Weekends are for Worship: Mystery in Worship

Tags

doxology, incomprehensibility, J. I. Packer, mystery, Theology, weekends are for worship, worship

God is Greater Than Our Conception of Him

Over the past few days I’ve been contemplating the element of mystery in our worship. God is far greater than we are able to comprehend. This incomprehensibility is a part of His essence, and true worship should acknowledge it.

Someone might say this is a hindrance to our worship. How can I worship what I don’t understand? But rather than a hindrance, mystery enhances our perception of God and evokes greater worship. We worship God because of the mystery, not in spite of it!

J. I. Packer writes,

“We should never forget that in any case theology is for doxology: the truest expression of trust in a great God will always be worship, and it will always be proper worship to praise God for being far greater than we can know.”

Weekends are for Worship: Sincerity in Worship

Tags

Existence and Attributes off God, heart, sincerity, Stephen Charnock, weekends are for worship, worship

True worship engages every part of our being – our mind, our bodies, and our will, but especially our heart. Stephen Charnock concerning the importance of engaging our heart in worship: No sincerity = No worship.

Without the heart it is no worship; it is a stage play; an acting a part without being that person really which is acted by us: a hypocrite, in the notion of the word, is a stage-player. We may as well say a man may believe with his body, as worship God only with his body . . . We may be truly said to worship God, though we want (lack) perfection; but we cannot be said to worship him, if we want (lack) sincerity.

Weekends are for Worship: The Dream is Reality

Tags

George Beverly Shea, heaven, music, The Holy City, worship

This past week the incomparable George Beverly Shea went to worship in the presence of the Lord. This song speaks of a dream of heaven, but for Mr. Shea that dream is a reality. One day we too will worship with him and the saints from all nations, tribes, tongues, and times.

Weekends are for Worship: Lamentation in Worship

Tags

grief, lamentation, sorrow, weekends are for worship, worship

Powerful reminder that too often our worship can become one-dimensional.

__________________________________________________________________________
You might also want to read:

Can Worship and Sorrow Co-Exist?

Weekends are for Worship: Sunday in the Early Church

Tags

church history, early Christianity, early church, History, justin martyr, weekends are for worship, worship

Flavius Justinus, the Philosopher and Martyr, was one of the early Christian apologists (second century).  He not only wrote and spoke in defense of Christianity, he ultimately laid down his life for his faith. In his appeal to the Roman Caesar, Titus, he described the Sunday worship of early Christians:

“And on the day called Sunday there is a meeting in one place of those who live in cities or the country, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read as long as time permits. When the reader has finished, the president in a discourse urges and invites [us] to the imitation of these noble things. Then we all stand up together and offer prayers. And, as said before, when we have finished the prayer, bread is brought, and wine and water, and the president similarly sends up prayers and thanksgivings to the best of his ability, and the congregation assents, saying the Amen; the distribution, and reception of the consecrated [elements] by each one, takes place and they are sent to the absent by the deacons. Those who prosper, and who so wish, contribute, each one as much as he chooses to. What is collected is deposited with the president, and he takes care of orphans and widows, and those who are in want on account of sickness or any other cause, and those who are in bonds, and the strangers who are sojourners among [us], and, briefly, he is the protector of all those in need. We all hold this common gathering on Sunday, since it is the first day, on which God transforming darkness and matter made the universe, and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose from the dead on the same day.”

Justin, the Martyr, First Apology, 67

Reading, exposition, and exhortation from Scripture, prayer, communion, generous care for one another . . . whenever I join in such common acts of worship I feel a sense of union and fellowship with believers throughout history who have engaged in the same acts for nearly two thousand years. The forms are as ancient as the church, but, when offered from a heart of worship, the spirit is as fresh as this Sunday.

Weekends are for Worship: Congregational Singing and Worship

Tags

congregational singing, Michael Kelley, music, weekends are for worship, worship

In this feature, I usually share a quote or original thought regarding worship. This week I want to point you to a post I enjoyed reading by at Forward Progress. He writes . . .

“This weekend I, like many of you, am going to church. And while I’m there, I anticipate doing a number of things, not the least of which is sing. I’m going to sing, by God’s grace, loudly. But it’s a bit strange when you think about it, right? A bunch of people gathered together to sing? Not something many others do in other settings. So here are 4 reasons to break out in song this weekend:

Read those reasons here

Make sure and sing out in worship this Sunday!

Weekends are for Worship: The Glory of Christ’s Subjection

Tags

Andrew Murray, Jesus Christ, weekends are for worship, worship

“That God may be all in all.” (1 Cor. 15.24-28)

“These last words are my text. What a mystery there is in the context! We are accustomed to speak of the two great acts of humiliation on the part of the Lord Jesus — His descending from the throne and becoming Man upon earth, a Servant among men; and of His descent, through the Cross, into the grave, the depth of humiliation under the curse. But oh! what a mystery there is here — that there is a time coming in the everlasting glory when the Son of Man shall be subjected unto the Father, and shall give the kingdom into the Father’s hands, and ‘God shall be all in all.’ I cannot understand this; it passes knowledge. But I worship Christ in the glory of His subjection to the Father.

“And here I learn one precious lesson, and that is what I want to point you to — that the whole aim of Christ’s coming, and the whole aim of redemption, and the whole aim of Christ’s work in our hearts is summed up in that one thought — ‘That God may be all in all.’“

- Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender