Here I Am To Worship

We've been talking this evening at worship: what worship is, what it means to worship, how we worship.

 

Taken from the Old English 'weorthscipe' meaning worthiness, worship means to acknowledge the worth of. 

 

When we worship God, we are acknowledging who He is and, therefore, are acknowledging His worthiness.

 

But worship isn't something we do for half an hour in church on Sundays.  Or during the week when we listen to a 'worship' CD.  It's not even really about singing.

 

Yes, singing is a large and significant part of worship, but true worship is about living a life which acknowledges God's worthiness in all areas.

 

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well:

"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God.  Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.  That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.  God is sheer being itself - Spirit.  Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."

 

[John 4:24 MSG]

 

 

I love that line - those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. 

I love it and I am deeply challenged by it.  I'm not sure that I've very comfortable simply and honestly being myself: I'm not sure I feel enough.  Sometimes I like to dress myself up in different layers of disguise.  I'm not even sure I know what it means to be simply and honestly myself.

But I want to start to find out.

I want to say, as Tim Hughes sang, "Here I am to worship."

No pretense, no disguise, no distraction.  Not just here I am for 20 minutes.  But every day, every moment - here I am to worship.


 

 

 

 

Heart of Worship

I have spent this evening working on writing worship songs with some friends.

 

We have had a brilliant evening playing around with words and melodies and meanings.  And we have produced something with which we are all really pleased.

 

At one point in the evening we were wrestling with an awkward line which didn't seem to fit, but which we didn't want to lose.

 

It felt as though we were struggling and trying too hard to make something fit, that it became a bit artificial.  It was no longer an outpouring of our hearts: our syllable-counting, make-it-rhyme, neat-and-tidy minds got in the way.

 

We played around with it for a bit and then just left it for a while and started just singing what was on our hearts. 

 

And in all of that, we refocused on what was important - on what we were singing and why we were singing it and, most importantly, to whom we were singing.

 

And as we sang, the line made sense.  It fitted.  Without forcing or coercion.  We realised what mattered more was what was on our hearts. 

 

Becasue our worship and praise to God should be a response from the heart

 

"For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

 

[Luke 6:45 NIV]

 

As Matt Redman sang,

 

"I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about you

It's all about you, Jesus."

 

 

The heart of worship is the worship of our hearts.

 

It's all about Him.  And it's all for Him.

 

 

 

This Little Babe

There have been lots of Christmas programmes on TV recently with recipes and decorating suggestions and gift ideas - all sorts of things to help us prepare for Christmas.

 

Several things that I've watched recently have mentioned the fact that Christmas is all about the family, but something I watched this afternoon kept repeating that Christmas is all about children.

 

However, I would suggest that this isn't quite true.  Chrstmas is not all about children.  It is all about one child.  It is all about the baby Jesus, the child of God.

 

Luke writes,

 

"There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood.  They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them.  They were terrified. The angel said, 'Don’t be afraid.  I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Saviour who is Messiah and Master.  This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.'"

 

[Luke 2:8-12 MSG]

 

A Saviour who is Messiah and Master. 

 

I always marvel at the idea that the shepherds (and later, the wise men), worshipped a baby.  I can understand someone worshipping a King, or worshipping a god.  But worshipping a baby?  The shepherds understood something about this child which we can so easily miss.

 

I love the words in this song, 'This Little Babe' by Benjamin Britten which tell of the true nature and identity of this tiny baby -

 

This little babe, so few days old

Has come to rifle satan's fold

All hell doth at his presence quake

Though he himself for cold do shake

For in this weak, unarmed wise

The gates of hell he will surprise

 

With tears he fights and wins the field

His naked breast stands for a shield

His battering shot are babish cries

His arrows looks of weeping eyes

Jesus was no ordinary baby.  He was the child of God and He was worth worshipping.

 

Christmas is all about the child.

 

 

 

What is Worship?

I have been thinking today about worshipping and our use of the word 'worship'.

 

I was listening to a live stream of a 24/7 prayer room whilst I was finishing off a few things at work and it got me thinking about listening to worship songs. If I just listen to them, but don't sing or 'engage', am I worshipping?   If I have them on in the background whilst I'm doing something else - cooking, ironing, driving, photocopying etc. - is it worship?   Am I 'doing'; worship?   Is worshipping an active or a passive thing?

