suitable hearts, suitable behavior, suitable to the various attributes of God

1. God is a Spirit
But God being a Spirit, we must have spiritual worship. Your soul must be a at work. The great work is the work of the soul, for God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit. Worshipping God in the flesh?

2. God is eternal
Our hearts taken off all temporal good. Confess past sins with a troubled spirit. Time altars nothing with God, so do not grow weary if he does not answer us presently.

3. God is incomprehensible
He is a God who fills all places. For it is the Lord who stands beside you.

4. God is unchangeable [immutable]
Our hearts must be taken off mutable things. We must therefore be humbled for our fickleness and and unconstantness.

5. God is living [a living God]
Let me bring a living service to Him. Quicken my heart to your law [PSalm 119:37]. God's people should have quick, active, and lively spirits. Let us be humbled for our dead hearts and dead sacrifices.

6. God is Almighty
My condition cannot be so desparate but this Almighty God is able to help me.

7. God knows all things [omnisicent]
Let me not bring an ignorant heart to God. This is the excellency of and understanding creature, to know the rule and end of its own actions. Come with a free, open heart to open whatever is in your heart to God. God does not require us to come and confess our sins so that He might know something that He did not know before, but so that there might be a testimony that you are willing that He should know all that is in your heart.

8. God is a God of infinite wisdom.
Let us be ashamed of our folly. Let us exercise the wisdom of right ends and right means toward those ends.

9. God is holy
We must be ashamed of our unholinessand strive for the holiness that is from the Lord because He is holy.

10. God is merciful
This should make me joyfully come into His presence as a God who is willing to do good to His poor creatures. And we will desire to be merciful to our brethren.

11. God is just
We should think [be apprehensive and sensible] of what you have deserved. Should cause us to think on our faithful Mediator. Fly to Him, and by faith tender up to the Father all the merits of His Son as a full satisfaction to His infinite justice.

12. God is faithful
Bring a faithful heart suitable in some way to this faithfulness of God, that is, a heart faithful with Him, to keep within the covenant you have entered into.

"Now, then, put all these attributes of God together, and there you have His glory. the infiniteness of His glory. The shine and luster of all the attributes together is God's glory. Let me look for glorious things, seeing I have to deal with such a glorious God."

The reading of scripture in the corporate setting

My comment comes from the reading over the weekend page 144 of Give praise to God. I am not in agreement with Duncan/Johnson, on the point that scripture should be read, "by Those responsible for the preaching of the word". I feel that this may be a slight enproachment in regards to the priesthood of believers. The PCA Book of Church order, almost seems to indicate those with out the theological training are not qualified to read scripture to the church body.

I say this with some reservation. I think that passages read in corporate setting should be selected for the benefit of the body, and the reader should not trivially choose, "Whatever God has laid on his heart". Instead the reading might be something chosen by the pastor, as he has seen fit to read either as part of the order of service for the day or as part of a larger scale reading in the corporate body of the church.

Improvised prayer or Shameless self promotion?

As a recovering arrogant self-promoting sinner, Johnson and Duncan III’s essay on Praying the bible in corporate worship is both foreign and refreshing to me. As a child, I wanted to be put on display for the skills that were my right, and be admired for them. But this chapter implies that Prayer and leadership are not about the leader of the congregation, but the God who the congregation is praying to. While the members of the church are edified, as is the intention of public prayer, it needs to be done with a reverence for scripture. This chapter is included in a volume on worship. But the church is so fixated on music as worship that prayer and proper doctrine have been neglected. If we are not properly carrying out the discipline of prayer, is there any value in the singing of the church?

Ransack the Heart

Throughout his sermons, Jeremiah Burroughs continues to emphasize the point that there must be a "ransacking" of every corner of our heart in preparation for worshiping God, whether that worship be prayer, singing, communion, etc. It seems quite easy to not be prepared when we don't consider the attributes of God. Many will say and acknowledge that God is eternal, but don't really grasp what that means. I've been guilty of that, and to certain extent, we can't fully understand something infinite with finite minds, but we can understand certain implications. One such implication is that God is not bound by time and that the present good is not His primary concern, but the eternal good is. Our "hearts must be taken off from all temporal good things and set upon that eternal good" (Burroughs, pg. 113). The story of Isaiah's vision in Isaiah chapter 6 always paints a vivid and powerful picture of what it means to come into God's presence. R.C. Sproul does a good job of describing Isaiah's mortality in the presence of an immortal/eternal God when he says this, "As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed morally--and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed (The Holiness of God, pg. 36)." There is definitely a greater gravity to the worship of God than is commonly perceived today. Most of that seems to be due to a lack of preparation and understanding of the attributes of God. One question that I have is... Is there a responsibility of the church to help its congregation prepare for worship or is it solely individual? If so, what does that corporate preparation look like? I know some churches have a call to worship and read scripture, but many don't.

should we be more structured?

my question for this week has to do with the reading from Give Praise to God - on pages 162 as well as 166 it’s discussing how we’re to pray, more specifically in how we should approach our language and planning of prayer. And I know that they are definitely things we should work on as christians. But aren’t we supposed to pray to God in a way that’s individual and different then everyone else, something that’s not so structured so that we’re being ourselves with Him? One person could find it natural to pray that way, to another it might be something completely opposite from what they’re used to. Are we to alter the way we think in order to pray in a structured manner? 

Public and Private, is God the center of our Worship?

