By grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone
I know it’s potentially divisive, but we need to keep talking about worship music. Similar to food and art, music has a certain subjective quality to it; especially when it comes to style. Somebody likes jazz, someone else likes rap—and so on. And it’s in the car where we most often reveal our musical taste. […]
A few years back, a full-page ad was taken out in our local newspaper; a new church was starting across town. Here is what they promised would-be worshipers: “Clips from your favorite movies; Casual attire; Coffee to drink during the presentation; Contemporary music: rock or pop, by Ian McMurren and the Next Band; Most of […]
God speaks; we respond. Those four words describe biblical worship. But the guy in jeans and un-tucked cool shirt behind the plexiglas podium has been doing too much talking lately. The sanctuary has become his stage; he’s a talk-show host giving out life-tips to a sorry congregation serving as his audience. Sure, the Bible is […]
What if our Sunday morning worship consisted of Scripture? I don’t just mean expository preaching (there’s a few of us still doing that), but I mean the entire service; a worship service where God speaks (through His Word) and then we respond. In other words a service where we read, preach, sing, and pray Scripture. […]
The case has been made that God, not us, gets to regulate His worship; after all, He is the One being worshiped (see previous posts). John Knox, the Scottish reformer, understood this: “All worshiping, honoring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without His own express commandment, is idolatry” […]
It’s called the “regulative principle”. In short, it means God says how He is to be worshiped; that He has said so in His Word; and that if it’s not found there, we don’t do it. It’s classically defined in the Westminster Confession. It reads: The light of nature showeth that there is a God, […]
Anyone disagree that it is appropriate and right that the house of God be ordered by God’s rules? How can any disagree with that? But when it comes to corporate worship, at least in practice, many actually do. The impression given in many sanctuaries is that God hasn’t regulated His worship; that He has left […]
Thus far, the case for God’s regulated worship has been made from the Old Testament. Can one be made from the New? Most certainly; we’ll look at one this time and another one the next. In Matthew 15, Jesus is having another run-in with Israel’s “worship experts”—the Pharisees. After their confrontation, Jesus gives them a […]
There is another guy with a funny name in our Bibles who paid dearly for his “worship mistake”. His name was Uzzah. King David was excited about moving the ark of God (2 Samuel 6:2) to Jerusalem. Sounded like a good idea; it was the embodiment of the presence of God. Thirty-thousand soldiers and the […]
Can we go back to Nadab and Abihu for a minute (see previous article)? What is it they did that cost them their life? They offered “unauthorized fire” (Leviticus 10:1). One commentator said he thought that meant they were drunk. Not sure how you arrive at that one, though. What we do know is that […]
Therein describes the majority of Sunday morning (O, and now Saturday night) evangelical worship services. Is that a bad “order of worship”? I don’t know but it certainly is inadequate. We can do much better than what passes as typical worship today. Isn’t our life regulated by Scripture? It is. Certainly the worship of God […]
Just prior to our arrival in Kenya (see two previous articles), there had been a national election. National elections and post-election violence often go together in Kenya. So when there was little violence accompanying this one, Kenyans were happy. But there was a large segment of the population that was not happy with the results. […]