Learning to Worship

Worship and prayer go hand in hand. Prayer is part of building that relationship with God, the subject of our worship. This article by Joe McKeever is really good.  He is talking about how to pray for your pastor on Saturday. I won’t quote his entire article, but it is well worth reading. You can find it at

http://www.joemckeever.com/mt/archives/001270.html

How to pray for your pastor on Saturday:

1) Pray for God to settle the sermon in his mind.

2) Pray for the Holy Spirit to get through to him regarding his study habits.

3) Pray for him to have peace tonight and great energy tomorrow.

4) Pray for today's burdens to be light and tomorrow's distractions to be few.

5) Pray that when he stands up to preach on Sunday, the only thing on the pastor's mind is pleasing the Father.

And do one thing more: when the service ends, offer up thanks to God for that message. He sent it to you and others like you. The pastor was merely the messenger, so you do not necessarily have to seek him out and thank him. He will feel amply rewarded if he sees that his congregation is taking the message to heart.

Lastly, this thought hit home: One wonders how many men of God would still be in the ministry had they had godly men and women in the pews who daily lifted them to the Lord in prayer.

OK, got to the Divine Hour right before class.  Several good scriptures, the Lord's prayer and the Doxology.  My favorite scriptures was in The Call to Prayer:

The Call to Prayer
Come now and see the works of God,* how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people. In his might he rules for ever; his eyes keep watch over the nations;* let no rebel rise up against him. Psalm 66:4,6

After my Spring class my nature is to start making observations about this passage for example:

Come now - not later, not when I have tome, but NOW.

See the works of God - There are works of God all around me. Henry Blackaby talks a lot about looking for where God is working, he is, we just tend to miss it. Today was a retirement party for one of the faculty members. Story after story of how he invested in people's lives. God working through him. Living in Southern California one can see beaches, the mountains and Disneyland in 2 hours or less.

How wonderful he is in his doing toward all people - God wants the best of me and the rest of his children. Actually the passage says, "toward all people" there isn't a clarification of God's people, it says people.

In his might he rules for ever - from everlasting to everlasting he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His love for me doesn't change.

His eyes keep watch over the nations - even though it seems like or appears that things are out of control, God has his watchful eye on us. He's not surprised by what is happening in our world.

Let no rebel rise up against him - Not sure what this means, if a rebel tries, he really isn't going to get far. 

Having this passage under "The Call to Prayer" is interesting to me. I guess it's a reminder of why I should pray. He does works, wonderful works, toward all the people. I guess this is telling me that I can come to him in prayer because he's in control

That's a good thing!

Tonight our "worship" was a walk through the Divine Hour.  The Divine Hour is part of the Daily Office. Our leader opened it with a bell, which made me think of Taize Worship. It was a series of Scriptures readings with the refrain "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Of course, I had to go looking for a web site that offered the divine hours.  And, of course, Google didn't let me down.  I found a Vineyard Church out of Ann Arbor that provides the divine hours.  You can check it out at: http://www.annarborvineyard.org/tdh/tdh.cfm 

So, my challenge... is to use the Divine Hours at least once a day for the rest of the month. It is a real challenge because I want to continue to start my day with the reading from Psalms devotion.  I'm currently on Psalm 119.  Which I appreciate all the more now that I understand the Hebrew alphabet.

שָׁלז֗ם

I'm back to Prayer, Praise, & Promises by Warren W. Wiersbe. I'm on Day 293, of course I started the book back in 2007.  Oops...

Anyway today's reading came from Psalm 118:19-29.  Verse 24 is one of my favorites on a Sunday morning (and yes it should be EVERY morning), "This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

That should be my focal point each and every day, of course, it isn't but it should be.

WWW tells us this is one of the Psalms that Jews would sing during the Passover meal. Which means Jesus sang this song just hours before he was beaten and taken to Calvary.

I didn't know that this Psalm was sang as part of the Passover feast. I never thought about Jesus thinking "This is the day that the Lord (in this case YHWH) had made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Those are tough words for me to say when I'm having a bad day. When I'm frustrated and I feel like nothing is going right. Yet, my Lord, my Savior sang those words just prior to a horrible death. My simple frustrations pale in comparison.

