Posted on 12/28/2013 10:20:36 AM PST by Laissez-faire capitalist
As to "in church" I mean that not so much broadly as to the Church (body of Christ), but as to which styles are Biblically permitted in individual churches.
1.) At what point (scripturally) does a church worship team (for instance) go too far when plucking the bass guitar or electric guitar, or beat the drums too loudly? At what point is the "riff" (or beat) becoming too "wordly."
Define "wordly" music as opposed to non-wordly music if/when discussing this. I ask this of those who lean more towards the Michael W. Smith type worship services or to those who like the Southern Gospel type worship services.
2.) At what point does "Southern Gospel" music become a little too Southern and thus become too worldly/honkey-tonk/Country/Country Rock? I ask this of those say they like who like what they deem to be Godly "Southern Gospel."
3.) I still can't find any scripture that exegetically/hermeneutically says that a service must be marked by only Latin/Gregorian chanting. Surely these churches can imploy other "styles" of music, too, at least in the "main" service.
I’m guessing you are in my age group because this has bothered me also. Many churches have resorted to professional style concerts meant to entertain in lieu of the stuffy old hymnal, with a lead singer who is too energetic on stage, ostensibly showing us old folks how we should be praising The Lord.
. Usually they have at least one talented and gifted musician who writes his own music thereby teaching the congregation a brand new song, each week it seems. I barely learned the last one and now, with just an overhead projector, I am to learn another one. Ok. I’m too old to learn songs like I did as a teenager.
This has spawned a church on literally every corner in our town. And they each wonder why they are losing people.
Psalm 160
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Isn’t there a melodic Christian death metal genre?
Yep ... Christians need to go to a Bible-believing church, whose pastor is a teaching pastor and abides by the basic and historic Christian teachings, all according to the Scriptures.
...”Nothing you described would attract me to be a member of that any more than Romney, Graham, McCain and Snowe would be inviting to me to become a member of the Republican Party”....
Exactly....but the worldly individuals would find this otherwise and do....unfortunately. As do those who desire to fill their life with something religious.
As mentioned, what I saw there was “something else” rather than Christianity and the Christ of.
Today’s classical music and old hymns were the modern worship songs of the day back then. It’s all relative.
Much *Christian* worship music is not about exalting God any more.
A lot of it is about *I* and *ME* and what I do and how I feel, what God’s going to do for me, etc.
A lot of it is repetitive and when you sing the same verse over and over 15 -20 times (counted some my self in the church we often attend) you know it’s just emotionalism.
I told my kids when they became teens and first were interested in *Christian rock* that they needed to be able to understand the words and they needed to be Christian (praising God). And don’t expect me to listen to it.
Much today can’t even be understood because of the music drowning it out.
There’s also the concern that much of the repetitive, heavy beat is designed to put the hearers in a trance and mass hypnotize the hearers so when certain words are spoken (like *FIRE*) they fall down, being *slain in the Spirit*, so they think they’ve had a spiritual experience.
And one thing I’ve learned lately, is you just can’t question someone’s experience. They defend them to the death, even if they aren’t Scriptural. You just can’t tell them otherwise.
Tyrant!
I think that you can never go wrong with Bach on an organ, or Scarletti on a harpsichord.
Drums have been used by all sorts of worshipping of all sorts of things.
I do not agree with using choruses once sung by castrati, since that legitimizes child abuse.
Electrified strings vs. instruments with a microphone, hmmm. Fine edge, there. (wahwah pedals verboten!)
Original pieces of chamber music would work, since they carry through the halls quite well.
The line between head-banging heavy metal, and “Christian rock” was forever blurred, with the arrival of groups, including STRYKER.
“German Polka?”
No, I am not in Cleveland or Milwaukee. Sigh....
**Much *Christian* worship music is not about exalting God any more.
A lot of it is about *I* and *ME* and what I do and how I feel, what God’s going to do for me, etc.**
I don’t like this type of music and refuse to sing it.
The Problem of Inappropriate Music
in the Church
Some of the Problems of
Rock Music Highlighted
A Message to the Churches of America
from the Persecuted Church in Russia
[This was written a number of years ago, but its message is still relevant. Sadly, this message was largely disregarded]
For thirty years we have suffered intense persecution, and now freedom is bringing another great harm to our churches. This damage is coming from the Christians in America who are sending rock music and evangelists accompanied by rock bands.
Our young people do not attend these meetings because we have all committed not to participate in secular entertainment.
