Once again, Tam is inspiring a blog post.  Stop it!  Ha!  Just kidding.  I hope you are enjoying the slightly more prolific me that has taken over this week (who am I kidding… today!)

First – go read this post – then come back here and see where it got me.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Take your time.

This window will stay open for you, patiently waiting for your return.

You back?  Good.  Let’s dig in.

The big question?

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Yep.  That is the question I have for all of us.  What does the word make you think of?  How does it affect (or effect) your life?

Why do I ask this?  Because it needs to affect your life.  I needs to be the cause of the effect of God on your life.  It needs to be in the air that you breathe, the food that you eat.  In the actions and reactions of your day.

Why?

Because the painful truth is that we all worship something every second of every minute of every day.  Yep.  We are creatures that were created to worship (notice I didn’t say “for worship” – we don’t deserve to be worshiped!)

What are you worshiping today?

• yourself
• your spouse
• your kids
• your job
• your car
• your computer/online life
• your wii/nintendo/x-box
• etc
• etc
• etc

The list of the things that we worship goes on and on and on and on.  Truth is, we have idols, and lots of them.  Just because they aren’t carved out of wood or stone and made to look like a little person or animal doesn’t make them any less of an idol.  The idols we worship in place of God are the things to which we devote our time, energy and money.

And trust me when I tell you that I’m talking to myself as much as anyone else!  My flesh considers itself a demi-god.  Worthy of worship.  As having a worth-ship, a high value.  Others should sacrifice for me, right?  For my wants and needs and desires!

NOT!

My kids… yep, they are little gods in their eyes too.  Humanity is so full of itself!  Look at any 2 year old, and you will see a creature that seeks to fulfill it’s own desires at (almost) every turn.  As a mom, I can easily make them into idols too… catering to their wishes and sacrificing to them.  Yes, I should sacrifice for them, but not to them.

So, back to our question.  What is worship?

It is the act of sacrificing time, money, energy and desire for something that we have deemed valuable enough to be worth it.  That’s one way of putting it.  There are others too, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

So, are you worshiping the right thing?  The right Being?

Are you devoting your time, money, energy and desire to God, or creator?  Or are you sacrificing those things that belong to Him in preference of something else?

Is He worthy of your life?  After all, He gave His for you.

I know, I’m late.  But I have a good excuse!  We drove south to a friends house and spent the afternoon at the park playing Catan.  Quite fun, even if we were freezing in the 75 degree weather… yes, I was cold and it was 75F outside.  Disclaimer: we were sitting in a very shady grove surrounded by big trees with a breeze blowing and we were all in tanks tops and shorts.  Brrr!  But I won, by 2 points if I recall.

So, back to the service… I get so easily distracted!

The songs:

• Sing, Sing, Sing [G]
• Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) [F]
• O Worship The King [F]
• kids message
• Here I Am to Worship [E]
• announcements
• message “Why Not Take All Of Me”
• Made To Worship [F]
• Take My Life [D]
• communion message
• Lead Me To The Cross [E]
• taking the Lord’s Supper
• Reign In Us [F]

Yep, that’s a LOT of songs!  The message was on worship, and was taken from the passage in 2 Samuel 6 where King David attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (resulting in a death) – and then gets it right and is able to bring it.  We moved a couple of songs to the end of the message so that people could get some “practical application” before they left, and my hope is that they left with the knowledge that worship is so much more than a few songs sung on a Sunday morning!  I have to admit that I was wishing Pastor Chris had picked a different title – I kept having the old jazz chart “All Of Me” going through my head, and it was annoying.  (looooong story having to do with my college jazz band and our honeymoon)

Sing Sing Sing was a new one today, and it went over really well… well, other than me starting the repeat of verse 1 with the words of verse 2… oops!  Fortunately I caught it on about the 3rd word, so I saved it pretty quickly.  I think I like it, and I think that a decent enough group of people knew it that it will catch on pretty quickly.  That and the fact that it repeats the same thing A LOT.  Repetition is a good thing when you are trying to learn something!

I read Luke 19:37-40 at this point to remind all of us why we worship God – first, we worship Him because He is worthy and deserving of our praise and adoration, and second because if we don’t do it the earth will have to!  It’s a good reminder.

That flowed wonderfully into Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) which is a fav of our church.  We followed that with O Worship The King (which I kept blanking out on the words for… oy!) and then had the kids come up early for their message.

For the kids song we sang Here I Am to Worship, and it was cool to see even the little ones getting into singing and clapping and doing the hand motions for it.  I still struggle with the bridge, because I think we will see the true cost of our sin one day… but other than that I love the song.

The message should be live tomorrow if you’re interested (and it was a pretty good one).  You can check it out here.

The band came back up and we led Made To Worship (a new one for me) and Take My Life (as sung by Chris Tomlin & Christy Nockles).  It was pretty powerful.  Take My Life is a song that can go on and on and on if you have the time for it… which I was really wishing we had this morning!

