Is God Too Holy for You?

God’s holiness carries a sense of loftiness and purity and awe-inspiring wonder and perfection. It is awe inspiring, but it also can be intimidating and even terrifying. Sure, we worship the holy God for his holiness, but the more we see of him, the more we’re reminded of how unholy we truly are. It’s not a comfortable thought. The way we think — even subconsciously — about God’s holiness will likely impact our worship on Sunday morning.

The Scary God

Think of Isaiah, who when he was brought into the presence of the Lord, cried, “Woe is me! I am lost (or ruined or undone); for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). Or think of John in Revelation 1:17, who when he saw the Lord, “fell at his feet as though dead.”   Continue at Adrien Segal

Why We Sing

At my church’s Sunday gathering, the preacher and everyone leading the service sits on the stage facing the congregation.

In the past, I’ve been tempted to wonder if they’re really worshipping, or just looking around. Doesn’t someone who is really worshipping close his eyes, put up his hands, and wear an expression of rapture?

At least that’s what I wondered until it was me sitting on stage, looking at the congregation. When the singing begins, I’m beholding God’s people praise God. 

And it’s unbelievable!

WHAT I BEHOLD

Some eyes are closed and some are open. Some hands are raised and some are not. But the posture of their bodies is not the point.

We’re singing the sixteenth century words of “A Mighty Fortress,” and I notice a woman who was recently assaulted now sing with all her might of a “bulwark never failing.”   Continue at Jonathan Leeman

Serving Appetizers: Worship Services That Keep Their Promises

As a worship pastor, I am saddened to read polls reporting young people leaving our churches. True, this happens in each generation (remember the Boomer-angs who returned to church in the 1990s?), but how can service planners encourage the continued participation of young people within our churches?

One of the regular ways churches respond is to adopt a more contemporary style of music. But if you know two different teenagers, you recognize the disparity of musical preferences among young adults. And if discovering their preferences seems difficult, actually performing that music in church will seem impossible.

Yet I have been surprised by conversations I’ve had with actual students leaving the church. These students were not leaving the church because of outdated aesthetics; it is not that easy. Many of them leave because of disappointment with their local church; they have unmet expectations. And the saddest part is this: often the church is the one creating the very expectations that it cannot meet. We seem to be teaching our people to expect too much — at least in this current age.    Continue at Matthew Westerholm

The Dead Snake Handler and the Dead Poet’s Society

On February 15, Jamie Coots, pastor of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and co-star of National Geographic’s reality show Snake Salvation, died from a snakebite to the hand. Christianity Today has the story. It was his ninth bite in twenty years. The previous eight made him very ill. Once he even lost a finger.

Snake handling as a form of worship is practiced by a small number of churches mostly in the rural southeastern United States. It started 100 years ago with an illiterate Pentecostal preacher in Tennessee who interpreted Mark 16:18 as a commandment from God.

They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:18, KJV)

Coots had stated that he viewed this commandment on the same level as the Ten Commandments.    Continue at Jon Bloom

Worship According to the Word

Just look at the confusion that marks what is called worship among so many evangelicals. Instead of engaging in worship that points to the glory of God, many churches feature services that look more like a carnival of chaos than a Christian congregation at worship. Years ago, A.W. Tozer lamented that many churches conceive of worship as “a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction.” Many Christians, he argued, would not even recognize worship as “a meeting where the only attraction is God.” True fifty years ago, those words now serve as a direct indictment of contemporary worship.  Read the rest HERE

Five Benefits of Asking God to Hurry

There’s something I’ve been praying about. The church where I serve as pastor needs a part-time worship leader. Our present leader has served us well, but his schedule is changing and he plans to step down. So, of course, I’ve been networking, calling, posting on church employment sites — and praying. 

 

So far, God has not provided — and the problem is that I need him to provide soon. I can hear the clock ticking. The deadline is approaching. What are we going to do without a worship leader? Yes, I’m starting to worry.

So How Should I Pray?

I could just keep praying, “Father, please provide us with a new worship leader” — and leave it at that. But the Bible shows us more. You’ll notice that the psalmists often ask God to hurry.

This is all throughout the Psalms:

But you, O Lᴏʀᴅ, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! (Psalm 22:19) 

Make haste to help me, O Lᴏʀᴅ, my salvation! (Psalm 38:22)

Be pleased, O Lᴏʀᴅ, to deliver me! O Lᴏʀᴅ, make haste to help me! (Psalm 40:13)   Continue at Steve Fuller

The Centerpiece of Sunday Worship

What really moves you on Sunday mornings?