This is a great burden on our hearts. Many come with Bible in hand and rock music. We are embarrassed by this image of Christianity. We do not know what words to use in urging that this be stopped. We abhor all Christian rock music coming to our country.
Rock music has nothing in common with ministry or service to God. We are very, very against Christian Americans bringing to our country this false image of “ministry” to God. We need spiritual bread, please give us true bread, not false cakes. It is true that rock music attracts people to the church, but not to godly living.
We were in prison for fifteen years and eleven years for Christ’s sake. We were not allowed to have Christian music, but rock music was used as a weapon against us day and night to destroy our souls. We could only resist with much prayer and fasting.
Now, we have a time for more openness, and we are no longer taken to prison. However, now it is Christians from America who damage our souls. We do not allow this music in our church, but they rent big stadiums and infect teenagers and adults with their rock music.
We, the leadership and congregations of the Unregistered Union of Churches, the former Persecuted Church, have made an agreement to not allow rock music in our Church. We urge you to join with us and we advise you to remove rock music from America, and certainly do not bring it to our country.
Do not desecrate our teenagers with it. Even the unbelievers recognize it is unholy music and they cannot understand how American Christians can be so much like the world. We can give you the conclusion that after Russian unbelievers have attended these rock concerts where Christ’s Word was preached, the people were very disappointed and disillusioned with Christianity.
We call this music from hell. We urge all Americans to stop giving money for the organization of such concerts in Russia. We want only traditional Christian music in our churches. This is the unanimous decision of all our leaders.
Signed, Peter Peters, Head of the Unregistered Union of Churches, Moscow, and Vasilij Ryzhuk, Elder, Unregistered Union of Churches, Moscow.
The Origin of Rock Music
The following is from The BDM [Biblical Discernment Ministries] October 1993:
The origin of rock music and the term “rock ‘n’ roll” are interesting ones. In the early 1950’s, a disk-jockey named Alan Freed was one of the first white people to be involved in “rhythm & blues” music, which was the direct forerunner of rock ‘n’ roll. Rock ‘n’ roll was a kind of fusion between rhythm & blues and country & western music. Freed was one of the first white people to play this new rhythm & blues/country combination on his radio program, and was perplexed as to what to call it since it obviously needed a new name.
Freed had been receiving bizarre reports concerning kids’ reactions to this new music, so he decided to name it after a ghetto term that black people used for pre-marital sex in the back seat of a car—hence, the term “rock ‘n’ roll” was coined.
One of the myths of our time is the idea that music is neutral. This is a key argument of those who defend blending Christian words with worldly styles of music, such as rock or jazz. This hybrid is then called “Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).” The truth is that music is not neutral. Musical rhythms are a form of communication just as real and powerful as words.
Christian Rock?, by Ric Llewellyn, is a tract published by the Fundamental Evangelistic Association. This tract carefully shows that music is not neutral. Llewellyn goes on to detail the Biblical screens [criteria] any music must pass before it can be labeled as “Christian” (Eph. 5:18,19; Col. 3:16); i.e., the music must be a channel for correct doctrine, and (a) its lyrics should be edifying, spiritually oriented, clear, conforming to biblical truth, and point our focus to Jesus Christ, (b) its score (the arrangement of the musical notes) should not overshadow the message conveyed by the lyrics, but should complement it, and (c) its character (the “attitudes” in the music and of the performers) should be consistent with the purity of the message it claims to convey (reverence, worshipful, etc.).
The Worldly Evangelicals
The following is by Richard Quebedeaux, in his book The Worldly Evangelicals, giving a brief history of how the churches succumbed to rock music:
Evangelical teenagers have listened to rock music faithfully (to the chagrin of their parents) from the emergence of the late Elvis Presley and Pat Boone (himself a charismatic) in the 50s, and have, in more recent years, acted out rock rhythms in dancing. But it was the Jesus movement itself that really brought the wider culture and the counterculture of the 60s to younger evangelicals as a whole. Although participants in that movement Christianized rock (“filigreed” it with Jesus), they always kept in touch with the latest trends and performers in secular rock. Evangelical artists like Pat Boone, Cliff Richard (in England), country singer-composer Johnny Cash (now a pentecostal), and B. J. Thomas have never fully discarded in their concerts the earthy and erotic themes and rhythms of secular rock (always present in black Gospel music); nor have Christian rock’s avant-garde, performers like Larry Norman and John Fischer, producers like Paul Baker of Word, Incorporated, and critics like Steve Turner of Rolling Stone. Indeed, rock is inherently a form of music that made its way by outrage against taboo, and there are no taboos left. It is profoundly significant that evangelicals, even the more conservative among them, have accepted the rock mode. This acceptance, obviously, indicates a further chapter in the death of self-denial and world rejection among them.