Jim shared a story that made communion a little easier for the kids to understand (since they were back in with us this morning) The story was about 2 boys that were friends, and one of them got sick and died.  He asked his friends to continue to celebrate his birthday even after he was gone, and to look forward to the day that they would all be together again.  I saw a few people wiping teary eyes by the end of it (I’ll even admit that it moved me, cold heart that I have

We led Lead Me To The Cross while the elements were passed out (which I bumped to E this week – SO much easier to sing!) and then Jim prayed over the bread and juice and took it together.

Since it was already 11:33, we just did the 2nd bridge and chorus of Reign In Us (you know, the part that they chop off when it’s played on the radio… grrr) and sent everyone out with that.

It was a good day.

People were entering in – lifting their hands, focusing on God rather than each other, and lifting their voices to God.  It was another of those days that I find it harder to “lead” because I just want to worship.  I’m still trying to find that balance… and I suspect that it will take a long time to get there!  I try to remember to make eye contact with those that seem to like that… but I’d much rather be in the background just singing to God than in the front.

Some thoughts on worship, since we are on the topic.

We serve a holy God… a God that deserves everything that we are!  He created us to worship Him, and whether we choose Him as our object of worship or not, we will worship something.  It is what we were created to do.  Whatever we give our time, energy and money to is what we worship… there is a saying that you can tell what someone worships by looking at their bank account.  You can also tell by watching how they live out their lives.

I know that I have been guilty lately of letting other things take that place in my life, and I haven’t been living out my life as an act of worship every day.  Just take a look at my living room to see the lack of excellence there!  Actually, don’t.  It’s embarrassing.

At our home group this week we were asked the following question:  What is an idol in your life?  Even though Eric laughed at the truth in it, I had to admit that the internet can at times become an idol rather than a tool.  There are days that begin and end with me sitting here with the laptop open and running, facebook or twitter going strong.  The internet is NOT supposed to be the beginning and the end in my life, God is!  He is the alpha and omega, but I have allowed something else to take that position from time to time.  That realization came on Friday as I was leaving a meeting with Pastor Chris.  Oy!  How easy it is to allow other things take too much of our precious time!

So, I will be working on that.

As much as I will miss constant updates of some new-found friends and acquaintances I have found on twitter and facebook, I will not be allowing myself to spend quite as much time there.  I need to nip this in the bud (so to speak) before it completely takes over my life!  Oh, and I really need to get the house picked up.  No, really.  I have family coming for a visit next month, and I’m sure they would appreciate sleeping on a futon that isn’t piled high with junk and having a shower that’s clean and shiny to use.  And a bathroom that isn’t full of piled up laundry.  And we need clothes to wear.

So, that is my confession for the week, as well as my prayer request – that I will be able to control the urge to be constantly online, to be constantly checking for status updates and new tweets, and to actually get work done!  I also pray that I will let God be the beginning and ending of my day… that I will let Him guide me from the moment I open my eyes and throughout my day to whatever He has for me.

And now I have a question for you…

How do you define worship?

I’m looking forward to reading the answers…

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Wow… that was a long one!  If you made it this far, congrats!  And thanks for reading…

Did I mention that we had Vietnamese Spring rolls for lunch?  Or were they Summer rolls… not sure.  They were the hard-rice-stuff-dipped-in-water wrapped ones – very fresh, very yummy.  That’s the treat for anyone that made it all the way through!

As always, part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist blog carnival!

Is that a safe thing to say in today’s world? To admit that you are privileged enough to get to do something that you love for a living? I hope so.

I’ve been *the* worship leader for 5 months now, and I’m finally starting to get past the “freaking-out-because-I-have-no-clue-what-I’m-doing!!!!!” stage and really starting to have some fun.

Really, really starting to have some fun…

I’m so totally and completely loving this!

Yes, I’m still in waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head and still very much out of my comfort zone, but the fear is subsiding… I’m even able to talk loud enough into the mic that people can hear me! Yay for me! Seriously… praying in front of a small group is one thing, but the whole church? Eek! I’ll get there.

God has been gently pulling me along and giving me just what I need when I need it through this. I am blessed that our pastor is a worshiper – a former worship leader of 30 years to be more to the point. He gets it, and he has been able to help me along as well (which is HUGE – thanks so much Chris!) and (Praise God!) he is willing to play in the band still. God is also bringing other worship leaders into my life to learn from (whether they know it or not), and guiding me along as I spend time with Him.

I’ve been going through a bible study created for worship teams which has brought many, many things to mind, and which our worship team will be starting later this month. I can’t wait to see what God does in our team through this! I have been going through the study online with a group of worship leaders, and have been gleaning as much as I can from them. I’m learning more and more how to do what God has called me to do from others who are out there doing it each week. I still have so far to go, but God has been walking beside me through each day, guiding me along this path.

