At Last...Community of Worship

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our Salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

~ Psalm 95: 1-2

This is where we left off last time I posted.  While my plans were to post the last of the three thoughts in this series right after #2, life got in the way.  First it was a crazy travel schedule, during which time my laptop crashed, leaving me without a laptop until today. (confession...I had access to a family computer, but the writer in me was blocked every time I sat down to that foreign keyboard...ya, a little quirky I suppose!)  So here we go...picking up where we left off.  We started looking at the definition of worship and then explored the call to worship and the warning to worship, where I left us with a promise to explore the concept of community in worship.

Community [noun] - a unified body of individuals. 

As followers of Christ, we are, by definition, a community.  We are a body of individuals unified by a common love for Christ.  And the Psalm we have been studying speaks of community in the call to action by saying "let us".  The psalmist could easily have left out the collective call to action and just made it a series of strong statements to sing, shout, come and shout.  The fact that "let us" is there tells us it is an important part of the call to worship.  

And so we do worship as a 'unified body of individuals' each time we come together to bow down and praise God.  This is a strong word to us when we are inclined to discount going to church.  In fact, it is a very bold statement of personal pride to say "I don't need to go to church to worship God".  I'm reminded of another favorite verse that also directs us to come together as a unified body to worship ...

Hebrews 10:24-25 ~ “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,

but let us encourage one another…”

Now, as I mentioned in the previous 2 posts on this topic, I am sharing with you my perspective of a message presented by out associate pastor...Ben.  I enjoyed how Ben pointed out the salad bowl concept presented in this verse (let us...lettuce...get it? heehee...I thought it was funny).  But I was even more excited by another concept he explored with us.  The idea of how the Trinity represents the ultimate goal for real community. 

Christ submitted (bowed the knee) to God by coming to earth as a sacrifice for our sins. 
The Holy Spirit submitted (bowed the knee) to Christ by coming to be our counselor here on earth. 

This is the ultimate picture of a worshipping community.  Each part of the Trinity doing the job it was called to do.  Each God, but none striving to be most important.  Imagine...Jesus bowed the knee in submission to the plan of God so that we could come join in the community of worship with Him.  If Jesus did it, how much more should we!

I couldn't help but think of the conversations I have had with fellow believers about how hard it is to submit sometimes.  I am deeply humbled by that thought as I think about how hard it would have been for Christ.  I am reminded of the verse in scripture where Pilate tells Jesus "Don't you know I have the power to free / save you..."  (John 19:10).  There Christ stood, submitted in heart to the will of God.  I am afraid my flesh would have struggled to keep from standing up and saying something like " are you kidding me?!  I have come to save you!!! Don't you see what I am doing here for you!!"  But Christ submitted to God's will, let Pilate know that he would have no authority if it had not been given to him by God and then walked the path laid out for Him. 

What if we all were to follow the example set by the Trinity, to submit to the will of God without concern of our own personal will.  I am reminded of how I used to encourage my children when they were younger to look after one another.  When they were inclined to be mostly concerned about 'what was in it for them' I'd remind them that God calls us to look out for others above ourselves and would share an example of simple math.  If your only concern is for yourself, then you have one person looking after your personal well being.  If you focus on your brothers and sister, mom and dad, and each does the same in return, we each have 5 people looking after our personal well being. 

What a great encouragement I received from Ben's example of community as shown by the Trinity.  It overwhelms me to think of the difference the community of believers could make if we all were to follow this ultimate example of bowing our knee in submission to the authority of God, lifting up the well being of others above ourselves. 

What do you think?  

Don't Forget to Remember!

So, we are on our knees...now what?  Yesterday we focused on verses 6-7 of Psalm 95, exploring what the word 'worship' really means.  It was a call to come and cause ourselves to bow down.  So now that we have come to the table, walking on our knees, let's see what the Psalm tells us to do.

As I mentioned yesterday, this is a study presented from our church pulpit by our associate Pastor, Bro. Ben.  This is the continuation of what God laid on my heart from that lesson...