Allan Bloom
The following piece was written by Allan Bloom (author of The Closing of the American Mind) and published in the Wall Street Journal:
Rock music caused a great evolution in the relations between parents and children. Its success was the result of an amazing cooperation among lust, art, and commercial shrewdness. Without parents realizing it, their children were liberated from them. The children had money to spend. The record companies recognized as much and sold them music appealing to their secret desires. Never before was a form of art (however questionable) directed to so young an audience.
This art gave children’s feelings public respectability. The [moral] education of children had escaped their parents, no matter how hard they tried to prevent it. The most powerful formative influence on children between 12 and 18 is not the school, not the church, not the home, but rock music and all that goes with it. It is not an elevating but a leveling influence. The children have as their heroes banal, drug- and sex-ridden guttersnipes who foment rebellion not only against parents but against all noble sentiments. This is the emotional nourishment they ingest in these precious years. It is the real junk food.
One thing I have no difficulty teaching students today is the passage in the Republic where Socrates explains that control over music is control over character and that the rhythm and the melody are more powerful than the words. They do not especially like Socrates’ views on music, but they understand perfectly what he is about and the importance of the issue.
Dave Hunt
Dave Hunt in The Berean Call [November 2004] wrote the following:
In Born After Midnight Tozer declared the following: “Much singing...has in it more of romance than it has of the Holy Ghost. Words and music [don’t reflect] the reverent intimacy of the adoring saint, but the impudent familiarity of the carnal lover.” Churches have forgotten the fact that worship, far from being for our enjoyment, is supposed to be directed toward God! Rare is the awesome reverence that befits those bowing in His presence to sing His praise. The attitude, dress, and sensuality of many “worship teams” and their “music” would not be tolerated for a moment by God before His throne! The contemporary Christian music industry is almost all about money, popularity, and glorifying the “artists.” It is a performance....Hymns written by those who knew and loved the Lord intimately and expressed it eloquently and with sound doctrine have been cast aside. This rich heritage has been replaced by shallow, repetitive lyrics joined to the pop/rock that Rick Warren says the world loves. We need to recover this spiritual treasure and to sing again in loving gratitude and with reverent awe of “the love that drew salvation’s plan...the grace that brought it down to man...the mighty gulf that God did span, at Calvary!”
Our Desire:
Music That Honors the Lord and
Edifies God’s People
“Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” (Psalm 119:54)
We are strangers and pilgrims, on earth for just a short time, representing our heavenly Lord as His ambassadors. As we walk the pilgrim pathway, God has promised to be our hiding place, to preserve us from trouble and to surround us with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:7). His Word is our song. Our Pastor has said, “Read God’s Word until it sings to you.” His Word is our delight. Our meditation of Him shall be sweet. As we abide in Him and stay in tune with Him, the Master Musician produces in us wonderful songs (Eph. 5:19). May His Word dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16)!
George Zeller (2012)
http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/lochurch/rockmu01.htm
As to "in church" I mean that not so much broadly as to the Church (body of Christ), but as to which styles are Biblically permitted in individual churches.
I would maintain that asking about "style" is asking the wrong question.
Carelessness and Casualness
in Worship
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself [conduct thyself] in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)
"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." (Psalm 89:7)
Whatever Happened to our Sunday Best?by Dr. Paul Tassell |
The Way We Dress Should Show That We Honor the Lord!
One trend I have noted in local churches in recent years is carelessness. Carelessness in dress. Many people attend the house of God attired the same way they would dress for a rodeo or a football game.
When people are to be guests at the White House for a meeting with the President, they dress up—suits and ties for the men; pretty dresses for the ladies. Appropriate dress indicates appropriate respect. When the President speaks to a joint session of congress, the gallery guests as well as the lawmakers are all dressed in their best.
Does not our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, deserve as much consideration and respect as our President? Does not your pastor deserve that much respect for his message?
I grew up in a home with two brothers and three sisters. My job every Saturday night was to polish eight pairs of shoes My parents taught us six children to "dress up in our Sunday best" for the house of God. When my wife and I go to hear our pastor, we dress up. We respect him, and we respect the Lord he represents.
