Praise, Worship, and Other Things – Part 4

When you mention prophecy most immediately picture some old, rough looking guy screaming on a street corner, “Hear ye, hear ye, the word of the Lord!” This may resemble the way prophecy was used in the Old Testament, but it has drastically changed since Jesus came.

New Testament prophetic ministry is very different from the Old Testament prophet. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit “came on” people to empower them to do the Lord’s bidding. After Jesus was crucified, He rose from the dead, and ascended to Heaven where He was seated at the right hand of the Father. He then fulfilled His promise to send “another comforter” (John 14:16), the Holy Spirit, to fill the Believer. Since the Day of Pentecost the ministry of the Holy Spirit is no longer external but internal because He abides “in” the believer.

Now we are empowered to be witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus by the inward presence of the Holy Spirit. Paul describes some of the workings of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 – 14. He specifically describes New Testament prophetic ministry. “On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.” 1 Corinthians 14:3 (ESV) This is the essence of what occurs during our corporate worship.

When we engage in praise (speaking about God) it “builds up” the other Believers in the room. It “encourages” them when we begin to boast about our God and all that He has done. When we sing of Heaven it brings “consolation” to those who have lost loved ones, or who themselves may be facing death.

When we worship, just like the woman with the alabaster box (Matthew 26), it exalts Jesus so everyone is drawn to Him. “Then I fell down at his feet to worship him (the angel), but he said to me, ‘You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.’ For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Revelation 19:10 (ESV) This, too, is prophetic in nature.

From this you can see a little more about New Testament prophetic ministry. It is in essence speaking a word in due season, in the moment, that brings glory to God and exalts Jesus. When we praise and worship we engage in the prophetic. The end result of our corporate praise and worship should resemble what Paul described in Ephesians. “…  be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:18-21 (ESV)

Unity is the purpose of New Testament prophetic ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Praise, Worship, and Other Things – Part 3

(This is the third part of a six part series recently published in our church newsletter.)

Just about everything I hear reminds me of a song. Music has been a big part of my life as far back as I can remember. There are many things I love about music. The thing I find most helpful are the lyrics. There are times when emotions are stirred and we cannot seem to find words to express fully what we feel on the inside. Songs help us by providing those words.

One of the benefits of corporate worship is it gets the entire congregation saying the same thing. When we lift up our voices to lyrics that exalt the Lord it brings us into a place of unity. Music has a way of penetrating our heart. This quote from St. Augustine sums things up very nicely: “Words find their way to the heart and mind more effectively when sung than when said, for there is a hidden kinship between the soul and music.”

This is why we should sing scripture. Putting the Bible to song feeds our spirit and helps us in our communion with the Lord. When you add to that the dynamic of corporate worship, the Church grows in their relationship with the Lord, and with each other. Our differences are minimized when the presence of the Lord is maximized.

I hope that songs we sing in our gatherings come back to you during the week. I hope when you face a circumstance that is challenging the lyrics to songs come to mind that will bring faith to help you stand. Or, perhaps when you have a victory and want to give thanks to the Lord, songs from our times in worship will help give voice to the feelings you have as you praise God.

Blessings!

Dudley

Praise, Worship, and Other Things – Part 2

Musical style is a popular topic in churches these days. The arguments seem to boil down to Traditional vs. Contemporary. The main issue is this really does not describe the root of the problem. I’ll attempt to explain, hopefully without creating a new crisis.

Traditional, for the most part, describes what one is accustomed to hearing. This varies from generation to generation. Each generation has what they consider to be Traditional music. Generally speaking, in today’s current debate Traditional refers to hymns. More specifically, it refers to hymns written in the past two hundred years or so, from the time of Wesley forward. My question for those that prefer Traditional music is this: what was being sung in churches before these hymns were written?

Did you know the music of Wesley and others were not welcomed in all the churches of his day? Folks in those days preferred their “traditional music” over this new music that was being introduced. It caused quite a stir. So technically speaking, those that support Traditional music today are actually promoting the Contemporary music from a couple of generations back.

I remember in my teenage years the frustration I felt when leaders of churches in the 1970’s and 80’s refused to allow “contemporary” music to be used in worship services. Most of these songs were written by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Now, you would be hard pressed to find a church that does not use some of their music. That was only forty years ago.

Let’s take a look now at the argument used by those that prefer Contemporary music. The most common voice that I hear in this debate speaks of needing “new” songs. They say, “We don’t want to be traditional.” This group does not really understand what they are attempting to do. In essence, they are starting a new tradition! A tradition of being non-traditional is still a tradition.

