AS YOU WORSHIP SO YOU SERVE

As you worship, so you serve - (Calvin Coolidge)

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; ... we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures for ever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Bless Yahweh, my soul, bless his holy name, all that is in me! Bless Yahweh, my soul, and remember all his kindnesses... Yahweh has fixed his throne in the heavens, his empire is over all. Bless Yahweh, all his angels, heroes mighty to enforce his word, attentive to his word of command. Bless Yahweh all his armies, servants to enforce his will. Bless Yahweh, all his creatures in every part of his empire! Bless Yahweh, my soul.

And what is faith? Faith gives substance to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see. It is for their faith that the men of old stand on record. By faith we perceive that the universe was fashioned by the word of God, so that the visible came forth from the invisible. By faith Abel offered a sacrifice greater than Cain's, and through faith his goodness was attested, for his offerings had God's approval; and through faith he continued to speak after his death. By faith Enoch was carried away to another life without passing through death; he was not to be found, because God had taken him. For it is the testimony of Scripture that before he was taken he had pleased God, and without faith it is impossible to please him; for anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who search for him.

(Psalm 100, NIV; Psalm 103, 1-2, 21-22, JB, Hebrews 11:1-6, NEB)



From ancient times people have sought another being before whom to bow in honour. There has been a constant searching for an object to worship. The Bible records many ways in which people have sought their gods. People have made gods of almost anything.

For Christians, basic ideas of worship come from the Jews' traditions of worship. They believed in one supreme being they called Yahweh. So awed were they by this supreme being they would never utter his name.

The Jews knew they were before the Almighty when they worshipped. They knew he was aware of exactly what was happening at such times. God was the witness of their worship and upon this historical foundation our present-day worship is laid. If we wish to worship in sincerity and truth, we need to recognise exactly who God is. Once his role is clear, our role becomes clear. If we fail to understand these things, while we may appear to worship we will not be worshipping. For our public worship to be in order, our private worship must be meaningful.



Alas, in regard to things spiritual, the foolishness of many is this, that they in the secular sense look upon the speaker as an actor, and the listeners as theatregoers who are to pass judgment upon the artist. But the speaker is not the actor -not in the remotest sense. No, the speaker is the prompter. There are no mere theatregoers present, for each listener will be looking into his own heart. The stage is eternity, and the listener, if he is the true listener (and if he is not he is at fault), stands before God during the talk.

Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart

In worship we retell and act out a story. The story has to do with what God has done for us and what our response is to his work. It is an enactment of the event that gives meaning and purpose to life. It aligns the believer with the Christ-event and with the community of the faithful throughout history. Therefore when worship is acted out in faith, the believer experiences again the refreshment of his or her relationship to God and spontaneously experiences the joy of salvation.

Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New

You tell me nothing new: you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to God, as their last end. When the mind, for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection at our first engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, they are difficult to overcome, and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to the things of the earth. I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults, and to humble ourselves before God. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer; many words and long discourses being often the occasions of wandering: hold yourself in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man's gate: let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the Lord. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

Instead of complaining that God has hidden himself, you will give him thanks for having revealed himself so fully; and you will give him thanks also for not having revealed himself to proud scholars, who are not worthy to know so holy a God. Two sorts of person know him; those who have a humble heart and love lowliness, whatever their degree of intellect, high or low; and those who have enough understanding to see the truth, whatever objections they may have against it.

B. Pascal, The Pensees

The great fact of life is the human soul confronting the transcendent holiness of God. No person is ever left alone without God. An individual may try to ignore God but he cannot have peace without him; he may deny or reject him but not without a consciousness of judgment. God claims every creature. Worship is the loving response of the creature to his Creator. There is no sovereign right but God's... Christian worship is God-centred. God took the initiative in worship by creating man for fellowship with himself. As the ground of being, he is the source and sustainer of life. As sovereign ruler, God confronts us. He comes to us as the one worthy of worship, and because he is worthy he stands in judgment over us and makes demands upon us. As we respond in worship God allows us to experience new manifestations of his goodness and his love.

