Posts about encouraging and instructing our worship

A Picture of Worship

I admit, a lot of times in the Sunday morning worship service I'm not in the "worship" frame of mind yet. I'm doing a head count making sure my children are all accounted for, and then I'm checking to make sure I have enough tissues for everybody. (No. The answer is always no.) How many typos did I make in the bulletin this week? (I am the world's worst proofreader when it comes to reading my own stuff.) Prayer requests and announcements … The reality is, when the first song starts, I'm just not there yet.

But this past week, during that first song, I saw one of the most beautiful sights I've seen in a long time. Pure worship. Pearl is 94 years old and I know that three or four weeks ago, her shoulder hurt with such exquisite pain she couldn't dress herself. The words for the song were on the screen, but Pearl held a hymnal. As we sang, as she sang, "Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me," she raised that other hand, the one attached to that bad shoulder. She raised it to a God wasn't a song lyric. He was a companion, a healer and sustainer.

And I was wrecked. The rest of the day. Still.

Pearl's worship wasn't a scheduled event or an agenda item. It wasn't rehearsed or influenced by anyone else. It was genuine worship. It was spontaneous and natural, holy and beautiful.

So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. Psalm 63:4

What images or events capture the essence of worship for you?

Not a Vending Machine

By Paula

On the last day of driver's ed class, my daughter decided to splurge and get a can of pop at the break. She put her dollar bills in, the machine dropped the change but failed to deliver the pop. She was understandably annoyed. After all, she'd followed the rules, used nice new dollar bills, fed them in just right, and pushed the selection button.

I think sometimes we develop the same type of expectation in our relationship with God. If we follow the rules, present the right prayers or acts of service, He is obligated to deliver our selection when we push the button. And when He doesn't, we walk away annoyed with our faith damaged.

With that tinge of frustration, we've betrayed the fact that we consider the omnipotent sovereign God of the universe to being nothing more than a genie who serves our whims. It also twists our faith from being the evidence of trust and submission to God into being a currency for manipulating Him. Or at least we think we're manipulating Him. God isn't, can't be manipulated by the likes of us.

That vending machine mentality reveals two things about us.

We don't understand prayer.

What if our only conversation with our family and friends was a laundry list of what we expected them to do for us? Needs we wanted met? Prayer is a beautiful gift of intimacy God gives us. It's the closest thing to Eden we will experience this side of heaven. What? Your prayer life isn't like that? Mine either. But now we know, so we can work on it.

It's also important to remember our prayers are always answered. Always. Everyone of them. Sometimes the answer is 'no', and sometimes it's 'not today'. Now we only count them if God answers the way we want Him to, but that's not fair. Think about it this way- Did your parents give you everything you asked for? Do you give your kids everything they ask for?

In our immaturity we are too focused on this life.

This life is important, but God is preparing us for something much bigger and the way He answers prayers is directly related to that something bigger. He cares less about our comforts than our Christlikeness. In fact, a careful survey of the New Testament reveals that suffering is the mark of His favor. (Yeah, I'm not sure I'm ready to pray for that kind of favor, either.)

I know the Bible says we can come boldly and we can have confidence when we pray, but that doesn't necessarily give us a license to dictate our terms to God. Read through Isaiah 42-48 and notice how many times He says, "Beside Me there is no other," or "I will not give my glory to another."

When it's comes down to it, isn't that the kind of God we want?

Consumer or Follower

By Paula

In the summer I have more freedom to choose what I read, so lately, I've been reading about the church and culture, and the impact of consumerism. And I began to see myself.

Consumerism is the theory that increasing consumption is good. Consume means to destroy, devour or squander. Here are some of the ways I'm a consumer.

In my prayers – I come to God with a list of needs I want Him to meet, things I want Him to do. This is not to say I shouldn't, but when that becomes the sum total of my prayer, I have become a consumer of God, rather than a follower.

In my expectations – I leave worship services disappointed that I didn't get anything out of it, that my tastes and preferences weren't accommodated. Worship should leave me blessed from being in God's presence but worship is about honoring Him and not pacifying me.

In my service – I pick and choose where and when I'll serve based on what suits me. God doesn't expect me to overload myself and burnout, but He does expect me to follow His agenda and not dictate my terms.

Jesus didn't call me to consume. He called me to deny myself. To surrender. To be a bondslave. Have I really chosen to follow THAT call?

Study Tip: Psalms

By Paula

Psalms. It's like half the Bible. Writing a quick study tip for Psalms is almost a lost cause. At least seven contributors added to this praisebook across 900 years. It is arranged in 5 "books," but that seems to follow the tradition of Moses' five books more than any thematic grouping. In the broadest sense, the topics deal with God's working in creation, God's working in the nation of Israel, and God's working in the life of an individual.

Here are some ideas on how to study the book of Psalms.

Read it. Read a psalm a day. That will cover almost six months with a few days left over, plus you can take extra days for Psalm 119 and some of the other longer ones. When you finish, repeat.

Read a psalm a day in each of the 30-day months. A little adjustment is necessary to avoid having to read all of 119 in one day, but it's easily done. (Here's a more detailed schedule.)

Speaking of the 119th Psalm, one of my favorite studies ever was reading a verse a day from that psalm. I cross-checked different translations and kept my Hebrew and English dictionaries close and journaled my thoughts and insights.

Keep track of the emotions or mood of each individual psalm.

There are several keywords and themes that run through the book, like worship, refuge, prayer, deliverance, enemies. Watch how each is used and what they reveal us and about God.

Psalms has a ton a tremendous material for memorization. Keep a list of your favorite psalms or verses and try your hand at memorizing those verses that strike you.

Some of my favorite psalms are 1, 8, 18, 19, 27, 37, 46, 91, 94, 103, 116, 118, 119, 139, 142

What are your favorite psalms?

Bringing a Trumpet to Worship

By Paula

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.

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.