So what is our worship team like? Well, we still kind of have two leaders… Pastor Chris leads the instrument side (’cause I am fairly lacking in that area, unfortunately – read, I suck at it) and I lead the rest… it’s a good thing we agree most of the time! We just added a drummer and a bass player (I’m hoping we didn’t scare them away last night) and put Dave back onto guitar. We have a really real band now! That’s 2 electric guitars, a acoustic, keyboard, kit, bass, female lead, male lead, and 1 guy and 3 gals singing. I’m so loving this! Oh, and only two of those positions are held by one person. Lots of people up there…

So, why am I sharing all of this? Well, first of all it is just coming out of the overflow of what I am feeling today. God is so good! He will provide everything you need just when you need it to do that which He has called you to do. I’m also sharing it because I’m excited to see what God will be doing through this team of amazing people that I get to work with. We have been given a high calling! We are there to point the way to the throne room of God each Sunday. We are there to worship our Wonderful Savior, and in so doing, to lead the congregation in worshiping Him too.

Can you ask for a better gig? I mean, seriously? To get to make music in honor of and to give glory to our Creator and Savior… it’s so cool!

There is just something about making music with people too… you get to build relationships at a different level than just hanging out and talking. It’s a different level than when you go through a bible study too. There is something about how we were made that music resonates within us to something deeper.

God created us to be worshipers. He created us to worship Him! Every human being will worship something… that’s just how we were made. That worship will come out in our day-to-day actions, in what we do and how we do it. We worship God when we give Him our time and thoughts, when we do what He calls us to do.
Adding in the musical aspect – singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs – it makes that worship resonate deeper within us. It touches us in a deeper way, and it is pleasing to Him. It helps to draw out of us a deeper worship of Him, and in turn we feel closer to Him.

Pretty cool…

And I get to help guide that process along. I get to lift my voice in praise and adoration, and I get to point the way for others to do the same thing. Yes, it’s a very high calling. It’s also a very humbling position. Yes, it’s scary, but it’s also amazing.

I get to worship God for a living…

I just love my job!

Part of the Sunday Setlist Carnival at FredMckinnon.com

Wow, what a day!  We had church this morning, then a baby shower this afternoon… AND it’s my Mom’s birthday!

I’m tired…

Worship was great this morning – I don’t know if it was just songs that really speak to me or what but, wow.  And I heard many comments that were similar.   I have to admit though, that I had a small struggle.  Over at TheWorshipCommunity.com there was a great article last week on the need we have as worship leaders to connect with the congregation that we are leading, and I have to say that it was tough for me today… I just wanted to worship Him!

Anyway, here are theo songs from this morning:

• Hosanna (Praise is Rising) [F]
• How Can I Keep From Singing [F]
• I Stand Amazed [F]
• Glorious [G]
• children’s message – Who is me neighbor?
• Love The Lord [D]
• announcements
• Message – Love
• Communion intro – Jim Newton
  
• Nothing But The Blood [G]
• taking communion
• Doxology

We lead the first two songs without a break in between (it worked so nicely… finally!) then we prayed and went into I Stand Amazed.  I led the first verse and chorus once, then we repeated the first verse as a group – slowly building the song.  Following it up with Glorious worked very well – I was afraid it would be weird to pick it up again, but it worked beautifully.  Yay!

Love The Lord [Lincoln Brewster] is such a great song to do with the kids – even though it seems some days to never end (4 verses…) and it really “fit” the message today.  We haven’t done it for a while, but it was great to do it again.  I love the motions that Jennifer has worked out with the kids to do – I think the “Trust the Lord” is my fav though – clinging to a rope for trust.

We started working with The Scrolls this week (from Pantego Bible Church), and let me just say that having every aspect in alignment is kind of cool.  We started the Street Lights series.  The scripture for this week is the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37.

Vicki went through it with the kids, asking the question of “What is Love?” and really getting them (and us) to think about how we need to treat the people we come into contact with.  Then Pastor Chris really dug in and focused on who our neighbor is, and how we need to be lights shining to illuminate into the lives of those around us, much like a street light brings light to a neighborhood street.  You can give the sermon a listen at FalconRidgeFellowship.com if you’re interested (it should be up sometime tomorrow).

Then Jim came up and gave a great intro to communion – he went through some slides showing the size of our planet in comparison with the others in the solar system – starting with the smaller ones, then adding the larger ones, then the sun.  Before long, the earth was much too small to even show up as he added in larger and larger stars (betelgeuce was somewhere towards the end, but not the largest).  Our little sun was almost too small to show up towards the end!  Throughout all of this he used it to emphasis how big God is that He created these stars with merely a word… and the universe is unending – galaxy after galaxy extending far past what we could ever imagine, much less measure.  It was really, really cool.  Again, bringing it back to love – we serve a God that is this big, yet he cares for us tiny little humans on a tiny little planet in a tiny little solar system  surrounding a tiny little star in one of millions of galaxies.  He cares for the concerns of our life because He loves us – it’s just amazing.