Franklin M. Segler, Christian Worship

First, let us fling wide the doors and windows of our minds and make some attempt to appreciate the 'size' of God. He must not be limited to 'religious' matters or even to the 'religious' interpretation of life. He must not be confined to one particular section of time nor must we imagine him as the local God of this planet or even only of the universe that astronomers have so far 'discovered'. It is not, of course, physical size that we are trying to establish in our minds. (Physical size is not important. By any reasonable scheme of values a human being is of vastly greater worth than a mountain ten million times his physical size.) It is rather to see the immensely broad sweep of the Creator's activity, the astonishing complexity of his mental processes which science laboriously uncovers, the vast sea of what we can only call 'God' in a small corner of which man lives and moves and has his being.

J.B. Phillips, Your God is Too Small


Most holy God, Maker of heaven and earth, I acknowledge that you alone are worthy of worship. May your Holy Spirit make my worship more meaningful. Lift me out of my selfish ways, lift me up until like Isaiah I see the Lord 'seated on a throne, high and exalted'. Then may I exclaim like Isaiah, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.'

Heavenly Father, help me to keep the focus of my personal worship away from self and on Christ as the one who has revealed God to me and through whom I am able to celebrate your glory. Make me wise in my worship so that I may shun anything which will distract me and turn my thoughts away from you.


A Benediction

Gracious Father. help me to take with me a sense of your powerful presence, knowing that wherever I go you will be there ahead of me, that whenever I need your strength it will be available to me through the tremendous power of your mighty Spirit and that I can live boldly in your name every moment of the day ahead of me. Amen.

Still Waters, Deep Waters ed. By Rowland Croucher pp. 186-190

WORSHIP

Christianity: If God Is Like Jesus

How I love your temple, Almighty Lord! How I want to be there... With my whole being I sing for joy to the living God.

Glory and majesty surround him, power and joy fill his temple.

Praise the Lord, all people on earth praise his glory and might. Praise the Lord's glorious name; bring an offering and come into his temple: Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

Happy are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance; O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually. Let those who fear the LORD say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' 'Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool.'

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: After the secrets of the unbeliever's heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, 'God is really among you.'

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe.

The twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing. He said in a loud voice, 'Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.'

Christ's message in all its richness must live in your hearts. Teach and instruct each other with all wisdom. Sing psalms, hymns and sacred songs; sing to God with thanksgiving in your hearts.

Worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Whatever you do... do it all for God's glory. Everything you do or say should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks through him to God the Father. Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

Psalm 84:1,2 GNB; 1 Chronicles 16:27-29 GNB, KJV; Habakkuk 2:20; Psalm 89:15, 95:6, 100:2, 105:3-4, 118:4, 132:7; John 4:23; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 14:25; Hebrews 12:28; Revelation 4:10, 14:7; Colossians 3:16 GNB; Matthew 4:10 (GNB); 1 Corinthians 10:31 GNB; Colossians 3:17 GNB; Romans 12:1 GNB;



Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him for one hour here below;
Praise him with nickel and with dime,
Praise God we're getting out on time.

'It's dead, a mechanical routine. I don't get anything out of it.' 'My friends have voted with their feet and stay away.' 'Our church services are so cold, they're like mournful funerals: everyone is so sombre and distant.' 'Ours are like a fowl-yard: so much chattering and giggling and irreverence.' 'We'll have to rescue ours from show business!' 'Why not cut the preliminaries and have a better sermon? ' 'Let's liven it up with happier singing.' 'Let's be more experimental.' 'Our vicar has the liturgical fidgets; you don't know what to expect.' 'Let's give people what they want or we'll lose them.' 'It's people's duty to attend worship, no matter how dull and boring it may be.'

Something is happening to people's expectations of worship in this television age. They want the stale water of liturgies-as-usual turned into the wine of celebration. Worship services for many are a morose experience. As the Devil says in The Brothers Karamazov, 'Everything would be transformed into a religious service: it would be holy, but a little dull.'

Worship is the sublime and awesome key to everything the church does. The mission of the early church was the fruit of worship. We too cannot meet the world until we have met God. According to the often-quoted words of William Temple, to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

Worship is a contraction of the old English word 'worth-ship'. It's recognizing that which is worth most, in the ultimate sense. In the old marriage service a man and a woman promised to 'worship' each other; to accord value and worth to each other. Divine worship is a love affair too! The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks 'What is our chief end?' It's 'to glorify God and enjoy him forever'. So the worshipper's key question is 'What can I offer the Lord for all his goodness to me?' (Psalm 116:12).

Worship is the appropriate response to the God who gives everything life, to the Holy One, who inhabits eternity, to the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is God our Saviour. Worship is meeting -- God with us, to which we respond with wonder, amazement and awe.