There are a lot of potential answers to that question. Maybe the music is enough to get you out of bed. The old hymns have always resonated deeply with you, or the church’s worship band is consistently finding creative and compelling ways to put enduring truth to a new tune.

Or it could be a dynamic, engaging preacher, someone you could listen to for hours and hours at a time. Maybe he has an unending library of personal stories and illustrations that connect with you over and over again, or he’s a genuinely friendly, caring man that spends lots of intentional time loving his family and flock.

It might be the fellowship. There are few things better than worshiping with your family and friends. They know you best, so you can be yourself. They care about you, so you can trust them. For many, the biggest draw is spending time with other believers you know and love.   Continue at Marshall Segal

Learning to See the Beauty Behind All Beauty

One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a long time is a book called, , by a gifted writer named Steve DeWitt. The thesis of the book is that all beauty originates in God and is given to us to enjoy for the express purpose of leading us to the ultimate beauty that is God Himself. On page 7, in the introduction, he writes: 

Eyes Wide Open: Enjoying God in Everything

Every created beauty was created by God to lead our affections to Him. That’s why He made the pleasures of earthly beauty so fleeting—so that on the other side of the pleasure we might experience either wonder and worship and ultimate satisfaction in God or the pursuit of the pleasure that beauty provides for its own sake. If we choose the latter, we will only be disappointed again.  Continue at Mike Riccardi

8 Ways Satan Keeps You From Worship

Satan wants to keep you from worshipping the One he hates. He wants to keep you from doing the right thing, whether that is spending time alone with the Lord in Scripture and prayer, attending and participating in public worship services, or any other thing that will draw you closer to the Lord. Here, courtesy of Thomas Brooks, are eight ways Satan will keep you from worship.

Here’s how I would encourage you to use the list. Think of the times that you decide to stay in bed instead of getting up to read the Bible; think of the times you scrapped family worship for no good reason; think of the times you stayed home from church instead of going to worship. Think of those things, and see which of these temptations is the one Satan brings to you.

He makes the world look beautiful, attractive and desirable. Many people profess Christ and see him as desirable for a time. For a while they enjoy private and public worship and do it all with enthusiasm. But before long Satan presents to them worldly things and makes those look more beautiful and desirable than Christ, and many souls are drawn away. “Where one thousand are destroyed by the world’s frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world’s smiles.”

He makes you aware of the fact that those who worship the Lord have often faced danger, loss and suffering. There are many men who would obey the Lord and worship him, except that they fear the consequences. Satan loves to present the high cost of obedience. This was the case for many in Jesus day: “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42).   Continue at Grace Community

The Primacy of the Word in Worship

The Word of God is of supreme importance in the life of the Christian, containing as it does God’s revelation of his Person, his will and his ways. The Word needs to be pored over, ingested into one’s mind and heart, meditated on, and acted upon. It is a unique and precious repository of spiritual truth and guidance and encouragement. There is no aspect of the life of the church or of the individual believer that should not be tied to a scriptural mooring and infused with biblical substance (2 Tim 3:16-17). The Bible is indeed 
”a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
unto my path” (Ps 119:105.

When Christians gather for
 corporate worship, it is logical that 
the Word of God should play a 
central and dominant role. For 
since worship involves focusing our
 thoughts and hearts and voices on 
the praise of God, in response to
 his self-revelation and his gracious
 saving initiative, we of course need
 that view of God which the Word gives us if our worship is to be “in truth” (John 4:23-24). Our worship can only duly honor God if it accurately reflects what he reveals about himself in his Word.

The Word Neglected

That said, the astounding observation has been made as to how little use is made of Scripture in the worship services of most evangelical churches. The irony of course is that those who claim most strongly to stand on the Bible have so little of it in their worship. While the sermon of course takes a prominent role in our services, even preaching consists mostly of talking about the Scriptures (often after reading just a very few verses). It must be said that liturgical groups (whether on the more liberal or the more conservative end of the spectrum theologically) have probably ten times as much actual Scripture in their services (because it is built into their liturgies) as most evangelical free churches!    Continue at Grace Community

Tragic Worship

The problem with much Christian worship in the contemporary world, Catholic and Protestant alike, is not that it is too entertaining but that it is not entertaining enough. Worship characterized by upbeat rock music, stand-up comedy, beautiful people taking center stage, and a certain amount of Hallmark Channel sentimentality neglects one classic form of entertainment, the one that tells us, to quote the Book of Common Prayer, that “in the midst of life we are in death.”   

