THIS IS CALEB ABERNATHY- (I have technical difficulties)

BY- Caleb Abernathy
From the very beginning of our class we have insisted that “all-of-life-worship” is a very important Biblical concept. Our lives are to be lived as sacrifices (Rom 12:1-2), and the required reading also emphasized this point. Yet the very fact that we have a class devoted to foundations and issues in congregational worship reveals the fact that we believe there is something fundamentally different about the corporate worship of the people of God. Discovering this difference was one of the most important contributions this class has made to my life and thought. Biblically speaking, what is this difference, and how do we describe it?
Jeremiah Burroughs is immensely helpful in this inquiry. He answers a question of God’s omnipresence in relation to worship, and in the process helps us with our own question about the peculiarity of corporate worship. He writes, “Yea, but though we are always nigh to God in regard of that essential presence of His, yet there is a more peculiar and special drawing nigh to God in the duties of His worship, and that the Scripture seems to hold forth unto you” (30). So, first we see that there is a peculiar and special drawing nigh to God in the duties of corporate worship. Moreover, he cites James 4:8, Psalm 100:2, and Psalm 148:14 which assures that he has a biblical basis for his claim. But what is it that Burroughs means by drawing nearer to God in duties? In what way can God be nearer in our assembled worship?
Burroughs’ answer is clear, “…the soul is said to draw nigh to God in holy duties because it presents itself before God in those ways that God uses to communicate His choice, previous, most excellent and glorious mercies to His people” (32). So then the duties of congregational worship are unique because in them God presents mercies uniquely to his people. Burroughs further illustrates his point by drawing a comparison to the peculiar presence of God that will be enjoyed in heaven. “But the reason God is said to be in heaven is because there the Lord makes known Himself in a more glorious manner than in any other place… Now if the communication of God unto a creature is enough to make the presence of God more special… then certainly 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 letting Himself out in the glory of His goodness and mercy to His people” (33). God’s goodness is made more evident through the means He has appointed in corporate worship.
The implications of this teaching are many. If the glory of God is most clearly evident to his people in congregational worship, they dare not abandon it. This adds a deep tone of seriousness. Yet we may also joyfully expect that each week God will be faithful to show forth his mercies in the means he has appointed. Thus we come with cheerful expectancy. And this expectant gravity is a good part of the uniqueness of corporate worship.