Friday 13 February 2009

Let us Worship God.

These are amongst the first words you should hear when you go to worship the sovereign God. This majestic 'call to worship' summons the congregation to do that which God demands of His creation (Ps.100:1), and especially of His people. It is God's call to all men to bow before the majesty of the great God. It is that which requires us to give God His rightful place in our worship and in our lives. It is surely the most solemn call that any man can hear.

When you think about it, the call to worship is the end goal for evangelism. David Brainard, that great missionary to the North American Indians about 250 years ago, said that what he aimed at in his evangelism was to get the people to "sing to God." The worship of God's pure and holy Name is the goal of evangelism.

Now it is strange, is it not, that in many evangelical, or should I say, evangelistic, churches, not only is there no clear summons to worship God, but even when it is implied, for the minister to then decide, on his own whims, to order half of the congregation NOT to worship God. You know how it goes; when you are singing your heart out to the great God of salvation and revival, the preacher interjects and says, "Men only for this verse," and then later, "Ladies only."

I must say that if I find this grossly insulting, how must not God feel about it. If we are gathered in God's house for the express purpose of worshipping His Name, what right has any man to stop half the congregation worshipping the Lord? What right has a minister to tell people on the basis of their gender that they are not to sing praise to God in this verse? Are they paving the way for the day when Christians will not be permitted to worship the Lord at any time? Do they know something that the rest of us do not know? Why are they doing this? What benefits ascend to God when this is practised?

Evangelicalism must surely take a long and serious look at what the Scriptures teach about how God is to be worshipped. IF He tells us in His word what he wants from us, who are we to change it? Who are we to decide what we will offer to God as worship? Remember how He rejected many contemporising practices in the OT, and described it as "offering strange fire to the Lord."

And we expect God to move amongst us in revival power and grace.

Let me mention another aberration of God's worship. When the minister says, "Let us worship God as we give to Him our tithes and our offerings." I don't know how these words are understood in your church, but in the churches that I know best, they are interpreted to mean, "Now is a great time to have a chat with the person sitting beside me." Have you noticed that? The minister calls us to worship God in this particular way (the offering), and we do the very opposite, while while putting our money on the plate. What the minister says is not really intended to be done - it a time to chat, or to check your mobile for messages, or to send a text to your friend sitting across the church from you, and so on. Worshipping God.

And we still think that we are on the way to revival! As I see it, the fact that we are prepared to play fast and loose with the worship of God is a sure sign, not that God is blessing us, but that the church needs revival urgently. If only we were to read the OT with open minds and hungry hearts, we would see just how far we have deserted the Lord's way regarding how He is to be worshipped.

My response? May the Lord have mercy on us, and bring us back again into the true paths, and may He restore to us that sense of His holy presence as we meet in His Kingly Name.

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