Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Thoughts on Worship

The following is some thoughts about worship expression that I posted on another blog. I am a volunteer worship leader at my church and have been been part of our Worship Team for many years. Sometimes I'm discouraged by what seems like a lack of response to God in our church. I sometimes look out at the congregation as we sing see some people just standing there "stonefaced" and that is discouraging sometimes. But the truth is that its not about me or them. It's about the Lord, and lifting our praises to Him. When I think about what God did by sending Jesus Christ to die on the cross for me--for all of us--I sometimes want to jump for joy, or sing or cry or kneel or just lie prostrate at the foot of the Cross. The paragraphs below were a conclusion of the passage in John 4:24.

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:23-24, NIV)

The Greek word spirit (pneuma {pnyoo'-mah}) in this passage obviously refers to the Holy Spirit, but one definition given in Strong's Concordance is: the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated; a) the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides.

"The power by which the human being feels, the vital principal by which the body is animated;" indicates to me that outward expressions such as lifting of hands, crying, dancing or whatever it may be are a natural response to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I've been trying in my mind to separate the "filling" of the Holy Spirit from emotion response or in other words; trying to make a distinction between the intellectual ascent to the fact that the HS lives in us and the emotional expression of it. But I can't seem to draw a line there.

Again it seems that an outward (and emotional) response to the Holy Spirit is natural—and rational. What is it that prevents one from outwardly expressing the overflow of the spirit; pride, lack of surrender? Perhaps somehow they see it as irrational. (In the same way it would be pride that prevents us from outwardly expressing our love for our kids or spouses or family members). I love my kids, I love my wife, I love my Mom and siblings; and so it would be natural and acceptable for me to express that in some outward manner like a hug or kiss. So why would it not be acceptable for me to outwardly express my love for the Savior in some "rational" way?

Obviously we can't physically hug the Lord, but we can reach out our hands to Him, sing to Him, and cry out to Him. We can express our excitement of knowing Him by dancing, or clapping, applauding, or making a joyful noise to Him. We can express our humility and surrender by kneeling or lying prostrate in His presence. Honestly I can't think of anything other than pride or fear or embarassment that would prevent one from expressing their love for and joy of knowing the Lord.

Just some thoughts...

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