the focus of our worship: God or Us

The book of psalms contains a lot of text that teaches and proclaims the attributes of God. When we are worshiping God – it’s important to be remembering texts such as those found in psalms that allow us to worship God for who He is. Therefore, when we are worshiping through music, the songs that we sing MUST be theologically correct. They should not be about us, but rather they should be directed to God – singing praise to his Holy name.

If you are going to have a worship leader, he needs to know God and he needs to walk in the fear of God and in holiness. In our churches today we have let musical worship become consumed by what sounds and looks good, and we no longer stress the importance of having someone who walks in the fear of the Lord lead and direct our worship services. *In the book of Leviticus, God kills 2 worship leaders because they did not worship Him in a way that was conformed to the scriptures*. Of course it’s great to have a talented musician up on stage, someone who can play and sing and lead well, but it cannot be left at that as it so often is...

Worship is supposed to be a tool for teaching – Colossians 3:16 “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your heart.” The purpose of singing in the church is FIRST and foremost to bless God. Worship God for who He is, praise his name alone. Secondly, worship is a tool for teaching, to teach those who are singing, to encourage them and admonish them and to even be a witnessing tool to those who are unbelievers. This is a problem in much of the modern music – not all of it, but a lot of it – they don’t follow these principles. It’s more about FEELING. Much worship in the churches today is nothing more than a celebration of flesh; it is an exercise in emotion. We should not depend on music, on glorious and amazing music, to worship God. We should not rely on music and musical worship to feel the presence of God. The Spirit will not move more if the music sounds better – our desire to worship God should not be limited to musical worship in church on Sunday morning. If we only ever feel the presence of God when emotions start to be stirred at a worship event – there is something not right there. It’s not wrong to have music that lifts your emotion, but be careful. Be careful. When the presence of God is always ‘bless me, bless me, bless me, joy joy joy, dance dance dance’ – something is wrong. The presence of God should also convict us of our sins; it should open our eyes to how fallen we are.

I’ve been to multiple youth group events growing up, young adult conferences and worship events, and I’ve seen a lot of different worship ‘styles’. Successful worship does not need to end with people in tears, people with their hands raised, and people on their knees. Successful worship doesn’t have to have the entire audience clapping, people dancing and shouting and singing loud. Successful worship is allowing those in the audience to direct their prayers and praise to God alone. It allows people to worship Him and reflect on who He is and how amazing He is. Worship should not become about us, it should not be about the team on the stage, and it should not be about the light and sound systems. Worship should not be a show. How insulting is it to God that we turn an opportunity to worship Him into something about us. The subject of our praise needs to be God alone.

psalms of praise

He died for me.
I dont deserve that - rather my actions sure don't.
My weak heart and my failed attempts to live a life worthy of my calling make me realize how blessed I am, how amazing His grace is and His love.

I may not feel deserving, but one thing I know for sure - He deserves everything.
He deserves the very best that I can give him...

Reading through psalms the past few weeks has opened my eyes yet again and reminded me of so much truth. I don't praise God enough. I don't lift up a thankful heart to Him as I should. I don't give to Him the glory is due His Name. My prayer right now is that as I walk in the word daily, that God would grant me wisdom and knowledge that I might better grasp who He is. I pray that He will help me to remove the blur in my vision that is distracting me from seeing Him clearly. I cannot see because my vission has become blurred by stress and fear and worry, but I want to leave those things behind me, I want to lay them before Him trusting that as  the weight is lifted from me, my vision will grow clearer.

psalm 96:8

"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name."

psalm 96:9

"worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth."

psalm 46:10

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

psalm 70:4

"May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation always say 'Let God be exalted!"

psalm 71:14+15

"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure."

No matter what you face each day, even if your circumstances change for better or for worse - HE will ALWAYS be worthy of your praise, he will always be worthy of your best worship. He deserves all the glory and praise forever. Each day we should strive to wake up with a heart of praise and thanksgiving. True joy can be found through this - in Him alone, the only hope we have - the only thing that will truly last forever.

Give Thanks in all Circumstances

Be Thankful:

For Life.
Each year, there are estimated to be 42 million induced abortions. Children who will never get a chance.

For Water.
783 million people live without safe water. 11% of the world’s population.
African families survive on an average of 5 gallons of water each day IF lucky, while Americans use an average of 176 gallons each day. 

For Food.
in 2010, 925 million people made the ‘hungry people of the world’ chart.
925 million people go hungry each day while 25% of Americans consume fast-food daily.
Americans spend on average nearly 100$ billion dollars on fast-food each year.

For Education.
In the world today there are approximately 1 billion non-literate adults. 26% of the world’s population.

the average American takes their ability to read for granted as they spend
about 9 years worth of time watching TV in a lifetime, and only 20, 748 minutes reading

(that’s 346 hrs...that’s 15 days... in a lifetime!!!)