Saint Benedict founded an order with the motto 'laborare est orare', 'to work is to pray'. Worship is service (it's the same word in the New Testament): serving the Lord in our praises, praising the Lord in our ministry to others, ministering to the Lord in prayerful solitude -- it's all worship. Worship is both individual and corporate, done both in 'the secret place' and in the redeemed community. For a devout Christian worship is all of life, and is life-long.

So worship isn't quite something 'observed' or 'attended', it is something we are and do. As 'we are what we eat' so 'we are what we worship' and we become like the God we worship. So we step back from the rush of life and ponder its realities at an ultimate level at a special time each week. But for true worshippers every time and every place is special.

The inward imperative as we 'come to worship' is to 'take the shoes from [our] feet, for the place on which [we] stand is holy ground' (Exodus 3:5). Remember the solemn warning in Ecclesiastes: 'Guard your steps when you go to the house of God' (Ecclesiastes 5:1). 'Let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire' (Hebrews 12:28,29). We had better be careful, then: the way we worship could be hazardous!

Worship in Old Testament times was sometimes liturgical, sometimes free. There we seem to have two worship traditions. One was priestly, cultic, authoritarian and dynastic, the other more congregational, democratic, prophetic and ethical. Worship was both ritual and hearty service (Deuteronomy 11:13, Psalm 40:6-8, 50:12-15, Micah 6:6-8). Christian church history has similarly seen worship move from one extreme to the other.

The New Testament nowhere prescribes a detailed order of worship. The worship of the early church comprised teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers: God meets his people in the Word, in each other, in holy communion, and in prayer (Acts 2:42), and also in the more formal Jewish worship in the Temple (Acts 2:46, 3:1, 5:12). Paul chose a close fraternity with the synagogue. The synagogue service consisted of an invitation to prayer, the prayer itself, the reading of scriptures, a homily based on the scripture reading and concluded with the benediction. (2) At the end of the first century there was a move toward a more structured and formal service of worship (most churches move in this direction over time).

Building on the legacy of the New Testament, the Protestant Reformation's emphasis was on the Word and inner reality rather than the sacraments and formality. So churches in the Reformation tradition devote about half -- or more -- of their time to the sermon. The Age of Reason ensured a highly rational content in worship, with eloquent sermons of high literary and intellectual merit. For Calvin's followers the Sunday service became primarily a preaching service, with communion observed infrequently.

Biblical worship was sometimes active. So we should involve the whole congregation in worship: not just singing hymns, but with responsive readings, litanies, united prayers, times of community sharing, bringing the offerings forward, moving to greet one another etc.

Biblical worship was also sensual: appealing to eye, ear -- and nose! Do a checklist of your worship-service: what is there for the eyes (form, light, colour, architecture, dress etc.), the ear (besides voices of leader, congregation, musical instruments [see Psalm 150] and choir, recorded music, voices, special effects), taste and smell in the holy communion: what else? Touch is important: we all have 'contact need' since separation from the womb. In the gospels physical contact was important for Jesus as he ministered to people: so, when it is appropriate, we may hold hands to sing or pray, or clasp arms, or share an embrace as an expression of genuine Christian love.

However worship is not just a subjective, ecstatic, 'feeling' experience. It is more than 'self-expression'. Corporate worship ought not to be an emotional tool for producing 'conversions'. The Bible does not use the word 'worship' as simply a description of experience. Worship is something you do, it is a reponse to God's word and God's ways and God's will, however you feel about it (although this does not mean there is no place for feelings and sensory experience).

Rudolf Otto explored the importance of the non-rational in religion and attempted to analyze the feeling which remains where the concept falls short. Otto coined the word numinous to describe 'the holy' after words have failed. The numinous cannot be taught; it can only be felt. It is 'thanking God for his unspeakable gift' (1 Corinthians 9:15). The numinous, says Otto, encompasses both boundless awe and boundless wonder, both fear and fascination. This deep, awesome aspect of all sincere religious emotion he called the mysterium tremendum (from tremo, tremble; also tremor, dread). So we must resist the temptation to 'domesticate the holy', whereby our solemn assemblies become informal social gatherings, our deep communion with God litle more than friendship with one another. (1)

A lot of our worship is intellectual, moving too exclusively in the realm of thoughts and words and ideas. It is addressed to the ears rather than the eyes. Our world is 'word-weary'. We are slaves to the printed word. Perhaps we need printed guidance for worship -- the middle-classes are comfortable reading -- but let us not forget the less well-educated persons who may not be. For them particularly we should encourage 'folk arts' which open new avenues to express worship and praise, provide new methods of teaching and instruction, and draw people more into an atmosphere of enjoyment and festivity. In charismatic/pentecostal churches where the Holy Spirit is invited to take over the worshipper, we have moved sometimes from the rational to the mystical. Worship needs to be rational (Romans 12:1-3) and spiritual (John 4:23), both.