It neglects tragedy. Tragedy as a form of art and of entertainment highlighted death, and death is central to true Christian worship. The most basic liturgical elements of the faith, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, speak of death, of burial, of a covenant made in blood, of a body broken. Even the cry “Jesus is Lord!” assumes an understanding of lordship very different than Caesar’s. Christ’s lordship is established by his sacrifice upon the cross, Caesar’s by power.

Perhaps some might recoil at characterizing tragedy as entertainment, but tragedy has been a vital part of the artistic endeavors of the West since Homer told of Achilles, smarting from the death of his beloved Patroclus, reluctantly returning to the battlefields of Troy. Human beings have always been drawn to tales of the tragic, as to those of the comic, when they have sought to be lifted out of the predictable routines of their daily lives—in other words, to be entertained.

From Aeschylus to Tennessee Williams, tragedians have thus enriched the theater. Shakespeare’s greatest plays are his tragedies. Who would rank Charles Dickens over Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad? Tragedy has absorbed the attention of remarkable thinkers from Aristotle to Hegel to Terry Eagleton.    Continue at  Carl R. Trueman

CT’s “Insider” Interview Prompts Questions and Concerns

“Worshiping Jesus in the Mosque: Inside the World of a Muslim Follower of Isa.”

That’s what the cover says on the latest issue of Christianity Today. Inside are several articles on the insider movement–so named because in these movements Christian converts stay within their original religious context and continue to identify themselves with the religion of their birth. The whole issue is worth reading. In it you’ll find a background piece on the C1 to C6 spectrum by Tim Tennent, a pro and con piece by “John Travis” (pro) and Phil Parshall (con), and a predictably middle of the road editorial that is “cautiously optimistic about this deep insider strategy.”

The cover story is an interview by the missionary “Gene Daniels” (not his real name) with a Muslim follow of Isa named “Abu Jaz” (also not his real name). While we can clearly learn from someone like Gene Daniels laboring in a difficult Muslim context, and while we must certainly rejoice to hear of Abu Jaz’s commitment to Christ, the interview also raises a number of questions and concerns. Let me raise three of each.

Three Questions

Question 1: What is the role of the church? Proponents of the insider movement are quick to point out that insider believers belong to the church universal (see Travis’ piece) and share in Christian fellowship with other insiders. And yet, doesn’t the Bible understand the church in more robust terms than this? What about church officers, weekly preaching, the administration of the sacraments, membership, and church discipline? Are these all adiaphora? Doesn’t Paul’s missionary strategy and Jesus’ Great Commission presuppose that believers will be gathered in visible, constituted churches?   Continue at Kevin DeYoung

Dear Worship Pastor: It’s Not About You

Dear Worship Pastor,

I enjoy praise and worship.  I really do.  And I appreciate the enormous effort and the talent that goes into excellent worship leadership.  I hesitate to admit the following, because it seems like someone with a theology doctorate ought to be motivated by more cerebral concerns, but a significant (major but not main) part of why I made Perimeter Church my home church is because I enjoy it so much when Laura Story (whose “Blessings” won a Grammy this past year) leads worship there.  That woman has an anointing; that’s the only way I can explain it.  I am moved by her voice and her worship leadership.

So this is nothing against contemporary praise and worship music, which I genuinely like.  And it’s nothing against worship leaders, most of whom I also like.  And, by the way, please don’t bother trying to figure out whom this is aimed toward, because (a) you’re wrong and (b) it’s not aimed toward anyone in particular.

But it has happened so often over the years that I’ve seen worship leaders fail to lead.  And by fail to lead, I mean “They went where no one could follow.”  And, after all these years, I thought I’d say something.

Imagine the following scenario.  A church service begins, and the music breaks in.  The congregation warms up, and the music grows more intense.  Yes, we all know the progression by now — the video “Sunday’s Coming” was so funny because it was so true — and yet the progression is there for a reason.  It’s rooted in human nature.   Continue at Timothy Dalrymple

The Hidden Life of Prayer

Table of Contents

Chapter 1, The Life of Prayer.
Chapter 2, The Equipment.
Chapter 3, The Direction of the Mind.
Chapter 4, The Engagement: Worship.
Chapter 5, The Engagement: Confession.
Chapter 6, The Engagement: Request.
Chapter 7, The Hidden Riches of the Secret Place.
Chapter 8, The Open Recompense.
Footnotes, Footnotes to all chapters.
Copyright

HT: Monergism

Be Stressed Out and Do Not Sin

I love the Book of Psalms. As authoritative models of prayer and worship, we return to them often for help (When we don't know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit intercedes for us... and read some psalms). And in my experience, it's the easiest book to short-circuit meaning for application. Because the theology is so relevant, we can subtly gloss over what the text says to focus on us and our situations. But remember it's only for us — by God about his Son for us. 