On pages 114-116 of "Gospel Worship" Burroughs really strikes a chord when it comes to how we worship. On the bottom of page 114 he states, "It is good to consider it when you are with others, but especially (I say) when you are in secret; and know that when you are most private you have one who looks on you and takes notice of you, which is more than if you had ten thousand witnesses standing by you and looking upon you. For it is God who stands by you and sees your behavior, sees what you do in your worship of Him. Take heed therefore that there is nothing done by you that is unbecoming the presence of such a God as the Lord is."

Do we take into consideration how we worship when in public as opposed to when we are in private? Who are we really worshiping when we are in public? Is it the opinion of those who see us and what they think about us? Or is it God that we worship? And do we worship God just as fully as we may pretend to do in public when we are in private?

Inright, Outright, Upright, Downright,...

"Suppose that some of you were praying, and there was a godly, able minister standing near you. It would be some means to stir up your hearts to mind what you did." Burroughs p. 115

Must someone of esteem be present for us to consider how we act at that moment? God is around all the time! I do not keep this in mind. The minister can only see our outward appearance, but God sees the heart. The heart which, when outwardly we look our best, is at our darkest and worst. We can easily deceive people, but not God, never God.

A Little Off Topic

Something has been growing in mind ever since being back here at BBC. May I not be speaking heresy in this, but I fear (specifcally in our musical worship) that we (Christians in general) are too focused on the act of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

By this I mean that we are missing out on so much of God by focusing specifically just the gospel message. Christ's act of salvation is the foundation of the faith we have, and being thus, we must continually come back to the foundation of our purpose this side of Heaven. But the foundation is just that, a starting point. It is a door to an infinite amount of Glory I fear we miss because we focus only on a single aspect of our faith (as great as that aspect is!).

Christ is our Mediator to God. We cannot come to the Father in worship except through Christ as Burroughs mentions on pages 121-122. It is because of Christ's death and resurrection that we have fellowship with the Father. But may we not only praise our infinite God in just one area. May we exalt the Name of God for His creation, His justice, His laws, His faithfulness in promises, His patience, etc. etc. etc.

Is this a legitamate concern? Am I speaking heresy?

body and soul worship

In Gospel Worship on page 112 it talks about bodily worship and soul worship. I just thought it was interesting how he says "bodily worship without soul worship is nothing, but soul worship may be accepted without bodily worship." This seems like such an understood thing but I was thinking about it and in my mind I was picturing someone just dancing around. Soul worship can be on its own but bodily worship has to start with soul worship, it cannot be by itself.

Bold & Reverent?

"Give Praise to God" was especially insightful this week, in my opinion. I am fascinated by what Johnson and Duncan have to say about public prayer. However, I was puzzled by the third point found on page 165. The authors' quotation of Shedd perhaps summarize this paragraph best: "Familiarity is the worst of faults in prayer." They admonish us to use language that is both "suitable" and "scrupulously reverent."

How do we approach God as our Father, our Creator, our Savior, our Friend, our Redeemer, our Counselor, our Helper... without some element of familiarity? Where is the balance between approaching the throne of grace with boldness and coming before the holy God with reverence?

Dear Dr. Peterson,

I have three observations and/or objections concerning "breaking bread" in the book of Acts.

I. Page 156 says "The adoption of this term as a title for the Lord's Supper is not formally attested until the second century AD (cf. Didache 14:1...).

Modern scholars believe that much if not all of the Didache predates the turn of the century and overlaps with the end of the Apostolic era. (For example, University of KwaZulu-Natal's professor Jonathan A. Draper). This neither confirms nor denies his assertions.

II. It seems that Acts 2:46 (breaking bread in their homes) might work against his argument: it appears to be the only time that the phrase is qualified by a prepositional phrase like "in their homes", which could indicate a different intended meaning than the unqualified uses in 2:42 20:7, 11.

III. If "breaking bread" does not refer to the Lord's Supper, then there appears to be no mention of it anywhere in the book of Acts.

Being Different

Engaging with God pg. 152 mentions that Acts was used as an apology for the church. Luke showed that "the new community was not a breakaway movement from Judaism...but the true people of God." It seems to be a key attribute of the Christ-centered church that it is different from the world around us. But should we resist things because they are commonplace in the world? Should we reject some things because they are vain, but not necessarily sinful? Does my photo rightly condemn the philosophies of some churches?

Precedent for the Baptist Ordinance of Potluck Dinners?

My question for tomorrow's discussion is one that Peterson himself raises:

"Since the celebration of the Lord's Supper in contemporary churches is now almost always separated from a communal meal, it is important to consider what has been lost by this development. How can we modify the way in which we have the Lord's Supper to give greater expression to the fact that we meet as the body of Christ? If the structures of our church life make it impossible to celebrate the Lord's Supper in the context of a real meal, are there other ways to encourage God's people to eat together and minister to one another in the relaxed atmosphere of table-fellowship?" (157)

Worship in Light of God's Nature

In Sermon VI (pp. 111-124), Burroughs sets forth several attributes of God, including that He is Spirit, eternal, an incomprehensible Being, immutable, living, Almighty, omniscient, infinitely wise, holy, merciful, just, and faithful. This is quite a staggering list of characteristics of the God we worship! Burroughs describes how believers should respond in their worship ("Suiting Our Duties") in light of these truths about God. What do we do when we feel so incapable, so unfit, so unworthy to worship when we reflect on who God is? What small steps [because often we can feel overwhelmed, lost, and unable to get out of ruts] can we take to begin to suit our duties to the God we are worshipping?