I do not use these terms when I speak of Praise and Worship. Musical style is not the point. Age of the songs being sung, to me, is not relevant. The only thing that matters to me is this: Is the Lord being worshipped? If we can leave a gathering and answer this question with, “Yes”, then we have done our job. Let’s take the rhetoric down a notch, realize that we are all on the same team, and find a way to walk together down this road called Praise and Worship. We all have something to learn from one another.

Praise, Worship, and Other Things – Part 1

This article is the first of seven that were recently published in our church newsletter. I'll post the others over the next few day. I'd love to hear you feedback. I like to hear what you think about praise and worship.

Praise and Worship, for the most part, are used interchangeably in reference to music performed in a church service. There is much more to this than can be addressed in a brief article, but my “thumbnail” definition is: Praise is when we sing ABOUT God, Worship is when we sing TO God. There are times for both in the life of the Christian, and in our corporate gatherings.

In both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 we are instructed to use “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” to encourage, exhort, and edify “one another.” These are certainly not songs sung TO God, but rather ABOUT God for the purpose of blessing each other. The Hebrew word for this sort of thing is shabach, which means, “to boast about our God.” As a grandfather I am obligated to show pictures of my beautiful granddaughter whenever she is mentioned (and I usually mention her if no one else does). I love to boast about her because I love her so much. We do the same thing with God. When He is such a large part of our life we seek opportunities to boast about Him, to tell others what He has done in our life. The result of this is others get encouraged. It builds faith in them by hearing what God has done, and is doing, in others.

The other type of music is Worship. This is directed TO God. When we as a group of Christ-followers gather and begin to sing TO God it creates unity among us and we, by default, are drawn closer together. It helps develop a sense of purpose between us, and helps dissolve any issues that would try to keep us apart. Another effect of Worship is that as we exalt the Lord, He becomes bigger in our eyes and our problems or concerns become smaller. Our faith is increased, and trusting Him becomes so much easier to do.

My desire is that we do both when we gather as a body of Believers.

Easter, and the Ascension

For me, the Easter story is not completed until Jesus ascended to Heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father. Here is the final scene from our upcoming Easter presentation. More will be added to fill in some of the details, but here is the bare bones.

The Ascension

Before leaving their sight for the last time, Jesus made a promise to send “another Comforter” to live IN us, to comfort us, to empower us to be witnesses, to guide us, to teach us. This was to be the Seal of the New Covenant. It was the earnest of our inheritance. Jesus was coming again, but until He comes the Holy Spirit will abide in us forever!

Each one had a choice to make. Go back to their “normal” lives, or begin a new life of telling how “I once was lost but now I’m found.” Each one that took on the New Covenant with its sign of baptism, and its seal of the Holy Spirit, has the God-given purpose of being Ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now our heart’s cry is Maranatha! He has come, and is coming again!

Words, Words, Words

I know it will never happen. In fact, I think it will probably get worse as our devolves due to texting shortcuts and pure apathy toward spelling and diction. But, for us purests out there that still care, here is my latest set of words that give me pause.

Choose vs. chose (present and past tense of the same verb)
Loose vs. lose (following the above set of words the spelling is similar, but pronunciation is totally different)

English is hard!

On another note, do you recall the movie Bambi? Other that the infamous "We are always in danger when man is in the woods", there was another scene that came to mind recently. When spring arrived all the animals began to pair up. I forget the character's name, but I believe it was the owl that explained the phenomena as being "twitterpated". Today, that word would have a whole new meaning.

Half-attempts Are Not Enough

Yesterday I went to Walmart to find a humidifier. With the cold weather comes drier air which causes issues for sinuses (or should it be sini?). I entered the store and wandered toward the pharmacy area where this sort of thing is normally sold. I located the aisle and was surprised to find several different styles and models from which to choose.

I picked up the box of the model that caught my eye so I could take a closer look. On the front of the package there was a marketing blurb that said, "Be sure to pick up replacement filters." It then listed three different filter Model Numbers that would fit this particular humidifier.

I thought that would be a great idea, and the replacement filters were conveniently located right next to the humidifiers. There were several filters available, so I proceeded to locate the Model Number of the filter to ensure I chose the correct one. There was not a Model Number printed on the box!!

On the front of the filter box it also had a marketing blurb that said, "Use with xxxx, xxxx, or xxxx" which were the Model Numbers of the humidifiers that it fit. "Ah!", I thought. So I began searching on the humidifier box, only to learn that there was no Model Number on the humidifier!!

Someone had a great idea: place the corresponding Model Numbers on the packaging for easy matching. Someone else had a very bad idea: there is no need to place the Model Number of this device on the box. Two people, working for the same organization, made diametrically opposing decisions, leaving their potential customers frustrated and confused.

It is so important to have someone that sees the big picture review the process to ensure continuity. Be accountable to someone.