We led Nothing But The Blood [Matt Redman] after that while the bread and juice were handed out, then Jim led communion.  It was really powerful.  We wrapped it up singing the Doxology and with a prayer.

All in all a very good service!  There were a few new faces today, and some familiar faces from an old church family, and a few people missing, but I think I heard that we had 19 kids and 63 adults.  This may be the highest number yet, but I’m not sure.  I think we have had 20 kids before…

After the service we had our usual time of fellowship, and then some of the ladies headed over to Chris & Tammy’s for our church’s first baby shower.  It was really fun to just get together with some of the women of the church and do something “girly.”  And yes, there was a TON of food.  And the most beautiful white chocolate raspberry cake… Tammy outdid herself with that one!  And it tasted as good as it looked (like store-bought perfection!)

But as fun as it was, I’m glad to be home.  As I’ve been typing this I have found myself drifting off and fighting off sleep… for some of us being around that many people for that many hours is just exhausting… I love them all, but man, I find the need for downtime afterwards!

So, I’m going to see if the girls need some food and then head to bed a tiny bit early.  Have a fabulous week!

Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!  I Love You!

This is part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist…

Well, the day is half over… we have our monthly communion and worship service this evening, so I will post that service tonight or tomorrow.

This morning went rather well – I only jumped in early on one entrance (oops) and the band followed beautifully. We are getting better!

But beyond the lack of major faux pas, the Spirit of God was moving and it was felt throughout the service. Wonderful.

We went back to some songs that we haven’t done in ages (so long that I had forgotten the order they went in!) but were well remembered to go with Praise is Rising, which we introduced last week. It was so nice to hear the congregation above the sounds of the band singing on Amazing Grace!

Anyway, the setlist from this morning is as follows:

• Hosanna (Praise is Rising) [F]
• We Lift You Up [G]
• Lord, Light the Fire Again [E]
• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) [D]
• Kids message
• Beautiful One [C]
• Announcements
• Message – Integrity (Rehoboam…)
• Amazing Grace – verse 1

We had planned to sing through Hosanna’s verse 1 & chorus, but we were running late, so Pastor Chris lead Amazing Grace instead – it worked so nicely.

The congregation is starting to pick up on Hosanna (PIR) now – the chorus is pretty straightforward. I noticed that most people were able to sing along without much hesitation, so I am excited that it will be one of those songs that gets picked up quickly. We have now done it in E, F & G. I prefer G because it fits my voice best, but it may be a bit high for the gents. E felt too low, and I’m not crazy about F though…

Moving into better-known songs after that was a much needed rest from new things. It was such a blessing to me to see people settle into singing them – like sitting down with an old friend that you know well and it feels like no time has passed at all. We have a small-ish congregation still, so I don’t usually hear them much, but wow… I could hear them loud and clear on Amazing Grace! I almost stepped back from the mic and just let them carry it, but I was afraid the band would wonder what I was doing. It was wonderful. People were just worshiping our Wonderful Savior! Hands and voices raised in adoration and thankfulness… it was beautiful.

We did kind of a fun thing with the band on Beautiful One – we were the prop for the kids message! Ms. Vicki has been teaching about gifts, giving, and using our gifts & talents to help others. Today her title was “Are You Part of the Band?” and we were the prop…

Basically we started the chorus for Beautiful One, then added and subtracted parts to show how we all have gifts and are necessary. Yes, it can be made to work with less, but not as well as if everyone is contributing their part for God. We had just the drummer for a bit, had just the harmonies and acoustic guitar playing chords, had just the vocals… then we lead into the song with everyone. It was pretty fun, and I think it came across well. I didn’t get a chance to ask too many people what they thought… well, so I just asked my husband. He got the message though! I guess I need to ask the girls.

The best part of the service though? The Monty Python reference. Yep, and from a guy that has never see Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail in it’s entirety… It was great. Pastor Chris used a great illustration (even though he mis-quotes a bit) to get a great point across. We need to be strengthening the Inner Man by time spent in th Word and in sharing God’s love with the world around us. We need to protect the Inner Man from the attacks from sin in our lives that can weaken him – chopping off his arms and legs so that he is unable to go forth and do the worh that God has called us to. Do you know the reference yet? Just checking. Here’s a hint (if you don’t have it yet) “Merely a flesh wound”

Well, that actually wasn’t the best part, but it was pretty enjoyable. I’ve been waiting for 5 days to know which scene he would be using from the movie…

So that was our service this morning, and I’m heading out again in about 20 minutes to go set up for our communion service tonight. Lots of music, trying out some new things with swapping people in and out, and spending time in prayer as a body of believers.

