<\/p>\n

“I can eat it by myself
\n\tOr eat it with my family
\nEat it with a crowd
\n\tOr eat it customarily”<\/p>\n

(Last time we talked about attending a worship event with a “crowd” of people you may not know.)<\/p>\n

With A Family<\/p>\n

The Apostle Peter addressed Christ-followers using communal terms like family, brother and sister, and priesthood. He did this because he was writing to the local church, which he called the \u201cecclesia\u201d or called-out ones. These people knew each other, did life together, and sacrificed together. They also worshiped together. Peter instructs: \u201cThat you (plural) may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light\u201d (1 Peter 2:9). It has already been mentioned that God is Triune, meaning that He lives in community with Himself. And in corporate worship, the many become one, and reflect the very nature of the Triune God who is both singular and plural. But how is local church worship different from festival worship?
\nWhen people become Christians, they are to be spiritually woven into an entity called the Body of Christ. The local church is where Christians learn to live in community and fellowship with one another, to exercise their spiritual gifts, and to worship. In local church worship, there are actually two audiences. This dual audience is reflected in Paul\u2019s writings to the Ephesians: \u201cSpeak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ\u201d (Eph. 5:19-20). In other words, we sing and speak to God and to one another.
\nThis means we need to know each other, and this is a big difference between church worship and festival worship. Worshiping with a group of strangers requires less of me; it\u2019s easier to get along with people I don\u2019t know and who don\u2019t know me. Additionally, Jesus\u2019 parting instructions were to \u201cgo and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit\u201d (Matthew 28:19). These and other actions of the local church require relationship, and that should change the complexion, content and connection not possible in festival worship. <\/p>\n

By Myself<\/p>\n

Communion between an individual human and an immortal God is difficult to define or describe. Various terms refer to the meeting place of creature and Creator: the \u201csecret place\u201d (Psalm 27:5), the \u201cinmost place\u201d (Psalm 51) and the \u201cinner being\u201d (Ephesians 3:16). There seems to be an intersection of time and eternity where humans are privileged to commune with The Divine.
\nThe Apostle Paul pens a wonderful outcome of having Christ dwell in the \u201cinner being.\u201d In Ephesians 3:16-19, he writes \u201cI pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge\u2014that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u201d The notion that mere mortals can know, be filled with, and personally experience the Living God is unfathomable but true.
\nIndividual, daily worship will generally follow a pattern of reading scripture, meditating and prayer. Taking the time and effort to speak or think words of adoration to God can lift this daily devotional time from familiarity to intimacy. Focusing on the names, attributes, actions and promises of God can be life-giving and refreshing. One eastern orthodox saint described it as \u201callowing your mind to descend into your heart.\u201d I sometimes think of it like a bridge where my mind and my heart meet in the middle and shake hands. <\/p>\n

Customarily<\/p>\n

Customarily refers to a lifestyle that follows usual customs or practices. Lifestyle worship means that Christ-followers demonstrate their love, and thereby their worship, through their obedience to God. Jesus said, \u201cWhoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me\u201d (John 14:21). This is why, when tempted by Satan to trade gods, Jesus replied, \u201cWorship the Lord your God, and serve him only\u201d (Matthew 4:10). The Apostle Paul undergirds the importance of obedience by urging Christians to consider the mercies they had received, and to worship by offering themselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). The lifestyle of a worshiper is to be fueled by God\u2019s mercies to live a life that is pleasing to God. Paul even calls this a \u201cspiritual service of worship.\u201d
\nThe ancient Church Fathers developed a battery of Spiritual Disciplines, or holy habits, which helped them grow in their intimacy with God. The \u201cabstaining habits\u201d include solitude, silence, fasting, simplicity and chastity. The \u201cengaging habits\u201d include study, worship, prayer, service, meditation and memorization. If a person chooses to use one or more of these habits to grow a lifestyle of worship, it must be noted that these habits are not done to get a reward from God, but rather, to place oneself in a place where The Holy Spirit can do His life-changing work. A believer should not be too hard on him or herself when they fail or fall short in the practice of these holy habits. We all know that \u201cliving sacrifices tend to crawl off the altar.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I can eat it by myself Or eat it with my family Eat it with a crowd Or eat it customarily” (Last time we talked about attending a worship event with a “crowd” of people you may not know.) With A Family The Apostle Peter addressed Christ-followers using communal terms like family, brother and sister, … Continue reading Part 4 (final): WHAT’S STEWING WITH WORSHIP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2565,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions\/2565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roadmapsforworship.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}