In the modern evangelical church, singing, praying, giving, and other congregational acts of worship are regarded at times as preamble to the sermon. Music, in particular, appears separate from elements of worship that seem to be more spiritual, such as praying and...
What is ironic and especially pertinent is that many debates about worship are just indirect ways of talking about ourselves, not God. Our debates devolve into how we like our worship served up each week. It's worship as consumption rather than offering. It’s an...
Is there no real difference between worship and entertainment? I believe there is a world of difference, even though I have some inkling as to why today’s culture has confused the two… ENTERTAINMENT typically results from the WORK OF OTHERS, for my interest, pleasure,...
In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It is typical that we put every possible aspect of our being into it, all of our sensuous, conceptual, active, and creative capacities. We embellish, elaborate, and magnify. Poetry and song, color and...
What if [instead of just the “wow” moments in worship] we actively pursue the joy of the ordinary? What if in this season of Lent, when we verbalize our “ashes to ashes” condition , we give God glory for the profound nature of His handiwork without feeling that we...
I couldn’t pray. I didn’t dare to. In the most secret place of my soul I wanted to beg the Lord to reveal himself in power. I wanted to tell him that it was time for his coming. If there was anything at all to what he had promised, why didn’t he come in glory with...
Saints never know they’re saints. That’s why they’re saints. They are too busy talking to God to look in the mirror. The same moles and wrinkles are there but contact with the Eternal has given them a borrowed glory. Divine conversation has left a residual luster. The...
The temptations to misread the Bible on our own behalf and to domesticate it for our own purposes are many and dangerous, and in America, devoted as we are to the Bible, we have tried them all. Bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible and the making of it an object of...
The mounting rhythms of time, the gathering passion of godhead pervading earth’s body erupt, ecstatic, unbounded…no fiery deluge, no fist-clenching rapture. No star-strewn apocalypse. Only a woman laboring. Only the needy cry of child in the dark. Glory is not what we...
Religious liberty is the nursing mother of all liberty. Without it all other forms of liberty must soon wither and die. The Baptists grasped this conception of liberty in its full-orbed glory, from the very beginning. Their contention has been, is now, and must ever...