We worship as whole beings: our 'self' is psychological, cultural, biological. We worship with mind and heart and will. We involve the emotions, genuine feelings of joy and desolation, exaltation and bereavement. Worship ought to be a living event, to which we bring our human, frail, brokenness. The Spirit helps us in our infirmities... so we can come to God with our fears, joys, guilt, anger, affirmations, tensions and loneliness. In his presence we renew our lives which are mixed up in work, conflict, love and creation. We worship with 'all that is within us' and 'all that is around us' (the wonders of creation too are an incentive to praise the Creator: see Psalm 19).

Above all, authentic worship is always Christ-centred.

The early Church remained in the apostles' teach- ing because Christ taught his disciples; they had fellowship because they all belonged to the Church, Christ's body; they celebrated communion because Christ ordained it; they prayed because Christ taught them how to pray. (2)



Name him, [Christian], name him with love as strong as death, but with awe and wonder and with bated breath: he is God the Saviour, he is Christ the Lord, ever to be worshipped, trusted and adored.

Caroline Maria Noel Caroline Maria Noel, 'At the Name of Jesus', The Australian Hymn Book, Collins, 1977, no. 170.

We worship not because worship benefits us (although it does), not because we need to (although we do), nor because it is relevant to our daily lives (although it is), but because God is.

Richard John Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1956, p. 120.

Where it is emptied of this unearthly element, this awe-struck and creaturely sense of the Holy and Immortal, worship loses its most distinctive characteristic. The seraphic hymn gives its very essence: 'Holy! holy! holy! Lord God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.' That is worship.

Evelyn Underhill Evelyn Underhill, quoted in Stuart A. Frayne, What is Worship?, booklet, publisher and date unknown, p.20.

The biblical passage which says of Abraham and the three visiting angels: `And he stood over them under the tree and they did eat' is interpreted by Rabbi Zusya to the effect that we stand above the angels, because we know something unknown to them, namely, that eating may be hallowed by the eater's intention. Through Abraham the angels, who were unaccustomed to eating, participated in the intention by which he used to dedicate it to God. Any natural act, if hallowed, leads to God, and nature needs us for what no angel can perform on it, namely, its hallowing.

Martin Buber, 'Heart Searching and the Particular Way', in John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality: an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, p.7.

Religion, as von Hugel loved to say, is adoration; our humble acknowledgment of the Transcendent, the Fact of God - the awestruck realism of the seraphs in Isaiah's vision - the meek and loving sense of mystery which enlarges the soul's horizon and puts us in our place...

Adoration, as it more deeply possesses us, inevitably leads on to self-offering: for every advance in prayer is really an advance in love. `I ask not for thy gifts but for thyself' says the Divine Voice to Thomas a Kempis.

Evelyn Underhill, 'Spiritual Life' in John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality: an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, pp. 21, 22.

Vladimir [pagan prince of Russia] wanted to unite the people under one religion, so around 988 he sent envoys to examine the major religions... The story of Vladimir's choosing Orthodox Christianity is part legend, part fact... what impressed the grand prince was the dazzling worship his ambassadors described seeing in the great Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople; 'We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you. Only we know that God dwells there... and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. We cannot forget that beauty.'

'The 100 Most Important Events in Church History', Christian History, [Mary Ann Jeffreys, editorial coordinator, Christian History, 465 Gunderson Drive, Carol Stream, IL 60188], Issue 28 (Vol. IX, No. 4), n.d., p. 19.

