WORSHIP!!

Jack Hayford, writer of the ever popular ‘Majesty’, says God wants us to ‘show some skin’. Are you ready for physical worship?

If man is to gain meaning and purpose and direction for fulfillment in his life, then worshiping God on God’s terms is the central point of all understanding. Intellectually, we worship God with a language of worship. Our emotions are involved in worship with appropriate humility.

But what about our bodies in worship? Just the other day I was with one of the executives in our congregation. He’s a man who works a great deal with other executives. He represents one of today’s best known corporations world-wide and he travels to help them solve their problems. I watched him in one of their seminars. As he began the seminar with these coolheaded, calculating executives, he said, ‘I’m going to ask for your response. I’m going to want you to show me some skin.’ What he meant was that he wanted them to signal with their hands when they responded. He wanted them to actuate and activate their responses. When we come to worship the Lord, I think He would say the same thing to us, ‘Show Me some skin.’ The Lord wants us to demonstrate our response to Him, and He wants us to use our bodies to do so.

The Way of Worship

What are the similarities and the differences between the Old Testament and New Testament worship? The Bible is very explicit that our bodies are to be involved in worship. In Psalm 50:5 the Lord says, ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’ In the Old Testament, worshippers offered sacrifices of animals and grain, but that is not all that was required. The worshipper also came with praise and thanksgiving. Psalm 107:22 is one passage where we are explicitly told that thanksgiving is a sacrifice to the Lord.

The New Testament also speaks of the need for sacrifice. Of course, the Old Testament system of sacrifice for atonement was fulfilled when Jesus Christ hung on the cross for us. He satisfied the justice of God with the sacrifice of Himself. It is through Him that we are granted the privilege of coming into God’s presence in worship. But don’t make any mistake - there are still sacrifices and the New Testament describes them. Five times the New Testament speaks of sacrifices, exclusive of the numerous references to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus for our sin. These five Scriptures all refer to actions or actual physical things.

In Philippians 2:17 Paul speaks of himself as being a sacrifice. When Paul wrote to the Philippians he was in prison and he knew he could be facing death. This is perhaps the most dramatic example of sacrifice. There are people in the world who face having to make that literal sacrifice of their lives, but all of us can apply that verse to our lives along with Roman 12:1: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’

We are directed to no less than complete sacrifice of ourselves to the Lord. When we gain that perspective we realize that all other that all other sacrifices are contained in that one. Further on in Philippians, Paul speaks about a gift that the believers had sent to him, and he says that was an acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of God. This verse echoes the sentiments of the writers of Hebrews who tell us to ‘do good and share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.’

(Hebrews 13:16) Our giving and service, both to those who preach the Gospel and to those in need, is a sacrifice to God.

Finally, Hebrews 13:15 tells us that the fruit of our lips is a sacrifice of praise unto our God. This sacrifice is perhaps the most obvious one to include in an article on worship, but it is important to see that all of these sacrifices are acts of worship. Remember that the basic meaning of ‘worship’ is ‘ascribe worth unto’. Therefore, presenting our bodies, our service and our praise is worship - acknowledging Him as God Most High.

The Words of Worship

There are six Hebrew words which have and tell what physical forms of worship latent in their meaning. In the Old Testament, and particularly in Psalms, we are repeatedly told to praise the Lord. However, within those commands to praise are connotations as to how we are to praise. Let’s look at some of the Hebrew words for praise and discover what they tell us about the physical aspect of worship. The two words yadah and todaw are closely related words, and they account for many of the times the word ‘praise’ appears in our Bibles. One example is in Psalm 54:6, ‘I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.’ In that verse the word yadah is translated ‘praise’, but both of these words have inherent in their meaning the idea ‘to hold out the hands’. The word todaw also contains the implication that the stretching out of the hands was to be done with the congregation or as part of a choir of worshippers.

Another commonly used word for praise was hawlal; in fact it is the word that is part of the word ‘hallelujah’. This word means to boast or rave and it indicates sincere and deep thanks. In the Old Testament it is frequently used in the plural form, again indicating that praise was to be expressed in the congregation.

There are three other words we can study briefly. Shebakh or Shawbakh are translated ‘praise’ or ‘praised’ a total of ten times, and the primary idea behind the word is to praise with a loud voice. The word zawmar is translated ‘praise’ in Psalm 21:13 where it occurs in
conjunction with singing. This is a logical translation because zawmar means ‘to praise with a musical instrument or with singing’. Finally,barak is translated ‘praise’ on a few occasions. It contains the idea of bowing of kneeling in homage to God.

The Work of Worship

There are five physical expressions of worship which are shown in scripture. We have now seen that our sacrifice is to involve our physical bodies, and the words used in the Old Testament imply that physical action accompanies praise. But throughout scripture there is additional direct reference as to how we should use our bodies to worship the Lord. It begins with the sacrifice if our lips.