Verses 1-5 of Psalm 95, we find our call to worship.  As Ben showed us, this call is for us to REMEMBER.  Remember who God is.  Remember what He has done.   Verses 1-2 tell us that we are to sing and shout joyfully...to come and give thanks.  Verses 3-5 tell us what to sing about, shout about and give thanks for. 

• We are to remember that He is a great God, a King above all gods (v3). 
• We are to remember that He is the creator of heaven, earth and all creation. (v4-5)
• We are to remember that He is our Rock of Salvation (v1)

And then Ben reminded us that as New Testament Christians, we are to remember what God did for us at the cross.  I was giving that a loud Amen from the choir loft as I remembered my study of a favorite Psalm this last year... God's Unfailing Love. 

Psalm 143:8 ~ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

If you need a refresher for your memory (or would like to print the newly added recipe card for that featured verse), head back over there and remember how we can lay our heads on the pillow each night and instead of saying:

“I’ll deal with it tomorrow”, at the end of a long and troubling day, we can say "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love"

OR, instead of saying:

“Maybe tomorrow will be better”, at the end of a day in a season where nothing seems to be working out, we can say "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love"

So today, as we COME to the table walking on our knees, let's remember GOD.  Let's remember who He is.  Let's remember what lengths He went to so that we can come to His table and fellowship with Him. 

More than remember.... DON'T FORGET!  Ben went on to point out that there is not only a call to remember, there is a warning to remember in Psalm 95 as well.  Verses 8-11 reminds the reader of a time when the people of God forgot the way they had saved them as they stepped out to claim the promises He had given them.  These verses are telling us 'don't forget what God has done for your salvation'!  Again, coming back to remembering God's unfailing love.

So the call and the warning are same...but different. 

We are called to remember.  It's like a call out for a reunion of old friends and family.  "Ya'll come...let's get together and remember when....."  It's a call to fellowship and joyful rememberances. 

We are warned to not forget.  This is like a mother telling her child "now don't forget" (visual of finger wagging acceptable here *wink*) This is more than a friendly call to remember, it is a stern admonishment to remember / don't forget!

So we COME to the table walking on our knees so we can REMEMBERwith praises and NEVER FORGEThow God has been eternally faithful and showing His unfailing love. 

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!

Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our Salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

~ Psalm 95: 1-2

Tomorrow... community!  How appropriate that this series would end with a look at how worship is an act of community since this blog is all about us coming together to encourage one another to gather around God's table and increase our intimacy and fellowship with Him.  I can't wait...hope you can come back!

Our recipe today is to Remember.
The ingredients are from Psalm 95: 1-2
The directions are to come into His presence with a heart of praise, remembering all that God has done and to never forget His everlasting expression of unfailing love. 

CLICK HERE for a printable version of today's recipe for the soul. Make notes on it of how God is speaking, and carry it with you to feed your soul as needed. 

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER? Encourage the community today with a comment of what you bring to God's table as a praise of rememberance. 

Walking On Our Knees (Or...Dorf on Worship!)

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture,

And the sheep of His hand.

Psalm 95: 6-7 (knjv)

I heard a great message from our associate pastor yesterday that has been 'stewing' in my heart all night.  In my last post, I shared how the key verse, Philippians 3: 13b-14, encouraged me to forget the past and look forward to the prize of heaven and walking here on earth to the glory of God.  And so, I shared how in 2010 I made a resolution to to go from dissonance (conflict of the past ~ whether it be guilt and shame of confessed sin or just feeling of defeat about things I wish I had done better) to consonance (living in harmony with the will of God). (if you missed this one, click here to catch up and then come back to see how this all works together!)

God built on that word for me about my 2010 resolution with a word from the pulpit on Sunday.  This is a portion of my take on that message ...

In the Psalm above, we are called to COME...come and worship.  First, I love that we are called to come.  It implies that we need to GET UP AND DO SOMETHING!  It's like ringing the dinner bell... "Ya'll Come" (pardon the southern vernacular *wink*)  When you are hungry and you hear that bell, you are on your feet and running to the table.

