Psalm 95
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways." So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall never enter my rest."
There are two parts two this Psalm. The first part tells us what and why we worship and the second part tells us what not to do. Can you make a list of the what (to and not to do) and whys of worship from the scripture above. In so doing, you will discover that in the very act of listing them out you are in the midst of an act of worship. Feel free to add other aspects of worship from scripture or from your experience as well.
Local American Baptist pastors met today and each shared a favorite worship experience at some point in their lives. The range of experiences was vast from being alone with God, to being in a giant crowd, from being loud to being quiet and much more. What has been one of your favorite worship experiences?
From the Heart,
Pastor Jeff
Worship to me is the closeness I feel to God when I am totally engrossed in my own worship experience as I worship with others. I feel the presence of the Lord when I am playing music to Him and lost in His glory. It's more of a personal connection than the connection as a whole. To be one with my Savior and feel the frienship that I have with Him is the ultimate worship experience for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Paul. That is awesome. Glory to God!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite worship experience was on a mission trip about 5 or 6 years ago. We were in Cherokee, NC doing a worship service at a KOA campground. As we were setting up our sound equipment the manager of the campground came out and warned us that a huge storm was moving in and we might want to reconsider doing the service. He even brought a couple of us inside to show us the radar which had all shades of green (rain), yellow (run for cover) and red (we're gonna die!). Though the manager was in a panic, our group felt a strange peace about the situation and we decided to carry on as planned (the worst that could happen would be we have to run inside and our equipment gets soaked.) I remember being in awe for the next 30 minutes as thunder and lightning crashed close by in all directions, yet the rain held off. We did our music, drama and message as we normally would have and then half the group talked and prayed with some of those in attendance while the other half scrambled to get the equipment back up and in the trailer. No more than a minute after the last piece of equipment made it into the trailer the sky turned black and the rain came DOWN. We all got soaked running about 30 yards from the small pavilion we had been standing under to the vans but we didn't care. We all knew what had happened that night and there was nothing we could do other than stand in awe and worship our God "that is able to do far more than we can ever dare to ask or even dream of."
ReplyDeleteAWESOME JOEL - PRAISE GOD! Long story short - preaching under similar weather threats at a camp fire during camp - I got right to the conclusion of the message and as I raised my voice and raised my hands in the air saying, "Tonight, accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!!!" A huge wind swept through the area which made the fire rise and seem to dance followed by a swirl of dirt from the fire ring area and the heavens opened and the rained poured down as we all ran a short distance to an indoor shelter where we had a great time with the Lord having seen his awesome power.
ReplyDeleteFollow up - Weeks later I was at the Christian Conference Center where we were producing a kids musical and they had just finished building a ginormous Noah's ark out of cardboard on a wood frame (REALLY BIG). They had it standing up and when I walked out to see it, one youth happened to be sharing with another about the experience described above and raised his voice and threw his hands in the air and said, "Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior." Another youth said, no it was more like this - and he did the same with more vigor. And I said, no guys it was like this: I rasied my hands in the air heavenward (on a calm Sunny day) and shouted, "Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour!!!" and we had to run out of the way as a wind blew through and knocked over the ark nearly falling on us. We all had a great laugh at the power and timing of God.