The Lord says, ‘I want you to offer the sacrifices of your lips, which are praises to your God.’ The Bible tells us to sing, speak and even shout at times. This isn’t rank fanaticism or silliness, any more than singing is just pointless redundancy.

The speaking is not intended to be mindless babbling, but an understood expression of worship and praise spoken aloud to Him. In the book of Psalms alone, we are directed to speak or shout more than 50 times, and that doesn’t include the numerous commands to sing. The Lord wants us to speak to Him - to use our voices and our minds in praise.

Physical expressions of praise keep us honest, open and committed. There are many ways that the Scripture shows us to praise with our bodies. We kneel before His presence - that’s a physical exercise. Psalm 95:6 says, ‘Let us kneel before the Lord our maker.’ Philippians 2:10 tells us that every knee will bow to the Lord Jesus. Hands are also often used in praise. We saw that two of the most common Hebrew words for praise indicated that hands be stretched out. Psalm 63:4 directs us to lift our hands, and Paul says, ‘I desire that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands…’ (1 Timothy 2:8) Hands are clapped in a declaration of His triumph. ‘Oh clap your hands, all you peoples!’, the psalmist says (Psalm 47:1).

Our heads may be bowed in reverence (Genesis 24:26) or raised up in a sense of releasing joy from the condemnation of our past (Psalm 27:6). But the open acknowledgment of verbal praise and the physical declaration of acclaim is that sacrifice of worship which involves our bodies. Intellectually, we come with the language of worship; emotionally we come with joy and gladness, yet with humility and obedience.

But don’t ever suppose that worship pre-empts the sacrifice of a physical presentation of ourselves. Worship with you body; it is a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord.

This is drawn from Exploring Worship (Sovereign World). It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the publishers.

MUZIKALOOB 08!!!

mga pare! eto na!!! nagbabalik ang Muzikaloob!!

Now on its 3rd year, the event will take place at UCCP-Sabang..
Sana makasama tayong lahat..

Special thanks to Kuya Kurt for providing this year's logo (siya rin gumawa nung mga dating logo)..hehe..yung lang..

Worship Doesn't End There

We have reduced worship to a medium of "feeling good." That's a statement I would dare say to every Christian willing to listen. We have allowed ourselves to be mediocre in our worship. We preach about living a lifestyle of worship and it is equated to righteousness... this is good but worship doesn't end there... we hear sermons about singing to the Lord, making a joyful noise to Him... again this is good... but worship is not limited by songs or any expression of art there is. We have allowed worship to be all about us... about what encourages us and keeps our faith alive... this will help me in my growth... I need to increase my faith... I need money... I need all of these things... we have reduced worship as an avenue to be selfish.

Let's look at the words of Isaiah, when he first encountered the Lord in the temple.

"I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips... and I live among a people of unclean lips... for my eyes has seen the King, the LORD of Hosts."

A great fear gripped Isaiah's heart. A fear so great that it made him say I'm done for! Finished! Dead man walking here! I AM A SINNER AND I HAVE SEEN GOD!!! Isaiah knows his history... he knows God is holy and He doesn't tolerate sin. The seraphims didn't calm his fears when he heard them sing "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is the LORD Almighty."

Worship ushers us to the presence of God and once we come into contact with Him it is impossible not to recognize His holiness. Holiness is not placed on Him... He is holiness... no one granted Him the priviledge of being called holy because He is the essence of holiness. And when the corruptible comes into contact with the Incorruptible, the unholy sees the Holy, the weak and powerless experience the Omnipotent... an amount of reverential fear starts to creep in and we begin to see ourselves according to what we really are and then we begin to tell ourselves "nothing can be compared to God." Does this show any hint of a "feel good" kind of worship experience?

It didn't end there though... In verse 6 upon Isaiah's realization of this truth a seraphim used a tong to pick up live coal from the altar and touched Isaiah's lips with it. It is interesting to read that the seraphim, a spiritual being, used a tong to pick up a piece of LIVE COAL and used it to touch Isaiah's lips that is made of flesh... human flesh... I could just imagine the heat emanating from the coal, it could have stung Isaiah... and yet because of God's grace it didn't hurt Isaiah... it didn't damage him. God's presence consumes our sinful, wretched, selfish selves... and that is no walk in the park my friend. When we encounter God in worship we die to ourselves. We die to our selfish desires and we begin to live according to how He wants us to live. Now that will sting... it will hurt a lot... a whole lot sometimes... but God is not yet done, through that pain we are being refined. Like a goldsmith God is purifying us, making us more like Him. Though this process is painful it will never damage us, in fact it will build us up in righteousness. Again I dare ask.... you think this is the "feel good" kind of worship we got used to?