Pastors and their wives should lead the way in setting a proper example of dressing for the occasion. More than once I have been disappointed at a classy restaurant where I was meeting with a group of businessmen and a pastor, only to have the pastor show up open-collared and inappropriately informal while all the businessmen were dressed in three-piece suits and ties. I do not believe the pastor's influence and testimony were enhanced by such a breach of etiquette.
I know the Lord looks on the heart, and clothes don't necessarily make the man, but how we dress when we go to a worship service ought to indicate how much we honor our Lord. We do not have to be fashion models, but we should "dress up" for our Saviour's special day at His special house, the local church. The spirit of what I am saying is captured in the words of Malachi:
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a Master, where is My fear (reverence)? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests (Malachi 1:6).
"Just as I Am" is an invitation for sinners, not a description of how the saints are to attend a church service. The Prodigal Son came home in rags. As soon as his father accepted him, however, he was dressed in a fine robe; shoes were put on his feet and a ring on his finger. Before Joseph went in to have an audience with Pharaoh, "he shaved himself, and changed his raiment" (Genesis 41:14). So should we look our best when going to the house of God to worship the Lord of the Church.
I am not pleading for barring anyone from a church service because of the way he or she is dressed. But I do think visitors to our services ought to be impressed by how special we believe our church and Lord to be as we "dress up."
Let's not allow our local churches to become sanctuaries of the sloppy and temples of the tacky. Let's respect our Master, minister and message.
--Dr. Paul Tassell
* * * * * * * *
God's Holy and Special Person requires reverence on the part of those who know Him and who seek to honor His Name. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him" (Psalm 89:7). He is the great and awe-inspiring God who demands our worshipful respect, not only in the way we dress, but also in the way we sing.
We dress in a proper and special way on the Lord's Day because it is a special occasion and we are meeting with a special Person, even the God who is to be feared and revered. Because of this special occasion and special Person, we want to sing in a manner that is appropriate and befitting such a worthy and glorious God. It is a time of worship, not entertainment. Applause runs horizontally and relates to man's humanity and not vertically relating to God's deity. It is out of place in the place that is seeking only to point to God and honor Him.
The dressing, the singing, the bending of the heart before God in humble worship—all of this is but the preparation of one's heart attitude for the glad reception of God's Holy Word. The One who is high and holy is looking for those who will tremble at His Word (Isaiah 66:1-2). He is looking for those who will bow before the authority of His Word. "Speak Lord, for Thy servant is listening."
Right dressing encourages right thinking. Right thinking encourages right singing. Right singing readies and tunes the heart for thankful learning. May God's Word dwell in us richly and may God the Master Musician produce His melody in our hearts to His praise (Col. 3:16). "And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD" (Psalm 40:3).
* * * * * * Casualness in the Way by Robert Regal
We Sing Music, The Barometer of a Society
The church has swallowed the monstrous heresy that noise (music), size, bluster and activity, make a man dearer to God.
--A. W. Tozer
The article by Dr. Tassell and the above quote of Dr. Tozer should sound an alarm in the midst of the saints who have gone to sleep at the helm of the "Good Ship Grace," and have turned aside from "the faith once delivered to the saints." The Church, the "Body" and "Bride" of Christ, made up of local assemblies around the world has been impacted in our time by the "spirit of the world" (1 Corinthians 2:12). This is foreign to God's ideal which is delineated in the rest of the verse: "...but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."
Many of the saints of our time seem unable to discern "the Spirit of God" from "the spirit of the world." We are commanded not to love the world, nor be enamored by it, and never to be dominated by it. We are not to be "conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind," for "...we have the mind of Christ" (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16).
Particular contemporary musical styles have become classic examples of the "spirit of the world" invading the church. Not only have they invaded the assemblies of believers world wide, but they dominate. Try to address it and the assembly splits. Leadership hesitates to address it for fear of creating unnecessary waves, and, "after all, we must get together in our day; we must unite on the main issues and not be overly concerned by doctrine." (I might add, we need to be sure that it is sound doctrine.) First, certain styles of the musical language are tolerated, this is soon followed by domination (down with the traditional, conservative, stylings) which, in turn, leads to compromise.
A consequence of this invasion affects the life style of the believer. Where you find an emphasis on much of contemporary stylings, you will notice a cloak of casualness that moves in among the saints. Thus the timely article of Dr. Tassell. If this situation is addressed the assembly cries out, "legalism!"
