Worship and Will - A Clarification of Musical Praise

A calming sensation, eyes shut tight and heart thrown open. The world dissolves, and it's just you, the music, and The Lord.

Is this how you feel when you worship our Lord and Savior? I know it's how I feel. If you haven't felt this way, you're missing out. And, maybe, you're even fooling yourself. I'm not telling you that if you don't feel this that you're not worshiping right, but I will take the time to explain what it is, and what it means. As a musician who plays for the glory of God, I feel as if it is my duty to help lead others into joyful worship of Christ. This covers technical aspects such as actually being able to play the music with which we will worship, as well as spiritual aspects such as being right in my walk with Christ, and other things. But I digress. Having this chance to lead others into worship is a special feeling, and it troubles me when people out in the "audience" who profess to be followers of Christ don't join in the worship. It makes me wonder whether or not they know why they should be worshiping.

I don't wish to make this too long of a post, so I will keep my reasons short. However, I implore you, reader, to think about what I say and truly take it to heart. When we worship, we directly enter the presence of God. Indeed, we are asked in a Psalm to do just that (Psalms 100:2). Can you feel the weight of that statement? The almighty, omnipresent, eternal God, brings you directly into his presence while you worship him. The God who saved you from eternal damnation, who regenerated your heart, who sent his son to die a painful and bloody death on a cross with a nail through each hand and one through both feet, having previously been beaten, whipped, and forced to carry the cross on which he hung, this is the God whose presence you enter. And you don't worship? The extremely short twenty minutes or so on Thursdays that we worship this awesome God through music, and you can't find it in you to worship him? To allow others to worship? I don't mean to guilt you if that is what you're feeling, but I find that if you don't think about it this way then you miss the whole idea behind worship, which is rejoicing in, glorifying the name of, being thankful towards, loving, and giving all you are to our holy and wonderful God and Savior.

Next, I want to talk about our actual singing. I don't want to tell you that you're doing anything wrong, because I don't know your intent. I do know, however, that if you only sing to be able to say "Look at me, I'm worshiping. Aren't I great?" then something is wrong. Also, I wish that when you sing you mean what you say. Singing "I give you my all" or "you are my king" shouldn't be taken lightly. Mean what you say, and if that means not singing a song because you don't really accept the song as truth and need to examine your heart first, then so be it. I want to be in front of honest, joyful worshipers, not people giving lip service to look good. And once again, just to be absolutely clear, I'm not saying anyone that may or may not read this is doing anything with malintent or without the right mindset, but this is a topic that worries me greatly and so I feel I must address it.

With this said, I want to once again ask you to take this to heart. Entering into genuine worship of God is one of the best feelings you can ever experience in my opinion, and this is a feeling fairly easily obtained. Without people that will genuinely worship, we might as well stop playing music for others. And trust me, it gets tempting to do just that sometimes.

Will you join me in genuine worship this week, and past the end of time?

Is it ever enough?

I was looking for some guitar tabs online for the Canon in D Major. I printed them and started practicing. Running through the notes, I began to get frustrated that there were so many notes, such a fast tempo, and the fact that it printed on multiple pages so I couldn't just look from one page to the next, that I had to flip them over.

Thinking to save myself some time, and make things simpler, I started to change the notes. Writing down places I could shave off a few, and slowing things down a bit. I tried my best to make it all fit onto one page. After an hours work, I was done. Ink dripping off my pen, shining on my music notebook. I had condensed four pages into one, and constructed just a simple line. But something wasn't right. The song sounded off, lacking that something it originally had. It wasn't satisfying to play. It wasn't what the composer had in mind.

Do you ever feel like I did? Not liking how things have been laid out, and rushing to grab your pen and notebook in order to "make it better"? What we end up with is always a mere shadow of what the original was. A cheap imitation. You see, Johann Pachelbell had a specific idea for his Canon in D. He wanted those "extra" notes, and when all is said and done, it is a beautiful, intricate song.

Did it ever occur to you that God is our "composer"? As it says in Romans 8:28,

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

God weaves occurences in our lives for his benefit, to the greater glory of his name. He predestines our lives just as a composer plans for certain notes to be played. He knows everything, is everywhere, and always has been, is, and will be. Yet, for some reason, we sometimes feel like I did while playing through music, and jump to say "God, this is too hard" or "God, you did this part wrong, it should really be like this". We doubt the perfect plan of God, and scorn his hand moving to make his intricate song in our lives. I want to challenge us all, myself included, to allow God full control of our lives, and allow him to write his song. We have no right to second guess God, and yet we still do. I hope we all resist the temptation to grab our pens and "fix" his work.

So now, I ask you, will God's work ever be enough? Or will you always try to change the notes he's written for you?

δούλος of Christ, welcome

Hello all! Welcome to the first post in what I hope becomes a long and healthy series of posts that provide some more reflection upon the thoughts listed on storiesfromtheloft.blogspot.com and, occasionally, some more in-depth analysis. They'll probably have my little twist on them, but maybe that's beneficial to you. However, in an aside from what this blog will most commonly be about, I thought I should write about a concept that I find to be of great importance in the Christian walk. In a book given to me by pastor Jason called Worship Matters: Leading Others To Encounter The Greatness Of God, there is a concept brought up that is of great importance. This first bit of wisdom is that the "mind and heart belong together." That is, what the mind dwells upon and pours over, what one enjoys the most, what one is passionate about and what one feels depressed without, what one fears losing the most reveals the hearts intent. I want to ask, are your mind and heart in conflict? Saying you search for one thing and your actions reveal otherwise? I know I struggle with this, and others do as well. Using one of Chris' great examples, do you try to fit God into a box and not allow him to encompass your whole life, heart mind an soul? I ask this because if you truly are a δούλος of Christ, then it is really his life, not yours. In keeping with this idea that you are a slave to Christ and your life is his, your speech, conduct, and love should be used by you to change the world around you, and express your relationship with Christ in everyday life. No one will know you are a δούλος of Christ unless your words and actions demonstrate this. For junior highers, I am making a specific reference to the parable brought to us this night by Ted about building the house on rock or on sand. I hope you keep these things in mind, and I hope that we all truly act like the δούλος of Christ that we are.