The Joyful Call To Worship

"Blessed are the people who know the festal shout..." (Psalm 89:15, ESV)
"... You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience" (Jer. 12:2, HCSB).  
"... Because these people approach Me with their mouths to honor Me with lip-service--yet their hearts are far from Me, and their worship consists of man-made rules learned by rote"  (Isaiah 29:13, HCSB).  
"I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the LORD" (Psalm 122:1, KJV).

God pours out blessings on those who hear the call to worship, who prepare their hearts, and tune in to meditate on His nature and work.  The essence of this is making a "connection" with God as we make "contact" as it were into His dimension and throne room.  Worship is "worth-ship," and we give God His dues respect (render to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's ).  Worship is an attitude we can take with us beyond the sanctuary to the workplace, doing all, whatever we do, to the glory of God as one theologian espoused (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31).  Work is a form of prayer which is a form of worship, when done to the glory of God, as Augustine of Hippo said, "To work is to pray."  All work can be done to the glory of God (i.e., worship). 

But we should especially rejoice corporately with the body of Christ:  "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD.'" (Psalm 122:1, KJV). We can get into a celestial or worship fix by not letting it become perfunctory or routine, or just memorizing the Dance of the Pious, and going through the motions--any lackadaisical spirit can be avoided and changed by adequate preparation--you cannot just expect to walk into the house of the Lord and expect a miracle at the door!

The point is to spread the cheer: "Once you've experienced it, you want to pass it on!"  Church is a spiritual checkup when we take inventory of our soul's needs and condition, but we must learn that it's not about us!  We must learn to focus on God; getting our eyes off ourselves and our problems long enough to realize the divine. Some may need to get into the mood so to speak, realizing that worship is not passive nor vicarious--we don't admire someone else worshiping!

The call to worship involves both thanking God for what He's done and praising Him for who He is!  When we do this we realize the inherent power of praise, for God inhabits the praises of His people (cf. Psalm 22:3).  This will help us to cultivate a heart of praise and worship as we learn to have the right attitude that no one can take away.   The real key to worship is the measure of our surrender, not the amount of the Spirit we have, but how much of the us the Spirit has.  We rightly submit to God's ownership of our soul.  We don't want to be like those who are the nod to God crowd on Sunday and go about their regular routine on Monday--we want the experience to last and to grow in us.  Some merely offer lip service to God and don't have their hearts in the right place!  But we must realize that there is no "one-size-fits-all" manner or style of worship, we are all built differently and find fulfillment in different ways.

But one thing is sure:  we are hard-wired and designed for worshiping God and won't be fulfilled without doing it.  Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll worship something or someone else.  Woe to him who strives with his Maker (cf. Isa. 45:9).  Worship should be seen as a privilege and honor and we can say, "I get to worship!" For this reason, worship ought not ever to become blase!   Church is more than a social event and worship more than an existential encounter (it must be put into action as we turn our convictions and creeds into deeds).   The whole purpose is to get our batteries recharged and to get right with God, back into His service, and to learn more to seek His face and make course corrections in our life.

Malachi was written to those in Israel whose worship had become a sham, mockery, and travesty--and they were not taking it seriously--but their worship had become an insult to the grace of God all because their hearts were not right with Him and they didn't give Him His rightful place, playing church and he exposed the formalism of the worshiping--they were in a worship rut and this is what the doctor ordered:  a spiritual workout!   God frowns upon mere lip service and the memorizing of the Dance of the Pious (cf. above:  Jer. 12:2; Isaiah 29:13).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Upsetting The Religious Applecart

"Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.  Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them"   ( Mark 7:15, NIV). 
"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act..." (Matt. 7:16, NLT).

Jesus was clearly antiestablishment and countercultural and was determined to overturn the tables on the Pharisees' religious turf.  He managed a revolution of topsy-turvy spirituality.  They had no notion of true spirituality, but only of externalism:  circumcision, tithing, offerings, sacrifices, festivals, Sabbath observance, fasting, handwashing, ceremonial duties, and whatever agreed with the outward show of religious piety but having no inward vitality or reality.  Jesus succeeded in internalizing religion and making it a matter of the heart and sin was on the inside that God could see.  The Pharisees were highly jealous of Jesus and protecting their turf was Job One.  Everyone wants job security, but this was too much for Jesus.  They sensed a threat to their authority and teachings, which Jesus referred to as the leaven of the Pharisees.