I love this service…

One hour of music and quiet introspection and prayer… time to just kneel before our Holy God and cry out to Him with whatever is going on in your life. Time to truly think about the sacrifice that He paid on the cross for each and every one of us, time to thank Him, time to just sit in His presence, and to do it while surrounded by others who are doing the same thing.

As I said, I’ll post that service later.

Have a great week in the Lord!

I know, I’ve not been staying up to date. I didn’t have chapter 2 of the book. Now I have the whole thing though, so we’re good.

Week 2 – Understanding Praise

Yep, I’m throwing the whole week together in one post. sorry.

So, how do we need to approach praise? As children… full of trust in and abandonment to God!
Last week we learned that worship needs to be a part of our everyday lives – everything we do can be done as an act of worship. Praise is a part of worship – it is the upward direction. Worship TO God. It is the worship that is obvious to the world around us.

How do we praise then?

Well, the book outlines 8 Expressions of Praise:

• Visible
  ~kneeling
  ~dancing
  ~raising hands
• Vocal
  ~shouting
  ~singing
  ~speaking
• Audible
  ~playing an instrument
  ~clapping

All of these expressions are in the bible, and all can be used to show your adoration to God! Most people think of singing as worship – ask most people who have ever gone to church and they will tell you that the “worship portion of the service” was singing. Many churches also add in raising or clapping of hands, and most also have instruments playing along with the singing. Those are the basics…

But what about the rest?

Some churches shout out regularly, while some never do. Many churches have scripture read or give people a chance to share what God has done in their lives. That falls under speaking. But what about the visual worship? That seems to fall to the more charismatic churches to use. Dancing, raising hands and kneeling are not always found, but they can be powerful ways to worship our Almighty God.

What about your private worship? Do you ever kneel while you are worshiping God? Kneeling is a sign of submission, a sign of acknowledging that God is above you. It brings a certain level of humility to our spirits. It’s also a step towards falling prostrate before God. There were many kings who forced people to kneel in their presence – some even forced people to enter into their throne rooms kn their knees! Thankfully, God does not force us to kneel before Him! But He does ask it of us…

What about dancing? The Bible says that King David danced before the Lord when the Ark was brought into Jerusalem – and that his wife hated him for it. Are you willing to worship God with abandonment, even if others look upon you with disdain? That is often a difficult one for many people. May churches do not allow dancing of any kind – ever. Remember the movie Footloose? The basic story followed a kid who loved to dance and the issues that raised within the local church (and the pastor’s daughter…). He set out to show the pastor that dancing was not evil… no, he wasn’t dancing for God necessarily, but it was a good reminder to many Christians that dancing is biblical, and we shouldn’t disallow it.

Raising hands is something that I have grown up with. I grew up in a fairly charismatic church, so raising hands was the norm (along with lots of other things!) so that one has never been an issue for me… but it’s not that way for everyone. What are we saying when we raise our hands before God? We are yielding to Him, we are submitting to Him, we are receiving from Him… we are giving Him our worship. We are lifting holy hands to the King of kings.

I encourage you to take some time to truly open yourself up to worshiping God and giving Him praise… kneel before Him in humility, dance before Him out of the overflow of your heart, lift up your hands to Him, sing, speak, shout, clap, and worship Him. Let Him show you how He wants you to come before Him. Change it up a bit! If you have never used one of these expressions of praise before, try it out! You never know what God could show you while you are offering up a sacrifice of praise.

Trust Him to lead you in the direction He wants you to take. Spend time listening to His still, small voice. Spend time speaking out the blessings He has poured into your life in thankfulness. Speak out some of His names:

• Wonderful Counselor
• Prince of Peace
• Conqueror
• Almighty
• Saviour
• Mighty God
• Justice
• Holy
• Worthy
• Angel of the Lord
• Majesty
• Baptizer
• Creator
• God
• Comforter
• Perfect Sacrifice
• Indescribable
• Incorporable
• Uncontainable
• Lover of my Soul
• the Holy Spirit
• Preserver
• Transcendent
• Without Sin
• Unblemished
• Three in One
• Elohim
• Adonai
• Alpha and Omega
• Perfecter
• Finisher
• Omniscient One
• Emmanuel
• Father
• Friend
• Healer
• Lamb of God
• Abba Father
• Salvation
• the One who was and is and is to come
• Physician
• Advocate
• Root of Jesse
• Rock
• Fortress
• Defense
• Logos
• the Author & Finisher of our Faith
• the Holy One of Israel
• Sanctifier
• Life Giver
• Daystar
• Love
• the One True God
• Dayspring
• Desire of Nations
• our Sacrifice
• Faithful
• Prophet
• Wisdom
• Ransom
• True Witness
• Horn of Salvation
• Refiner
• High Priest
• Refuge
• Gift of God
• Rabbi
• Mediator
• Passover Lamb
• Bridegroom
• Consolation of Israel
• Jehovah
• El Shaddai
• Yahweh
• Great Provider
• Rose of Sharon
• Lord
• Shepherd
• Judge
• Branch
• the Way, the Truth and the Life
• Yeshua
• Redeemer
• Son of God
• Son of Man
• Teacher
• Living God
• God of my Salvation
• El
• God of Eternity
• Glorious
• El Elyon
• Yahweh Shalom
• Light of the world
• Lion of Judah
• Advocate
• Bread of Life
• Messiah
• Shield
• Righteous One
• Everlasting God
• the Immortal One
• Ancient of Days
• God of Wonders
• the Word
• Keeper
• Christ
• King of kings and Lord of lords
• I AM…