But worship doesn't end there... in verse 8... God Himself asked "Whom shall I send? and who will go for Us?" Isaiah responded with "Here am I... send me." I'm going to propose a radical idea to anyone reading this article... the ultimate purpose of worship is to declare God to the lost. God is not an egotist. He doesn't need to be reminded He is great, that He is magnificent, that He is powerful, that He is wonderful, and all the great adjectives that we can attach to His name... but we do. We forget He is the One True loving God, and to some people they dont know that He is. We Christians are a bunch of egotistical, needy, selfish beings that are saved by grace and are continually being saved. Being the egotistical, selfish beings we are we tend to forget to think of others who are still locked in the cages of religion, trying to find or to some degree create a god that will be their source of faith and inspiration. Worship is for Christians to realize the need to go and make disciples... and it is also a testimony of God's goodness to the lost. People need the Lord... many die without even a hint of Jesus Christ... and these people are going to a spend eternity separated from the Lord. People are living here now like empty shells. They are looking for something to fill the void in their hearts... some of them in despair... some are dying a slow and painful death while some might consider suicide. These people need a testimony of God's goodness and it will not come from people who has a theoritical framework of God, but from people who stood in the presence and was able to experience first hand the power, love, and grace of God. Again does this seem as if worship is all about a "feel good" experience of God?

When we worship, we exalt a mighty God, our faith is built up and it pleases the Lord and because of that faith, it draws us closer to Him that makes us so blessed. But at the end of the day worship is all about God being glorified... not just through songs, not just through our lifestyle but in the nations. Worship exist to declare God to the world and we should not neglect that call. Worship changes our perpective from "Me" to "Him"... from "I love" to "His love"... from "My cause" to "His cause"... it leads us to change...

Worship invites the Presence that leads to Change...

Raising Up The Next Generation

Hey guys. I've just finished reading this article worshiptogether.com and it is so timely for us and our present undertaking.

I hope that this article will help to inspire the teachers who will mentor the future worship team and also to make the students understand what really is going on and to encourage hem to keep pressing toward our ultimate goal - to worship and serve our God in the best that we can.

Sobra na english ko..basahin niyo nalang..hehe.. Sana ma-bless kayo the way i've been blessed by it..

indulge :)


Raising Up The Next Generation
Date Posted: 3/11/2008
Author: Jimi WIlliams


In all the worship teachings, ponderings, and musings that I read, I don't hear much about worship mentoring. I have never been a part of a church that does this intentionally. The reason for this may be that in the Nashville area there is such an abundance of good musicians that there is not a need to recruit young people to help. While it's great to have good players, I believe we are missing the blessing and a mandate of raising up the next generation of lead worshipers.

I think there are several reasons why worship leaders avoid working with young people:

1. There's not an immediate payoff.

Most worship leaders I know are more concerned with this Sunday than 5 years from now. It's easy to fall into this way of thinking. We want instant results and Lord knows, working with teenagers is 2 steps forward and 1
step back! Many times in ministry leadership we have the mindset of "What can this person do to help me and my ministry?" We must change this to "What I can do to develop this person?"

2. We fall for flash instead of fulfillment.

When selecting players, everyone wants the guitar player who can mimic all the tasty licks from the recording, versus the teen who plays everything with hi-gain distortion :). At the end of the day, nobody's going to remember the great guitar riff in "Let God Arise", but a you may direct a young person's destiny by giving them the opportunity to serve along side you.

3. Nobody wants extra baggage.

Beware! Integrating young people into your band will cost you. There is a certain amount of hand-holding that must happen, especially at first. My son Christian, who plays guitar and is 12, has started helping me when I lead. The first few times he helped out I had to double check that he packed all his gear, set up his guitar rig, and help calm his nerves. Now that he's been doing it awhile, he knows what gear to bring, sets up his own rig, and is getting more confident with the band.

4. We believe the lie that teens don't want to be involved with adults.

This is so bogus. I hear this argument against older youth pastors or adults who work with students. I turned 40 this year and my wife and I both have incredible relationships with a bunch of teens. Nobody cares
that we are old enough to be their parents or that we are not cool. All they care about is that we care about them enough to invest into their lives.

5. We feel pressure from the pastor and/or congregation to have a professional sounding band.

Okay, I'm going to try and stay off my soap box, but... I sometimes think that the church has forgotten why it exists. In visiting some churches, I get the feeling that the most important thing is how good their music is. We relegate our young people's service to the youth service or the once a year "youth Sunday". That sends the message "this is a big church and there's no place for you to help here". If we want more young people in our church services, how about giving them a place to serve?

The seed we sow now will yield an abundant harvest in time if we are faithful to plant and water. So get that spiky haired kid with the Flying V involved in your ministry. You will change his life and he
will change yours.