On pages 140-148 in GPTG much length and detail is given on the reading of the Word in corporate worship. It is something that is very important yet has been forsaken in most churches. It made me wonder why so many churches don't believe the Bible important enough to read a chapter from in corporate worship. It is often replaced by a short story with a few Bible verses thrown in here and there, as if our words mean more than those of God. Are we really just that bpred with scripture? Or that unaware of it's significance in our worship?

Biblical Knowledge

On the very first page of today's reading for GPTG p. 129, something that really stood out to me was this quote "Another result of such gospel-oriented evangelistic preaching in the lives of hearers should be an increasing integration of biblical knowledge with their everyday lives." I have heard it said often that these days biblical literacy is at an all time low. But for so long I never thought that had anything to do with me or how I view worship. Instead I thought well "the world" and "the weaker christians" they are the ones with the problem, and I just decided it was really sad and I hoped that they would get it together someday. How foolish! And how convicting, now! So often I had looked at others and thought I some how had figured out how to worship God and have this "experience" with Him and they were just missing out... the truth of the matter is I was missing out! In regards to worship I was biblically illiterate! This problem that I thought others had was something that was reigning in my own life. I realize now that the more I look toward God and His program of redemption and His act of Divine Love in allowing Christ to stand in my place, then I begin to understand how worthy He is of my worship. Furthermore, I see how I must worship as He has commanded us to worship, and the more I grasp the truths of His Word, the more they will take control in my everday life.

Page 132 of Give Praise to God makes a great observation when it states "Our services can be properly sensitive and friendly to non-Christians without calibrating everything to the level of a first-time visitor." I have always seen evangelistic events as being totally separate from the sermons that are for building up the body of Christ. Certain sermons were just expected not to apply to me, because they were geared for the lost (i.e., Easter morning and Christmas), and certain sermons would be over the head of someone who had just walked in for the first time that day. But if the whole Bible points to the Gospel, it's not hard to give the Gospel when you are teaching Bible passages the way they were intended to be interpreted. Likewise, focusing on the Gospel is indispensable for every believer.

The Two Beat Rhythm, As It Applies in My Life

As I continued to think on some of the concepts that were discussed in class, I began to realize just how careless much of our thinking is in regards to worship. I am becoming continually aware of just how unbiblical our "worship" can be. I realize now that we must faithfully endeavor to keep the "two beat rhythm" discussed in GPTG. Our worship MUST flow out of what God has revealed to us in His Word, or else we are in big trouble. Otherwise our feelings and emotions will dominate, and then cheat us out of truly giving reverence to God. What I mean is that if I base my worship solely off of how I am feeling, then on bad days, I will treat God as if He is not worthy of worship, simply because I don't feel "worshipful". These are just somethings that have struck me and that I am trying to apply to my own heart that I might in turn share with others.

Coming prepared

I've been thinking a lot about what Burroughs says about preparing for worship and prayer. Most of the time, I head into chapel, church, and Bible studies without at all thinking about them until I get there. I expect them to change me. While this is true, if I really expect to give to God, I should consider preparing myself so that I will be in the best condition to give Him an offering. How awesome it would be if the first 15 minutes of chapel weren't just me trying to get my heart right while I sing, but that I went straight into singing without having anything else on my mind but praising God and encouraging my brothers and sisters?

Program for Reformed Worship

Program for Reformed Worship
"It is simple, biblical, transferable, flexible, and reverant." Simple is the one that struck me. Our purpose and call is to call the church to the Bible. It's that simple. How often do we stress over the right style of worship, if it will connect with the culture, if the words are meaningful, if it sounds good, if we look good doing it etc. when our worship should simply point us to the Bible. "It is a call to something simpler and more profound" How much more effective would corporate worship be in our churches be if the leaders were simply looking to call their church to the Bible? How much less important would style become? How much stronger would our faith be if we were constantly being drawn to the Word of God and hearing the word preached through our worship? Reformed worchip is not a call to the formal styles of the past but a call to the conerstone of our faith, the Bible.

As I was reading through Gospel Worship, something that struck me was the phrase "We must come freely to worship God, but we must not worship God according to our own wills." GW p.12 The author continues to discuss how we need to worship God biblically, I feel that so much of our worship today is based off of feelings or experiences. Some times as worship leaders, I think there is this temptation to order the worship service around the congregation and its responses. The more I read the class material and study, the more I think God is teaching me what true worship ought to look like and how often I have actually missed it.

Corporate Worship

In reading through the reading in Give Praise to God I realized how much it was talking about making sure you are worshipping in the correct form of corporate worship. Using the right elements and coming to God in true worship is very important. Throughout the reading I couldn't help but wonder how do you know if you are coming in true worship. The rules that Paul gives for worship are given and we can argue over and over what the correct form of worship is and our churches show the many different varieties and how people think it should go in order to get to true worship of God. I think the answer to my question came when I came to the end of the paragraph on page 48 where it says, "Because God the Spirit who wrote the Lord's command is the same Spirit who endables true worship, there can be no ultimate conflict between form and freedom, between rules of Scripture and the heartfelt expression of praise, between the precepts of worship and unfettered engagement with God." To me this is saying that if you are truely filled with the Spirit then you will come to God in true worship because he is the one enables true worship. The rules give us guidelines to follow. So now how do we know if our churches are worshipping in true worship? If it's corporate worship you can't see the hearts of all the people worshipping.