The Wonder of Worship

Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains. The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today! Psalm 95:1-7 (NLT)

We have a confession to make. It’s one you may or may not have heard from a pastoral couple. You know, the ones who are supposed to be “in charge” - the ones who get paid.

We loved “being” in worship during last week’s General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church. We were not in charge. We did not have to come up with an order of service. We simply got to lift our hands, raise our voices, join in corporate prayer, listen to the Word, and take notes from the messages. What a delight!

That said, there has been a disconnect in worship for far too long between “leaders” and those “attending.” As a matter of fact, the biggest congregations in North America almost always have a great divide between the worship “team” and those in the “crowd.” It’s divine entertainment - and that should not be.

Psalm 95 is a great moment in scripture. It is a call for all to join in worship. Worship can be private - and it should be on a daily basis: devotions, prayer, reading of the Word, singing, doing acts of kindness…all of these are what we should be doing when we are apart from one another.

But, when we are together (and we should get together by the way)...

What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up - I Corinthians 14:26

Did you notice? Not just the “paid” staff. Not just the worship “team.” Each of you. Everyone.

Dan Gildner, a writer for spiritandtruth.life considered this quandary in a recent article. He established a baseline, if you will, for both leaders of worship and attendees:

1. Confession - It is good practice to confess known sin to God and one another prior to inviting the congregation to worship or gathering in worship. Acts 3:19-20 promises that confession gives birth to times of refreshing from God’s presence.

Invitation to Practice: Start your morning in worship with a personal time of confession with Jesus and/or with your trusted small group. Be honest. Receive God’s refreshing grace.

2. Anticipation - When we come into worship we believe that his Presence is with us - in Spirit. The difference between those places and the U.S. is expectation. People come to worship expecting God to be present. What we anticipate, we pursue!

Invitation to Practice: Write out a one sentence prayer of faith before you gather/lead. Where do you expect God to show up in your life through this time of worship.

3. Preparation & Faithfulness

PREPARATION: God chooses to work with humankind in the renewal of all things. So we humbly work diligently at the various crafts (music, liturgy, sermon-writing, etc.) because we are graciously invited to participate with God. It demands that we give all that we can.

FAITHFULNESS: At the end of the day, we are human, and more than performance or perfection, God invites us to be faithful. We acknowledge that we could never practice enough to deserve God’s love. We could never pray enough to be fully prepared. But we show up and in each worship service we offer to God our faithful, limited selves.

Invitation to Practice: Before gathering for worship, prepare your heart through prayer, singing or silence…such that corporately you can offer the Lord all that you can.

4. Invitational - It is the job of those leading to invite those gathered to receive from, respond to and participate in the worship of the Almighty. Those gathered should desire to join in singing, sharing testimony, giving generously, and responding enthusiastically with raised hands and shouts of “Hallelujah!” because God “inhabits the praise of his people.”

Invitation to Practice: If leading, review your language, ensuring an invitational tone. If joining in worship, take advantage of every opportunity to respond to God.

5. Prayerful - Part of our preparation is to pray individually and collectively. Call upon God to release water onto the dry land. Declare God’s Truth over God’s people. Invite God to search your hearts as you lead others. Pray for divine manifestations to be known before, during and after the gathering.

Invitation to Practice: For those leading - It is best to know the Father’s throne room before inviting others into it. For those gathering - pray for God’s presence for all; pray for the preachers; pray for worship to happen when everyone goes to work the next day.

6. Surrendering Results - If we lift up the Name of God, if we praise his Name, if we humble ourselves in his Presence, he will draw us to himself. After all - it has nothing to do with us but everything to do with him. Not just worship - but the results of worship as well. We should not focus on “how worship went” but simply on worship. It’s about time that we all joined together for God’s purposes, glory, and honor.

Oh, the wonder of worship…

Food! Glorious Food!

 

May 17, 2022

When the Lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living being say, “Come!” Then another horse appeared, a red one. Its rider was given a mighty sword and the authority to take peace from the earth. And there was war and slaughter everywhere. When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of (measuring) scales in his hand. And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.”

Revelation 6:3-6 (NLT)

In his book, A Meal with Jesus, Tim Chester writes: “There are three ways the New Testament completes the sentence, “The Son of Man came . . .” “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45); “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking . . .” (Luke 7:34).

The first two are statements of purpose. Why did Jesus come? He came to serve, to give his life as a ransom, to seek and save the lost. The third is a statement of method. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking…

The Jews of Jesus’s day would have said the Son of Man would come to vindicate the righteous and defeat God’s enemies. They didn’t expect him to come to seek and save the lost. And they would have said the Son of Man would come in glory and power. They would never have said he would come eating and drinking.