Signs along the road

While I was driving home this weekend I saw a billboard which stated, "NorthRidge Church is for Liars." My immediate reaction to this statement was False! I have looked into the some of the ministries of this church and as I suspected it is a seeker sensitive church which places a lot of emphasis on dialog and bringing people together.
My question is with in our own circles what is our place as far as when we see worship deviating away from the prescribed model given to us in scripture? Are we to pack up and leave the church or is there a place for us to approach the leadership of the church and voice concerns?

Burroughs, pp. 74-100: Aerial View

Question: What maner should the [delightful] "duty" of worship be performed so that the name of God may be sanctified in the duty? [p. 74]

I. We should set ourselves to glorify God as God [Psalm 66:2, Romans 1:21] [p. 75]
"That is we must labor to suit or worship to what there is in God so that our worship may be proportional in some measure to the nature of God Himself. And, therefore, God being a Spirit, His worship must be a divine worship." [p. 75]

II. Our hearts work and folow after God as God. The behavior of the heart in reference to the greatness and majesty of God. [Psalm 63:5, Malachi 1:14, II Chronicles 2:5] [p. 79]

III. We must have high thoughts of God [Isaiah 6:1-2, Revelation 4] [p. 85]
A. Do not subject the worship of God unto our own lusts. [p. 87]
B. Do not subject the worship of God to the praise of men. [p.88]
C. Do not subject the worship of God to making self your end. [p. 89]
"Your main end must be that you may know this day some part of the mind of God." [p. 90]

Question: "How may I know that I am acted by self ends?" [p. 92]
1. Do you love holy duties even though no present good comes from them? [p. 92]
2. Do you rejoice in others who are able to honor God in holy duties? [p. 92]
3. Are the holy duties of God's worship tjoy of your soul in the midst of prosperity? [p. 93]

IV. There must be much reverence and much fear when you come into the presence of God to worship Him ["the fear of Isaac," Psalm 89:7, Pslm 2:11, Deut. 5:23-34, 29,] [p. 93]

V. The duties of God's worship must be full of strength [Isaiah 1:13] [p. 96].
A. Strength of intention [p. 97]
B. Strength of affection [p. 99]
C. Strength of all the faculties [p. 100]

ARFT!

"The law was not abrogated or rejected by Jesus, but fulfilled and transcended in him." EWG p. 129

too much salt?

I definitely did not know that the sacrifices were salted (GW p.81). I thought it was a very interesting concept. I had asked around if there was any reason for this besides as a significance of the grace of God in keeping us from putrefying in our flesh. I heard a couple of different reasons. One was in order for the priests to be able to sell it afterwards. Was there any other reason?

the abiding significance of the gospel to an already converted christian

Yesterday I found a fascinating phrase on a church’s “Mission/Core Values” page:

We are commited to The Gospel, as the starting point for a relationship with God (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

While this is obviously a necessary tenant of one’s belief concerning the gospel, I think Mohler and Dever might find this lacking, especially considering that other areas of their “core values” do indeed touch on post-conversion Christian living, viz.

“Service, as the means to built up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:7; Rom. 12:3-8).”

(The typographical error is from the original.) This, like the first statement, is not untrue in itself; it simply fails to paint the whole picture, and minimizes the centrality of the gospel and its importance to believers for their own continuing faithfulness (GPTG 127ff).

Am I being too hard on these guys? Or should we, in keeping with the aforementioned authors, seek to better understand the role of the gospel in the believer’s life and make sure the official position of our church (or core values, whatever) reflects that understanding?

Distractions

Burroughs mentions a couple things about worship in todays reading that I will classify as distractions in worship (at least I find they are to me). The first comes on page 92 where he talks about how we should be happy for our brother and sisters who appear to be "more enlarged in the worship of God" than ourselves. Whenver I see a brother or sister apparently worshipping God in a more connected way than myself the only thing I feel is jealousy for it gives testament to where I lack in my own worship of God.

The second instance is on page 97 where Burroughs laments how we are so easily distracted from the task at hand of worshipping God in whatever way we find ourselves. How can we treat our great God in such a way as to not pay attention to Him. It's quite the oxi-moron. Here we are in church with the purpose of engaging ourselves in the worship of our great God and then we don't even pay attention to what we are saying or singing or reading or hearing because our minds are finding something else apparently more important to be preoccupied with.

These two things are just frustrations in my own life pertaining to the worship of God. Do any of you struggle with these things? How have you overcome, or how are you dealing with them?

Let's all try to relate

In Give Praise to God there was a quote that really struck me "We all tend to listen better to someone when we think they understand where we are coming from. Our non-Christian friends are no different in this."pg.135
I can't even imagine how wild it would be to get to a point where our messages could be something that everyone could relate to and understand. I still have a hard time relating to certain things I hear new in church because we have all these weird analogies like 'planting seeds' and 'being the salt and light' - unless explained, I can't relate to salt.  Coming into that new is confusing if you don't have the background in it. How can we make things easier for people to relate to?

Preaching God's word

Page 142 in Give Praise to God, it caught my attention when I read the quote of John Reed how he states "the reading of the Word of God ought to be an event" I never thought of it in that way I always looked at reading the Bible while the sermon was to only prove what the pastor based his message on. It goes on to say that it should grab the congregations attention. It is just so different to think of it that way. Reading the Word should cause the congregation to be engaged with the pastors message, because it is God's word and it is Him talking to us. Why do some preachers not make that clear? Some just read the scripture and then go on with what they had planned to talk about and hardly go back to the passage that they based their message on. They should keep going back to the passage during their message by relating it to the Word.

