Worship | Paula Wiseman

Bringing a Trumpet to Worship

My son is a trumpet player now. Since September. Early out he asked me to track down an easy trumpet hymn book so he could play in church. (Something simple and light like Beethoven's Ode to Joy.)

I love that.

He never worried that we have other, more skilled musicians in the church. He wasn't intimidated at the prospect of making a mistake. The extra practice wasn't even a burden.

He had a gift and he wanted to offer it. Willingly.

Most times we go to a worship service because of what we expect to get out of it. We hope to be uplifted by the music, challenged by the teaching or encouraged by the words spoken. Or maybe all three. Being uplifted, challenged and encouraged are all good things. But they aren't the point of worship. Worship is more about what I can give. What offerings, what sacrifices do I bring? How do I demonstrate to God my Father that He is worthy? Not whether or not I'm worthy, but whether He is.

What will you bring to worship this weekend? Your voice? Your prepared heart and mind? Your tithes? What else?

I know a boy who's bringing a trumpet.

Filed Under: Alan, Devotional Tagged With: Alan, Trumpet, worship

A Football Lesson

By Paula

Last week, my son got moved from his spot on the kickoff team. The possibility that he would spend the entire game on the sidelines loomed. He was crushed. He said, "What have I done to make God so angry that He would do this to me?"

Wow.

His sensitivity astounds me, but he makes a fundamental error that many of us make. He assumes God MUST be angry, MUST be punishing him because something bad happened. He might be, but that's not always what's going on. As we tried to work through this, I asked him what else God might be doing.

His first answer – protecting me. Sometimes a setback serves to protect us. The thing is, because it works, we'll never really know what it was or how effective the protection was. At least not in this life.

His second answer – teaching me. Times of disappointment teach us more about ourselves and more about God than the good times ever could.

His third answer – making me stronger. It's a lot like teaching. Difficulties make us stronger.

His last answer – I don't know. Sometimes hard times have some other purpose behind them. Job never knew what purpose his trials served. Granted the scale is much different, but Alan may never know why he was moved off the kickoff team.

I told him in some ways, it's like his vaccines. When he was a baby, he couldn't understand why they were necessary. He only knew I let him hurt. Because I couldn't explain it, all I could do was comfort him until the hurting stopped. Now that he's more mature, he knows why he had to get the vaccines. For some reason we don't understand now, God let him go through this hurt. We may understand it later, but we can be sure God's ready to hold him close until the hurt goes away.

So Sunday night at church… he sang "Blessed Be Your Name".

There's a thing or two I hope he does know – what he's made of, how proud we are, and how much God, his Daddy, delights in him. Because He does.

Filed Under: Alan, Devotional Tagged With: faith, worship

Routines

By Paula

Yesterday, my kids and I headed out to lunch at our favorite BBQ place, and my son ordered a catfish sandwich.

Okay, let me back up and tell you why that statement is huge. One, we were going out to eat for lunch (not at McDonalds) on a weekday. My husband is out of town this week, so it was just us. Second, and this is the big one, Alan has never had a catfish sandwich in his life. The boy who will eat cupcakes but not cake… go figure… ordered something completely off the wall. And he lived.

I suspect it has to do with his goal of becoming an extreme fisherman, like Jeremy Wade of River Monsters. If he's gonna catch these monster catfish, he should learn to eat them. But whatever his motivation, he took an amazing risk and broke out of his routine.

I am very much a creature of habit. I like the smooth predictability of routines. They allow my brain to go on autopilot, freeing up precious mental resources for other things. But I also find that routines can be boring, and can numb me. Especially in worship.

Paul says, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." (Romans 12:11 NIV)

In the sentence, zeal equals spiritual fervor. It is a passionate pursuit. Next week as we break out of our worship routines for VBS, I could use a little of that fervor restoration.

How do you know you're in a routine in worship? How do you shake things up?

Filed Under: Alan Tagged With: Catfish, Jeremy Wade, River Monsters, Romans, worship

Watch Me, Dad

By Paula

When my nephew got married, Alan was just shy of his 5th birthday, and the wedding reception was the biggest, best party he had ever been to. He loved the music, and danced with complete abandon. Five-year-old boys do just about everything with complete abandon. Of course it's all on video, and you can hear Alan say, "Watch me, Dad!" I love that. He didn't care what anyone around him was doing. He didn't care if he was doing all the 'right' steps. His dad was there watching, and that was all that mattered.

Alan taught me a lesson about worship that evening that I still need to grasp completely.

God wants me to enjoy His presence with that same joyful abandon.

Just like Jon brought us to the wedding reception for the purpose of celebrating, God will bring me aside with Him to celebrate. (Isn't that what worship is? Not all formal, stiff and lifeless.) I'm usually much more like the other Wiseman men at the reception, off to the side, hands in my pockets, missing the opportunity. I'm way too self-conscious, way too concerned with how things might look to everyone else. But if my Dad is watching and smiling, what else really matters?

The wedding reception only lasted a few hours, and then it was back to our regular routine. There's a day coming, though, when the wedding reception never ends, and I'll be there, not just with my Dad, but with the Bridegroom Himself.

(This is an encore post.)

Filed Under: Alan, Living Tagged With: worship

Revival

By Paula

A few weeks back, in a study tip, I encouraged you to make it a practice to share the things you learn as you study. Let me follow my own tip and pass on some insights from Genesis 35:1-3 on revival.

When I hear the word "revival" I immediately think of a week of church services with an evangelist. There's much more to it, of course. The dictionary defines revive as "to become active or flourishing again; to restore from a depressed, inactive or unused state; to renew in mind or memory." I need that more often than the standard, scheduled spring and fall services. So how does Jacob accomplish that in Genesis?

First, consider his situation. Genesis 34 tells the sordid and shameful story of the date rape of Jacob's only daughter, Dinah. Then after he fails to provide any moral leadership, her brothers take vengeance, perverting the covenant sign of circumcision as part of their plot to murder the men of an entire town and take all their wives and children as slaves. An extreme situation, unlike any I've ever faced, but taking it down several degrees, and there are things we can relate to: Personal failure. Not living up to our calling. Having our influence destroyed. Responding to hurt with revenge.

Jacob was ruined. Any chance he had of drawing the Canaanites to Jehovah through his living witness was gone. Sure, he had Abraham and Isaac ahead of him, but instead of being a great example of faith, he'd be lucky if another tribe didn't hunt them down and kill them all. This is when God speaks. "Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there, and make an altar there to God."

Jacob needed revival. And God told him how it could happen.

Step 1 – Arise - Change your surroundings, your routine. You cannot continue to live and function the way you are now and expect to flourish. Arise. Take action.

Step 2 – Go up to Bethel – Bethel means "house of God". We immediately interpret that as church. And yes, you should be part of your local church and the worship services there, but I also think of it as God's presence. (Next week, we'll talk about the things Jacob did to get ready to enter God's presence.)

Step 3 – Live there – Don't just flee there when times are hard. Treat God's presence less like a life preserver that you remove once you get out of the water and more like life support that you cannot be removed from.

Step 4 – Make an altar - Sacrifice and worship. Those could be a lifetime of posts in themselves, but very simply this means that I give up being the center of my universe to the Lord who created and governs it, and from whom I usurped my position.

Could you use revival? What do you do to revive your relationship with God?

Filed Under: Living Tagged With: Book of Genesis, Jacob, revival, worship