So how might it look if we read like this? Say, Psalm 4? How would it look if we asked first, "what does this text say?" and then second, "what does it mean for me right now?"

Psalm 4:1–8,

¹  Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have given me relief when I was in distress.
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
²   O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
³   But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
  ⁴ Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
⁵   Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
⁶   There are many who say, "Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!"
⁷   You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
⁸   In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

What It Means

Prayer is an important theme in this Psalm of David. It begins with the plea, "Answer me when I call" (verse 1). Again, "hear my prayer!" Then, "the Lord hears when I call to him" (verse 3). It's an amazing picture of fellowship. David talks to God and God hears David. And he keeps David. He sustains and guards him (Psalm 3:5; 4:8). 

Now these are observations. They are all by the way of discovering what the text says. But don't think we're blank-slate readers. Jesus has let us in on an important tip: the whole Bible is about him (Luke 24:25–27; John 5:39, 46). So an integral part of discovering what this psalm means is seeing how it's connected to our Lord.  Continue at Jonathan Parnell

Avoiding Legalism in Our Sabbath-Keeping

The position of Day One¹ regarding the abiding validity of the fourth commandment is essentially the position of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which states that God, 'by a positive, moral and perpetual commandment binding men in all ages . . . has appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him' (WCF 21.7). This day of rest and worship was, in the Old Testament, appointed on the last day of the week, but is now, by virtue of Christ's resurrection, appointed on the first day of the week.

This position recognises that some things did change from Old to New Testaments, while other things remain the same. Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it, and to keep it, and to set us an example in keeping it too. The new birth results in a new heart, on which the commandments have been written, and in which there is a new impulse to obey God out of a willing love and in devoted service.

Now what . . .?

 
Not everyone agrees with this position, of course, but let's leave that for the moment. Even when we have granted the principle that the fourth commandment continues to be relevant, and that the Lord's Day is God's new holy day, how are we keep it holy? And how are we to avoid the peril of legalism in deciding what may or may not be done on the Lord's Day?

I suspect that for most Christians, this is the most challenging issue. Much of what Jesus said about the Sabbath he said in the context of arguing with the Pharisees who had become over-scrupulous in their attempt to keep the commandments. As a result, they accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath when he healed, or when he performed some other miracle.

The question for us then becomes - how can we ensure that our Sabbath-keeping is like that of Jesus, and not like that of the Pharisees? How can we avoid being legalistic and Pharisaic in our Sabbath observance?

Defining legalism

 
Perhaps we need to begin with definitions. If something is 'legal', that means either that it concerns the law or that it is permitted by the law. 'Legalism' is the term that is used when someone is more concerned about the strict letter of the law rather than its spirit.  Continue at Iain D. Campbell

Oh, Behave! Conduct Worthy of the Gospel in Corporate Worship

Other Christians. Can't do corporate worship without them, and yet sometimes it feels like we can't really do corporate worship with them either.

How nice would it be if everyone would just mind their manners in weekend worship? So thinks our old self.

Let's admit it. We're tough on others, easy on ourselves. We assume others should give us the benefit of the doubt---which is the very thing we don't give to others.

She's the reason I'm distracted, the old self tells us.

If he weren't singing so loud---and so off key . . . 

If they would just get off their iPads and smart phones. I'm sure they're all doing emails, or social media, rather than looking at the Bible text or taking notes.

We love to blame our neighbor, or the worship leader, for our inability to engage in corporate worship. But the deeper problem usually belongs to the one who is distracted. Few things are more hypocritical than showing up to a worship gathering of the Friend of Sinners and bellyaching that other sinners showed up too.

Checking Our Own Souls

 

If there is gospel etiquette for the gathered church, it starts with evaluating my heart, not their actions. Frustration with others' distracting behavior---whether in the pew in front of me, or on the stage---is deeper and more dangerous than the nonchalance or negligence that sidetracks others.