How perfectly that fits with our comparison to how God calls us to His table daily to share a meal with Him!  So are you hungry?  Then get up and come to the table.

Are you here with me?  Great!  What next?  Well, the verse goes on to say "come, let us WORSHIP and BOW DOWN".

Here is where Bro. Ben shared a great lesson that I have been so excited about.  It started with his explanation of  the original Hebrew word for worship (if you are a regular visitor to this blog...you know I sat up straight in my seat and leaned forward when we started digging into the deep meaning of words!)  The Hebrew word used here is saha.  It's meaning is 'to bow down' or more specifically, 'cause to bow'. 

This is another call to action word.  The literal translation for the word 'worship' says we are called to 'cause ourselves to bow down' to God.  So the verse could be written like this:

Oh come, let us cause ourselves to bow down and bow down (boy...would my 11th grade English teacher be all over me if I had written that in her class!)

Personally, I LOVE that it is so repetative.  There is emphasis in repetitive words.  (all you mom's out there know exactly what I mean...you have to say it more than once before it gets done [and for all the husbands reading ~ NO..this is not called nagging *grin*])

If God is repeating himself here...then I think we need to listen and obey!

In fact, the message from Bro. Ben pointed out that we are called to worship God (cause ourselves to bow down) at all times.  As I pondered this with my husband yesterday, we talked about living a life on our knees, visualizing ourselves walking on our knees at all times.  (but then I got this image of Dorf on Golf stuck in my head and it ruined it for me!  I grew up with my Dad loving Dorf, but if you are not familiar and curious...google it.  But fair warning...the image of walking in your knees will lose the feeling of 'reverance' *wink*)

Dorf aside...can you see yourself living a life walking on your knees.  It would be really hard to have self serving motives or self righteous thoughts if we always saw ourselves walking on your knees.  However... it is CRUCIAL that we keep in mind that this image of walking on our knees is done in submission to the will of God.  We are now bowing a knee to things of the world or priorities of people...we are bowing a knee to the things of God and His priorities.  This means we must KNOW THE THINGS OF GOD AND HIS PRIORITIES!

When we know these things and His priorities and walk on our knees in submission to them, then the blessings of God flow out on our life.  Now please, don't interpret this sentence to mean that if we walk on our knees in submission to the will of God that our blessings will be worldly blessings.  Ugh.... that is a whole other series of scripture studies ~ so let's just remember for todays time in the word, God's blessings come in many ways and are often not what we expect from the wordly point of view. 

Therefore, we must know the will of God and His priorities in order to submit to them.  And how do we know these things?  All together now.... 'by reading His word'! 

So now my visual image of bowing down is one of me walking on my knees with AN OPENED BIBLE IN MY HANDS.  Like a road map if you will. 

Years ago, before digital cameras (or I'd have this in my docs and could share) there was a picture taken of my husband and me dressed as tourists for a costume party (we took first place by the way!) In this picture, in addition to the ridiculous outfits, we were holding a map and looking lost.  Typical tourists was what we called ourselves when asked "what are you".  Typical tourists are those who are in a land that is not their home and trying to find their way. 

This is us!  As Christians, we are no longer citizens of this earth, but aliens here for a while, waiting for God to bring us home.  While are here, God takes us on a journey that will bring Him glory.  And God's word is our 'map' for the journey.  

So there you have it... we are typical tourists, walking on our knees, with the map of God in our hands (ridiculous outfits optional...but it makes the Dorf image work!)

There is more!  So come back tomorrow and we'll explore more of what God says to us about worship...at least the part that I learned from Ben yesterday.  It's good stuff!  Remember to come back...DON'T FORGET!  (that was a clue...but you won't get it until tomorrow *wink*)

Our recipe today is to Come and Worship

The ingredients are from Psalm 95: 6-7.

The directions are to cause yourself to bow down and worship Him.  To walk on your knees in submission to His will and His priorities. 

