https://worshipcrafting.com/2017/04/24/the-hard-work-of-worship/ Zach Young Creative Director Purley Gates Retreat Hello everyone! I pray that you are enjoying life today and God is doing big things through you this week. I’m so glad you are here today! Our topic for this week is another one of those tough ones that we often face as Christians – how to worship. Now when I say this, I’m not getting into the debates like having music or instruments in church, or what types of songs are played, or anything like that. I’m taking this post a little deeper and aiming it right at the heart of the matter. Today, we are going to look at why and how we meet on Sundays (or whatever day your church gathers). To give a little background, let’s go over what got me started on this subject.
I was sitting in church on Sunday morning, and a thought came into my mind about the difference between how worship occurs in Heaven and how it occurs on Earth. I began to wonder, what if I were to die right now and when I came into Heaven it was time for “church?” What would that service look like? Have you ever thought about this? As I sat and pondered it, God gave me a few pictures in my mind of what it would be like. Then I began to compare those to how we gather and worship on Earth, and there wasn’t much similarity. The biggest difference was the focus of it all. In Heaven, the focus was God and nothing but God. That was the ONLY concern. In our churches here, we say that He is the main focus, but when we examine our operations, it’s hard to say that’s really true many times. In reality, it’s more aimed towards ourselves, and more about God giving me something instead of us giving God our everything. It even shows in our strict schedules that we cling to. It usually goes: start with singing (about 3-5 songs), then we insert a prayer to cut out awkward silences, then pastor gives a sermon, then another prayer break, 1-2 songs, prayer, and we leave. All of this occurs just in time so we can go out and eat on time, take a nap, and forget most of what happened that morning. I know every church isn’t exactly like this, but you get what I’m trying to say. Just imagine with me for a moment if we dropped all of that. How crazy would it be if we showed up, not worried about time or lunch, and we just worshiped? Instead, we just gave God all of us, all of our hearts. What we often forget is that Heaven is already here, and it is supposed to be alive in us. So if that’s the case, is how we run our gatherings now how we want to look in front of our King? The greatest way to change our worship is to change our mindset when we first go into it. Instead of being concerned about ourselves and our issues, let’s try living by Jesus’s words in Luke 22:42 – “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” Once that is established, our praise can start to shift to something more like in 1 Chronicles 16:23-31 or like the four creatures in Heaven found in Revelation 4:8-11. It would be so awesome to be part of something like that! So I hope that this post really challenges you today. At least take a moment to think about what your worship looks like. Is it constructed in a way that will please the Lord, or is it formed to fit your own desires? I hope you have a great week, and I will be praying for you! Go show God some love this week. Jesus loves you! http://biblehub.com/niv/luke/22.htm http://biblehub.com/context/1_chronicles/16-23.htm http://biblehub.com/context/revelation/4-8.htm
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