Of course, there are rare exceptions when someone really is totally out of line. Such as the guy who brought his own tambourine one week. But even in the occasional instance where someone's worship conduct is seriously out of bounds, what if we started by asking ourselves some hard questions?

• If love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), might God be calling me to look past this distraction I perceive?
• Am I really applying John 13:34-35 ("love one another") to fellow Christians in weekly corporate worship? If we can't apply John 13:34-35 when the church is gathered, are we really going to apply this elsewhere?   Continue at David Mathis

Worshiping at the Altar of Family

When visiting a number of Reformed churches in the last few months, we've noticed a significant trend. These churches are bursting with children---lots of biological children, of course, but also a good number of adopted and even foster kids. This is a great thing, all those kids, even if we are a little extra sensitive, due to our status as Dreaded Infertile Couple. But we've gotten used to this baby boom---the infant dedication/baptism/rose-on-the-piano acknowledgements, the romper-room-kindergarten-classroom atmosphere in the sanctuary, the baby showers. And lest we sound too much like curmudgeons, we assure you that God has helped to heal the pain of infertility through the adoptions of our two sons (and used those same two wiggly, loud, preciously infuriating boys to confirm that we were not, ever, meant to be parents of a huge family).

But perhaps this sensitivity to the "normal" family experience of marriage at 21 with five kids by age 30 (five is the new two) has given us some perspective that may have escaped the Normals. It came to me this Sunday while sitting behind a family with six or seven kids and listening to the pastor talk about the things we sacrifice to God's agenda. He was talking about how the disciples had ambition for the wrong thing---power in an earthly kingdom. He went on to apply that faulty expectation to misplaced ambitions in our lives: wealth, power, and fame. He clarified that these things are not inherently, incurably wrong, and some devoted Christians do indeed gain wealth, power, and fame. But he spoke of the lust for them, the chasing after them, the have-to-have-them, the sum-total-of-my-being, as being the problem. He quoted David Powlison: "good gifts, bad gods." True, powerful, and convicting words.  Continue at Kristin and Ted Kluck

Name Brand Worship

A few days back I wrote about how music mood is closely knit to the theology behind those singing it. Those who have a shallow theology will sing with a whimsical shallow happiness, but those with a deeper theology will have a more serious sound to their music. On the heels of that thought, I have also noticed how this reality makes itself known through the various brands of worship music that you can adopt in your church. I've been to different styles of church worship and noticed that they all have a particular brand of worship music and style that even has labels and trademarks. This will probably be the future of Christian music in the American Church. To identify yourself with a certain philosophy, a church will pick music from a particular brand name to draw people to the kind of "worship experience" that they are guaranteed to get. The worship wars have ended and the Traditionalists lost. It used to be traditional versus contemporary service. The only contemporary music that was available was pretty much stuff by the early CCM pioneers like Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Rebecca Saint James, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc... Now, CCM is not just vanilla flavored anymore, they have morphed into a wide variety of new brands to choose from and identify with.

For example, If a church uses a large number of Hillsong United songs in their regular worship times, then there are a few things associated with it: Willow Creek church growth methodology; a life coach smooth talker pastor who's probably in his 40's or 50's trying to look young and cool; programs galore to keep people entertained and busy!   Continue at Reforming Baptist

We Become What We Worship

Greg Beale titled his landmark book We Become What We Worship. His thesis is simple: “What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or for restoration.” He traces the theme throughout Scripture to show that we are worshippers, and that our worship exposes us and changes us. We either revere the world and are conformed to the sinful patterns of the world, or we revere God and are progressively conformed into his likeness. 

Take the book of Romans. Beale points out that the Greek word for representation or image (εἰκόνος) occurs in two places (Romans 1:23, 8:29).

In the first reference, Paul begins with the objects and effects of pagan worship. The pagan worship of an image is an act of God-replacement. Idols are twisted versions of reality. Whenever we worship a created object or person or animal, we are acting unnaturally towards the Creator. And through this unnatural worship of a created thing, the life of the worshipper takes on increasingly unnatural characteristics as well — and that unnatural character is reflected in the unnatural sexual sins that Paul later describes.

The second reference to image is found in Romans 8:29, where Paul speaks of those who revere God. Those who “love God” will be conformed to the image of Christ. This is becoming true right now and will ultimately be fully revealed in glorification.

What Beale sees in Romans is that we are being molded into one of two images: either into the distortion of creation (an idol) or into the image of the Creator.  Continue at Tony Reinke