Worship
Hello, welcome and thanks for clicking this section of the site. Over the coming weeks months and years we will be using this section to teach, pray and encourage each other in our expression of worship.
Worship is a key aspect not just of the church as a congregation but of our own development in God, and as such we believe that worship itself goes far beyond the songs that might be sung or things that we can 'do'. Rather, worship is a heart attitude, a way of being rather than doing. The famous words from Romans 12 are that in view of God's mercy, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, but then Paul goes on for the rest of the chapter teaching us about how to practically put this into place, thinking of ourselves with sober judgment, not thinking ourselves more highly than any other, using the different gifts that God, in His mercy bestows upon us for His glory, hating what is evil clinging to what is good, and it goes on. This is what a life of sacrifice should look like, everything given up to Him who holds all things together.
Worship is our expression of our constantly changing life, that God, in His mercy, has allowed us to live...lets live it to the full!!
Blessings
Kev
Extravagant Worship?
I have been thinking about the term extravagant worship and how we as Christians use it to describe the type of worship that we lift up to God, and as we have been, as a church here in Wrexham, looking at the life of King David, the image that always comes to mind is that of him dancing before the Ark, naked and unashamed (2 Samuel 6:14)
While I think that this is great (although I have no plans for the naked part!) I can’t help thinking about the other side of David’s worship, the part of him that we wouldn’t perhaps describe as so extravagant but nevertheless shows a reality of heart towards God that comes from being exposed in a more far reaching way than just taking off our clothes.
The Pressure is on…
So here I am, kneeling in my cave with the one who is sent to kill me standing there ‘relieving himself’. Everyone around me is stating that God has given him into my hands and that I should seize the day and put an end to him here and now, and from where they stand, that is certainly what the situation looks like. Yet David doesn’t see things quite the same as everyone else…remember Goliath? His eyes are set on higher things and he knows in his heart that this isn’t right; it’s not the way it works.
Fast forward a couple of centuries and a man stands on a high place and everything that He sees is offered to Him if He would just worship the one who is offering it, but His eyes are set on higher things…in His heart He knows this is not the way it is done.
As worshipers, and indeed as worship leaders, we should be ones who’s eyes are set on the things above and not on earthly things. So what does this mean? Practically, it can mean that we should not judge, the one who has hands raised and appears to be ‘outwardly’ worshiping may not be in his/her heart just as the ones who sit quietly may be worshiping wholeheartedly. The distinction is not for us to make, but between the person and God. A mans ‘extravagant worship’ may not outwardly look extravagant, and yet, the extravagant heart which is turned toward God will please Him greatly…this is true extravagance in worship!
Pray the prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:
(Personalised)
I ask that you, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know you better. I pray also that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which you have called me, the riches of your glorious inheritance in the saints, and your incomparably great power for us who believe.