URGENT!

Mark Dever makes a terrific observation on page 134 of "Give Praise to God."

"To speak personally for a moment, when I am in a situation in which I am called upon to preach, as Baxter said, "as a dying man to dying men," I do not care if my hearers are scared of death, wanting happiness, or searching for meaning in life; I know that they will die and stand before God to give an account of their lives. Furthermore, I know that they will fail in their attempt to justify themselves, and I know that God will therefore rightly condemn them to an eternal hell."

The church of Jesus Christ would be absolutely transformed if she pursued truth with this kind of urgency. There is just one problem: how do we incorporate this sense of earnestness in a church ridden with materialism and relativism?

Evangelism Versus the Gospel???

Perhaps I am missing something here, but it seems that Mark Dever sees a difference between gospel presentations and evangelism. on page 131 he says "The Lord's Day gathering of a church is primarily... [for] the glorification of God through the edification of His church. Certainly evangelism can be a part of that..but it is never the main point." He spends the rest of the chapter beautifully illustrating the gospel's centrality in all of our preaching. Is there a difference between evangelism and gospel presentation? Is the difference some sort of salesmanship? If so, let's discuss how we can keep ourselves from cheapening the gospel to this level of unimportance.

Affections in Worship

Burroughs says that the second of the three strengths with which the believer ought to carry out their duties of worship is strength of the affections. "So when we come to the living God, we must have living affections, our affections, and that will be the way to cure vain thoughts" (99).

Early Rachel asked about joy in worship:

(http://foundationandissuesinworship2010.blogspot.com/2010/09/joy-in-worship.html)

And perhaps this where Burroughs is addressing this issue. Yet he never really tells how we go about raising our affections practically.

My question is this: How do we labor to use all the strength of our affections in the duties of worship?

a friend showed me this today:
judgment seat of Christ- leonard ravenhill

Authority in Preaching

Mohler analyzes the role of authority in the pulpit in regards to
expository preaching on pages 115-118 of GPTG. He rightly notes, "The preacher dares to speak on behalf of God...No one should even contemplate such an endeavor without absolute confidence in a divine call to preach and in the unblemished authority of the holy Scriptures" (116). In our postmodern culture where absolute truth and objectivity are so often called into question, how can we as preachers convince our congregations that what we are preaching is not our mere interpretations of the text but rather the very word of God? Also, what do we do with passages that we are unsure of the interpretation?

What is the Motive Behind our Worship?

Why do we worship? What is our reasoning behind our worship? Do we worship because it brings God the glory or because we gain something?

On pages 90-92 in Gospel Worship Burroughs raises the issue of worshiping God with the wrong motives? He states that in Amos God was not accepting the people's offerings because they were only offering the fat beasts when they were to eat a great portion of it, but when the sacrifice was for God alone they would offer something other than the best. On page 92 he emphasizes the need to be sure that our worship is not selfish and is really for the God. Our worship needs to be true and God-centered even when it will not benefit us at the time.

What is the churches role in evnagelizing?

I have thoroughly enjoyed the reading for the semester so far and has caused me to think about the ministry I am involved with here at school. My question is regarding to the goal purpose of a church based outreach ministry. I accept and embrace the goal of a corporate gathering of believers for the purpose of preaching, singing, praying, and reading the word. I am wondering what or where is the place of an outreach based ministry that is based from the church and how will this ministry present its self to a group of students who are at best spiritual immature Christians? Is it possible that the ministry of the church may have it priorities off base?

New Humanity

Clowney writes on page 95 “The church is the people of God, the new humanity, the beginning of the new creation, a colony of heaven (Heb 13:14).” If accurate, this concept casts light on all that is done in new covenant assembled worship. In light of the author’s brevity, what do you think the implications of this should be?

is this just a concept?

In Give praise to God I notice that there are a few places between pages 96 and 97 talking about how Jesus is singing the fathers praise, and also how he sings with us in worship as the Holy spirit helps lead us in song.  Is this an example of what we're to visualize to try to connect more with the scripture and with our worship? Or is there something special about this particular analogy that I'm just not connecting with? I'd never heard of this concept before so I'm curious to learn more about it.

The part our culture must play

On page 110, R. Albert Mohler Jr. says "...and the sermon has been sidelined, reduced to a brief devotional appended to the music. Many preachers accept this as a necessary concession to the age of entertainment." I do not think any of us would agree with the idea of making our sermons into devotionals, but I want to think about the role that our culture should have in our worship. I believe very strongly that the Word of God must hold preeminence in not only our worship service, but in our youth groups and outreach programs as well. What the world has always needed is found elegantly written in the pages of Scripture, so what should we do with "the age of entertainment"? Should we not strive to be at least somewhat relevant? If so, how much time and effort should we put into making our churches hip and trendy? Or should we completely ignore the technological advances of society. After all, every culture has had new and exciting toys, but are they ever welcome in the church service or building?

Joy in Worship

I have waited for one of our authors to address the issue of joy in worship, but I am afraid none of them are going near that topic. Burroughs especially has emphasized again and again the solemnity of worship, and how we are to prepare our hearts and minds when we enter into the presence of God corporately. I completely agree.

However... I think there might be more to worship than just stark reverence. Is there a place for joy in worship? If so, how does the true believer living in fear of God express his joy without dishonoring God?

Preparation: At Home or in Church?