The people were burdened by 613 additional (248) commands and (365) prohibitions or laws of their legal system that made the Law of Moses a burden too heavy a yoke to carry.  Even the Sabbath with 39 additional activities regarded as "work" was nothing to look forward to anymore nor enjoy as a day of rest and spiritual renewal.  What really got them uptight and ill at ease was His popularity among the common people who heard him gladly and the miracles He was doing were both undeniable, and they had to come up with some explanation.  Jesus repeatedly made them out to be as fools and an embarrassment to their own cause.  Jesus seemed like a hero and authority the way He threw the moneylenders out of the temple.  They had every reason to fear His authority because He spoke like no man, not by authority, as one of the teachers of the law, (cf. Matt. 7:29), but with authority and they could not resist the Spirit by which He spoke nor answered His questions.

Jesus was against religion as they knew it.  The Pharisees were frauds at worship--just going through the motions with lip service and their hearts being far removed.  He saw the Jewish faith as one of knowing God, not of performance or a list of dos and don'ts.  The Pharisees were white on the outside but inside were as sepulchers.  They would strain a gnat and swallow a camel because they were so worried about the minor details of the Law but missed the main points of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  Religion for them was mere show and Jesus despised it.

One thing that He wouldn't tolerate was duplicity and He saw this in the Pharisees they way they didn't practice what they preached. The religious authorities were never the same after Jesus was through with them and He changed the culture by changing people.  He was the light that shown on every man to see.  No one was unchanged nor the same after an encounter with the Lord.  The religious applecart had become an organization, not an organism, or living community of believers.

The major realignment in religion came as Jesus saw through legalism and hypocrisy and instituted undefiled and pure religion as coming from a sincere heart and motive.  Jesus saw through the veneer and facade!  The people needed to be set free from the burden and yoke of the Pharisees and their take on religion, in fact, most people didn't want to emulate them nor were they jealous, though the Pharisees were respected, Jesus saw their veneer and masquerade that they hid behind.

One sad commentary on the Pharisees was their tendency to exalt themselves and of having an air of superiority.  Jesus countered that the way up is down in God's economy and one must humble oneself first to be exalted in God's eyes.  He warned them that one must become as a child to enter the kingdom of God (cf. Mark 10:15; Matt. 18:3).

The normal Christian life was in contradistinction to the one of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees flaunted their faith and Jesus taught that people should not practice their righteousness before people (cf. Matt. 6:1) but keep their religious duties between them and God and to pray in their closet, inner sanctum, comfort zone, or private space.  The Pharisees were the ultimate goody-goodies who were working for God and kept up all appearance of propriety, but they knew not the Lord in reality.  Christ will say unto them that He never knew them at the Judgment.  But we all have feet of clay (flaws not readily apparent) and must repent of the Pharisee in us.  All our works are worth zilch if we don't love the Lord and do His will--"if I have not love, I am nothing."   Soli Deo Gloria!

Just Be Yourself

In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, Polonius says, "To thine own self be true."  This is one of the most famous quotes from Shakespeare and even misquoted and misinterpreted.  We don't want to try to be someone else, of course, unless we aspire to be like Jesus, like all Christians do, but we still retain our personal identity and should never forget who we are--our roots and calling. God hates hypocrites and duplicity!  It wasn't long ago that kids idolized Michael Jordan and chanted, "I want to be like Mike!"  It is never advisable to live as someone else, live a lie, nor to live in sin, but being true to thine own self implies being true and having integrity too. 

The prerequisite to being yourself is knowing yourself, one of the twin goals of the Greek philosophers of antiquity:  Know thyself; know God--they are correlated.  This is why Socrates' dictum from his trial articulated this well: "The unexamined life is not worth living."  We all need to take inventory and get a spiritual checkup to find out where we stand in Christ and be honest with God with no skeletons in the closet.  We must find out what we're made of and what we are in Christ to be of use to God's service.

