WHAT IS WORSHIP?

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being.”  (Revelation 4:11 NIV)

You will find throughout the Word, and then continued throughout history, that when a human heart truly encounters the love of God -- in essence when the created connects with the Creator -- the response is worship, or worth-ship, as we often say. Worship as a response to revelation is displayed through consecrated lives (Romans 12), through wholehearted songs of love and devotion (the Psalms), and by living lives of love and justice (Micah 6:8). Worship is required not in perfection by man’s standards, but in truth, by God’s standards. He has never been impressed by offerings that look good, but offerings that are good. As the worship of God continues to gather momentum across the earth, so too does the awareness of His power and presence, along with the understanding of the authority that comes with exalting the name of Jesus over all things.

The ultimate goal of all we pursue in worship is God’s honor and glory. So don’t get worship and music confused, for what we are involved with is Holy. Not to be confused with marketable tunes that make you feel good. As Pastor Jack Hayford says, “Where worship is released, God’s presence comes to dwell, and where God’s presence abides, there will be power.” Let’s be committed to seeing the fullness of this word “worship,” so that it may reach its potential on earth as it is in heaven. 

-- Darlene Zschech in “The Worshiper” Magazine, Summer 2008

#6495

THE SOCIAL WITNESS OF CHARLES WESLEY’S HYMNS – Part 1 of 3

When we preach on social action, we are likely to use Charles Wesley’s “A Charge to Keep I Have” as one of our supporting hymns. The second verse, in particular, seems to apply:

          To serve the present age,
                     My calling to fulfill;
          O may it all my powers engage
                     To do my Master’s will.

But when we sing it, we ought to be instructed and perhaps corrected by it. Wesley’s impulse for serving the present age was very clear: “My calling to fulfill… to do my Master’s will.” He had a “charge to keep,” and he knew what it was:

          A God to glorify,
                     A never dying soul to save,
          And fit it for the sky.

 Further, Wesley had a sense of eternal destiny which modern congregations may find unfamiliar if not uncomfortable:

          Assured, if my trust betray,
                     I shall forever die.

He went about the work of this “present age” with an eye well-fixed on eternity and on the will of God. His social action was never in danger of becoming earthbound. I doubt that Wesley would ever have been content with social action or economic reform which was an end in itself. The “present age” has its ultimate significance in that it is inhabited by those who have “a never-dying soul.”  

--  J. Ellsworth Kalas (1923-2015) in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley” 

#6354

LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS – Part 2 of 2

“Our concert of praise
To Jesus we raise,
And all the night long
Continue the new evangelical song:
We dance to the fame
Of Jesus’ name;
The joy it imparts
Is heaven begun in our musical hearts.”  
(Charles Wesley in “Hymns for the Watch-Night”)

There could hardly be a better time to preach the gospel of Christ, and surely no better time to sing it. The gospel has always been needed, since it is God’s solution for the human race, but in our day the need is more poignant and more dramatic. Whether one looks at the penultimate threat of nuclear destruction, or the private anguish of the lonely soul in an impersonal society, one cannot imagine a world more starkly in need of a Savior. There could hardly be a more demanding, more exhilarating time to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. We have never been more needed.

But we must have a song to sing. Without a song, we will only add to the dissonance of the times. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley” (1984)

#6145

A WORLD IN NEED OF A SAVIOR

Let us remember that it is a full salvation we offer. Some movements have been content to save their people and then leave them to heaven. [From early on] Methodism has insisted that we are saved so that we can grow. John and Charles Wesley believed that their somewhat ragtag group of butchers, miners, and household servants could become saints. We are challenged to believe as grandly for the computer generation, for a century of skeptics, and for the spiritually cautious.

And we are saved to serve our present age. Traditionally, we have believed we could “spread scriptural holiness throughout the land.” Now we must do so in a time when family structures are under assault while political systems build their new Babels, and when evils of misery, poverty, and war seem more entrenched than ever.

There could hardly be a better time to preach the gospel of Christ, and surely no better time to sing it. The gospel has always been needed, since it is God’s solution for the human race, but in our day the need is more poignant and more dramatic. Whether one looks at the penultimate threat of nuclear destruction, or the private anguish of the lonely soul in an impersonal society, one cannot imagine a world more starkly in need of a Savior. There could hardly be a more demanding, more exhilarating time to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ.