The style of music will not only affect the attitude of the saint in the area of clothes, grooming, and personal deportment, but in theology. It fosters a looseness in the spirit of worship, teaching, edification and fellowship. I have observed in many of the churches in which I have visited this "casualness," not only in attire, but in fellowship (conversation, noise), which becomes boisterous to the point that the pastor or man of music, or whoever is in charge, has great difficulty in beginning the service. What makes it worse is that the fellowship (conversation, noise), usually has nothing to do with the purpose of the church meeting together. What has created this mood and encouraged this pre-service situation?
One of the strengths of music and its varied styles are the moods and the emotions it generates. I am not saying that Pop, rock, in all its versions, Western, Country Western, Jazz, Folk, Stamp Baxter, New Age, Contemporary, and such like, are not part of the musical language, for they are an expression that comes out of our age and culture, which culture, in many areas, is caught up in insipid subjectivism and decadence. What I am saying is that these styles and idioms speak of the world and its culture good and bad and are thus disqualified to be the musical vehicle for the saints in worship, fellowship, evangelism, and the Christian life in general. The following are two quotes supporting this position:
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The development of form in music itself is an attempt to reach completeness through an artistic media. Music having a definite secular symbolism is poor music for worship. Jazz, etc. is confusing. It is too much like everyday life to be ultimately satisfying. (Emphasis Mine) --Dr. Bernstein, Professor of Music, |
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Art and music always reflect a particular view on life and the world. Deeply felt values are expressed through the way the theme and subject matter are handled. Thus, even junk and punk rock say something very definite, very deliberate. What rock is saying in today's culture disqualifies it as a vehicle for spiritual communication. Reduced to its smallest component parts, music is amoral. There is nothing inherently wrong with 440 hz vibration or a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note. The same could be said for a letter in the alphabet or a drop of paint or a particle of clay. But as soon as a human being combines any of these building blocks, the creative process has begun and the resulting creation always reflects a view of life. For this reason, the Christian cannot sanitize rock. Even if we ignored the worldly associations of rock (and we cannot), its musical origins spring from a view of life altogether different from the Christian's. Because Christ must be the focal point of our music, the style must never overshadow Him or draw attention to itself. (Emphasis mine) --Peck, "Rock, Making Musical Choices" |
For too long the church has assumed and taken for granted its musical heritage which is rich in great hymn and gospel composition wedded to magnificent texts both in subjectivity and objectivity, that have passed testing through the channels of time and have emerged in our day arranged and rearranged, added to and extended, imbued with the touch of the art of great musical invention. Excellent music has been and is being written in our day, but one has to sift through and discern its textual and musical values and not be caught up in the argument for style. God gave us the substance of music, man gives us the style. There are 12 tones in our music scale. The arrangement of these tones in melody and harmony, the pulse of the meter that drives it and guides it, the text that gives the composition meaning, all fall into a style that must be thought about.
It should be remembered that two areas are involved in music ministry in and to the assembly, and for that manner, to each other and to ourselves. See Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16 and Hebrews 13:15. Two languages are wedded together and both have a grammar, a syntax, and a rhetoric: Lyrics, or the word text, and composition, the music text. This then is the substance of musical expression, which expression becomes the barometer of a society. If this is true, and it is, then we could say without any provocation, that it is also a barometer of the church and its condition in society, and in its address to today's culture.
The Lord Jesus is a model for every believer. He was in the world but was not of the world: "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14). He was sent on a mission to the world, a world which hated Him, and He in turn has sent believers into the world, and in turn, the world will hate them; that is, if they are truly believers and love Him and desire to please Him as He pleased the Father, and realize that they also are on a mission to the world. See John 17:15-21.
The Lord Jesus, in verse 21, requested unity for the future believers (see also verse 11 and verse 22). These verses have been misused and abused by the promoters of the present ecumenical movement.
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"Admittedly the divided church is in many ways a scandal. The cure, however, is not institutional union. Jesus was not praying for the unity of a single, worldwide, ecumenical church in which doctrinal heresy would be maintained along with orthodoxy. Instead, He was praying for the unity of love, a unity of obedience to God and His Word, and a united commitment to His will. There are great differences between uniformity, union, and unity." (Emphasis Mine) The Bible Knowledge Commentary (NT), p. 333 |
All believers belong to the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13), and the world should know of their spiritual unity by their life style. This life style, whether the church or the world, is expressed through the greatest medium of expression we know, musical expression, the heart of this discussion. Nowhere in the Word of God am I encouraged to adopt the musical language that expresses the world that hates God and the believer, for as Dr. Bernstein wrote...."music having a definite secular symbolism is poor music for worship...it is confusing. It is too much like everyday life to be ultimately satisfying."