And Luke is not talking about just subsistence eating and drinking. Jesus says: “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (7:34)...Jesus was seriously into eating and drinking—so much so that his enemies accused him of doing it to excess… Jesus spent his time eating and drinking—a lot of his time…His mission strategy was a long meal, stretching into the evening. He did evangelism and discipleship around a table with some grilled fish, a loaf of bread, and a pitcher of wine.” 

Count us in for that kind of evangelism!

Luke’s Gospel is full of stories of Jesus eating with people:

• In Luke 5 Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners at the home of Levi.

• In Luke 7 Jesus is anointed at the home of Simon the Pharisee during a meal.

• In Luke 9 Jesus feeds the five thousand.

• In Luke 10 Jesus eats in the home of Martha and Mary.

• In Luke 11 Jesus condemns the Pharisees and teachers of the law at a meal.

• In Luke 14 Jesus is at a meal when he urges people to invite the poor to their meals rather than their friends.

• In Luke 19 Jesus invites himself to dinner with Zacchaeus.

• In Luke 22 we have the account of the Last Supper.

• In Luke 24 the risen Christ has a meal with the two disciples in Emmaus, and then later eats fish with the disciples in Jerusalem.

Robert Karris concludes: “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.” Never considered that before but it is true!

So, why the talk about food? Why spend time discussing Jesus’ dietary proclivities? As we write this newsletter there is every strong indication that we are on the verge of a food shortage. Never mind that people don’t have enough money to purchase food…now we are headed to a possible food shortage.

In addition to that: the amount of available diesel fuel is quickly disappearing which in turn keeps truckers from delivering food to local stores. The pandemic has already exacerbated food issues in communities across the world. Compound the cost of food going through the proverbial roof while all of our income stays the same - that equals a loss for us all. So, does the Bible have anything to say about all of this?

If you consider the context of the first century A.D. where we find the Revelation of Jesus Christ - John clearly predicted a very dramatic increase in the price of food. Specifically, wheat.

A person reading what we find in Revelation 6:5-6 in the first century A.D. would have read that a denarius would buy only enough wheat to make 1.5 - 1 lbs loaves of bread instead of their normal 25 loaves of bread. This would represent between a 1333%-1667% increase in price. That catastrophic rise in the price of wheat John describes indicated a great food shortage will come. 

Food prices rarely rise this much without a major supply shortage. And that, our friends, is exactly where we find ourselves. So, what to do? 

Purchase foods you only need. Maybe even plan out your weekly meals so you will be sure to eat what you buy and not let any of it go bad. If you have some extra food - and, we are not talking about that ten year old can of salmon - give some to someone else. If you are in need of food - reach out to someone in the church…now. We cannot emphasize this enough - do not go hungry because you have “Pride.” Pride is of Satan and his dominion. Asking for help - that is what followers of Jesus do. If you are not growing your own food - pick up a few small items and begin! It’s easy! And, if you need a little help there is always YouTube or just ask Missy! 

As we write this, we can tell you we planted 45 tomato plants this year. Okay, quit laughing. There are different reasons for that (salsa is number one) but we also love to share what God blesses us with. Just as you share with those around you. Plus, tomatoes for lunch during the summer are simply hard to beat… 

So, are we in the midst of difficult times? Yes. Will there be more hard moments ahead of us? Yes, Do any of us know what tomorrow will bring? No. Do we need to be scared? No. We cannot say what John saw in his vision on the Island of Patmos is what is occurring today - as a matter of fact, we are 100% sure it isn’t. What it does show, however, is that God’s word speaks to every aspect of every life. Even about food. 

Food is vital to all of our lives. Without it, well, you cannot exist. We need to make certain we are there for each other in the days ahead. After all, if food and fellowship were important to the One Who has told us to follow Him, then it should be important to us too. 

In the 1960’s Lionel Bart wrote the song “Food, Glorious Food!” for the Broadway musical Oliver! It is sung when the workhouse boys are dreaming and fantasizing about food while going to collect their gruel from the staff of the workhouse. The words are as follows:

Food, glorious food, we're anxious to try it!

Three banquets a day - our favorite diet!

Just picture a great big steak - fried, roasted, or stewed.

Oh food! Magical food! Wonderful food! Marvelous food!

So, remember - eat well, share much, and enjoy time feasting together…