CLICK HERE for a printable version of today's recipe for the soul. Make notes on it of how God is speaking, and carry it with you to feed your soul as needed.

Now it's your turn.  Please share what you are thinking.  What is God saying to you about causing yourself to bow down?  As a community of believers, we are called to encourage one another.  Some of the greatest encouragement comes when we share with each other what God is doing in our lives.  Who will your comment encourage today? 

P.S. Forgot to share with you how God used this message from the pulpit on Sunday to speak to me on the posting about my resolution.  It's all about walking on my knees.  There can be no dissonance if I walk on my knees.  And if I change my stature from the past (forget the past) and MOVE FORWARD ON MY KNEES... my resolution is achieved.  This year is all about paying attention to the times I try to get up.

I Resolve to Forget and Move Forward!

Resolution

On a day like today, one immediately defaults to the definition of this word as 'a formal expression of an intent...'.  And being one who enjoys order and planning, I am inclined to go to this definition myself, on a day like today; the first day of a new decade. 

But what formal expression should I make? 

As I started my list, instead of being exhilarated, I felt deflated.

1. Read through the entire bible... didn't I resolve to do that last year?  What happened?  Oh ya, I traveled for 4 weeks straight and got off track, so I gave up.  Who am I kidding thinking I can do it this year?
2. Lose weight... ugh, I started that one this past summer and gained 10 of it back in the last 2 months.  Who am I kidding, I've been overweight for over 20 years, what's going to change this year?
3. Do better with budgeting... hmmmm, I know I resolved to do this in 2009, but how could I have seen the 50% pay cut coming along with all the financial crisis we experienced.  The pay isn't increasing in 2010 as far as I can tell and I'm sure we have a lot more financial surprises coming our way.  What's the point?!  

Time out.  Let's go back to the full definition of 'Resolution'.  If you complete the sentence it goes on to say "a formal expression of an intent voted by an official body'.  My first mistake was sitting at the table by myself to make my list of resolutions.  I need to take this to an 'official body'!

So as I sat at the table with God today, asking Him to give me a 'resolution' that fits in His will for my life, I came upon this scripture:

Philippians 3: 13b-14 ~ Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The Ryrie Study Guide had this to say about "forgetting what is behind" ~ Whether sins that might overwhelm or good things that might cause one to rest on his accomplishments. 

The Zondervan Study Bible says this about the same verse ~ Not losing all memory of his sinful past, but leaving it behind hin as done with and settled. 

Thank you Lord.  Thank you for reminding me that 1) I am not to be shackled by the failures of my past because you have given me a spirit of power and sound mind!  and 2) that any accomplishment I have achieved is by Your power and grace. 

Now I am exhilarated! I have let go of what is behind and I am looking toward what is ahead. I am reminded that my life here is to be lived out for His glory and the 'prize' of His unfailing love is mine. 

1. Choose Jesus First
2. To bring each day's requests to God and wait with great expecation to see His will be done
3. Look each day for ways to reflect God's grace, love and glory. 

And while I'm at it, I'll work on the discipline of daily bible reading, eating healthier and being a better steward! 

As you contemplate your resolutuion list,

I'd like to leave you with this:

Another definition of 'resolution' says "the progression of a chord from dissonance to consonance".  As a singer, this definition spoke to my soul.  A dissonant chord is one that leaves you feeling like the song is unfinished.  When the music moves from the dissonant chord to the consonant chord, there is a sense of completion.  It feels like the conflict is resolved!  A list of 'things I am going to do better this year' feels like that dissonant chord.  A list such as this rings with conflict of things not done right in the past, and we are 'working' to make it better.  Again, our featured verse today reminds us that we are not to focus on fixing the conflict of our past, but to remember that this was resolved the moment we accepted the gift of salvation!  So, move from the dissonant to the consonant this year!  Make a list in harmony with God's will and His desire for each of us to draw closer to Him! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts of 'resolution' today!  Just click on the comment link below and let us hear from  you.  Maybe you have a verse that God has shared with you for 2010?  Encourage us with His word!