Let the majesty and power of our Holy God pour into your heart, mind and soul and give Him the worship and praise that He is due!

It can be life-changing.

So I’m going through the Pure Praise bible study, as mentioned in a previous post or two, and day three seems to be a doozy! If you are interested in the online discussion of the study, head over to TheWorshipCommunity for details.

Today’s topic was on Inward and Outward Worship – two sides of worship that people all-too-often overlook. This is how we worship when we aren’t actively singing, praising, or talking to God.

So, inward worship – how you worship personally, or who you are when no one is looking. The first test of this level of worship is in our minds… what kinds of things do we think about? What movies do we watch? What books do we read? What websites do we visit? Are all of our thoughts held captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 5)?

The second test is centered around the time that you spend with God. Is God just a Sunday morning friend? Someone that you look forward to seeing at church, but once you leave you don’t think of Him again until the next Sunday? Or, is He closer than a brother, someone that you commune with on a daily basis – or a moment-by-moment basis!

We are called – each one of us that looks to Christ Jesus for our salvation – we are called to go out and share His love with a lost and dying world, but we cannot have any effect on this world if we do not know the one who sent us! Our very lives are a testimony to Him, a witness of His love and grace and mercy. His peace during troubled times will cry out to those who are hurting, His acceptance of our past sins are a beacon of hope to those who are lost in their own transgressions. We are not able to live out these things if we never spend time with Him to receive them.

Simply put, we need God in our lives. No one was ever won over to Jesus without the power of His Holy Spirit drawing them to Him. We cannot convince this world of the logic of Jesus any more than we can convince them that the sun brings cold and darkness to the face of our planet. Only God can convince them that He is real, but he allows us to take part in showing this world that through out lives. If God is real to you, it will shine out to those around you. It will cause them to wonder how you can handle things so differently, how you can have such joy in your life, how you can feel peace in the midst of the storms.

So that’s the inward facet… now for the outward!

Outward worship is based in the relationships you have with those around you.

This part was a bit convicting for me… I have been struggling over the past week with the realizations of just how selfish of a being I am. Yes, many of my close friends say what a giving and self-sacrificing person I am (I don’t believe that, but OK) but that is because, um, I like them. I discovered this about myself in the past week or so. If I like you, I will bend over backwards to help you out. I will readily offer up anything I have or I can do to help – joyfully, cheerfully, and without any thought for myself. This is a good thing – this kind of giving is what God has called us to!

The problem that I have, however, is that I only have this attitude of sharing and giving if you are a part of that small circle of people that I spend much of my time with – people I like and call my friends. If I don’t know you very well… well, let’s just way that the attitude is a bit different. Take it a step further. If I actually don’t much care to have you around – simply put, I don’t like you (egad, say it isn’t so) – this attitude does a 180 degree course correction. You don’t even come up on my radar. Thoughts of you don’t even enter into my mind.

Wow, that was a bit of a confession. Yes, my name is Jennifer, and I am an egregious sinner. That means extraordinarily bad.

Outward worship of God is more of the first attitude, but shared with the entirety of the world. We are called to help the helpless, to bring a cold cup of water to the world. To reach out and do whatever is within our power to help them – even if we don’t know or like them. Wow… this was a humbling moment for me. A moment where I was a need to change my outlook on life, on my attitude towards the world around me and – plain and simple – to ask God to help me get this one right!

When we worship God outwardly, we are making sure that our actions to those around us line up with His calling. The bible says that we are known to be His by our love for one another. Love! We should not be known to the world as those “judgmental, self-righteous, right-wing, gay-hating Christians.” No, we should be known because we reach out to help and love those around us. Because we feed the hungry and clothe the poor, give shelter to the homeless, offer to take our invalid neighbor to their doctor’s appointments, watch a single mom’s kids so she can go to work, shovel show off of our neighbors driveway, take a meal to the woman who’s husband just died from liver cancer… the list goes on and on.

