What about Worship?

Over the Christmas break I had two main goals that I wanted to accomplish.

First, I wanted to seek the Lord's will for the next step in ministry for my wife and I. The goal of seeking was successfully accomplished! Now we are continuing to wait on the Lord for guidance. We were presented with a few different options and now we are searching each one out in faith that God will point us to the right one.

My second goal over the break was to conduct a personal study on worship as it pertains to the individual as well as to the corporate worship setting. Going into the study I had a general theology of worship in my head, but most of that theology had come from the way that I had been taught growing up. I had never taken the time to do a personal, specific study in the area of worship. My study is ongoing, as it will be for some time, but I have learned much in just the few weeks of digging.

The first thing that I learned is that worship is more about the heart than it is anything else. One can go through the motions of worship and have all their externals looking good and have their heart far from God. This is the type of worship that Christ condemns in Matthew 15 when he says "this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Their outward actions and words proclaimed the praises of God, but they had no love for him in their hearts. True, biblical worship stems from a heart that has a passion for and is devoted to God and God alone.

The second thing I learned is that worship is no confined to any specific time or place. This is a "no brainer" for most on the intellectual level, but on the practical level most of us do confine our worship to a specific time and place. The Sunday Morning Worship Service is where we typically confine our worship to. Either that or the musical portion of each service. It is where we "sing our worship and praise to God." While it is true that the Sunday morning service is a time of worship and it is also true that the musical portion of any service is also worship, worship cannot and should not be confined to these times. In John 4 Christ tells the Samaritan woman that neither of the two mountains that she had mentioned would be the "place of worship," but rather worshipers would worship in "spirit." That is to say that worship will not be tied down to any specific time or place. Worship comes out of a heart that rejoices in who God is and that worship can flow at any time. Actually it should flow all the time.When we realize this truth we are confonted with the question, "why corporate worship?" If worship is not confined to those times when the church body meets together then why do we meet together at all? That's a good question and one that I wrestled with. Corporate worship is a display of the unity that the church body has in Christ. We gather as one body to celebrate Christ and worship God through both the singing and the preaching.

Thirdly, I learned that worship must be done in truth. This also come from John 4 and Christ's discussion with the woman at the well. Christ said that the Father is seeking true worshipers who would worship him in spirit and in truth. The fact that the Father is seeking such worshipers gives us an idea as to how important these two principles (worshiping in spirit and in truth) are. When Christ says that we must worship the Father in truth he is saying that we must worship him in light of who he really is. We must have an accurate view of God  if we are to worship him correctly. It would do us no good and it would bring God no honor to worship him for his holiness if he were not holy. The same goes for his justice, mercy, grace, and love; or any other attribute. If we worship him for something that he is not then he receives no glory from it. We must worship God according to the true revelation of himself.

There is much more that I have learned and I'm sure there is much more that I will learn, but these are just some beginning thoughts.

Questions

Recently someone commented on one of my blog posts under the name “Anonymous” with the following question: “I was wondering why you are a regular endorser of calvinism and reformed theology?” Since my post was simply relaying a free Kindle book offer which only lasted for a couple of days I deleted the post within two or three days of posting it. Therefore, I did not see this question on my blog dashboard until I had already deleted the post from the regular message board which prohibited me from replying to this person directly in the post. Since I am unable to do that, I will take this post to briefly answer the question that was posed.

First, why do I regularly endorse Calvinism? That is an interesting question because my regular endorsement of it goes only as far as the free Kindle book offers that I post. The same goes for Reformed Theology. Yes, I do believe in the Doctrines of Grace because they are in the Bible and if calling me a Calvinist helps you to identify me with that then so be it. Why do I support the Doctrines of Grace (Calvinism)? Because it is biblical and it is vital to our understanding of salvation and sanctification.

Second, why do I regularly endorse Reformed Theology? My primary endorsement of Reformed Theology comes, as with Calvinism, from the free Kindle book offers. In addition to those offers I do have a post endorsing Tabletalk Magazine which is published by Ligonier Ministries. Ligonier Ministries was founded by R.C. Sproul who is of the Reformed Tradition. My recommendation of R.C. Sproul himself and the magazine come from my interaction with both. I have read multiple books by Sproul and am a subscriber to Tabletalk Magazine and have been both greatly edified and challenged by each book and magazine. They are both firmly rooted in Bible teaching. The magazine, specifically, deals with the issues of Christianity in today’s culture better than any other magazine that I have come across. It deals with the issues in a biblical manner which means that it is both true to God’s Word and is relevant to our world and culture today.

I hope that answers the questions of “Anonymous.” If you would like to discuss this issue to a deeper level please email me at stephen.green@ni.edu.

PS. I also wouldn't mind knowing the identity of "Anonymous." You know who I am and it would be nice to know who I am interacting with.