For Electricity.

79% of people in 3^rd world countries have NO access to electricity.

That’s about 1.5 billion people.

¼ of the world’s population.

For Jobs and Financial Income.
The average American household will make $2,316,300 in a lifetime.
In Uganda, the average household will make $8000 in a lifetime.

That is a difference of 2 MILLION, 308 THOUSAND, and 300 dollars...

For Peace and Safety.
On average, 1 in 5 countries is affected by war or civil conflict.

 

Not hitting close enough to home?! That’s okay (catch the sarcasm here...), the average person can shrug this information off within a few hours because they do not feel it applies to their culture or life conditions as they have been born and raised with these things; therefore, it does not make them feel thankful or blessed for their circumstances. Alright, so let’s get more personal...


Be thankful:

For God’s Grace.
They say about 33% of the world’s population is Christian.
However let’s take into account that MANY take the title but FEW truly live it and have a transforming relationship with Christ.
This leaves about 66% (probably more) of the world that does. Not. Know. God.
*by GRACE you are saved*
be thankful that God revealed his light to you and that you do not need to walk in darkness.
be thankful that you have been offered an eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ.

For Health.
around 28% of children in developing countries are underweight or stunted.

In the world about 40 million people have HIV/AIDS.
There are 350-500 million cases of malaria each year.
Every year 1.8 million children die from diarrhoea.

In 2002, there were about 1500 deaths per day in the USA due to cancer.

For Shelter.

640 million children live without shelter.

In 2005, 1 in 3 urban dwellers (about 1 billion people) were living in slum conditions.

For Wealth.
*even when you don’t consider yourself wealthy*
1 in 9 children live in poverty in Canada.
In 2005 there were about 150 000 homeless individuals in Canada.

The average Canadian household has 2 vehicles.

I guess this may depend on what you consider to be ‘wealthy’, if wealth to you is living each day with enough – then I think you should consider yourself wealthy. If you are going to compare your financial stability to the rich people around you, of course you are going to feel poor. Just remember those in 3^rd world countries are comparing their financial stability to people like you – the average citizen – and they feel beyond poor. What you  spend on fast food each week could change some lives. Just something to think about. If you were poor, you wouldn’t be spending money on fast-food, gas, movies, clothes, extra foods and drinks, pleasures etc. If you have enough – you are wealthy.

  

Anyways. Just food for thought. This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip, or to make you feel bad for the life you have. It’s also not to meant to make you feel like your struggles and challenges don’t count. BUT it is meant to make you realize and remember to be thankful. You are blessed. You should always be able to find something to be thankful for. Family, Friends, Health, Security, or whatever it may be. God will always provide for you what you need.

“God’s plans for your life far exceed the circumstances of your day”

“God’s plans for your life far exceed the circumstances of your day”
No matter what situation you’re in, no matter what challenges you face every day; God is always and will always be bigger. He will always be stronger. He will always be there.

Awhile ago I came across a quote that said something like this, “If you believe God has a purpose for your life, then you must believe that He will bring you there also.” How true is that? At the end of each day, we must choose to believe – truly believe – that God has a plan and that he is walking alongside of us, taking us to where we need to be and changing us into who he needs us to be. No matter what we faced that day; every day can throw a curve ball and every week can feel like a kick in the stomach when things seem to be going downhill, but God is always bigger and he will always be stronger then the pulls coming against us.

Choose to be thankful. There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for. In my daily life – though it’s so easy to forget and it’s so easy to take much for granted, I have much to be thankful for. I am blessed. My life just looks different from those around me, but God has blessed me greatly. If you are constantly comparing your life, your possessions, and your accomplishments to others around you – you will always find someone who is ‘better off’. Who are you trying to please? God calls us to be thankful for what we have and to use our blessings to glorify him. We are called to live righteously... whether we are rich or poor – it doesn’t really matter. Live a life pleasing to the Lord. Riches don’t mean blessings, even the rich can earn their treasures in an unrighteous way – are we trying to please God? Or are we just trying to be rich? I guess in the end we need to truly be thankful – truly realize and believe that we have immeasurably more then what we deserve – and live life in a way that gives all that we have and all that we are back to God.

No matter what – God can and He will. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how high a status, how popular or known you are. It doesn’t matter how beautiful you are considered to be, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are, it doesn’t matter where you live or who you live with. It doesn’t matter the challenges you face, the inflictions put upon you – God can work through anything. At the end of each day, no matter how frustrated you are or how happy you are – God is there. There is no need to feel alone when life is hard, and there is no need to walk alone when life is great... God is always there. Don’t allow your idea of ‘good’ to be affected by money or success or accomplishments in the world eyes. Live for God alone. He will take you places and he will carry you when you fall. His plans cannot be thwarted. Seek him and him alone.