Burroughs discusses in detail the vital importance of the preparation of the soul before worship. He also notes how one should still go through with the duty even if there has been a lack of preparation on the part of the person (pp. 70-74). My question deals with this point of preparation: In light of the "busy-ness" of this culture, does the church need to supply a time before the worship service begins for its people to quiet their hearts before God? In other words, does this preparation need to take place in the home or in the church? Obviously, in the ideal world, we would hope that everyone would always have his or her soul ready for worship or at least have the time and desire to prepare oneself before going to church, but practically it is not always possible (e.g. mothers getting ready their children).

What is Biblically Acceptable?

On pages 72-73 of Gospel Worship, Burroughs discusses the problem of acceptance of sin. He tells how when a person commits a particular sin it causes guilt at first but gradually as one commits it repeatedly it becomes more acceptable and the guilt diminishes. He also states that the same thing can happen when you are doing what it right or making the right choices. It is hard to make the right decision at first but over time it becomes more natural.
This is something that has become more ready in our society today. Things that were not acceptable 50 years ago are now considered okay. My question to you is this, what has become acceptable in our personal lives and in society today that should not be acceptable?

"We just believe the Bible"

Every church believes and confesses something about the Bible. It's just that some churches don't write down what they confess about the Bible, or what they confess in writing about the Bible is vague and sketchy. They risk not being accountable to anyone for what they believe, and/or falling into insufficient or false teaching. Saying that you believe the Bible isn't enough. Many false religions say that.

"Being joined together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord."

The local church should desire to build a body. The goal is not to subdivide the church into numerous "smaller churches" based on age or race or a thousand other ways we could divide her, but rather to join together the whole structure “in Christ,” being joined together, growing into a holy temple in the Lord [Ephesians 2:21].

Question: What are our churches doing to unify rather than subdivide the body. Two questions: What does a unified church "being joined together" and "growing into a holy temple in the Lord" look like? What would it not look like?

Benjamin Keach's Catechism Questions 100-104 on Baptism [1677]

Question 100: What is baptism?
Answer: Baptism is a holy ordinance, wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, signifies our ingrafting into Christ, and our partaking of his benefits, and our engagement to be the Lord’s. [Matt. 28:19; Romans 6:3-5; Col. 2:12; Gal. 3:27]

Question 101: To whom is baptism to be administered?
Answer: Baptism is to be administered to all those who actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ; and to none other. [Acts 2:38; Matt. 3:6; Mark 16:16; Acts 8: 12, 36; Acts 10:47-48]

Question 102: Are the infants of such as are professing believers to be baptized?
Answer: The infants of such as are professing believers are not to be baptized; because there is neither command nor example in the Holy Scriptures, or certain consequence from them, to baptize such.

Question 103: How is baptism rightly administered?
Answer: Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, or dipping the whole body of the person in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. [Matt. 3:16; John 3:23; Acts 8:38-39]

Question 104: What is the duty of those who are rightly baptized?
Answer: It is the duty of those who are rightly baptized to give up [join] themselves to some visible and orderly church of Jesus Christ, that they may walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. [Acts 2:46-47; Acts 9:26; I Peter 2:5; Heb. 10:25; Romans 16:5]

Preparation in Prayerful Voyage

"I beseech you now to lay this text to your hearts. Do you prepare your hearts to seek God? When you got to prayer, can you say that you take pains in preparing your heart for it?"-Burroughs, Gospel Worship pg. 57

Often times, I have gone to the Lord in prayer to prepare for worship or reading the Word. I have never thought of preparing for prayer itself and I wonder how such an act would be done. I know Burroughs says that one way is by meditation, but often times I've had to pray before I could even think straight or meditate. Is there really preparation for prayer or is prayer a means of preparation? Obviously the answer could be both, but how do we know when to prepare for prayerful "voyage" (as Burroughs would say) or to prepare for "holy duties" through prayer? I do believe this might be something to pray about :)

Creativity Quashed in the Millennial Kingdom?

At my church this morning Isaiah 12:1-6 was used as the call to worship:

¹You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away,that you might comfort me.²"Behold, God is my salvation;I will trust, and will not be afraid;for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." ³ With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. ⁴And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. ⁵ "Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. ⁶ Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel" (ESV)

Isn't it interesting (within the context of our class discussions of the regulative principle) that God has already prescribed the means (proclamation in song) and the content (verses 1 - 6) for worship at the outset of the millennial kingdom? We see the same thing happening in Revelation 19:6-7. Yet despite God's several thousand year old regulation of our millennial worship, I somehow doubt that anyone, on that day, will be saying, "Golly, couldn't we just sing something more spontaneous? This is so old and restrictive!"

Fear and Respect

In EWG 73, Peterson defines biblical fear as “faithfulness and obedience to all the covenantal demands of God.” In this paragraph, he claims that the church does not properly understand what the fear of God is or how to apply this from the old testament. Do you agree with his accusation or disagree? Why? What should this look like in the church?

Are We Honoring God or Ourselves?

On page 49 Burroughs discusses the sin of Korah, who even though he was set apart for the work of the Lord wanted more honor. The question is then raised. " Is it a small thing to you that you should come to worship Him? Is this not honor enough?" Korah was in a place of honor and was set apart to draw nigh to God. He had a position of honor before the Lord yet he wanted even more honor. My question for you is this, is it possible that people in the position to lead worship are doing it with the wrong motives? Are the leading worship to bring themselves or God the glory? Is worship leading becoming a means to gain the honor of men?

Give God His Rightful Place

On pages 53-54 of Gospel Worship, Burroughs makes two points that especially got me thinking.