 

Often we use it as a noun.  A thing.  An object.

 

How was the worship?  How long is the worship at your church?  Who leads the worship?  Worship leader.  Worship group.  Worship band.  Worship song.  Worship music.  Worship CD.  Great worship! 

 

Recently, there has been a shift away from seeing the word as a noun, and a move towards seeing it as a verb instead.  Something we do.

 

Let's worship God.  After the talk, we'll worship for a bit.  We'll start by worshipping.

 

However, when we use it as a verb, it is often restricted to something that we do for set periods of time and in a certain place, or in a certain way.  It is usually linked to music. 

 

We restrict our understanding and see worship as something that takes place at church (or some other 'church' meeting/gathering), for a set period of time, with other people and with the accompaniment of music of some sort.

 

But I think worship is bigger than something that we do.  It is who we are.  All of the things that we say and think and do are acts of worship - they are acts of devotion and love and they reveal what is important to us. 

 

Josh Riley writes,

"Worship is everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do, revealing that which we treasure and value most in life."

We don't just worship God.  We can 'worship' all sorts of things, we can give our devotion and affection and attention to a variety of things or people: money, success, fame, ourselves, another person, a relationship, a sports team, a TV programme, a celebrity, a job.  The list could go on.

 

Whatever we spend ourselves on - money and time and attention - is what we worship.

 

Paul explains how he wants us to worship God with  our whole lives, by simply being who we are and offering that to God:

"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering."

 [Romans 12:1 MSG]

 

Everything that we do is an act of worship.  The question is, what are we worshipping? 

 

 

[There are some other really interesting definitions and ideas about worship on this website - http://worship.com/2010/09/what-is-worship-some-definitions-to-consider/]

 

 

The "Christian" Post

Yesterday, I read a post about worship music and why we call it "Christian music", which has got me thinking a lot today...

In his post, "Erasing the Line Between the Secular and the Sacred" 
(http://benjamindunn.tumblr.com/post/25517102516/erasing-the-line-between-the-secular-the-sacred), Benjamin Dunn says,

Christian Music? What an extremely weird concept. To think that a song, band or genre of music can be dubbed “Christian” is an anomaly to me. Can other things in this world be “Christian” as well? (i.e. My, dogs, my socks, my dirty tour sweater)?

His article procedes to discuss the meaning of "worship music" and the sacred nature of music, which isn't my intention here (although it makes for interesting reading).  However, it got me thinking about our attitude to separating and segragating the different aspects of our lives.

How often do we prefix areas of our life with the word "Christian"?   "Christian radio", "Christian TV", "Christian film", "Christian book", "Christian song", "Christian art", "Christian conversation", "Christian place", "Christian job", "Christian blog"...

And what do we mean by it?  Does shoving the word "Christian" before another noun somehow alter it and sanctify it?  Is my "Christian job" more important than your (presumably) "non Christian job"?  Is a "Christian film" somehow better for me?

And how do we define it?  Do we have to prove it has been written or painted or designed by someone who professes to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour?  And how do we go about proving that?  And if I am a Christian musician, am I capable of writing an "ordinary" song?  Or are all of my songs "Christian" because I am?  And does it really matter?

Isn't labelling things as "Christian" more about confining God and putting restrictions on Him?  And isn't that more about us being in control and making us 'God'?  If we put God in a box and only expect to experience or hear from Him when we are listening to "Christian radio" or watching a "Christian film" then we probably will. 

But if we open up our eyes and our ears and our minds and if we erase the lines and break down the walls, perhaps we will see God in the ordinary as well.

After all, Jesus wasn't born in a Temple, He was born in a stable.  He didn't just work for a religious organisation, He trained as a carpenter.  He didn't just teach in the synagogues, He taught on the hills and in boats.  He didn't just have Jewish friends, He befriended the lonely and broken and poor and outcast and sinful.

Jesus came to earth to show us that God isn't distant and unreachable and only interested in the "Christian" aspects of our lives.  He is personal and intimate and bigger than any human fences we erect, and He longs to speak into every area of our lives:

"Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.  We didn't fence you in.  The smallness you feel comes from within you.  Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way.  I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection.  Open up your lives.  Live openly and expansively!"

[2 Corinthians 6:11, MSG]