If your church is anything like mine it has had its fair share of problems surrounding the Sunday AM worship. Our church has dealt with the “contemporary” issues to the point that I think we missed the point all together. We are study a series in one of our adult classes right now based on the book by Dan Kimball called “They like Jesus but not the Church” The deeper we get into this study the more I see the foolishness of fighting over hand clapping, hand raising, praise teams and dramatic preaching. Because I have got to question is God even hearing or recognizing any of it – Traditional or Contemporary?
Here is where I am coming from: Amos 5
As Amos calls these people to repentance he makes the statement in verses 11 and following that they built stone mansions but would not live in them and planted vineyards but would drink of its wine. Why? Because they had become so self serving that according to verses 11 & 12 they had forgotten to be servants to mankind, especially the poor. If fact they had stripped not only of material needs but robbed them of even justice and fairness. They had become corrupt taking bribes and oppressing righteousness.
What this was doing to Israel is the same think it is doing to us a God’s people still today: it is undoing the promises of God to us. You know the promises of peace, unity, freedom and yes, potentially even salvation. We need to be sure to realize that is not God reneging on His deal, it is us who refuses to see and focus on the demands of God. Look at the simplicity of what God, through Amos is calling for:
Verse 4 “Seek me and live”; verse 6 “Seek the Lord and live”; verse 14 “Seek good not evil that you may live”
When we have our vision clouded with internal issues of worship we miss out on the simplicity of God’s command “Seek HIM” and serve others. In doing this you find yourself experiencing freedom in ways you may not have known to exist. And you may just forget how the guy next you is seeking God in a way that is just a little different than yourself.
There will be more to come on these thoughts but meanwhile give me yours.
At the end of the day God is still God, and He is good!
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1 comments:
We can lose the importance of worship by striving over the styles of worship, which the Bible does not address. Worship is from the heart (John 4:24). We sometimes are too busy observing others to the point that we are missing worship ourselves. We must always remember that God is the audience not us. We can be assured that God is always listening, are we listening to God? Worship is not a legalistic form, it is spiritual coming from a renewed heart. We must never leave the doctrine of Christ, but God has instructed us on how to worship God ( John 4:24). Spirit and Truth!
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