First, Burroughs appeals that, "As God whom we draw nigh to is great, so the duties of God's worship are great duties." (p. 53) The worship of God is a very great and serious business yet we often sluff it off to follow after other pursuits that are not nearly as valuable and holy as worshiping the Creator. We refuse to neglect this or that, but when it comes to worship we often do not see the weight it holds and thus have no issue in neglecting the act of worship (specifically in a congregational setting). I feel that many people have this mindset that worship for some reason can be trumped by other pursuits. Why is that? Do we not understand the awesomeness and terribleness of the God of creation and beyond? Do we not understand that place that He deserves?

Second, because worshiping God is such a great business it requires great preparation. The problem is we come into the service half asleep and the last thing we want to do is work to bring our minds under submission to Jesus Christ. It is very easy for me to view the service of my home church as the first half (singing) is a preparation for the second half (preaching). This should not be the case at all. We cannot prostitute half the service (aka worship) just to get our minds in gear. And not only a church service, but personal reading of the Word and prayer must be met with by preparation. Again, do we understand the God we worship? How can we specifically prepare for worship?

Is there a room for creativity?

In GPTG there are methods of how the Reformers worship God. For example our songs should look like Psalms and when we worship we should just pray, preach and sing. My question is are we going to use the same method or is there a room for innovation?

It's the attitude of our heart

So for me this has been really on my mind lately with the text reading we’ve been doing. I’ve been confused about the text and the way it’s been explaining on how we’re not to use images as our worship, and for someone like me I feel very much lead to use my artwork as a way to worship. I’m trying to wrap my mind around how this is bad.  I can understand if this only means just the attempt to try to create a visual of what we imagine God to look like. But everything I’ve read just makes it seem that any sort of image is bad to do. In EWG it talks about how “...it is the attitude of the heart that really matters.” and how we’re to have  “obedience and faithfulness in every sphere of life...” So wouldn’t that mean that if it’s something that’s on our heart to be doing, no matter what it is as long as we’re doing it 100% for God that it’s acceptable?
In GPTG it talks about how we don’t have “cookie-cutter patterns.” and that it’s flexible. I’m just not sure- this might be something completely obvious to most of you, but I’m still new to all this.

The Expectant Gravity of Worship

When explaining how God's presence can be said to be nearer in congregational worship, Burroughs writes, "...when we come to worship God , we come to be near God and with God, because the duties of His worship are those means that the Lord has appointed for the letting out of Himself in the glory of His goodness and mercy to His people. We may expect more communication of God's goodness through the duties of His worship than in any other way" (pg. 45).

With this single idea Burroughs paints a truly heavy and solemn picture of the duty of worship. God is known in a "peculiar and special" (pg. 41) way through these means that He has appointed. How then could it be approached with flippancy? Why would it ever be considered trite? It is of utmost importance to behold the glory of Lord, so that we may be changed into His image, from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor 3:18). Ought we not to expect this divine gift each week as we meet for worship?

Therefore my question is this: How seriously ought we to take our preparations for Sunday worship with the people of God? We may laugh at Burroughs' chiding of his flock for "...gaming until one o'clock at night..." (pg. 57), but it's really not silly charge in light of his serious assessment of the worship of the true God. Do we view the worship of God in the assembly of His people with the same expectant gravity?

Are we kings?

Burroughs on page 49 says that "Christ has made every believer a king, priest, and prophet unto Himself." I have never really thought of that before reading this. Yes, I've been taught and do believe that Jesus Himself fulfills these three roles, but I have never really thought about how we do [well, to the extent of our being ALL 3]. Furthermore, the one description that I would never give to myself is that of king. Granted, it would be Christ giving me that description and not myself, but it is difficult for me to even acknowledge that title. I understand that one day we will one day reign with Christ, that presently we are even co-heirs with Him (Rom. 8:17), and that we are a royal priesthood (I Pet. 2:9). But the question I would raise is: Are we kings? What does it mean if we are? How does this "tri-role" affect how we worship?

Worship, the response to redemption.

I loved reading the conclusion of of the second chapter of EWG Peterson says, "Describing Israel's response to God is the assumption that he had acted towards them in revelation and redemption" (73). The response is a three fold working out of worship, adoration, service, and covenant faithfulness or obedience.

Focusing on reverence, toward the LORD the Old Testament view of reverence was covenant obedience, expressed in cultic activity, and life characterized by honoring God. This clashes with the view of reverence I was given as a child. I was led to believe reverence was, closing your eyes for prayer, wearing a suite to church, even not crossing your arms while sitting in church for fear of offending God. Yet, little emphasis was placed on a lifestyle of honor toward God, all the signs of reverence were those that would be pleasing and acceptable in mans eyes.

No offence to Phinehas or anything...

It appears to be the assumption and/or assertion of the authors of these three books that the understanding of God within the mind of each individual church participant is very important and to be cultivated by truth and guarded against error. My experience with pastors in small churches in small locales has not reflected that position. One pastor in particular sought to correct doctrinal errors gradually over time in his preaching and individual interactions (a good idea), but felt little or no obligation to include the congregation’s musical preferences (♫I come to the garden aloooonnnne♫) in these corrections: an inclusion that may have saved him some time.

In certain circumstances, with certain people, or certain congregations, a more direct approach may yield the intended results without alienating sheep from their flock. However in most situations a more gentle approach will prove the more useful. What obstacles do you think people may have, either pastors or congregants that prevent them from sharing the view of our authors: that how and what they think about God is extremely important? How do you think we can get through these obstacles?

