Why Worship? (Part III)

                                Destination

     Our devoted time of worship should be as if we are taking a trip. With any trip you take, there is a destination. The holy place is our ultimate destination in worship. Thinking in terms of the Tabernacle, we enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise. The old chorus you are probably singing in your head now stops at the inner court, as you know. Unfortunately, that is also where most people stop in their worship. They praise and thank God and glorify His name, but they don’t take the time to commune with the Father. The holy of holies is the place where we have communion with God. We sit at His feet surrounded by His glory. We enthrone Him on our worship. He inhabits the praises of His people! This is where Jehovah God, Creator of heaven and earth, the Ancient of Days, invites us to dwell! He is the reason we live and breathe. Why would we not want to enter into His dwelling place? If given a special invitation to have a private dinner with the President of the United States, what kind of person would go through the main gate of the White House property, enter the doors into the foyer, and then not go into the banquet hall when summoned for the meal but instead decide that the foyer area was as far as he wanted to go? Would that person not be thought of as a fool? Would that not be disrespectful toward the President? Then why should we do that in our worship when it comes to entering through the veil into the holy place? Furthermore, could it be that we are dishonoring God by not fully accepting His invitation?

     The veil of separation between the inner court and the holy of holies was torn when Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross. The Father has enabled us to go in and out of the holy place as we desire. Without going into a full explanation of what each chamber represents in the Tabernacle, the holy of holies is where God’s presence resides. It is all about Him. No flesh or unclean thing is able to stand in the presence of God. In the Old Testament, the priests were not even permitted to sweat while in the holy place. Does this mean that we must be perfect before we enter into the holy place? Absolutely not. We will never be perfect until that day in which we see Him face to face before His throne in heaven. However, He sees beyond our faults.
          “Yet now has [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father's] presence” (Colossians 1:22, Amplified Bible).

     If we are worshiping in spirit and in truth as we ought, then we should be being honest with ourselves and attentive to the Holy Spirit as He reveals to us our flesh. There is a process of cleansing where each time we enter His presence, He will cut away a little more of our flesh. It is our flesh that hinders the will of God from going forward in our lives most of the time. Whether it is sin, disobedience, offense, or apathy, it all comes down to the flesh—our human nature. God will not allow these to coexist with Him. This cutting away is our spiritual surgery to remove the dead human nature so that our spirit may live and thrive in Him. So when we come into the holy place, we must be cleansed and purified by the blood of the Lamb if we desire to be made into His image more and more.

     Now that we have entered into the presence of God, we have been cleansed by dying to our flesh, and we have communed with the Father, now is the time when the dark glass through which we see gets a bit clearer. You see, at this point we are at a place of total surrender to the Father. Our focus is on Him only. Will we see Him face to face in the holy of holies? No. For God told Moses in Exodus 33:20 “You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live.” However, what God makes clearer to us is who He is. He begins to reveal to us more of His attributes. If a distant road sign has been pointed out to you while driving on the highway, you might only see the image of the sign at first without seeing the details or information contained in it. But if you continue driving toward the sign, the words or symbols on the sign become clear to the point that you are able to read and know what it is the sign is telling you. It is similar as we are focused on God in worship. The more we worship in the way I have described, where our destination is the holy place, the closer we come to Him and thus we are able to see more of His attributes. The more of His attributes we see, the greater the revelation we have of His nature. As the revelation of His nature increases in us, so does our knowledge of God and His ways. The more we know of God, the more we have to worship. I believe we spend far too much time laboring in prayer to find God’s will and guidance for our lives. If only we would just sit at His feet and worship Him, we might already know these things because we would know Him and be more familiar with His ways. This is the Father’s ultimate purpose for us—to know Him. He desires to make Himself known to us.

Why Worship? (Part II)

     Having brought to light this true definition of worship in Part I, I wish to address some key points about our own worship in hopes of revealing its importance as well as help give greater clarity and purpose to your own worship habits so that the full benefit is realized and your worship experience is deepened. As you read on, ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind and let him speak to you through what I have written.

                                     Music, Power, Purpose

     A popular form of worship in the Christian community is, of course, worship music. David is probably recognized as the leading worshiper in the Bible. We know that David, in addition to being a king, was a musician, prophet, psalmist, songwriter, and worshiper. He used music as a vehicle for worship, as we can easily see from his writings in the book of Psalms. The tradition of worship set to music has been carried on through the ages, bringing us to where we are today. In the paragraphs that follow I wish for the reader to understand why David was such a passionate worshiper, even to the point of stripping down to his undergarment in public to dance before his God. But we should also take a moment to understand why he so often combined music with his worship. Music is something most every human can relate to. It has the ability to move our emotions from joy to tears or from celebration to anger. David learned this at a very young age. We see in I Samuel, chapter 16, that Saul requested David to come and play his lyre to drive away the evil spirit that was tormenting him. So we know that music also has the ability to affect things in the spiritual realm.

