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.

Reflections on the Regulative Principle

Reflections on the Regulative Principle
One of the most important concepts I have learned from “Foundations and Issues in Worship 2010” is the regulative principle. Although I was skeptical about this particular concept when I first came to class, the three books we have studied this semester have convinced me from the Word of God that there is no other appropriate way to worship God corporately.
The regulative principle is well supported by Scripture, as Gospel Worship explains so adequately. Burroughs states his definition of this principle in his introduction: “In God’s worship, there must be nothing offered up to God but what He has commanded. Whatsoever we meddle with in the worship of God must be what we have a warrant for out of the Word of God. ” He claims, rightly so, that anything outside of Scripture is “merely men’s inventions. ” He supports this claim with two stories in the Old Testament where God severely punished men who refused to abide by this principle. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were destroyed for offering strange fire before the Lord, while Uzzah was struck dead instantly for touching the Ark in an attempt to keep it from falling to the ground. These two references serve as a reminder that God in His holiness demands and deserves reverent obedience from His creation.
David Peterson, author of Engaging with God, sheds further light on the regulative principle of corporate worship. In an acknowledgement of the sovereign reign of the Almighty God he writes, “Acceptable worship does not start with human intuition or inventiveness, but with the action of God. ” God’s covenant made with Israel on the Mount of Sinai is an example of God’s great care in establishing the pattern for worship. Peterson also includes New Testament examples that God deserves to be worshiped on His terms . In his writings concerning Romans he declares, “Paul… reflects the Old Testament perspective that the knowledge of God should lead to appropriate worship and obedience. ” Here is one of many illustrations of the continuity found between the Old and New Testaments regarding the regulative principle. The knowledge of God (i.e. revelation in His Word) is the only true foundation for corporate worship and obedience.
J. Ligon Duncan III describes this fundamental principle beautifully, “This moral law expressly teaches us that the Bible is to be our rule for how we corporately worship and even think about God. The Bible (God’s own self-disclosure and revelation)—not our own innovations, imaginations, experiences, opinions, and representations—is to be the source of our idea of God.”
After reading these three sources’ thorough citation of Scripture in support of the regulative principle, I am left with no choice but to lay down my preconceived notions regarding corporate worship. The regulative principle is rooted in the authority of the Bible, which ultimately rests in the authority of God. The church does not have to depend on her own creativity in order to worship her King: God be praised!

Are our Hearts Stirred When We Confess Our Sins?

"There must be an inward disposition answerable to the expressions," states Burroughs on the issue of a prayer of confession (292). He explains that so many people will seemingly confess their sins and even break the hearts of others by their list of sins and their outward repentance. However, he states that these people often have the wrong inward disposition and that their hearts really are not stirred at all by the confession and their asking God for forgiveness for their actions. Burroughs states, "This is falseness of heart when the inward disposition is not answerable to the outward expressions (293)." Believers need to take time to evaluate their hearts to see if they have the right disposition when they are praying and if not they need to change what they are doing.

Are we there yet?

Looking back about what we have read and discussed in class I feel that there are so much more we need to learn and study about the way we worship. There are questions that popped into my mind such as: Can we fully know how to worship? Are we worshipping according to the Scriptures?

See The Bigger Picture

On pages 444 and 445 of Give Praise to God, Horton reprimands the traditional church/church service. He hypothesizes that one of the reasons our culture needs such entertainment and zing and pizazz is that we have lost the weightiness of God and the unfolding drama of redemption. He points out how, "The service is almost reduced to the sermon, as if everything else were mere window dressing." And even the sermon is reduced to information. He points out that drama is a good thing, the drama of the redemption Christ offers us and the drama of a relationship renewed!

I don't know if it's just me or just the churches I have attended for most of my life, but there seems to be no always present knowledge of this great drama of time. The perfect relationship, the broken relationship, and then the restored relationship is something I feel has escaped our purposes in our private lives as well as in the corporate church. If we want the gospel to be attractive to people than let them in on this drama. Show them the love, the sin, and the forgiveness. I believe this is what Horton is saying (at least mostly).

Now, this idea of something that should be ever present in our minds and actions has been something God has been showing me this semester, and I look for ways to apply it. As far as sharing the gospel with people, what better way to be a friend to them. Don't push a gospel agenda when you don't even know who they are, but rather let them get a taste of the love of Christ through you. And then see how responsive they are to the drama.

Now this is an application in personal life. But what about the church? How do we switch from a dull service that has lost the weightiness of God, as Horton says, to a service of redemption and relation with the God of the universe? Is it through slowly awakening the minds of the congregation to the awesome drama of time? Is it through teaching? How can we show the body that it's more than a service and a sermon? What do we do in church to get the bigger picture of the weightiness of God and His drama of time?

Our only hope?

In Give Praise to God I’m really confused with the statements he was making about the use of the arts for sharing the gospel.  “So we will be driven to the power of liturgy and the communication of the gospel through the arts.”    “If liturgy possesses its own independent power and the arts may now be our only hope in reaching an idolatrous culture, one wonders whether evangelism and outreach have become euphemisms and apostasy.”

  How is the use of the arts in sharing the gospel a bad thing?  I feel like it’s making it seem like evangelism into a separate category from the arts and that everything has gotten so horrible that “the arts may now be our only hope”. The arts can be a type of outreach, the same as a WOL superbowl. People use their talents to open up opportunities to share the gospel all the time.  

Inward Disposition in Prayer

"And then they will call upon God for pardon of sin and for power against sin, and yet God know that their hearts close with sin and are loath to part with sin in the meantime. This is falseness of heart when the inward disposition is not answerable to the outward expressions." -Gospel Worship, pg. 293 I agree with Burroughs that there must be an inward disposition compatible with what you are praying about. I believe part of the struggle in not having the right disposition at times comes from not seeing the complete ugliness of our sins. I think that it is important to pray for understanding and remorse regarding our sin, but there are times when our inward dispositions in prayer don't completely match the gravity of the things we are praying about. I definitely believe that it is important to pray with suitable hearts, but sometimes our hearts aren't fully suitable. To what extent does our inward disposition have to match the reality of what we're praying about?