As you read this blog, you will note just a few scripture references made. The reason is, if you are a true worshiper you will know the biblical foundation through scriptures and understand where my heart is on this subject of biblical praise and worship.
Do you believe that Praise and Worship is in question and a subject where many long time and new believers are 'wrestling" with and that it appears the church and its certain denomination are appeasing the people to "what they like to see and hear?" What have Praise and Worship become? Believers are to be in unity not divided. Are we de-stracted by great technology and music that the biblical foundation and teaching on praise and worship have been put on the back burner? And if so, the enemy is doing a great job. Do you understand God's acceptable offering of praise and worship?
In all good intentions we strive for excellence in styles of worship and want to please God, or are we just making "loud noise"?
I believe Scriptures teaches differently. Praise and Worship is a biblical Christ-believer-follower lifestyle (Roman 12:1,2). In corporate settings the worship service use instruments, music, and our soul to express the living God in our lives reflecting Him, His works, His love in us.
Why do many call it "traditional, liturgical or contemporary" styles or expressions? . Keep in mind these terms are all "man-made". The word in itself is not praise or worship. Although various music styles are used during the worship services in every denominations to express and reflect Christ in their lives, many church goers argue what they believe should be the "hymn, song,spiritual song, making music with an instrument, and how" to praise and worship. The misunderstanding of biblical praise and worship results in no unity, separation, and sadly, "grudges". God Help us!
In scripture from the book of Ephesians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21 it says, "to speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord". The important verse follows and it says. "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ".
Many will say that we should sing more hymns in worship but really don't know what the real meaning of hymns are. Likewise some will say, we should do more up-beat songs for worship. Both tools are great however the lack of biblical teaching is the results of their understanding of scriptures on the subject of praise and worship.
Because there are arguments and sadly "division" in churches where they have "styles" of worship services, for example your see church signs saying, at 8:00am we will have a traditional worship service, and at 11:00am we will have a contemporary style of worship service. The question is, "Where is the unity?" Is this an acceptable offering of worship to Christ Jesus? In my opinion, NO. there is no unity? No wonder believers move around looking for the "style" they feel best fit them. What do you think the "outsider" are seeing and thinking? Are we exampling the wrong message and if so, the enemy is doing his job.
Where is the gospel and biblical focus on teaching the believer to become pure heart worshipers and disciples for Jesus Christ?
God is seeking worshipers with a "pure" heart, a clean heart. I believe Pastors, Biblical teachers must pray together and seek God's teaching on Praise, and teaching on Worship to bring unity in the body of Christ. The worship lifestyle and an argument on "traditional, liturgical vs contemporary" must be done with and NOT allow the enemy to use it for his sake. Can you praise and worship God without the noise, the voice, the "blessings?" YES!. Through Christ we can... this will make the enemy flee.
Even the expressions of worship taught from the bible are misunderstood. Some excuses are, " I will not raise my hands", "I don't know how to clap" "I don't have rhythm, or I am "white and don't know how to keep beat" although it is humorous, these are just a few examples why they don't participate.
The hymns, songs, and spiritual songs; the lyre, drums, cymbals, guitar, piano, organ, percussion, clapping of hands, sitting, dancing are tools, instruments, elements of worship and forms of expressions which are given to us as we use them to reflect who we believe God is in our lives. Sadly, some denominations don't believe this is praise or even worship. Again, where is the biblical understanding? And why it is not taught? These are tools God provides to help us and the truth is, we need all the help we can get. "God help us"
We know that tools do change for example, the farmer once use horses and other mechanisms to plow the fields for their crops. Today we use machinery to plow fields, etc. Tools are changed with technology to be relevant. Mechanics uses tools today that are not the same as it was 20 years ago.
UNITY is the authentic, Biblical praise and worship and is a living, active Witness for God. The biblical tools God have given you to praise and worship Him whether it is traditional tools, liturgical or contemporary tools as we have named them, pray that they are "relevant" for the purpose of understanding the gospel and knowing more of God in your life.