     There are many people in congregations everywhere who would really prefer we “skip all the music and just have the preaching of the Word”, as I’ve heard them say. (Explaining why they feel that way would require a separate chapter altogether, but that is not the purpose of this text.) Perhaps these people simply don’t have an appreciation for music, and that’s okay. As long as a time exists for the purpose of worship, whether or not there is music to accompany it is not quite as important. To be clear however, music and songs are mediums, or tools, of worship. They are not worship in and of themselves. We don’t have to sing songs to be worshiping God. In fact, if we wait until the songs begin on Sunday morning before we worship, then we have missed it completely. However, since the first 20 to 30 minutes of the average church gathering is taken up with worship music, why not receive the full benefit of its purpose? The purpose first and foremost should simply be to worship God. After that, if we understand the power of music, we can impact the heavenlies with a sound of worship that pushes back the spiritual darkness in the atmosphere. The sound of true worship is not a man-made sound. This sound is described in Revelation 19:6 as “the shout of a vast throng, like the boom of many pounding waves, and like the roar of terrific and mighty peals of thunder.” This is what drives away the enemy in the spirit realm. My desire is that we make this kind of sound with our worship as congregations--lifting up one voice of worship unto God rather than just have worship music and sing praise and worship songs.

     As a musician, I play, write, sing, listen to, and enjoy music in many different forms. I certainly enjoy being able to create my own expression of worship through the music I make. I do not wish to change the tradition of opening our gatherings with music. What I would like to change is the tradition of doing it for the sake of tradition. I remember visiting the downtown area of a popular tourist destination where there were many horse-drawn carriages available for hire to take tours of the city. We noticed that each carriage had a Dalmatian sitting in the seat along with the driver. Being curious, we asked one of the drivers the reason all the carriages had this thing in common. He couldn’t accurately answer the question except to say that it was ‘just tradition’. My fear is that this would be the same answer from many church attendees if asked why we sing and have music at the beginning of our gatherings.

     Since most mainstream churches use music in their gatherings, I simply want to lay a proper foundation for how we utilize this time and ensure there is a sound understanding of worship and music and how the two can have a powerful interaction. For a firm foundation, our worship and worship music should serve two primary purposes: 1) That God alone would receive the honor and praise that is due Him; and 2) that the church would fall completely in love with the One we worship, rather than the worship itself. If we’re choosing to sing songs which we call ‘worship songs’, then we should also be choosing to use them according to their purpose, not just because of tradition. If you want to drive a nail, use a hammer; if you want to drive a screw, use a screwdriver. Reversing the use of these tools will achieve nothing but frustration and wasted time. To put it bluntly, so it is with our worship music if we are not using it for the right purpose.

This concludes Part II. Chew on this a while and let it sink in. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you concerning it. In Part III, we'll talk about our destination in worship.

Why Worship? (Part I)

     The title of this piece could be a loaded question. Worshiping God can encompass many things. The general definition of the word “worship” is essentially having and expressing reverent love and devotion to a deity, idol, or sacred object; including participation in ceremonies, prayers, or other religious rites; performing an act of worship. In terms of the definition given, as Christians, worshiping God should be our lifestyle. So to answer the question, we worship because we love Jesus. Answering that was a lot easier than you might have thought, right? Well, not exactly. Let’s break it down a little bit.

     Let us look at the definition in full. The definition is divided into two parts—noun and verb. Let’s take the noun into consideration first. The actual noun portion of the definition according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language is this:
     1. a. the reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object;
         b. the ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.
     2. Ardent devotion; adoration.
So we see that the first part of worshiping God is having or posessing love and adoration for Him. And of course, in order to love Him we must first know Him. Our relationship to God is similar to a love relationship between a man and woman. The more I spend time with and know my wife, the more love I have for her. As our knowledge of God grows, our love for Him grows as well. As we are becoming more knowledgeable of the Father, what is actually happening is He is revealing more of Himself to us. The more we see of Him, the more we realize the incomprehensible attributes which are His very nature. This is what God was saying when He spoke to Moses from the burning bush.
     “I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.” (Exodus 3:14 Amplified)
Jehovah God is the very essence of the words we typically use to describe Him—holy, merciful, gracious, good. While we as men are able to perform acts of holiness, mercy, grace, and goodness, God is holy. He is mercy. He is grace. He is good. As we know God more in this way, how can we do anything but love Him more? However, it is not sufficient to have loved only. Our love must be expressed. This brings us to the verb portion of the word ‘worship’.