It happened one high holy day when the king was in attendance at the Temple and grew impatient with the way the priests were handling the incense. If it were today, we might surmise he was in the habit of eating in a cafeteria after church and anxious to get in line ahead of the Methodists. However, for some reason on this particular day the monarch became annoyed with the handling of the service, so he got up out of the royal pew and went straight into the altar area itself and with his own unconsecrated hands placed the incense on the altar as if to say, 'Let's get this over with so we can get on to something more interesting.' Even in that day of carelessness, such an act had a ring of shocking presumption... By his actions the king implied there was nothing going on here except a human process and he could do the 'hocus-pocus' as well as a priest. But he was soon to learn differently! While he was still in the altar area, a gasp went up from the whole congregation, for there on Uzziah's forehead and hands the dread white splotches of leprosy suddenly appeared... Uzziah fled from the temple never to return - or even to his palace. He who had occupied David's throne was relegated to a leper's cottage and there he died a few weeks later.

John Claypool, 'Worship as Involvement', unpublished sermon preached at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, September 23, 1973.

Most Protestant church attenders act as if the church was a theatre, where they are the critical audience and where the minister is the actor whose art they are expected to enjoy and criticize. The situation in the church where the atenders have found their real relationship is a very different one. The stage is still there, but the attenders are now upon it. They are the actors. The audience is there too - God is the audience. The pastor is there also, but he is inconspicuous in the scene. He is only the prompter. He is behind the wings whispering the text that they, the actors are speaking aloud before God. Here is a new attitude towards worship. It has become an occasion for coming more consciously into the presence of God and of reviewing our lives under his loving scrutiny.

Soren Kierkegaard, from an essay 'Purity of Heart', quoted by Principal-Emeritus B.G.Wright, 'Some Thoughts on Worship', Australian Baptist, June 24, 1981.

A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in what we could call only a `holy expectancy'. They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God. When Moses went into the Tabernacle he knew he was entering the Presence of God. The same was true of the early church. It was not surprising to them that the building in which they met shook with the power of God. It had happened before (Acts 2:2, 4:31). When some dropped dead and others were raised from the dead by the word of the Lord the people knew that god was in their midst (Acts 5:1-11, 9:36-43; 20:7- 10). As those early believers gathered they were keenly aware that the veil had been ripped in two and like Moses and Aaron they were entering the Holy of Holies. No intermediaries were needed. They were coming into the awful, glorious, gracious Presence of the living God. They gathered with anticipation, knowing that Christ was present among them and would teach them and touch them with his living power...

Your pastor and the services of worship need to be bathed in prayer. Paul prayed for his people; he asked his people to pray for him. C.H.Spurgeon attributed his success to the prayers of his church. Frank Laubach told his audiences, `I am very sensitive and know whether you are praying for me. If one of you lets me down, I feel it. When you are praying for me, I feel a strange power. When every person in a congregation prays intensely while the pastor is preaching, a miracle happens.' Saturate the services of worship with your prayers. Visualise the Lord high and lifted up filling the sanctuary with his presence.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, Sevenoaks: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980, pp. 140-141, p.38.

When we worship as a congregation, we are really united with all of God's people everywhere and at all times. Indeed, we may not realize our affinity with the strict Calvinist when we sing 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me', or with a Unitarian ('Nearer my God to thee'), with a Roman Catholic ('Lead Kindly Light'), with a Quaker ('Dear Lord and Father of mankind'), as well as with ancient psalmists and modern poets.

Ken Manley, 'Baptist Worship Past... Present', The Australian Baptist, March 3, 1971.

This is the shining principle embedded in the Benediction. All the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ - all of it - is for each of us. And all the love of God - all of it - is for each. And all the helpfulness and instruction and consolation of the Holy Spirit - all of it - is for each. All the sea for every fish; all the air for every bird. It is not that each of ten million believers has one ten-millionth share of the grace of Christ, and of the love of God, and of the fellowship of the Spirit; but the whole, in its indivisible and perfect entirety, is for each individual among them. Let us make the most of it.

F W Boreham, The Tide Comes In, London: Epworth Press, 1958, p.53.



Leader: The Lord be with you.
Response: And also with you

For the greed which exploits others and wastes the good earth
Lord forgive us

For wanting more and more while so many have less and less
Lord forgive us

For our indifference to the suffering of the poor: the hungry, the homeless, the tortured and the oppressed
Lord forgive us

For the lust which misuses others for our own selfish desires
Lord forgive us

For the pride which leads us to trust too much in ourselves and not in You
Lord forgive us

We confess that we have sinned - in thought, in word, in deed; and in what we have not said or done.
Father forgive us.

