• go in pairs
• go in the authority that He has given us
• know that you have everything you need in Him
• “If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.” Mark 6:11 (The Message)

My favourite part of the passage was the response that the disciples had. The Message translation uses this great phrase:

Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency
that life can be radically different [Mark 6:12 in The Message]

How great is that as a response! They hit the road and got on with casting out demons, healing the sick, and setting people free, and the way that they preached was with a “joyful urgency that life can be radically different” let us develop this attitude amongst the church and joyfully and urgently take the message to the world that life can be radically different. Amen.

We recognise worship by a number of attributes, which in themselves don’t necessarily define worship but help us to see it:

• singing
• dancing
• clapping
• raising hands
• adoration
• worship
• glorifying
• submission
• service

Here are some of my thoughts on what should form part of the definition of worship:

• Putting God first in everything
• Wanting to please Him in all we do
• Working to see and demonstrate His glory on earth
• Submitting to the King of Kings
• Our ‘reasonable service’ is our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1)
• Loving Him and His creation in the way that He does
• A response to the love that He has given to us
• An expression of His Spirit within us – using the gifts of the Spirit is part of our worship
• Giving of ourselves, our time, and our money
• A sacrifice of praise – giving something that is costly. Not giving out of compulsion or obligation, instead giving out of love
• An attitude and lifestyle as well as an action (we can live a life of worship that isn’t one of singing continuously!)

Again, let’s try and make this interactive and meditate together on what worship is, let me know your thoughts by using the ‘comments’ options below…

One thing that really stood out to me was Paul’s description of his problems&hardships (2 Cor 11:23-29) but he still described them as light and momentary troubles (2 Cor 4:17) . The reason he could say this was that he was looking at everything in the light of eternity. All the troubles he was facing could never stop him worshipping Jesus as he knew that they would be over in the blink of an eye compared to eternity in heaven with the King of Kings.

We too need to remember to view everything that comes our way in the light of eternity. And the light of eternity is Jesus as He is the ‘light of the world’ (John 8:12). We should see everything through Jesus’s sacrifice, as though it were a filter that changes everything we see. By doing this we can praise Him in every situation as all things seen in the light of eternity are shown for what they really are.

It was amazing how may Christians were attending the conference, fed up of dry churches with no teaching or foundations, they were looking for spirituality – but in completely the wrong place! It was great to be able to point them back to Jesus, particularly as many of them had little understanding of who he is and what he has done for them. We were able to challenge people, explaining that the only way to God the Father is through Jesus, and correcting the false importance and worship of angels – we gave one lady a Bible with a copy of “Why Jesus?” used to bookmark the chapter in Hebrews concerning the place of angels!

As well as sharing the truth about Jesus we also layed hands and prayed for a lot of sick people. A lady with a swollen ankle was completely healed and able to walk again normally, another lady with osteoporosis and fibromialga experienced immediate relief from pain. Others including migraine and asthma sufferers were prayed for and a lady with IBS received prayer for healing and also through a word of knowledge received words of encouragement concerning her loneliness. Another suffer of fatigue and depression was encouraged and built up.

We were all very blessed and encouraged to be out there making a stand for the gospel and for the name of Jesus. Thank you for all your prayers of support and to Susan, Tim, Helen, Matt, Sam, Stef and Toby for getting out there and allowing Jesus to change lives!

It’s not uncommon to hear people describe a love of something as being a ‘worship’, whether it be football or a celebrity, or anything else for that matter. Is this person saying that they physically bow down and worship in front of that celebrity? Of course not. The description of ‘worship’ used by that person isn’t referring to an act, it’s an attitude.

As Christians, when we talk about worshipping God what do we take that to mean? I would suggest that the vast majority of people see it as an act of bowing down to or singing or praising Jesus.

So which is the correct view of worship?
Well there is no denying that there is a physical act of worship which we are called to do – Romans 12:1 tells us that we are to perform an ‘act of worship’ (NIV) or ‘your reasonable service’ (NKJV). But if we think that worship is just an act then we are missing a lot of blessing that God has for us. Like the ’secular definition’, true worship involves a constant attitude of love and adoration rather than occasional acts. We know that we are living a life of worship when Jesus is who we think about when our mind wanders, and He’s the first person that we want to give our time, effort and money to.

Knowing that we can live a life of worship even when we’re unable to do some sort of ‘act of worship’ should remove any worry about how much time we devote to worship (although of course devoting your time is an important thing to do), and give us peace in knowing that even our thoughts and attitudes are a form of worship. Let’s make sure that we’ve all got an attitude of constant worship.

We will have openings for any budding shepherds, sheep or angels and you don’t need to worry about costumes as we will have plenty ready on the day.

There will also be plenty of carols and mince pies so please come along and join us in celebrating the great story of Jesus’ birth.

John Wesley wrote his directions for singing as part of ‘Select Hymns’ (published in 1761). The full list can be found here (worshipedia.org) or here (Joyful Noise Ministries), or in the original text if you happen to have a 350year book lying around!

I wanted to highlight three of them which I think deserve particular attention for all worshippers in all situations:

• Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
• Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength.
• Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

If we all adhered to these directions then I believe we’ll find our worship moving on to another level.

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I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Psalm 27:13 [NIV]

This is one of my favourite scriptures, and I think that it describes the act of worship really well.

The worship leader Graham Kendrick says that ”the core dynamic of Christian worship is revelation followed by response” (from Worship Central article found  here). I read the passage from Psalm 27 as someone who is in a situation that, in the natural, doesn’t seem good (whether it be enemies attacking, sickness, poverty, relationship troubles etc), but they have met Jesus in worship and the only response they can have is “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living“.

So as you are worshipping let the Lord show you who He is and how much He loves you, and you’ll find that He is far bigger and stronger than anything that can come against you (Romans 8:31). Our worshipful response to revelation about Jesus, is awe, love, and confidence.

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Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. [Psalm 24:3-4 NIV]

For the past couple of weeks since David spoke on this topic I’ve been thinking about the ‘power of a good conscience’. Have a look at David’s blog post on the subject to read up on what He said.

Our conscience has a direct bearing on our worship, but it doesn’t define who can ascend the mountain of the Lord (Psalm 24:3).

Our relationship with the Father, and therefore our worship, is not based upon anything that we have or haven’t done. Everything is based upon Jesus – the perfect one-time sacrifice for all our sins forever  (Hebrews 10:14), so that when the Father looks at us He sees us as righteous as Jesus, he sees us with clean hands and pure hearts! Hallelujah. So the one who may ascend the mountain of the Lord is anyone who is redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

So if our conscience doesn’t change how God sees us then how does it affect our worship? Well, worship involves both us and God, and although an unclean conscience doesn’t affect God’s view, it has a strong bearing on our behaviour. When Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord it was them that hid from God, rather than God withdrawing from them (Genesis 3:8) – their consciences condemned them. The result of an unclean conscience is that we don’t feel that we can fellowship with and worship God – we lose our understanding of Jesus’s sacrifice in our place.

This is summed up in 1 John 3:21 where it says: Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God. So from a worship perspective it’s vital to keep a good conscience so that we realise that we can have confidence to enter the Holy place by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22). So the call for us is to be holy, for He is holy (1 Peter 1:16).

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