     Let’s refer again to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language to define the verb. There are two parts to the verb also—the transitive and the intransitive. (These are grammatical terms we have all heard in school, but likely did not commit them to memory. It is still quite plain, however.)
Transitive verb
     1. To honor and love as a deity.
     2. To regard with ardent or adoring esteem or devotion.
Intransitive verb
     1. To participate in religious rites of worship.
     2. To perform an act of worship.
True worship requires participation. You have to do it. To use the age-old expression, you can tell someone ‘I love you’ as much as you like, but if you never show love by action, what evidence is there to prove the love exists? Our daily life should be continuous worship unto God (see Romans 12:1), expressed through action. Jesus said, “If you really love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands” (John 14:15). If we show the love of Jesus by feeding the hungry or clothing the naked, then we have shown our love to Him (see Matthew 26:40). We accept Jesus as Lord by believing in our hearts (an inward showing), then confessing with our mouth (an outward display). God knows our hearts, but if we never confess Him with our mouth, how will the world know that we love Him? If we truly love, the expression of it will come naturally.

This concludes Part I of "Why Worship?". I will post Part II in the next couple of weeks. This should get you thinking for the time being. Hopefully this first portion will challenge you to begin to look at your own personal worship time in a different light.

The Apostolic Sound of Worship

     Over the last twenty years worship has become a prominent subject in the church. There are thousands of recordings as well as books and teaching materials on the subject. In the last ten years especially, we have seen worship music popularized by contemporary Christian musicians, each one putting a modern sound to worship music and breaking us out of tradition to help us sing a new song. The books and teaching materials available have helped us understand what worship is, dissecting the terminology and unfolding the numerous types of praise and worship found in the Bible. With all of this, the church seems to have gotten better at worshiping, but in our learning how to do it, have we learned how to live it? I fear that we have fallen in love with the act of worship rather than the object of our worship. I believe we have built a house of worship larger than we have the foundation for.

     We often quote John 4:23, but I am concerned we are missing the truth, or reality Jesus spoke of regarding our worship. The truth of worship also seems to be the part of the scripture people most misunderstand or misrepresent. One definition of the word ‘truth’ says, “That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.” The Amplified Bible also uses the word ‘reality’ in this verse. A definition for ‘reality’ says, “All of your experiences that determine how things appear to you”. We must ask ourselves and answer the following questions. Have we actually experienced God, the object of our worship, so that we see Him as He really is in His divinity such that we derive our ultimate meaning and value of existence? Do we really live in perpetual worship to God? Do we consider worshiping God to be our life’s blood rather than something done at a certain time on a particular day of the week and that is set to music?

     God told spoke to the Israelites constantly throughout the Old Testament saying, “You shall know, understand, and recognize that I am the Lord.” If we truly know, understand, and recognize Jehovah is God, the result can only be a lifestyle of worship. No one will have to solicit us to worship, especially in the setting of our typical Sunday worship services. It is our true, authentic worship that will begin a chain reaction, or ‘cause and effect’ type of result. True, authentic worship will continuously bring us into true alignment with God. This alignment is really righteousness—the righteousness of Christ, which is conformity to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action. This is what we are called to as sons of God, and our worship of Him is the avenue for reaching the destination. And with our true alignment with the Father comes true evangelism to the world. Our alignment and conformity to God causes us to be an accurate representation of Him to the world as a display and testimony of Who He is. Rather than telling about His love, we are a tangible, living display of it to those who do not know Him. The world is waiting for this display. “All of creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19)

     We must be careful about how we qualify our worship. Recognizing God as Who He is constitutes worship. In the contemporary church, music seems to be synonymous with worship. However, just because music presided in the first twenty minutes of a church meeting does not necessarily mean that we recognized God. Radio stations play music 24 hours a day, but is God being recognized as a result? To clarify, we can worship in song and we can worship in dance, just as we can worship in feeding the hungry. The lifestyle of worship comes when we recognize God in everything—what we do, what we say, and even in what we see. I see Who God is when I look at the stars, or the moon, or the trees, or even the strangest of animals in His creation. He is without limits and we can begin to recognize that in His creation.

     It is perfectly acceptable to love to worship God, and we should love it. It would not be authentic if it were drudgery to us. And though we receive a benefit from worshiping God, it is imperative we remember we worship not for our own enjoyment, but for the Father’s enjoyment. God inhabits the praises of His people. We cannot make it our habitation also. God will not share His glory with any thing or any man. So long as we inhabit our own worship, God will not, and cannot by His very nature, dwell in it. We also must examine the sound of our worship. What does it resemble—God or man? The worship in our hearts and the praise on our lips should not be our own sound. But let it be God’s sound—the sound like “the shout of a vast throng, like the boom of many pounding waves, and like the roar of terrific and mighty peals of thunder, exclaiming, Hallelujah! For now the Lord our God the Omnipotent reigns!” (Revelation 19:6). Let our entire lives, even our bodies, be an instrument of worship, making a heavenly sound. This sound is the sound that will shake the atmosphere around us and create an open heaven where angels can ascend and descend in our midst!

Hello and Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will come by often as I have much to share that I believe will be of value to you. I write a lot so this will be a great outlet for me to be able to offer what I have. All that God has given to me I intend to give away, so if you desire to receive, stop by and see what's going on. Hopefully all that I say will either help you to grow or will simply resound in your heart in agreement.
Again, thanks for checking me out.
>marK