Bruce Jenner took this advice and became Caitlyn; however, he didn't go far enough--once he found out what or who he was, he should've been convicted and repented of his sin and asked God to transform his nature.  If you have tendencies to be an arsonist or a thief, you don't live them out under the pretense of being true to yourself.  What is wrong for others is wrong for everyone and God is the moral center of the universe, not us.  Taking God out of the picture leads to being a sinner, no matter how true to yourself you are.  Shakespeare was a Christian and quoted the Bible hundreds of times in his plays and sonnets, and there is some truth to what he wrote in Hamlet.  

Does character count?  Paul said that nothing good dwells in him and the good that he would do, he doesn't do.  Ovid said that he knows the good and approves it, but doesn't do it.  The point is that we don't have the power to conquer sin without Christ in our metric.  I'm glad that the Holy Spirit is a restraining influence on the sinners of the world, to keep them from being as depraved as they possibly could be or would be if they could.

Being true to yourself necessitates honesty with yourself and being open about who you are, good or evil.  Jenner wasn't necessarily given bad advice, but his problem is not that he chose to be a transgender, but that he doesn't know Jesus.  Hypocrites are those who act a role they really aren't and put on a show for others to see as a deception--wearing a mask in a play.  "Why is it that I know what is right, but do what is wrong?" (Leo Tolstoy's character Pierre says in War and Peace). 

God is looking for honest people (even if they don't measure up to their own standards), and sometimes that honesty is costly and we cannot put a price on our integrity.  When they say, "What you see is what you get," they are being human, for God is not looking for ideal people but real people.  Jesus came to save sinners and to call them to repentance. Jenner needs to humble himself before God and realize his helplessness to be the man God intended him to be.

As Christians, we should think outside the box and put others first, and live for something bigger than ourselves--the community of believers, the body of Christ.  There is a point at which so-called tribalism becomes evil, like when we deify a political party and follow it right or wrong; we should never forget that we belong to Christ first as citizens of heaven, and He has primary authority over our lives.  Individualism is evil, though we are individuals.  When we exalt ourselves and think we don't need anyone, we mock God who designed us to need community as social beings.  As Christians, we have the mindset to give back to society and the church and want to contribute, not just be focused on what we can get out of the system.

No one is autonomous and self-sufficient but God!  He needs no one and nothing, but we are ones in need of Him and others.  The Victorian Englishman was known as a self-made man who worshiped his creator!  This is the epitome of individualism, and also believing that God helps those who help themselves, like Ben Franklin and John F. Kennedy said, is bad theology--for God helps the helpless and those who are in need, even destitute--this is quoted by politicians as an argument against a nanny-state, public assistance, entitlements, and even social safety nets.  Some people are not in a position to help themselves or to turn their lives around for the good.

If our nation believes everyone has the right to life, it would follow that they have a right not to starve to death and to be fed adequately--for even prisoners are granted three square meals a day.  Christian, transcendent law entails equal opportunity, and no bias towards the rich or big business either.  They talk about social engineering for the poor or redistribution of wealth to their advantage, but what about social engineering favoring the rich or corporations, and redistribution of wealth their way?

Many today follow the so-called Iron Rule, or that "might makes right" and the law of the jungle should prevail (from the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest).  People want to take care of themselves first and be as independent as possible--look out for Number One!   The Christian ought to be about something bigger than himself.  The first lesson one learns upon knowing Christ is that it's not all about them!  Christians learn to love others as members of the same body of believers. God doesn't approve of Lone Ranger Christians or lone wolves who think they can go it alone and be a one-man-band for Christ--the key to authority is that everyone is under authority and accountable from the top all the way to the bottom, and those who refuse to be under authority have no authority for Christ.

In other words, good leaders are first good followers and good teachers are first good students.  But we never reach a point of graduating from the School of Christ that we have enrolled in for the remainder of our lives, but must learn that we are always works-in-progress and others should be patient with us because God isn't finished with us yet--as He promised to bring our sanctification to completion (cf. Phil. 1:6).  The mature believer has taken himself out of the equation of life; for humility is not thinking less of himself, but thinking of himself less.

We need to be true to ourselves, but this is in light of being true to God and what His Word tells us, not listening to what the world says and its conventions, traditions, and customs--don't live a lie!  They say to be yourself, but most people haven't discovered who they are and are searching for some identity, known as an identity crisis to find themselves.  We must be found by God and changed by His grace, for our sin nature has no power over sin, since it's the slave to it.

