Public Worship for Christians

"... believers have no greater help than public worship, for by it God raises his own folk upward step by step."  - Calvin, Institutes IV.i.5

Worship - emotion required

Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. It is not a mere act of willpower by which we perform outward acts. Without the engagement of the heart, we do not really worship. The engagement of the heart in worship is the coming alive of the feelings and emotions and affections of the heart. Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead.
True worship must include inward feelings that reflect the worth of God's glory. If this were not so, the word hypocrite would have no meaning. But there is such a thing as hypocrisy - going through outward motions (like singing, praying, giving, reciting) that signify affections of the heart that are not there. "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me."

- John Piper, from Desiring God, p 87-88

Get your copy of Desiring God from Book Depository, Koorong, or Amazon.

Gospel Connection: Worship

What is worship?
A friend of mine posed this question some time ago in a cell group meeting.
It was hard for me to define what worship was. I could think of many different ways to worship but I couldn't finish the sentence, "Worship is..."
I think it was the same with most of us who were there. Many of us knew worship descriptively, that is, we knew when we were worshipping. We know we are worshipping when we live under God's rule in Christ, we know we are worshipping when we sing songs to Him out of the joy He gives us, we know we are worshipping when we praying an honest prayer of adoration that He only deserves, and so on.

After that night of cell meeting, I thought about the nature of worship a bit more and especially in connection with the gospel. Here are two of my findings.

1) One must know and believe the gospel before he can worship God.
Why? Because without knowing Jesus and belonging to Him, one can never worship God in a way that God will accept. All that come from ourselves when we are not yet Christians are nothing but a filthy and stinking garbage heap, offensive to God. In addition, even if we could offer a pure worthip to God, we wouldn't have offered to Him, until we were awakened by the Spirit of God, who enables us to see the glory of Christ.
Hence, unless one hears and comes to know Jesus, and throws himself to the Judge who can forgive him, and indeed be transformed to love Him from the heart, he can never worship God.

2) Conversely, the fact that one can worship God is the gospel.
Men and women are created in image of God, created to be in fellowship with the Triune God. And our joy and pleasure were to flow out from beholding the beauty, majesty, and glory of the Creator who so amazingly befriends us. Worshipping God is the fulfillment of the highest human aspiration which completes our deepest yearning for joy. Yet, since Adam sinned and since we all sin, we cannot and will not worship this God, nor He will accept our pseudo-worship, for He is holy. This is bad news for us. None of us were to experience the greatest joy that we were made for.
But, God, rich in mercy, gave Himself to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, so we may worship Him again. That is the good news. If you sang a song to God out of overflowing joy of seeing Jesus in faith, if you offered up service to our Servant King out of sheer thankfulness, if any of these were accepted by God today, it was only by God's grace, only through Jesus. This is the good news, Evangel, gospel for us.

Suffering and prayer

Even though I already shared this post using Google Reader's shared items a few days ago, this powerful testimony of a Christ-follower is worth mentioning multiple times.
One that especially caught my attention is this:

That’s fourteen years of communication with God. Fourteen years of pleading with Him to work. Fourteen years of Him saying no. Fourteen years of Him increasing and His creatures decreasing.

My God gave my earthly father disability and cancer when I was too young to remember, and my God finally took him when I was 13 years old. While I do not claim to be a worst sufferer of God's rough hand, let my testimony of God from the whole experience be known that God is just, righteous, merciful, gracious, and above all, love.
May God, who alone is righteous, receive all glory for all things.

Count the patience of our Lord as salvation

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
- 2 Peter 3:14-15a

My gracious Master has been so patient with me whole my life as I offended Him countless times.
Once again, I betrayed my Lord, yet my life was spared.
He spared me, He endured my time of rebellion. He considered it His pleasure to keep me alive and redeem me, instead of quenching His wrath by condemning me right there and then and fulfill justice even as I denied Him as my Lord.

Why would the Righteous King pursue a traitor like me with such loving zeal, I do not know.
Why would the Holy God touch a defiled, rotten and rotting corpse with such a gentle healing hand, I will never stop wondering.
Why was the Faithful Servant of God counted as an unfaithful, whoring idolator that I am, and I now inherit His blessings, I am silenced.

O, how long will I keep fighting His gracious will, to redeem and conform me to His likeness?
How many more times will I test my God for His patience?

God, You are strange.
You are wonderful.
You are beyond-belief.
You are good.
You are freely-giving.
You are forgiving.
You are my King, and I am your servant, even as I am unworthy to be called one.
May I continue to find favour in Your sight, may Your grace abound in me more and more.
May Your love never cease to grip my heart.
May the Cross my King bore never leave my sight.

Worship/Service

Michael Spencer has commented on current "main stream" worship in evangelical churches here. Worth a read.

Loving the Lord

A worth while read for anyone who wants to sing songs for our beloved Lord, and live out one's life for Him who loves us, especially in this present age where the word 'love' is losing its meaning. As a teaser, I give you the title here: Jesus, I’m NOT in Love with You

Quote from Life At Its Best - 2: on Worship

I'm being greatly helped by this book I am reading, Life At Its Best.
As I read the book, I feel as if I am having a direct conversation with the author, and feel Mr. Peterson gently encouraging me to stand up again from my slump and walk in and with Christ. In fact, I am finding quotable texts more frequently than I get a chance to write a blog post here.

Anyways, here's one on worship.

I have put great emphasis on the fact that Christians worship because they want to, not because they are forced to. But I have never said that we worship because we feel like it. Feelings are great liars. If Christians only worshipped when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship that went on. Feelings are important in many areas, but completely unreliable in matters of faith. Paul Scherer is laconic: 'The Bible wastes very little time on the way we feel'. We live in what one write has called the 'age of sensation'. We think that if we don't feel something there can be no authenticity in doing it. But the wisdom of God says something different, namely, that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.

-pp. 46, Life At Its Best by Eugene Peterson

May God have mercy on me that I worship and serve Him always.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Rom 12:1