Tag: adoration

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Following Jesus by Practicing Worship – Part Three

For the audio teaching go to http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-17-the-practice-of-worship-part-3-2/

Recap: Our Response to God – For All God’s Worth  

This week I’m finishing what I didn’t do in my teaching last week. First to recap: God reveals him/herself as The Word in creation, in Israel and fully in Messiah Jesus. Our response to God is worship, which is acts of adoring surrender (proskyneo, to prostrate and kiss, John 4:23-24), and a daily lifestyle of service (latreuo, to serve, Romans 12:1-2). In this way we express God’s worth for all to see and know. Worship exalts God as King over us and the world (Psalm 22:3): we receive, on behalf of all created things, his Rule & Reign of Love, anticipating and embodying the future Kingdom at Jesus’ Second Coming, when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That will be pure consummated worship. So, every time we worship, alone and together, we actually enter into that heavenly reality now, by faith.

What I’m describing is seen in the Old Testament, e.g. Isaiah 6:1-8f; and especially in David’s psalms, where YHWH’s Kingship (worth) is exalted in creation and covenant (e.g. Psalm 19). Psalm 95 is one of many that teach this experience of worship. It’s especially instructive for worship leaders. NOTE: a) each movement is a response to obey a call or invocation, “Come…”; and b) all three movements are body postures expressing inner convictions. Continue reading Following Jesus by Practicing Worship – Part Three

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Following Jesus by Practicing Worship – Part Two

Recap: For All God’s Worth 

To follow Jesus – to grow intimate relationship with the Father in his Son by his Spirit – we prioritize and practice devotion to God’s Word, and to Worship. God’s Word is his self-revelation to us. Our response to his self-giving disclosure is worship: the gift of our self in responding disclosure and full surrender of ALL who we are and possess, to ALL who he is and has done for us, that God may possess us in utter mutual delight. When you encounter Someone so significant, so beautiful, so majestic and all loving, you cannot but respond with awe and adoration. Think of the moments when beauty breaks through – seen in creation, in people, in the arts, in God’s goodness to you, and above all in Jesus of Nazareth – tears of appreciation and joy well up in you… that is worship… because God is Ultimate Beauty!

‘Worship’ comes from ‘worth-ship’, meaning ‘giving God all he’s worth’. Worship is: For All God’s Worth! Who or what is more worthy of our worship, of our love and our lives? Thus worship is both an act of loving God (proskyneo, in church and in personal times with God) and a lifestyle of serving God (latreuo, all we do every day is for God)… or is it? God is not our butler, at our beck and call, “You rang?” – there to serve us whenever we need him.

A Kingdom View: Worship is Heaven on Earth 

A ‘Kingdom view’ of worship is this: the promised end of the world, God’s future Rule and Reign, the Kingdom of HEAVEN, has already come to earth. It broke into human history in the man Jesus of Nazareth. What is the picture of worship in heaven… now come to earth? Continue reading Following Jesus by Practicing Worship – Part Two

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Following Jesus by Practicing WORSHIP

Recap and Intro

Our identity in Christ is “Beloved” of the Father. We become who we are in Christ by a life-long spiritual (trans)formation, learning to live a life of love… as God is love, imitating our Father… as we see in Jesus in his sacrificial life of love, following our elder brother.

Our core values that make this identity and spiritual formation real are: 1) following Jesus, 2) forming (in) community, 3) fishing the world, 4) as fits our context, 5) to be free to love.

Our key priorities enabling us to daily practice our highest value of following Jesus (intimate relationship with God) are: The Word, Worship, Prayer, and Holy Spirit Ministry. 

The Word is our 1st priority and practice because it’s God’s self-revelation to us. We come to know God/Jesus by the daily reading, study, meditation and memorization of his Word.

Worship is our 2nd priority and practice because it is our response to God’s self-revelation.

WHY worship of God? WHAT is worship?

The only adequate response to God’s Word to us – God’s self-revelation as sheer beauty, glory, love and mercy, in Christ and creation – is awe and adoration. Paul says in Ephesians 3:14, the more we see who God is and what God has done for us, we cannot help but fall to our knees in total surrender and pay homage… this is worship… the (returned) gift of who we are and all we have, because of who God is and all God has done. Continue reading Following Jesus by Practicing WORSHIP

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Being the Beloved Talk 8: Meditation on LOVE

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite
absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love (with Jesus), stay in love (with God), and it will decide everything.”

From Pedro Arrupe SJ (Jesuit Superior General from 1965 to 1983)

Before I shift from the focus on “Be-Loved” to the practices and disciplines that – by the work of the Holy Spirit – transform us into “Being in Love” with God and people, I want to use the above quote to do a final meditation on love. Continue reading Being the Beloved Talk 8: Meditation on LOVE