I was reading chapter 6 of the gospel of Mark today where Jesus sends out the disciples to go and preach the gospel, this is how He says to do it:

• go in pairs
• go in the authority that He has given us
• know that you have everything you need in Him
• “If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.” Mark 6:11 (The Message)

My favourite part of the passage was the response that the disciples had. The Message translation uses this great phrase:

Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency
that life can be radically different [Mark 6:12 in The Message]

How great is that as a response! They hit the road and got on with casting out demons, healing the sick, and setting people free, and the way that they preached was with a “joyful urgency that life can be radically different” let us develop this attitude amongst the church and joyfully and urgently take the message to the world that life can be radically different. Amen.

Coming up with a definition of worship isn’t as easy as you might think; most people would say that they know what it is but when it comes to writing it down in a sentence it seems almost impossible to capture all the facets of it. Let’s try and make this an interactive discussion by adding your thoughts using the comments boxes below.

We recognise worship by a number of attributes, which in themselves don’t necessarily define worship but help us to see it:

• singing
• dancing
• clapping
• raising hands
• adoration
• worship
• glorifying
• submission
• service

Here are some of my thoughts on what should form part of the definition of worship:

• Putting God first in everything
• Wanting to please Him in all we do
• Working to see and demonstrate His glory on earth
• Submitting to the King of Kings
• Our ‘reasonable service’ is our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1)
• Loving Him and His creation in the way that He does
• A response to the love that He has given to us
• An expression of His Spirit within us – using the gifts of the Spirit is part of our worship
• Giving of ourselves, our time, and our money
• A sacrifice of praise – giving something that is costly. Not giving out of compulsion or obligation, instead giving out of love
• An attitude and lifestyle as well as an action (we can live a life of worship that isn’t one of singing continuously!)

Again, let’s try and make this interactive and meditate together on what worship is, let me know your thoughts by using the ‘comments’ options below…

This week I have been listening to Andrew Wommack’s radio teaching on the ‘Christian First Aid Kit’ – which I would highly recommend.

One thing that really stood out to me was Paul’s description of his problems&hardships (2 Cor 11:23-29) but he still described them as light and momentary troubles (2 Cor 4:17) . The reason he could say this was that he was looking at everything in the light of eternity. All the troubles he was facing could never stop him worshipping Jesus as he knew that they would be over in the blink of an eye compared to eternity in heaven with the King of Kings.

We too need to remember to view everything that comes our way in the light of eternity. And the light of eternity is Jesus as He is the ‘light of the world’ (John 8:12). We should see everything through Jesus’s sacrifice, as though it were a filter that changes everything we see. By doing this we can praise Him in every situation as all things seen in the light of eternity are shown for what they really are.

Have you ever noticed how a church-goer’s view of what worship is can be very different to the secular world’s view?

It’s not uncommon to hear people describe a love of something as being a ‘worship’, whether it be football or a celebrity, or anything else for that matter. Is this person saying that they physically bow down and worship in front of that celebrity? Of course not. The description of ‘worship’ used by that person isn’t referring to an act, it’s an attitude.

As Christians, when we talk about worshipping God what do we take that to mean? I would suggest that the vast majority of people see it as an act of bowing down to or singing or praising Jesus.

So which is the correct view of worship?
Well there is no denying that there is a physical act of worship which we are called to do – Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to perform an ‘act of worship’ (NIV) or ‘your reasonable service’ (NKJV). But if we think that worship is just an act then we are missing a lot of blessing that God has for us. Like the ’secular definition’, true worship involves a constant attitude of love and adoration rather than occasional acts. We know that we are living a life of worship when Jesus is who we think about when our mind wanders, and He’s the first person that we want to give our time, effort and money to.

Knowing that we can live a life of worship even when we’re unable to do some sort of ‘act of worship’ should remove any worry about how much time we devote to worship (although of course devoting your time is an important thing to do), and give us peace in knowing that even our thoughts and attitudes are a form of worship. Let’s make sure that we’ve all got an attitude of constant worship.

John Wesley wrote his directions for singing as part of ‘Select Hymns’ (published in 1761). The full list can be found here (worshipedia.org) or here (Joyful Noise Ministries), or in the original text if you happen to have a 350year book lying around!

I wanted to highlight three of them which I think deserve particular attention for all worshippers in all situations:

• Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
• Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength.
• Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

If we all adhered to these directions then I believe we’ll find our worship moving on to another level.

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I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13 [NIV]

This is one of my favourite scriptures, and I think that it describes the act of worship really well.

The worship leader Graham Kendrick says that ”the core dynamic of Christian worship is revelation followed by response” (from Worship Central article found  here). I read the passage from Psalm 27 as someone who is in a situation that, in the natural, doesn’t seem good (whether it be enemies attacking, sickness, poverty, relationship troubles etc), but they have met Jesus in worship and the only response they can have is “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living“.

So as you are worshipping let the Lord show you who He is and how much He loves you, and you’ll find that He is far bigger and stronger than anything that can come against you (Romans 8:31). Our worshipful response to revelation about Jesus, is awe, love, and confidence.

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Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. [Psalm 24:3-4 NIV]

For the past couple of weeks since David spoke on this topic I’ve been thinking about the ‘power of a good conscience’. Have a look at David’s blog post on the subject to read up on what He said.