We are called to live out our worship of God by loving those around us.

Want to know a cool side effect of all of this love? They will see Jesus shining out through our lives, and they will want to know HIM.

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I have to share an example of this kind of outward worship that has happened in my life recently.

If you have been reading much lately, you know that I am the worship leader of Falcon Ridge Fellowship. Our church was started last August, and we started out meeting in our pastor’s home. Fortunately, their home is laid out in such a way that we could utilize a lot of space, and fit 30-45 people rather comfortably. Within the first month, though, we were outgrowing their home.

One of our elders had been talking to one of the elders at a local Lutheran church – a church who happened to have a historic church building that they weren’t using regularly anymore.

Peace Lutheran Church graciously allowed us to rent out this small, beautiful, historic Little White Church on the Hill (complete with a bell!). This was the first blessing.

Then, they offered us the ability to use their main church facility during the week if we needed it for all-church meetings, etc. Blessing 2.

December was a month of many snows for us… our little white church was inaccessible. 3+ feet of snow made it impossible to hold services there. The generous people at Peace Lutheran invited us to take part in their Christmas Eve services, and then opened up their sanctuary to us to use between their Sunday morning services for as long as we needed it.

We needed it for 2 weeks.

Their sound guy set up everything for us – and then tore it all down before their next service – without even being asked to.

This small local church is living out this idea of Outward Worship – they are living their lives for God’s glory! They have selflessly opened up TWO of their facilities to us, and have asked nothing in return except that we proclaim God’s love to a lost and dying world.

Would that all of us acted in the same manner! To give out of what God has blessed us with, to share in our abundance with those around us. And yes, even in these tough economic times, America is a land of plenty. We live in the midst of abundance that much of the world cannot imagine. We have food to eat, homes to live in, clothes to wear, cars to drive… and we don’t even recognize it. Our minimum wage is more than many people make in a month. Our supermarkets throw out more food each month than many families will see in a year. We live in abundance – we need to learn to let go of some of that and share it with the world around us.

On top of all of that abundance, if we are called according to His purposes – if we have received the free gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, we have been blessed beyond anything we could have even imagined. We are rich in the love of God! We need to share that blessing!

So remember, invite God over and spend some time with Him each day, then go out and the blessing you receive from that time with Him out into a world that desperately needs to see it.

So, I’m starting a new bible study online tomorrow using the new Pure Praise book. If you want to join in, head over to TheWorshipCommunity.com for the details.

Being a good student (yes, it does occasionally happen!) I decided to read a bit of it tonight to get my thoughts heading in the right direction – basically skimming the first chapter before diving in.

But I got stuck.

I came upon a portion of day 3 that sent me into Amos… and as I was reading the passage it sent me to, I noticed that there was a coupe of verses that had been underlined at some point in the past… so I re-read them (after all, that’s why we underline them, right?)

Then I went back and read the chapter… chapter 5 of Amos, to be more exact. This is one of those times in Israel’s history that God was sending a prophet of judgment to the northern kingdom… but there are a couple of verses that jumped out at me that I wanted to share.

“Thus says the Lord to the house of Israel. Seek Me – inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food – and you shall live” Amos 5:4

“Seek the Lord – inquire for and of Him and require Him – and you shall live.” 5:6a

“Seek – inquire for and require – good ans not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 15 Hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the court of the city’s gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.” Amos 5:14-15

Are we seeing a pattern here? We are to Seek God – and I loved the insert added into the Amplified Bible – “Inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food” (emphasis mine) that is what it means to truly seek God. Our souls need Him the way that our bodies need food. He is our nourishment! If we do not require the food that He offers, we will slowly whither away, we will become malnourished. this is not a good thing!

Trust me, there is a reason that these verses jumped out at me. I have been caught up in the business of life and have not taken that time. I have been starving! My spirit is requiring God as my body requires food, yet I have been ignoring those hunger pains.

Then the study sent me over to Psalm 51… and the following jumped off the page.

“O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You delight not in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You find no pleasure in burnt offering. My sacrifice – the sacrifice acceptable to God – is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart [broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent] such, O God, You will not despise.” Ps. 51:15-17

Yes, this is an oft-quoted passage, but again, I love the description… a heart that is broken down with sorrow for sin and humbly and thoroughly penitent. When was the last time you were penitent? Does our modern society even know what it means? I decided to look it up.

pen-i-tent:
–adjective

---

Origin:
1325–75; ME < ML pēnitent-, L paenitent- (s. of paenitēns), prp. of paenitēre to regret; r. ME penaunt < AF; see penance

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

So, a penitent person is contrite., they are expressing sorrow over sin, and “disposed to atonement” – translation please! If you are disposed to atonement, you are open to or inclined towards receiving forgiveness.

So, how do we find ourselves feeling penitent? Is this something that just happens to us as we randomly walk through life? Not usually.