In this day and age, many people are coming out of the closet and declaring their sins without shame, and our culture thinks it's the right thing to do to accept them the way they are, when they need to repent of their sin:  "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!"  The message of sin, repentance, and faith has been lost and today it seems that anything goes and people are living to please themselves and doing what is right in their own eyes: (Isaiah 53:6, NKJV) "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way."

The "what's-in-it-for-me" gospel has come into vogue and we need to realize that the Christian life is a surrendered, relinquished, obedient, exchanged, and a substituted life through Christ's power (cf Gal. 2:20).  God gave us ego and a will, and as soon as this is realized there is the peril of putting them first and before God-exalting or deifying them instead of God, i.e., not giving God His due.  Soli Deo Gloria!  

Mouthing It And Doing It

   "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to  God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name"  (Hebrews 13:15, NIV).

Efficacious praise is more than lip-service.  It is deeper than the phrase connotes--it is only in actively doing it that one really praises the Lord, not in the mere saying of it:

It is one thing to say "Praise the Lord" and quite another to make good on it or make it a reality. Alleluia is the Greek, and Hallelujah is the Hebrew for "praise the Lord," which is commonly said. This word is commonplace in our hymns and must be understood, not just be an empty phrase.   Has the expression become trite or hackneyed to you, and have little spiritual impact on your spirit?  It is imperative to say "Praise the Lord!"  and in the indicative mood when you realize it--or a declarative statement.  "Praise the Lord!" is a command; while "I Praise the Lord!" is worship (but, for what or why?).  Analogous would be saying, "Thank God!" and then thanking Him in a prayer of thanksgiving for something specific.  Viva la difference! 

But some people just go through the motions in their worship--they have memorized the Dance of the Pious. We say "I love you, let me count the ways!" And we exalt God I worship Him" and mean it from the bottom of our heart; we shouldn't just utter the words thinking that that satisfies (us or God)--we are meant to worship and are only fulfilled in doing it unto our God who made us this way.  Don't just say it--do it! There are many ways to praise the Lord according to Psalm 150 and many reasons to elicit praise.  It is the proper thing to do to offer the Lord His due, and pay homage to the One we adore.  When we learn to respect and honor is one thing; however, to learn, in turn, to apply it to God is another.

How do we praise Him?  Our lives are a witness to His glory and our testimonies are giving Him the honor he deserves.  For only God is worthy of our praise, but man will praise something or someone if not God.  "Let's just praise the Lord!"  We must be discerning to manifest the many ways this can be accomplished.  The Bible says that infants can praise the Lord in Psalm 8, and the firmament shows His handiwork in Psalm 19.  Everything in creation is meant to bring glory to God (Isaiah 43:7 says we were created for His glory!).  God even makes the wrath of man to bring Him praise according to Psalm 76:10!  God indeed allows all to happen for His own purposes and to ultimately bring Him the utmost glory, His chief end.  If you want to see the glory of God, just look in a mirror and see the intricate design that God made and then behold the beauty of the Lord in all creation; for there can be no art without an artist.  God cares a lot about beauty because He made so much of it--is is manifested in manifold ways.

It is one thing to just say the phrase, and quite another to sing it or shout it--that form of expression is inherently praiseworthy.  In other words, it isn't just what we say all the time, but how we say it that makes it meaningful.  An analogy would be the man who just says he loves His wife, but never manifests or proves it or makes good on it in the display. Of course, he ought to say it, but if he means it his conduct will prove it.  Sure the words are important, but we must love not only in word but in deed and in truth.  Likewise, we can say "Praise the Lord" but do we mean it?   As a witness to others, bringing up the fact that you worship God does bring God glory because people are made God-conscious.  I used to hang around a bunch of Christians who constantly used this expression and meant what they said.  It is like saying Amen all the time to acknowledge the truth and agreement with a spiritual truth.  These believers said it with such enthusiasm and expression and the right demeanor that it was contagious!

Let's just think of many things to praise the Lord for His provision; His providence; His protection; His blessing;  His presence; His name!  I could go on, but we thank God for what He's done and just praise Him for what He is and what He does.  Psalm 100 says we are to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise!   "I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised..." (Psalm 18:3, ESV).  "... Shout unto God with the voice of triumph [for this praises God]"  (Psalm 47:1, KJV).

