and response. Rory Noland observes in his inspiring book, The Worshipping Artist, “Today many equate being emotionally moved by music as being moved by the Spirit, but these are not the same. Real worship happens when your spirit responds to [who God is], not some musical tone. Thus, worship is an action, a response, it is something we do.” In I Chronicles 16:28-30, the New Living Translation (NLT) records the words of David in this way. “O nations of the world, recognize the Lord,
recognize that the Lord is glorious and strong. Give to the Lord the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor.” The first step to “great worship” is to recognize who God is. The second is to respond to who He is by giving, bringing and coming, all action verbs. Music is not worship. But music is a wonderful means by which we can worship. It engages our entire being; mind, soul and body. The lyrics express our thoughts. The beauty of the sounds coupled with the rise and fall of the melodies engage our emotions. The notes we sing and play encourage us, as in the words of Paul, “To present our bodies as a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God. This is our reasonable act of worship.” I want to close with one of the best definitions of worship that I have ever heard. “Worship, therefore, is passionate, zealous, uninhibited all-out engagement with the presence and character of God.” (Rory Noland, The Worshipping Artist) Now, go and have some “Great worship today!”

The 10,000 Steps Challenge

Growing up, I did a lot of running; running after almost any kind of sports “ball” you can imagine. I wasn’t the fastest guy on the team but I very well might have been the most determined. If it was on a football field, I ran with one thing in mind . . . get into the end zone. If it was on a basketball court, it was to make sure that the opposing team’s fast break did not end in a layup. If it was on a baseball field, it was to stretch that line drive single into a double. But in recent years, I’ve started walking. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not just a casual walker. I’m just as determined in my walking as I was in my running. I walk with a purpose. I have a route marked off in my neighborhood that is exactly two miles long. I don’t walk just to enjoy the neighborhood or even just to be outdoors. I walk to keep my heart strong and with the hope of the side benefit of losing some weight. I read an interesting statistic the other day. It is from a web site called 10,000 Steps. Most “inactive” people take somewhere around 3,000 steps a day just in their normal everyday routine. That is the equivalent of about one and a half miles. For health reasons, this web site was encouraging everyone to walk 10,000 steps a day or the equivalent of just about five miles. If you did that everyday, seven days a week, you would walk about 1,825 miles per year. If my calculations are correct, that translates into approximately 138,700 miles in an average lifetime or almost five and a half times around the world. Scripture tells us that we should walk through this world with a purpose. Isaiah 30:21 tells us, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Here’s a question for you to think about. In your walk through this world, are you listening for that voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it?” If you determine to take on the 10,000 steps challenge, just remember the promise of the Lord as recorded in Psalm 37:23, “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” Next time you’re in town, call me. We’ll go for a walk.

How My Heart Yearns Within Me

Easter has passed but the impact of the greatest event in human history still resounds in my soul, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” In his exclamation, Job both expressed the central hope of our faith and the essence of our reason to worship. Paul affirms these truths in his letter to the Galatians. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” For just a moment, focus in on the phrase “The life I live in the body.” Certainly, Paul is referring to our physical life and physical body. But there is another “body” in which we live our life of faith. The body of Christ, His church, must also live together by faith. We must embrace the fact that we have been crucified with Christ. Every time we gather in worship we celebrate His love for us displayed in His sacrifice on the cross. We are uniquely identified as the body of Christ through our common faith in the cross of Christ. A good friend helped this truth come to life for me. He sent a brief article and illustration that I want to share with you. Medical researchers have known for sometime now about a family of proteins that are integral to the structure of our physical cells. Laminins, these cell adhesion molecules, literally hold our body together, one cell joined to the next which is joined to the next and so on. Here is what the structure of laminin looks like.

As Colossians 1:17 reminds us, the body of Christ is held together one person joined to the next which is joined to the next and so on, by Christ and the fact that we have all been crucified with Christ in order that we might have life in Him, now and for eternity. Now that is something to make our hearts yearn within us to worship Him.

Hosanna in the Highest!

This week is arguably the most important week of the year in the life of a believer. It begins with worship just as this week began two thousand years ago. On the day we refer to as Palm Sunday, people gathered to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem with the words “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Their shout of praise, worship and adoration, spoken in recognition of the Messiahship of Jesus (Hosanna!), literally means, “Save us now, Lord." We, like they, recognize our need of a Savior, for now and for eternity.

Dr. Robert Webber has said, “Worship is the ‘summit’ toward which we always proceed. For we take to worship the issues we deal with on a day-to-day basis with an expectancy that God will bring healing into our lives. But worship is always the 'fount' from which our lives flow because worship not only brings healing to our life issues, it also empowers us to face the realities of our life in the world with the conviction that the last word is not the death evil brings, but the resurrection Jesus gives.1

Christian Furchtegott Gellert wrote these words to this hymn in the early eighteenth century:

Jesus lives, and so shall I
Death, thy sting is gone forever!
He for me hath deigned to die.
Lives the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust.
Jesus is my hope and trust.

Jesus lives – and death is now
But my entrance into glory;
Courage, then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee.
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just:
Jesus is my hope and trust.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” I Corinthians 15:54-55

1 Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God's Mighty Deeds of Salvation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1992), 205.