No, in order for our hearts to find themselves humbled and repentant we need to find a reason to recognize that we have sinned. We need to encounter the majesty and glory of a holy God.

If we never see Him – His majesty, His grace, His holiness – we will merely become as self-righteous fools thinking only of how good we are rather than recognizing that WE ARE SINNERS.

Oh, and a self-righteous fool is someone who finds their righteousness within themselves, rather than in God.

So, can you say that? Can you speak – out loud – the words “I am a sinner” and truly mean it? This is a hard thing to do some days! Go ahead, say it. If you cannot recognize that truth, then you cannot truly recognize the grace of God!

The Pharisees did not recognize that either. They were proud of their righteousness! They were proud that they had kept the Law (and added substantially more of their own!) and they weren’t too keen on the fact that Jesus told them that they had to claim to be a sinner.

Are we any better than them?

We need to find a way to truly experience the majesty and awesomeness of God if we want to truly recognize just how lost we are. When we experience the majesty of God – truly experience it – we cannot continue on the former path. We will recognize our weakness, and realize that this thing called life is not something that we can do on our own.

We need God!

We need to be able to cry out “Abba Father” when we fail or are afraid, the same way that our children cry out for us. If we do not know Him, we will not cry out for Him. We need to know the one who introduced Himself as “I AM” – the one who IS always – there is no yesterday, no tomorrow. God is ever-present. He holds our tomorrows in His hands, so there is no reason to fear.

God is majestic, He is holy, and as such He cannot tolerate sin. He is pure! It is for this reason that He had to send a part of Himself – His Son Jesus – to earth to be a sacrifice. We cannot do it on our own – we are not holy. Without the filter of Jesus, God would only see the wretched, filthy rags of our sin clinging to us. Thankfully, Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross, and when God looks at us through that filter, He sees His perfect, spotless, Holy Son. We can then be accepted into the presence of God.

Praise God!

We now have a direct line of access to the Throne of Grace! We can boldly come before our perfect, majestic God without fear! We can commune with Him, we can talk with Him, we can cry out to Him!

This brings me to the next passage that God put on my heart tonight… Psalm 55.

1 “Listen to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my supplication … (3) I am distracted at the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression and threats of the wicked, for they would cast trouble upon me, and in wrath they persecute me. (4) My heart is grievously pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me”

(16)”As for me, I will call upon God and the Lord will save me. (17) evening and morning and at noon will I utter my complaint and moan and sigh, and He will hear my voice. (18) He has redeemed my life in peace from the battle that was against me… (22) But I will trust in, lean on and confidently rely on You [God].”

David knew God. He had that direct line of communication with the Most High God, and he was not afraid to use it! He cried out to God with assurance that God would not only hear him, but that God would answer his cry! Do we come before Him with that same boldness? Do we have that same confidence in our relationship with God that we will come before Him with expectation of what He will do?

We should.

We are surrounded on all sides by an enemy that is distracting. He will do whatever he can to keep us from crying out to God – boldness and assurance or not. He will make us too busy to carve out that time alone with God. He will distract us from the beauty of what God has brought us through in the past by dredging up our past failures – taking our focus off of God and putting it on us. He will pull out any and everything that he can think of to take our eyes off of God.

But what did David do? He cried out to God morning, noon and night! He made his petitions known to a God that could take care of everything – and he knew it.

We need to cry out when we are surrounded by the noise and distractions that come from our enemy. We need to have the confidence in God and in our relationship with Him that He will hear our cry and act upon it.

Yes, God does allow times of trials and testing to come our way, but these times are there to bring us back to God. They also serve to shine out His light to the unbelievers around us. How we react to the trials in our lives will show them the difference that comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The bible says “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” We must first humble ourselves enough to seek His face. To come face to face with His holiness, so that we can truly see our sin. Once we truly see our sin – recognize it and admit it – then we can begin to understand our need for Him. For His grace and mercy in our lives.

I challenge both of us to carve out that time in our busy schedules to seek Him. To realize our need for Him that is greater than our need for food. We need to feed our spirit with the Word of God, so that we don’t find ourselves so malnourished that when the enemy distracts us, it’s an easy job.

Instead, I want to be a woman that when I wake up, all of hell groans in fear of what God will use me to do that day. I want to be so close to Him that every aspect of my life is lived out in submission to Him, and – most importantly – in worship of Him.

God alone is worthy of worship. We were created to give Him worship. He longs for it, and our hearts yearn to do it! Why do we stand in the way of that connection?

Let’s open up that connection, let’s seek after the One who is worthy of praise and be humbled by His glory – the glory of the Most High. Let’s give Him the praise that is due to Him and Him alone.

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*God works so mysteriously! Thanks to Pastor Chris for letting me borrow some of his points from the sermon today – they helped God get the point that He was making to me through these verses.