If we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all wrongdoing. God has forgiven us... Thank you Lord... We can now make a fresh start. Renew us Lord. Create in us a clean heart. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Re-engage us in your service. We commit ourselves to forgive others as you have forgiven us. We're yours, Lord: we're all yours.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.

Holy One, holy and eternal, awesome, exciting and delightful in your holiness; make us pure in heart to see you; make us merciful to receive your kindness and to share our love with all your human family; then will your name be hallowed on earth as in heaven.

Support us, Lord, all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work done; then Lord, in your mercy, give us safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last.

God our judge and our companion, We thank you for the good we did this day and for all that has given us joy. Everything we offer as our humble service. Bless those with whom we have worked, and those who are our concern. Amen.

We have come to the holy mountain and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; before myriads of angels, before the full assembly of the first-born citizens of heaven.

We have come to God who is the judge of all, and the spirits of the good, made perfect; we have come to Jesus, mediator of the new covenant.

Let us give thanks, and worship God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire...

God, you are our beginning and you will be our end; we are made in your image and likeness. We praise and thank you for this day. This is the day on which you created light and saw that it was good. This is the day in whose early morning light we discovered the tomb was empty, and encountered Christ, the world's true light. For us your acts are gracious and your love endures for ever...

A New Zealand Prayer Book, Auckland: Collins, 1989, pp. 113, 112, 108.



Charge & Benediction: You have worshipped the Lord in the community of faith. Now go and worship him in your work in your homes and in the world. And as you go, remember: The Lord, in his great mercy, will enrich you with his grace and strengthen you with his word and his Spirit. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rowland Croucher

THE FOOD OF GOD

And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.'

Present the offerings made to the Lord by fire, the food of their God.

The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feasts.

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna.

(Exodus 20: 1-5; Leviticus 21: 6; John 4: 23; 1 Peter 2: 9; Hebrews 13: 15; Jude 11 and 12; Revelation 2:17 -- all NIV)



God himself first identified the offerings of the priests as his food. It's not that God needed actual meat and grain to eat. The satisfaction he sought ascended to him through the obedience of prescribed worship laid down in the tabernacle sacrifices. He wanted worship. As often as his people expected to eat, God expected his meals of praise.

Whereas demons demanded sacrifices of others as a basis for their food, God prepared his own menu -- Christ. All of the work at the altar pictured God's work in Christ. The implied message is clear: God wants to be richly rewarded with worship. It is like food to him. He wants it lovingly prepared, generously offered and faithfully renewed. Nothing but Christ satisfies him.

God's method is simple: feed the people on the truths of the work of Christ and they in turn should praise him for what he has done. In the wilderness, God's singular menu of manna strengthened the people to offer him food. Now, since the cross, no better food than Christ can be found for God's servants because he is the essential ingredient of elective worship.

Those who commune with God know the value of Jesus' flesh and blood, but so do God's enemies. Demons who have been robbed of the human attentions they crave have not been able to stop the church from filling God's plate, but in many cases they have managed to spoil the taste. Tainted food will not do for God.

Offering God the praise he deserves for the unmatchable work of Christ is the true worshipper's daily work and this is God's food. For this he bought us and for this we must live. In a sense God is leading us to join him in truly living on love: his love to us in Christ and our love to him for Christ. Here is a feast of love for every day.



Old Testament saints understood that sacrifice was central to worship and it is wrong to assume that Christian worship is not also sacrificial. Although our Lord Jesus made the one final sacrifice for our sins, never to be repeated, we are to offer what Peter calls 'spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ'. And this can be done only when one's whole attention is focused upon God, 'lost in wonder, love and praise'. Then, in fact, the worshippers receive far more than they can ever give, because the paradoxical fact is that there is no experience more completely blessed than true, spiritual worship. But it is absolutely crucial to keep these matters the right way around. Come to give, not to get. It is the only proper way!

Stuart A. Frayne, What is Worship?

As we come before God, we shouldn't come with empty hands. We should bring him a sacrifice! This does not mean an animal sacrifice, for Christ himself has offered himself as our sacrifice for all time. But the Old Testament principle is still true. We should bring God something. Often people get nothing out of worship because they don't come to give something to God first. The sacrifice we should bring is the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. And when we bring praise to God we find his presence draws near to us in a special way. Praise him that he is a great God! Praise him that he is King over all gods, the Lord over all the earth! Praise him for what he has made -- the majestic mountains, the deep valleys, the rolling seas! Let's thank, praise and honour him for who he is! This focuses our attention on him and prepares our hearts for worship.

lan Malins, Come Let Us Worship

Break thou the bread of life, Dear Lord, to me, As thou didst break the bread Beside the sea. Beyond the sacred page I seek thee, Lord; My spirit pants for thee, O living word!

Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me, Thy holy word the truth That saveth me. Give me to eat and live With thee above, Teach me to love thy truth For thou art love.

Mary Artemisia Lathbury and Alexander Groves

Soren Kierkegaard... watched his contemporaries in nineteenth century Denmark go to church ritualistically and participate much as they would in a theatre. The worshippers saw themselves as essentially spectators. They understood the clergy and the choir to be the main performers in the service and, if God were present at all in the process, he was a remote prompter, off in the wings somewhere. In this frame of reference, of course, the whole interaction was horizontal. It was people watching other people do certain rituals, with little depth, little awe, little real involvement on the part of the individual worshippers. To this whole way of conceiving worship, Kierkegaard thundered: 'Not so!' A church and a theatre are not similar processes at all. To worship is to do something quite different than going to a concert or a play. For one thing, the worshipper is the prime actor and God is the audience. The role of the clergy and choir is that of prompters, standing alongside the process reminding and suggesting. Worship is not something done by the clergy for the worshippers' perusal, but something worshippers do for God out of their own depths.

John Claypool, Worship as Involvement

To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of humans is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about his love for them, and his service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of himself -- creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like his own, not because he has absorbed them, but because their wills freely conform to his. We want cattle who can finally become food; he wants servants who can finally become his children. We want to suck in, he wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; he is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to him but still distinct.

Screwtape in C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

I'm deathly afraid of personal spiritual deterioration, of having a name that I'm alive when I'm really dead... The present crisis won't be solved by Christians who get their food and weapons secondhand. It will be solved by people who walk with God, who feed on his word, who have strength for the battle, and who know how to use the sword of the Spirit. We need a return to the oldfashioned spiritual disciplines of life.

Warren Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis

We're here to be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make that new Christian a worker. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshipper, and after that he or she can learn to be a worker... The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it.

A.W. Tozer, Great Quotes & Illustrations

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe to all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us he waits so long, so very long, in vain.

A.W. Tozer in The Best of A.W. Tozer



Heavenly Father, I rejoice in the immutable, absolute truth of your word. In your grace, keep me from knowing only the letter of truth and sound doctrine. Let it enter my spirit, let it control my mind, let it stabilise and energize my emotions. I will to apply your truth aggressively and to depend upon its power to defeat all of my enemies. Through the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit and in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for hearing this petition. Amen

Mark Bubeck, The Adversary

Grant, almighty God, that as we are inclined not only to superstitions, but also to many vices, we may be restrained by thy word; and as thou art pleased daily to remind us of thy benefits, that thou mayest keep us in the practice of true religion. 0 grant that we may not be led astray by the delusions of Satan and by our own vanity, but continue firm and steady in our obedience to thee, and constantly proceed in the course of true piety, so that we may at length partake of its fruit in thy celestial kingdom, which has been obtained for us by the blood of thine only begotten Son. Amen.

John Calvin



A Benediction

May the Father show you his mercy by enriching you in the grace which enlightens your eyes to the greater glories of Jesus so that you may be refreshed in the communion of the Father's love and overflow with praise and thanksgiving. May the Spirit of Truth capture your mind and heart with an ever deepening knowledge of the holy.

Amen.

Chapter four in Rowland Croucher ed., High Mountains Deep Valleys, Albatross/Lion.

HIGH PRAISES FROM LOW PLACES

Why are you downcast, 0 my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.

As for me, I will always have hope...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love towards me; you have delivered my soul from the depth of the grave.

(Psalm 42: 11; Psalm 71: 14; Philippians 4: 6; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18; Acts 16: 25; 2 Corinthians 6: 10; 2 Corinthians 7: 4; Psalm 40: 3; Psalm 59: 16; Psalm 86:12 and 13 - all NIV)


As creatures of the world we share in its sorrows, strains and struggles. So often we are subject to its din and disturbance, its wars and its woes to the point where our personal lives may become clouded or cluttered with doubts and difficulties, problems and pain, sorrows and suffering. At such times there is always a choice to live under or over the circumstances, to concentrate on self or refocus on God, to worry or worship.