Individual hearts desiring true worship

Two quotes stuck out to me in this week's reading:

"It is one of the sad indictments of evangelical worship today that it has so little scripture in it." and "Our prayers ought to be permeated with the language and thought of scripture." Both of these statements are aimed at corporate worship, but it seems that it is not a stretch to consider the implications for the individual heart. It seems that the man who has made scripture the center of his daily thinking process would naturally (and joyfully) transfer that pattern of thought into his worship.

Is it possible that the primary responsibility for the God honoring worship leader is to engender a love of scripture in the flock? Not just to keep scripture at the center of the preaching, praying, and singing, but to equip and encourage that same centrality in believers?

look like a Psalms?

"In Give Praise to God on page 67, there is a section explaining "We are to sing the Bible" in the opinion of Johnson he explains that a Christian worship song should look like a Psalms. What does he mean by it having to look like a Psalms? He does explain that if they look like a Psalms then they will develop themes and be rich in theological and experiential content but I don't understand when he says it should look like a Psalms.

Just One Question...

This paragraph found on page 65 of "Give Praise to God" grabbed my attention.

"We should also note another thing about the Reformers' approach to worship. They did not have the same interest in cultural accommodation as many modern evangelical worship theorists do. They were against culture-derived worship and were more concerned to implement principles of Scripture in their specific cultures (and even to emulate the best of the Bible-inspired cultures of Scripture) than they were to reclaim current cultural forms for Christian use. This is precisely one of the areas productive of the greatest controversy in our own age."

I suspect that the Reformers once again are on to something here. Maybe we don't have to worry so much about the Word of God being hip & up-to-date... Maybe we should just preach it & sing it & pray it & read it like we were told... If we truly believe that the Word of God is living and active (Heb. 4:12), then we probably don't have to worry too much about it being "culturally relevant."

If this is the case, it appears that we have gotten mixed up when it comes to worship. Instead of bringing culture to the Word of God, perhaps we should be bringing the Word to our culture. Instead of starting with a response and moving to revelation, maybe we should try giving the people revelation and then leaving the response up to the Holy Spirit. Instead of acting like salesmen cramming the Gospel down the throats of prospective consumers, we might consider assuming our God-given roles as ambassadors of Christ.

With this in mind, I have just one question. What does this look like? I can't honestly say I have seen it before!

"Preston, Taylor, Bradford, and Calo"

Here's some help maybe from Burroughs today:

John Preston
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Preston_(clergyman)

Rowland Taylor
http://rowlandtaylor.wordpress.com/2006/11/19/timeline-of-rowland-taylor-early-mid-16th-century/

John Bradford
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-10/web/bradford_life.html

Calo – Military slaves of ancient Rome

"Little glimmering of the light - Choicest beams of the light"

"Indeed, there is a little glimmering of the light of God through other creatures to you, but the glorious beams of the light of God come through the duties of his worship." Jeremiah Burroughs [1599-1646] Gospel Worship, p. 36

"Though the lives of men are dear and precious to God, yet they are not so precious as his glory."

"Though the lives of men are dear and precious to God, yet they are not so precious as His glory. The glory of his name is a thousand times more dear unto God than the lives of thousands and thousands of people. The lives of Nadab and Abihu must go so that God may be sanctified. If it comes to be that the lives of men and the sanctifying of God's name cross, the glory of God must pass on and must have its course, let the lives of men go which way they will." Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Worship [1599-1646] p. 26

The Standard

Even in the face of “earthquake” [Luke 21:11] and “famine” [v. 11] and “pestilence” [v. 11] and “terrors” [v. 11] and “imprisonment” [v. 12] and “persecution” [v.12] and “adversity” [v. 15] and “death” [v. 16] and “hatred” [v. 17] and “desolation” [v. 20] and “distress” [v. 23] and “perplexity” [v. 25] and “fainting with fear” [v. 26] and “fear” and “foreboding” and “shaking” [v. 26] –

Even in the face of all of this, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” [v. 33].

theologically shallow, biblically uninformed?

Good quote using two phrases I think are useful to help other brothers and sisters evaluate their corporate worship song texts:

"Dr. Boice had often expressed concern about contemporary Christian worship. His concern was not limited to the style of the music, but focused more specifically on the content of its lyrics, which he considered theologically shallow and biblically uninformed." GPTG p. 11

Remember, without the standard [God's Special Revelation, the Bible] the risk becomes being enslaved by whatever "privatized spiritual experience" a group of people may want to call worship, and quite possibly risking idolatrous flirtation if the standard is assented to but muted, or rank idolatry if the standard is absent, because something infinitely inferior to God has replaced the standard for our worship. Two kinds idolatry -- worshipping a false god or worshipping the true God falsely [OT syncretism].

And theologically true but shallow statements sung incessantly without Biblical definition can lead to defining those broadly true but shallow statements in whatever way one wishes to define them [what the Bible means to me] because nature abhors a vacum. The self is the natural default when the standard is muted, missing, or redefined.

A fascinating article...

This is an article by CNN about a study done by a professor at Princeton. I think it may ironically illustrate some of our concerns for the church today.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html

This has been my struggle.

