Worship

Worship
A Vision Of God High And Lifted Up, With His Train Filling The Temple.

Worship.. History, Purpose and Content
have you ever considered what worship may have looked like when the early church gathered? Were these elements included, or did it look very different? A very brief survey of the history of worship will help us begin to evaluate the purpose and content of worship today. Our ancestors had to wrestle with what worship entails long before our time. We can and should learn from them.

Biblical Definition Of Worship  
The next time you go to church, raise your hands, and shout out to the Lord in "worship" keep in mind that He also expects you to live that worship out in real life. Don't bring your excuses with you as Saul did thinking that your mere act of worship will be pleasing to God and will absolve you of your sin.

Novelty and Change Will Lead Them
I am not calling for turning the clock back to the fifties. But I do think Christians old and young deserve melodic music that they can all sing together. I don't think that loud instrumentation is the point, but the human voice should be the focus. Congregational worship music should fit within the boundaries of a psalm, a hymn or a spiritual song, with accompaniment. It should EASILY allow us to make MELODY in our hearts to the Lord.

A New Song
Maybe we applaud praise choruses because so many of us are still in bondage to our sin and those little simplistic chants we can’t seem to live without help put a smile on our face and  allow us two or three glorious minutes of relief to forget our troubles with a mesmerizing melody so we can pretend there really isn’t anything wrong with our spiritual lives – Would it be accurate to say they might just be an escape for many of us?

The Whole Earth Is Full of His Glory: The Recovery of Authentic Worship
My haunting thought concerning much evangelical worship is that the God of the Bible would never be known by watching us worship. Instead what we see in so many churches is "McWorship" of a "McDeity." But what kind of God is that superficial, that weightless, and that insignificant? Would an observer of our worship have any idea of the God of the Bible from our worship? I wonder at times if this is an accidental development, or if it is an intentional evasion.

What Makes Music... Christianly?
In Christian music we are missing the key pillar, the cornerstone, which the other two rely upon - sound doctrine! The blatant absence of sound biblical theology has affected every level of Christian music. This is most evident in it’s message. Christian music, originally called Jesus Music that once fearlessly sang about the gospel, now sings of a Christ-less, watered-down, pabulum-based, positive alternative, aura-fluff cream of wheat, mush-kind-of-syrupy God-as-my-girlfriend thing. We need artists who will balance their zeal with knowledge.

Sing A New Song
Taking past secular hits and changing the original meaning of the song to now make it seem as if they're about Jesus because a Christian happens to be singing it is ludicrous. It not only violates the "original intent" of the meaning of the song by its author; but it is just as foolish as if some CCM artist recorded a remake of the great Beatles classic, "Hey Jude", and then tried to spiritually justify it by saying it is about the little epistle before the book of Revelation.

Testing Music In The Church
Though some are quick to test preaching and teaching from their pulpits, many ignore the music being used in the same services. This is a tragic mistake. Music is a powerful medium. It is something that effects deeply the body, mind and emotions. It is a proven fact that music often stays with a person far longer than what is taught or preached. What is often overlooked is the serious impression music makes on people, and the teaching they are getting over and over again as they allow the song to repeat in their minds and on their lips.
 

Knowing God

Learning About God
The God Who Would Be Known.

Four Circles Of Intimacy With God
It is a well known fact that some Christians seem to experience a much closer intimacy with God than others. They appear to enjoy a reverent familiarity with Him that is foreign to many of us. Is it a matter of favoritism on the part of God?
 

Fearing God

Christians Have No Fear Of God
Islam is on the march. They are committed and defiant. When will the American Church peek out of the window of their stained-glass fortresses and acknowledge the wolf at the door? Muslims hate sin. Christians tolerate it. Muslims serve their god. The Christians' God serves them. Muslims punish their view of evil. Christian-America celebrates evil, markets evil, cozies up to evil. Muslims revere their god. Christians compartmentalize theirs.

Should Christians Fear God?
Perhaps you’ve heard, as I have, that to fear God means we’re to be in awe of God and reverence him. But is that what Scripture means when it says to fear him?  Because many teachings and doctrines within our churches today portray God only as all loving, many assume there is no reason to fear Him.  For those who only think that God loves everyone, they would do well to study Scripture more carefully.

It’s Time To Take God Seriously
Something is fundamentally wrong with our society's perception of reality. An essential component is missing in human thinking.  What is it? We find it at the conclusion of the analysis of the human moral condition recorded in Romans 3:10-18 -- "there is no fear of God before their eyes."
 

Taking God’s Name In Vain

See Short Overview Below

Abused.. God’s Holy Name
You can run, you can hide, but you can’t get away from it, “God knows I’ve tried.” It seems that wherever you go, whether it’s to the mall, a movie, the golf course, or the hardware store, you hear God’s name being misused. It’s become so common that most people hardly notice it anymore. But some of us do.

Honouring God's Name.. The Meaning of the Third Commandment
We have know how the appearance of God on Mount Sinai was an awesome demonstration of the majesty and holiness of God. The third commandment further underlines the immense seriousness of our dealings with God. Our God is an awesome God. He is creator of the universe. He is God Almighty. It is a serious matter to invoke his name.

The Vain Name
However there is a lot more taking God’s name in vain than profanity... More often than not God bless you is just the Christian's way of saying Goodbye... Have a nice day. There seems to me to be very little difference between the vanity of that phrase and the vanity of saying by god except that by god is not part of the Christian lingo and God bless you is.

Also See

Christians Have No Fear of God
Islam is on the march. They are committed and defiant. When will the American Church peek out of the window of their stained-glass fortresses and acknowledge the wolf at the door? Muslims hate sin. Christians tolerate it. Muslims serve their god. The Christians' God serves them. Muslims punish their view of evil. Christian-America celebrates evil, markets evil, cozies up to evil. Muslims revere their god. Christians compartmentalize theirs.