Worry can't change the past, but it can ruin the present and the future. It won't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it will empty today of its joy. Worry is the only game in which if you guess right, you don't feel any better. It's like a rocking chair that gives you something to do, but doesn't get you anywhere. It is unbelief parading in disguise, trying to interfere with God's plans.

Worship on the other hand is, as William Temple says:

to quicken the conscience with the holiness of God, to feed the mind on the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

'It is never more helpful to us than when it is most difficult to offer, and it is certainly most acceptable to God when it costs us the most' (Fred Mitchell).

When we choose to worship, we and our circumstances are usually transformed. Furthermore, as we determine to do it, it may be easier for others to find God and difficult for them to forget him.

We become '...more than conquerors through him who loved us' (Romans 8: 37, NIV).

~~~

We were created for God's pleasure, to express his worthiness, to give him pleasure (Revelation 4: 9-11). We are made for worship.

Editorial, Restore

To worship God must be the consuming passion of the heart, whether we express it in old ways or new ways, in silence or with shouts, in stillness or with dancing.

Graham Kendrick, Real Worship

As we praise and worship, God steps out of his mystery into our history and we move from our history into his mystery.

Source unknown

All too often our faith is earth-bound and we find it hard to believe that God can do anything that our minds cannot explain. It is only as we spend time worshipping God, concentrating on the nature of his Person -- especially his greatness and love -- that our faith begins to rise.

Like a plane soaring through the dark rain clouds into the fresh beauty of the sunshine, so our faith rises, stimulated by worship and by the new vision of God that worship brings, until we begin to believe that God can work in ways that may be beyond our present understanding.

Throughout the early chapters of Acts we find the constant blend of worship and wonders, praise and power... There are countless examples in the Bible and in Christian biography where a sustained time of praise prepares the way for the Lord to demonstrate his power.

David Watson, Fear No Evil

Praise releases the power of God into our lives and circumstances, because praise is faith in action. When we trust God fully, he is free to work, and he always brings victory. It may be a victory that changes circumstances, or a victory in the circumstances.

M.R. Carothers, Power in Praise

Praise clarifies your vision. The focus of your attention is drawn from the complexity of the problem to the adequacy of God's resources; from the urgency of your need to the power of the Lord to meet your need. As you praise him, you begin to remember how he has helped you on other occasions and your faith rises in expectancy. The more you praise, the smaller the mountain you are facing appears in the light of God's greatness. Almost unconsciously, you are casting your burden on the Lord (Psalm 55: 12).

...Praise lifts your eyes from the battle to the victory, for Christ is already Victor, and you have the Victor in your heart that you might have his victory in your life and in your prayer.

...Praise honours God, brings joy to the angels and strikes terror in any evil spirit which may be around. Praise clears the atmosphere, washes your spirit, multiplies your faith and clothes you with God's presence and power.

. . .If the Lord is inhabiting the praises of his people, the influence of the enemy must be driven away. Satan and his demons fear the presence and authority of Jesus. Praising Jesus puts the demon hosts to flight. Expect Satan to run from you (James 4: 7)... Praise is the Christian's heavy artillery. Praise is a strategic way to victory.

W.L. Deuwel, Touch the World through Prayer

When we magnify God, we view the circumstances around us differently. When we focus on all the greatness and goodness of God, it lifts us out of our surroundings and gives us an eternal perspective and a view into the heavenly realm. That perspective helps us to deal with our circumstances more objectively, because it shows us reality from God's perspective.

Gary Browning, Restore


Worthy of praise from every mouth, of confession from every tongue, of worship from every creature Is thy glorious name, 0 Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Who didst create the world in thy grace and by thy compassion didst save the world. To thy majesty, O God, ten thousand times ten thousand bow down and adore, Singing and praising without ceasing, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; Heaven and earth are full of thy praises; Hosanna in the highest.

Nestorian Liturgy

Gracious Father, I have made my decision: I will, by your grace, worship you and seek to glorify your name. Please make me a transformer. May I be used by your Spirit to make a difference wherever I am.

May great glory come to your name as saints unite in worship and sinners trust the Saviour. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

W. Wiersbe, Real Worship



A Benediction

I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able:
. . . to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
. . . to make grace abound,
. . . to help those who are being tempted,
... to save completely those who come to God through him. Therefore Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Amen.

Chapter 2 of Rowland Croucher ed., High Mountains Deep Valleys, Albatross/Lion