But we must have a song to sing. Without a song, we will only add to the dissonance of our times… On one of his birthdays, Wesley wrote:

          In rapture of joy
          My life I employ,
          The God of my life to proclaim:
          ‘Tis worth living for this,
          To administer bliss, 
          And salvation in Jesus’ name.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley”

#5969

 

THE HYMNS OF CHARLES WESLEY – Part 3 of 3

And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?  (Charles Wesley)

I think Charles Wesley would be somewhat baffled by our [present day] controversies over the nature of the scriptures… In a sense, he hardly thought it necessary to defend the scriptures; they were a given, a taken-for-granted, and there was no need to plead their case.

But on the other hand, scholar though he was, he would wonder at the kind of biblical study which is more concerned with sources and settings and evidences of authenticity than with nurture. He was a poet, not a critic. He came to the scriptures for food and for the language of redemption and adoration. I am not saying that he would be unsympathetic with the scholar’s research, but he would be concerned lest in the process of measuring the sun’s rays we should miss the glory of its rising or setting.

And he would probably be troubled by the style of the modern pulpit. He would see that our language is an amalgam of politics, sports, sociology, psychology, economics, and faddish jargon. He had only one language, the language of Zion. The scriptures were his native tongue. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley”

#5636

THE HYMNS OF CHARLES WESLEY – Part 2 of 3

O that the world might know the all-atoning Lamb!
Spirit of faith, descend and show the virtue of His name;
The grace which all may find, the saving power, impart,
And testify to humankind, and speak in every heart.  (Charles Wesley)

The most impressive factor in Wesley’s hymns of salvation, and in his work in general, was the massive biblical content.  J. Ernest Rattenbury contends that a skillful person, if the Bible were lost, “might extract much of it from Wesley’s hymns…”

…Wesley wrote 5,100 hymns in Select Passages of Scripture, most of which are unread today, but which effectively retold the biblical story, in the form of a kind of devotional commentary.

Very few contemporary congregations can do full justice to the singing of Wesley’s hymns because they don’t have the biblical knowledge to appreciate what they are singing.  Rattenbury says that Holy Scripture was Wesley’s “sole literary inspiration,” because even when he took phrases from other authors, they were generally nothing other than a recasting of some biblical truth. But Wesley’s weaving of phrases, allusions, and biblical insights is so masterful that even the careful reader will find it hard to catch them all.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley”

#5635

THE HYMNS OF CHARLES WESLEY – Part 1 of 3

 O Love divine, what hast Thou done!
Th’incarnate God hath died for me!
The Father’s co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree!
The Son of God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified.  (Charles Wesley)

There was substantial content in Charles Wesley’s hymns, and this must have played a great role in the nurture of the first generation of people called Methodists. Whatever other books they had, or whatever other training, one could be sure that every time they sang one of Wesley’s hymns -- especially those dealing with salvation -- they would get some solid theology. The text encouraged analysis, thought, meditation, and growth.

And of course it was classical theology. There is nothing trendy in Wesley’s theology. His doctrine was ancient and catholic (universal). It was never incidental or peripheral. A modern publisher might feel Wesley’s theology wouldn’t sell, at least if it were in prose. One often has a feeling that much contemporary theology is aimed for the marketplace, either in the scholarly journals or perhaps, at the extreme, something popular enough to get a sensational book review. Wesley was always sensitive to his times, but his theology was classical and catholic. He worried not so much about what was currently popular in the universities as what was needed on the streets and in the mines. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “Our First Song: Evangelism in the Hymns of Charles Wesley”

#5634

A REVIVAL OF PRAISE

"Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing His praises in the assembly of the faithful…
Praise Him for His mighty works;
Praise Him for His unequaled greatness!...
Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with a clash of cymbals;
Praise Him with loud clanging cymbals.
Let everything that lives sing praises to the Lord!
Praise the Lord!" (Excerpts from Psalm 149-150, NLT)
 

"Praise should be proportionate to its object," counsels Charles Spurgeon; "therefore let it be infinite when rendered unto the Lord. We cannot praise Him too much, too often, too zealously, too carefully, too joyfully." The Psalms do teach us to praise God much, often, zealously, and joyfully. When our praise seems so inadequate, how encouraging to turn to the Psalms and find the freedom and joy of these hymns to God. It is exciting to begin to exalt God by awakening the dawn with… songs of praises to His Holy Name!