When we brag about someone or report the good deeds we are praising them, it is about time we do likewise to God and give credit where credit is due,   "Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints..."(Psalm 30:4, ESV).  This means we should worship God in song as well as in our speech--praise is another word for blessing and glorifying someone.  Hail God, in other words!  We worship and adore Him with all our being and want to celebrate it and pass it on.  Once you've experienced authentic praise to God you want to spread the word and pass it on, because it is contagious.   I can relate to David in Psalm 34 (ESV) saying, "I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth."  There is power in praise and it is the way to reach out to God and enter His presence. The most joyful believers are those who have learned to praise unashamedly.

Whenever you turn a person away from the human way of thinking to the divine viewpoint, you have praised the Lord because God is honored by it.  Worship is praise.   "... Praise the LORD, O my soul? I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being" (Psalm 146:1-2, ESV).  It is paramount that we praise Him in His sanctuary and when we are gathered together in His name; in fact, it is commanded.   Let us extol and lift up the name of the Lord (all that He is and His awesome reputation)!  Worship and songs that glorify Him bring Him praise.     Soli Deo Gloria!

Churchianity

Some Christians "play" church and go through the motions of worship and never go for the right reason--to worship God--they say, "I didn't get much out of worship today!" (maybe they should concentrate on what they put into it). God condemns us for having worship without our heart in it or hypocritical worship, this is just "memorizing the dance of the pious." A real hypocrite (hypocrite means wearing a mask, or acting in a play) is not one who falls short of his ideals, but one who uses religion as a cover-up and knows he is insincere.

The theme of Psalms is Psa. 29:2, "Ascribe the Lord the glory due to His name, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness." Deut. 17 condemns insincere and dishonest worship or sacrifice. Amaziah was known for doing the will of the Lord, but not with a true heart. Someone has said that there are 4 persons that we show: The one God sees; the one you see; the one the world sees; and the one your intimate friends see. Let's be careful not to just have a "public persona" and parade our spirituality or piety.

Worship should be a delight and our feelings should be in it (or we are blaspheming God--like doing it as a "duty" not because we want to) as the command "Delight yourself in the Lord..." says. In summary: Psa. 84:1 says, "My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the Lord" and Psa. 122:1 says, "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'"

We can worship or be edified in a "crowd," but we need to function in a local body of believers with our spiritual gift. Rick Warren says that there is no "one-size-fits-all" for worship and there are many ways to worship. He says we believe, we belong, we become. We are to be committed to our church as a token of our commitment to Christ--they go hand in hand--and then we will grow and be accountable.

I can't stand the legalistic crowd that goes to church thinking that will make them a Christian, like going into a garage will make you a car, or eating a donut will make you a cop. They are called the "nod-to-God" crowd, which thinks it is fulfilling its obligation by a short visit to the local church, just out of guilt. The true Christian wants to worship God and wants to fellowship with other believers with whom he is a "fellow in the same ship." I think some mega-churches miss the boat in worship, you just don't hear people "amen" the preacher (where is the worship in the Spirit and in the truth?). But different people are at different stages and God has a purpose for their existence--mega-churches aren't where I'm at, because I want to know my pastor personally, not just from afar.

Some think their religious performance is enough to save them. To some, it's only a formality and not a relationship. John MacArthur says, "We can't enter through our religious emotion or our sanctified feelings....Lip service is no good--there must be obedience...You don't get into the kingdom by sincerity, by religiosity, by reformation, by kindness, by service to the church, not even by simply naming the name of Christ; you get there only by personal trust and faith in [the person and work of] Christ." We can have a form of godliness and be empty. The church at Sardis had a reputation that it was alive, yet it was dead (see Rev. 3:1). We can even have "sanctimonious emotions" and not know Christ. There is a difference between knowing the Word and knowing the Author of the Word.

We can have many experiences in church and everyone has a different one, but I believe we should test our experiences by the Word of God and not the Word of God by our experiences. That's an important concept--we are not to become either rationalists nor empiricists (going by reason or experience only), but belief in the Bible (revelation) and sound teaching. The more we learn the more we realize where the wiggle room is and what is not worth fighting about. We are to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Sectarianism is a sin according to 1 Cor. 1, and we shouldn't divide into factions if we can help it. Pascal said, "In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, in all things charity."   Soli Deo Gloria!