While the church uses the term Worship frequently, it is rare to find a comprehensive definition of worship. In Give Praise to God’s introduction, James Montgomery Boice is quoted, defining worship as a metaphysical event in which the spirit of Man meets with the Spirit of God, and praises God’s Attributes. But when I compare this with an exposition of Romans 12, I find this definition lacking. In Romans 12 I find that obedience to God is our worship. On its own, Song is not worship. Boice claims that worship is a term built from the English Launguage that attributes worth to an object (God). I think that Boice and I agree that worship places God first, and praises his attributes. Burroughs also states that worship has a ‘Drawing Nigh’ aspect to it. This is a point that my current position has difficulty with. It is obvious from John 3 that without God, obedience alone is nothing. Salvation is by Grace through Faith. But if a believer does not living out his faith, then how is he worshiping God? Is Obedience not still a part of worship? Obviously there is a prerequisite that God must be a part of the life of the worshiper, or there is nothing but words. But how can we define worship in a way that is not limited to singing “In the Garden” on Sunday morning and reading a KJV text? What is worship, and what is its role in the daily life of a believer?

Mutual Priority

"If it comes to be that the lives of men and the sanctifying of God's name cross, the glory of God must pass on and must have its course, let the lives of men go which way they will." -Burroughs pg. 26- All throughout scripture God demonstrates that his priorities will be accomplished, despite anything man might do. We as believers, especially in worship, need to have the same priorities that God has, a mutual priority. The priority that God is worthy and will be glorified surpasses any priority that man might have. The death of Aaron's sons is a sobering passage in scripture and makes me realize even more just how important it is to prepare my heart before I come to worship a God who is and will be continually glorified no matter what. In light of the death of Aaron's sons, Burroughs says this, "We think much to have the lives of men taken away, but if we knew what the glory of God meant and what infinite reason there is that God should be glorified, we would not think it so much that the lives of many men should go for the glory of God." -pg. 26- Part of the reason why pride is so dangerous is that it causes man to want to substitute his own glorification in the place of God's glorification. Priority number 1 is the Glory of God.

Reading into it too much?

It's very interesting how Burroughs stresses that Aaron's sons were renowned & with such status and worth. He reminds us over & over again how esteemed these men were in the Israelite nation. Yet THEY were the ones who were put under severe judgement by God. They had been put to higher standards and therefore a higher, more drastic consequence. On page 25, Burroughs states, "...but it did not appear what fire for it did not so much as consume their clothes nor their bodies but went through all and struck them dead, and nobody could tell how." It does not state in the Bible that the fire was invisible or unable to be seen. It also does not state that this fire did not consume them. All it states was that there was something left after this fire to carry out. The tunics may have been charred & burnt with holes in it. There still would have been a tunic & body to carry out. -Leviticus 10:5

The Bible as our Basis

God is not satisfied with our worship if it is not done according to what he has commanded. Boice clarifies this well when he states, "This reminds us that there are two ways to commit idolatry: worship something other than the true God or worship the true God in the wrong way (GPTG 33)." This struck me more as I was reading it because I have heard girls make comments like, "I don't like songs in chapel because we sing too much Bible." Comments like that have always bothered me because how can we go wrong in our worship if we are bringing praise to God according to the words of the Bible. Our worship needs to center on the Bible. While reading this section of GPTG, I was really convicted about how we are supposed to worship. Worship is to bring praise to God the way he desires not the way we like to worship. The Bible must be the basis for our worship anything else is idolatry and does not give God all the glory that is due his name.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Jeremiah Burroughs makes this quote on p. 27 of Gospel Worship, "God stands upon nothing more than to appear to all the world to be a holy God." He goes on to expound on this on the next page as well. Above all things God desires that His holiness be glorified above all other attributes or acts that He has done.

This concept that God's holiness is what He wants to be pointed out above all else is foreign to me. Yes I praise Christ for his death on the cross, for God's faithfulness, etc. But when it comes to praising God for Him being holy, for being set apart from and set above all other things and beings in the universe, it is something I'm not sure I totally understand. Does the general Christian practice praising God above all other things that He is holy? Do we even understand what holy means when it comes to God? How do we practice praising God for Him being holy? What does it look like for us to have a mindset of God being holy above all other awesome things that He is?

I'm not blest with a talent to title things well.

so my inclination for this blog is to talk about something that really made me think, and something that was sort of a bright revelation to me as I was reading through this section of the text (“Give Praise to God” because I’m still waiting on the other text).  Since I haven’t been saved for a huge amount of time right now I feel like a ton of things have really just took me by surprise. For instance, whenever I thought of God, I usually imagined this big tough man who ruled all there was in creation and saw too it that things came out the way he wanted to. authoritative and strong willed-- I never imagined that he was a sensitive God who cared so much about the way that we worshipped, and that he hurts if we end up worshipping for the wrong reasons.  I’m thrown for a loop because the God I always saw as the big tough guy who runs our world- is hurt if I am personally worshipping him for the wrong reasons- it even says that He’s greatly concerned with how we worship. Later on on page 31 it mentions something that we get caught up with our imaginations and opinions on how we should go about things, and that REALLY made me think about how much I’m just so chill about everyones opinions on things. God wants everything that we believe to be bible based and completely in scripture, and for me it’s always been something I’ve been so chill about. I’ve always just thought that it was absolutely fine to have your own opinion on how you’re supposed to do things and what you believed, because in the end God’s going to sort out what’s right and what’s wrong anyway. So this text has really been helping me get more things in check-

I’m confused about things too though, because if we’re to be so concerned with how we worship then what exactly ARE we supposed to do for worship? What I personally believe is that for worship, it’s because we ourselves are worshipping with whatever we do, our whole being, with the everyday lives that we live. I truly believe that when I sit down and start a painting that I’m glorifying God with a passion he gave me, something that I can use to witness to people because of the messages I try to have in all the paintings I do.