Our conscience has a direct bearing on our worship, but it doesn’t define who can ascend the mountain of the Lord (Psalm 24:3).

Our relationship with the Father, and therefore our worship, is not based upon anything that we have or haven’t done. Everything is based upon Jesus – the perfect one-time sacrifice for all our sins forever  (Hebrews 10:14), so that when the Father looks at us He sees us as righteous as Jesus, he sees us with clean hands and pure hearts! Hallelujah. So the one who may ascend the mountain of the Lord is anyone who is redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

So if our conscience doesn’t change how God sees us then how does it affect our worship? Well, worship involves both us and God, and although an unclean conscience doesn’t affect God’s view, it has a strong bearing on our behaviour. When Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord it was them that hid from God, rather than God withdrawing from them (Genesis 3:8) – their consciences condemned them. The result of an unclean conscience is that we don’t feel that we can fellowship with and worship God – we lose our understanding of Jesus’s sacrifice in our place.

This is summed up in 1 John 3:21 where it says: Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. So from a worship perspective it’s vital to keep a good conscience so that we realise that we can have confidence to enter the Holy place by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22). So the call for us is to be holy, for He is holy (1 Peter 1:16).

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In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. [Gen 7:11]

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. [John 7:38]

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. [John 4:24]

Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me. [Psalm 42:7]

We are called to worship in spirit and in truth.

Worshipping in Truth

Worship the Lord with integrity. You don’t need to be someone else when you worship, come as you are before the throne of God. If you come to worship, and feel you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, take heart, King David, an amazing worshipper knew that same experience. God doesn’t want us to fake joy to please Him, but He does call us to lay our burdens down. This doesn’t mean that you pretend everything is great, it means acknowledge before God what is happening, but then as David does in Psalm 103, turn your focus to how awesome, kind and gracious God is. Once you have acknowledged your burden, don’t pick it back up again, let it stay with the Father and instead let your mind be filled with how much greater our God is. It doesn’t matter how difficult a situation is, our God is stronger than any situation.

Worshipping in Spirit

One picture of the Holy Spirit used in scriptures is of water. In John 7 Jesus tells us that if we are saved we have streams of living water flowing from within. There is a deep well of the Spirit within us that we need to let flow out from us. In Genesis 7 we are told about how the springs of the great deep burst forth in order to flood the earth. Picture now the Holy Spirit, as springs of the great deep, flowing from within you. As we worship, these springs burst forth to flood the earth with the glory of God. In Psalm 42, the psalmist uses the phrase ‘deep calls to deep’ which makes me think of the Holy Spirit calling to my spirit, drawing out worship from deep within me.

As you worship today, check yourself. ‘Am I worshipping in truth? I am drawing out the Spirit from deep within me, letting Him flow and fill the earth with the glory of God?’ This is the wonderful worship we are called to be a part of!

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“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”
Psalm 115:1

It struck me when I read this scripture recently that this very simple line says a lot about how we should come to the Lord when worshipping. There is no way that we should approach the Lord other than by submission to His majesty. The act of worship in itself is one of laying down our lives and picking up the new life that He has given us, and although we approach His throne with boldness (Hebrews 4:16) we do all things for His glory and not ours.

So remember this scripture next time you come to worship Him and make the conscious decision of saying “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.” [NIV translation]

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²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
²⁸And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
²⁹He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
Matthew 14:27-29

Our worship always begins with Jesus calling to us – He is the instigator of our relationship as we only love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Once we have heard Him calling it is our responsibility to respond, He is standing at the door knocking and waiting for us to open the door (Revelation 3:20). But it doesn’t stop there as we see in the passage from Matthew shown above: Jesus calls, Peter replies, Jesus calls with the instruction “come”, Peter acts and gets out the boat and walks on water! Our worship is this continual process of Jesus calling and us responding with the relationship growing all the time and us becoming more mature.

Whenever we worship we need to make sure that our response is an honest one right from our heart. Our response to the Word of God should always be life changing, just like it was when we accepted Jesus as our Lord, or when we were baptised in water, or when we were baptised in the Holy Spirit – we should wake up the next morning knowing that life will never be the same again. Imagine how Peter felt the day after he’d walked on water! His life wouldn’t be the same again knowing what had happened when Jesus called him and he responded. When we respond to God it needs to be a lasting response, a response from the heart that means that life will never be the same again.

Another couple of scriptural examples of people responding to God with a lasting response are:

• Matthew 4:18-20. Jesus calls to Peter and Andrew and immediately they drop their nets and follow Him. They give up their old life to start living the life that God has for them – a decision that isn’t reversible, their lives will never be the same.
• Matthew 16:13-19. Jesus asks Peter who people are saying He is, and Peter responds with words that can’t be retracted, he declares that Jesus is the Christ. Now that he has this revelation of the divinity of Jesus he will never be able to treat Jesus the same again – it’s a life changing moment. On top of this we see that Jesus replies by telling Peter what God’s plans and purposes for him are. Peter would have again woken up the next morning and thought ‘the Christ told me that He will give me the keys of the kingdom of heaven’. How could his life ever be the same after finding this out.

I encourage you that whenever you hear Jesus calling to you decide to make a lasting response – a response that means that your life will never be the same. We need to thoroughly embrace the words that Jesus speaks to us and not let them leave our minds but instead meditate on them (Joshua 1:8) and not go back to our old ways of thinking and acting as “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

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