It's important for me to remember that "This is the day that the Lord has made (for me) and I WILL rejoice and be glad in it." Learning to worship even on those frustrating, maddening days!

Often times we think of "worship" as the singing time at church.  I use to think that. However, through the course of my education in my master's program it's been stressed over and over that worship is more than singing.  It's every aspect of the church service.  It's a beautifully woven together time of communion with God and God's people.

Tuesday night Jane and I were responsible for our worship time in class.  I didn't really want to draft a guitar player and sing, since I don't sing. (sigh)

So I opted to utilize a method that I was taught in the "Worship Leadership" class. Leading a time of "worship" without music.  I also wanted to take us through the Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication (ACTS) time.  When I was first thinking about what scripture to use, I first thought about Psalm 51.  But the more I thought about it the more I didn't like that idea. 

Tuesday afternoon as I laid on the chiropractor table with these wonderful hot packs on my back it all started coming together.

Adoration

Psalm 96:8 – 9

⁸Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name;
         Bring an offering and come into His courts.
⁹Worship the LORD in holy attire;
         Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Confession

1 John 1:8 – 9

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Thanksgiving

Psalm 86:12 – 13

¹²I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
         And will glorify Your name forever.
¹³For Your lovingkindness toward me is great,
         And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Supplication

Psalm 28:1 – 2

¹To You, O LORD, I call;
         My rock, do not be deaf to me,
         For if You are silent to me,
         I will become like those who go down to the pit.
²Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help,
         When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

 

It was a very peaceful time for me. It has been a very long hard few weeks.  I've had several struggles.  Spending this time was a really good reminder that I need to do it more often!

The prof also shared at the break he appreciated it and enjoyed it.  It also was interesting that he was planning to talk about confession in class. 

Tonight in class we're talking about festivals, one of which is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. As part of Yom Kippur the high priest in this case, Aaron, goes in to offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people. However, before he can offer the sacrifice for the people he has to offer a sacrifice for himself.  It is the one time a year when the high priest can go into the Holy of Holies. He did this every year after year after year.

Now, let's face forward to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 here we see that Jesus is our great high priest. He is our high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses.  He was tempted in the same ways we are, yet, (unlike us) he did not sin!  Because he is the high priest without sin, he was/is the ultimate sacrifice.  This gives us an access pass so that we can approach the throne of grace with boldness!  At that throne of grace we receive mercy and find grace!

Thank God for giving us the ultimate sacrifice that in turn became our ultimate priest and advocate to the Father.

Last Tuesday I started a Grad class entitled "Biblical Foundations of Worship." One of the books we are reading is Worship in Ancient Israel - The Essential Guide by Walter Brueggemann. Because this is a 9-week term everything is accelerated. So I had to have this book all read by next Tuesday. Thankfully, it was short and a quick read. But it is full of truths that I believe applies to us today.

The author offers what he refers to as a broad definition. "...worship in the biblical tradition that eventuates in Christian practice consists in regular, ordered, public, disciplined resituation of the life of the community of faith and each of its members in the presence of the God who has called that community into existence and who continues to call that community into a life of praise and obedience."

I love the portion, "the community of faith and each of its members in the presence of the God who has called that community into existence and who continues to call that communion into a life of praise and obedience." (page 1) God continues to call us, it's an ongoing relationship.

The author quotes Walter Harrelson and the closing line, "I would insist that man cannot live a fully human life without acts of celebration." This celebration of and enounter with "the transcendent" is an inescapable need.

One of the things that today's worship needs to be is an act of celebration. We serve a God that wants to have an encounter with His people. He's not distant and uncaring, He's a breath away and cares about every detail of our life. That simple fact should make us want to celebrate.

The relationship between Israel and YHWH was based on a covenant. The covenant that they (Israel) would be His people and He would be their God. The God worshipped through these acts of covenant-making, covenant-keeping, and covenant-renewing.

Just like Israel who consantly broke their covenant with YHWH we, too, tend to break our covenant with God. We too need to renew our covenant by confession our sin. That should be a reason for celebration.