-- Cynthia Heald in “Intimacy with God”

#5541

A SONG OF HOPE

Hope is the belief that what little contributions and differences I make in my life have enduring and cumulative consequences. A friend of mine, Jaime Potter-Miller, told me a story once that took place when she served as a chaplain at a retirement community in Western Pennsylvania. She found herself making pastoral calls one afternoon on some of the there-but-not-there residents. How does one provide pastoral care to a woman in the later stages of Alzheimer’s or to a non compos mentis man, she wondered?

Jaime determined that one way of caring for these people was to bring her guitar and sing. There was a patient in particular, however, for whom even singing seemed like a waste of time. A brain stem stroke had left this woman virtually comatose, with not even a twitch of response to any stimuli in years. Her family had tried everything they could to reach her, but nothing evoked even a semblance of recognition.

Unable to bypass this woman’s bed, Jaime bent down with her guitar as close to the woman’s face as she could get, and began signing. Jaime asked herself, “I wonder what she sang when she went to Sunday school?” She sang her answers, one of which was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” During this song, Jaime thought she heard a groaning sound. Then she watched in amazement as this stroke victim began to make guttural noises. Jaime stopped singing, afraid the woman was having another stroke, and called the nurse.

The nurse examined the woman and found her no different than usual. “You had to be imagining it,” she said to Jaime. “This woman hasn’t had any bodily response to anything or anyone in years.” But Jaime wouldn’t let her go.

“Listen to this,” Jaime insisted. Once again she sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” And once again the woman began making those sighs and sounds “too deep for words.”

The nurse bolted out of the room, collected every other medical staff person she could find, and brought them in to witness a miracle. A simple song [of faith] had reached into this woman’s soul and touched her where nothing else could. Jaime later said to me, “Len, I had no idea how deep the roots of faith go down.”

-- Leonard Sweet in “A cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

#5411

A SONG OF PASSION

NOTE: Today, March 29, 2018, marks the 19^th anniversary of our SOUND BITES Ministry™.  It was begun in 1999 in memory of my son, Dustin, who had died on March 29, 1998 -- now 20 years ago. As we continue to move through Holy Week, I would invite you to share how God has used SOUND BITES to minister to you… and invite you to share SOUND BITES with others, inviting them to subscribe. Thank you for your support over the years. -- Rev. Dave Wilkinson

A SONG OF PASSION

“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  (Mark 14:26 NKJV)

How fitting that on this very night Christ, the coming King, would give voice to songs penned centuries earlier just for Him… Imagine the Son of God singing these words as the seconds ticked toward the cross… “The Lord is with Me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?... The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Whatever Christ sang as the Passover meal concluded that night, the words had significance for Him that the others never comprehended. I wonder if His voice quivered with emotion. Or did He sing with exultation? Perhaps He did both, just as you and I have done at terribly bittersweet moments when our faith exults while our sight weeps. One thing we know: Christ, above all others, knew He was singing more than words. That night He sang the score of His destiny.

-- Beth Moore in “Jesus, the One and Only”

#4307

OUR DAILY LABOR

Let us consider a hymn of daily life, written by Charles Wesley and published in 1749...
Forth in Thy Name, O Lord, I go,
My daily labor to pursue;
Thee, only Thee, resolved to know
In all I think or speak or do.

What is your daily labor? You and I share at least one task in common: prayer. Jesus Christ calls us to pray. Our prayers cast out fear and open us to hospitality and friendship. Our prayers give us wisdom and courage to initiate relationships, to extend grace to strangers, and to entertain angels unaware. Our daily labor in prayer encourages us to fast from apathy, to serve others, feed the hungry, challenge injustice, and be the body of Christ in the world.

-- George Hovaness Donigian in “A World Worth Saving”, used by permission of Upper Room Books.

#4179

A MATTER OF MEMORY

Sometimes we feel some distance [from God]. How do we manage that? How do we live with the experience of distance from God? I think mainly it is a matter of memory. Remember the good times. Remember the close occasions. Remember the profound worship. Remember the Lord's table. Remember your baptism. Remember the bread and the cup. Remember your Christian friends. Remember the old [and new] songs and you will get through. It just hurts me to think of the young people who do not know a hymn, who do not know a single Scripture verse, and who have never sat next to the strong shoulder of a believing man or woman. How will they ever make it? You see, what we do here on Sunday, in case you’re wondering, is that we are making memories. What happens today [in worship] will be the only food you will have one of these days. But it will be enough. It will be enough. 

-- Fred Craddock in The Cherry Log Sermons


#3314