Wisdom in Worship

This class helped me reevaluate many areas of my philosophy of worship. Gospel Worship helped me refocus on the seriousness of personal preparation in worship, not only that but it caused me to this about the seriousness of worship itself. It should never be taken lightly, nor should we ever settle for mediocrity in it. Give Praise to God and Why Can't Johnny Sing Hymns helped me think through a strong Biblically based/historically informed worship philosophy. Not to mention, it also helped me think through the practical outworking of my worship philosophy. I feel like everything that I have studied in this class has consistently pointed me back to wisdom. There is nothing inherently sinful about worship that is shallow, but it is missing out on it's full potential to fully praise and honor God. Wisdom must be applied to know how to accurately infuse good theological depth to singing in a way that fits the context that you are in. That is my biggest takeaway from the class and a lesson that I plan on implementing in all my worship leading from this point forward.

Scripture is Central

When we think about what the Christian life is all about, we ought to look no further than the Bible.  In it, God has revealed everything we need to know about Himself and our lives.  It only makes sense, then, that our worship material should come from the Bible.  Not only that, but we ought to use it as part of our worship.  Unfortunately, most churches in America do not bother using Scripture reading and Psalm singing as part of their regular corporate worship routine.  Sometimes the most Bible that makes it into a service is in a song where a single line of Scripture is quoted.  It's not like all of this is directly bad, but a Bible-free worship service lacks the very basis for worship- what God has revealed about Himself.

Dr. Burroughs

Jeremiah Burrough is my newest hero in the faith. He brought to light how important and distinct worship should be. I've always brought to God what was left over from the week. Burrough causes me to see myself as I really am in God's eyes. He also shows who God really is and who he should be to the believer and to the unbeliever. The overall theme stood out very clear to me. The name of God must be sanctified. If I am to worship God with my life and actions, in the way he wishes to be worshiped, then I must heed the teaching of this man. He is, as Doc said, a physician of the human soul. He understands how wicked the human heart truly is. He thoroughly explains what the cure is for this sin sickness. His teaching always point to the Christ (the greatest physician of the soul). The last thing I appreciate about Burroughs is his brilliant illustrations. The illustration of the spaniel-human thoughts is an illustration that has stuck with me since I read it. My mind is my battleground. The illustration holds all the more value to me. Burroughs has impacted me and my approach to worship in the most positive way I've experienced so far! 

A Heart in Tune

This course has altered the way I perceive worship and I how I am to come to it. In Jeremiah Burroughs book, Gospel Worship, I was particularly hit by the importance of preparing for worship. I wish to have a heart so set on spiritual matters that at any given moment I could fall on my knees and render appropriate homage to God. It shakes me to think that at times I have placed myself in situations and circumstances where I know I was unfit for prayer. Worse yet, I was ignorant to the fact that my faculties were so unsuitable. I now consciously examine myself to make certain I am in tune with God. Places where I have previously struggled to remain prepared to come before God in prayer, I now recognize as places God has not given me the liberty to be in. I strive to be vigilant over the state of my heart so that at any specific instance I am ready and able to pray.

Essay

The book I enjoyed reading the most was "Give Praise to God" because it had points that forced me to think through my own thought processes when it comes to worship. I want to write about my last blog because that was a turning point for me in my thinking about worship. I read about it in"Give Praise to God" in chapter 15. I actually did not understand the point Godfrey was trying to communicate until it was explained in class. The main point is that worshiping in response to emotions is not wrong as long as that emotion is a result of a thelogically correct doctrine from God's Word. Sometimes when I sing worship songs I feel a strong emotional response, and I would restrain it because I felt that it was wrong. Now I see that if it is in response to a truth from God's Word there is nothing wrong with that. In the future when I worship in a congregation, participate in being part of a worship band, or any time I am worshiping God I want to play and sing music that gives praise to God because it is theologically correct and enables God's people to worship Him in a right spirit.

Reaching or Compromising?

I hear a lot of different opinions on what the purpose of the church is.  Michael Horton has some great thoughts concerning the popular ideals of this generation as far as reaching the world goes.  On page 443 of Give Praise to God, he mentions that the problem with the conflict of generations is not that one is necessarily right and the other wrong; but that there is a lack of true evangelism when we only focus on the surface issues (I think that's what he is saying, anyway).

Is our problem that we plan on doing the work of the Holy Spirit ourselves?

Stirred.

Burrough's reveals truth from God's Word in a very convicting paragraph (pg166). In the fourth paragraph, Burrough's exhorts his hearers to evaluate the way they receive the gospel. He goes so far as to compare the humans response to the demons response to the gospel. How often I find myself walking into chapel with a apathetic attitude towards the messages! It's nothing to be proud of when I see it as it really is--sin. The very demons respond in fear and trembling. How horrible it would be to have a spirit that is worse off than the demons!