| "When you take great theology and wed it to grand musicology, it ascends before God in magnificent doxology." Stephen Olford |
--Robert Regal
From the book: With the Voice of Singing
Additional Thoughts On Worship
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REVERENCE BEFORE THE AWE-INSPIRING GOD If we are going to know God who is holy, we need to reverence and fear Him. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Prov. 1:7). Since God truly is such a unique and awesome Person, He ought to have our respect. When we speak of His Name and Fame we ought to have a healthy response that reverences Him because of who He is. Worship is intimately connected with the reverence and fear of God. Worship means to prostrate oneself before God, to bend down, to bow down, to bend the knee and thus to bend the heart. "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker" (Psalm 95:6). We need to read the Bible with an understanding that God has all authority. He has the right to be worshipped and reverenced. The least I can do is hear what He says and respond to what He says in the right way. I may not understand all He says, but at least I will give Him reverence. I will bend my heart and bow before the authority of His Word. The Bible describes God as a "terrible God." This means that He inspires terror, fear, dread. He is awe-inspiring, demanding our deepest respect because of WHO HE IS and WHAT HE HAS SAID. "For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible [awe-inspiring]" (Deut. 10:17). "If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD" (Deut. 28:58). May He be your fear! May He be your dread! (Isaiah 8:13). |
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THE MISSING INGREDIENT Whatever characterizes the religious attitude of our day, it is not reverence and awe. Rarely can one enter a church today, where the hustled silence in the atmosphere makes one conscious of the presence of Him who is a "consuming fire." The head bowed "waiting in silence for God only," the tuning of the heart, the tremulous expectancy have gone out of worship. A babble of voices and a discussion of trivial affairs is not an atmosphere conducive to doing business with the living God. Here are some suggestions as you prepare for the worship service: 1. Remember that when the organ begins playing the prelude, God's people are to be silent. There is to be a "holy hush" as believers prepare their hearts to meet a holy God. Refrain from talking and chatting with your pew neighbor so that your mind will be centered on the Lord rather than on self and others. 2. The moments may be used for silent prayer—remembering yourself and your own heart attitude, the Pastor, the choir and the other worshippers. 3. The moments may be used for prayerful meditation—you could think upon a verse of Scripture or you could meditate upon what you learned from the Pastor's last message. 4. Remember the words from Psalm 46:10--"BE STILL, and know that I am God: I WILL BE EXALTED among the heathen, I WILL BE EXALTED in the earth." |
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HOW TO WORSHIP Be silent. Be thoughtful. Be reverent, for this is the house of the Lord. Before the service, speak to God. During the service, let God speak to you. After the service, speak to one another. |
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LEARNING FROM THE ANGELS "When we consider what glorious beings the angels are, and yet that they are but creatures of, and servants to, the God whom we serve, waiting before His Throne, and humbly attending His commands; this consideration, if we let it sink deeply into our hearts, must needs possess us with most awful apprehensions of the glorious majesty of our God at all times, but especially in our approaches to Him in His worship, and fill us with the greatest reverence and humility. With what reverence should we behave ourselves in our addresses to the Divine Majesty, before whom the Seraphim themselves hide their faces! And if they cover their feet, are conscious to themselves of their natural imperfection, compared to the infinitely glorious God; how should we clods of earth, we vile sinners, blush and be ashamed in His presence, assuming no confidence to ourselves, but what is founded on the mercies of God and the merits of our blessed Redeemer and Advocate, Jesus Christ!"--Bishop Bull (1634-1710) |
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IMPROVING THE PASTOR'S PREACHING Sunday the sermon was sluggish, 'twas hard attention to keep. The theme was faultily chosen, it almost put me to sleep. Monday was blue with sheer boredom; Tuesday was carnal by choice. Wednesday my conscience was wakened by pleas from a still small voice. Prayer Meeting left me uplifted, loyalty lingering long. Thursday my heart was responding; Friday His nudging was strong. I came to thorough repentance the following Saturday; I yielded in full surrender as all on the altar I lay. Sunday the sermon was perfect, superb and quite at its peak; Amazing how greatly the Pastor improved in the space of one week! * * * * * |
| The Middletown Bible Church 349 East Street Middletown, CT 06457 (860) 346-0907 |
Thanks, I remembered the trumpet and cymbals after I had posted from the psalms,
lyre, timbrel and harp
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