The ultimate biblical tool for praise and worship are You and I.You and I are called to be witness's for the gospel and how we love others, live our lives, speak to one another, share, etc. are expressions to give God glory and hope that we are the light and salt that witnesses to others whom God seeks.
Corporately within a fellowship of believers, music of various styles from every tongue and tribe, is God's way to bring all His people to prostrate, "bow" before Him as His bride, His people in fellowship. It is used for praise and reflective worship to enable the Spirit within us to express God's blessings, love, grace, and transformation in our lives as a church, a body of believers. Every circumstances "good or bad" are reconcile to God as we surrender our cares at His feet. We become an gift offering to God as we give our lives using music, the psalms,hymns, and spiritual songs, prayer, the Word of God together.
I came across an article and believe that the "tools" God brings to us are unique gifts that enables the believer to share the gospel of Jesus Christ that is relevant in today's culture. God is alive and working every moment providing every means and tools to meet the need to share the gospel for today and tomorrow, until he returns.
The Contemporary Worship Movement is one more facet of God's work of reaching people. It uses the styles and language of secular people in order to communicate the truth of the gospel with them. To say it another way, contemporary worship seeks to make worship culturally relevant. Like the generations of believers before them, those using contemporary forms of worship want to translate the gospel in such a way that people today can understand it and be transformed by it.
Contemporary worship attempts to remove some of the religious barriers that keep people from church. For instance, secular people are unfamiliar with our religious language (e.g., abstract concepts such as redemption, justification, grace, absolution, and so on). They don't know about our religious traditions (the Kyrie, the use of robes and other religious garments, the creeds, and so on). The don't understand many of our hymns ("I raise my Ebeneezer!" Pardon me? "There is a balm in Gilead." A what in where?). Although that language, those traditions, and our hymns provide stability and meaning for believers raised within the culture, they represent barriers to secular people - barriers that secular people must first overcome before they can understand the unmerited grace offered in the Savior. Usually, those barriers prove too formidable, and they give up.
We no longer expect people to learn Hebrew before they can read the Bible. We don't tell them they have to understand Greek before they can know God. We don't even ask them to try and figure out the gospel by reading the King James Version: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same (I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged" (2 Cor. 6:11-13). Huh? Enlarged bowels? Instead, we remove those barriers by making the Bible understandable and accessible by re translating it into common English usage. We do the same with works written by the great leaders of Christianity. For example, we don't insist that non-German-speaking people have to understand German before they can enjoy the teachings of Martin Luther. Rather, we translate his works into the language of the people.
Contemporary worship simply strives to do the same thing - to make the gospel accessible to a lost, broken, and hurting world. European music and forms of worship from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries have great value for those raised with it. Such successful music persisted for four hundred years. But secular people, steeped in American pop culture and music, find sixteenth- to eighteenth-century European music and styles irrelevant, out of date and unintelligible.
God is using the contemporary worship movement to capture the hearts of secular people all across North America and even the world. The question is, Can believers use the stuff of culture without compromising the message? Is it even appropriate? For the answer, look to Jesus: "We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us" (Heb. 2:14
From Contemporary Worship, copr. 1997 by Abingdon Press.
Tim Wright is the executive pastor of Community Church of Joy, an Evangelical Luthern Church in America congregation in Glendale, Arizona.
Now that we have biblical tools to share the gospel and be witness for all people to Know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.... Let us pray as one Spirit, for the body of Christ to teach, and disciple biblical praise and worship and see the unity of the Spirit "Revive"
In heaven, no blogs or articles of this fashion will be written. "For every knee will bow and tongue confess, He is Lord!" FINALLY UNITY everyday......
Do you have a similar conviction that this subject on Praise and Worship lacks the biblical foundational teaching on what God seeks as a worshiper? Or if you don't believe this subject to be in question, either way, your comment(s) are invited.
SEEK AND PRAY FOR UNITY IN THE BODY OF CHRIST and that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess --- Jesus is Lord!
God Help Us.
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