Tag: worship

Are You Being Fed at Church?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 12, 2014

It’s Your Job to Spiritually Feed Yourself

Have you ever heard someone grumble about church by saying, “I’m just not being fed”? Perhaps you’ve even said it. I have. However, we’re not talking about physical food, but spiritual sustenance.

When we say this, we sound so righteous, but what we’re really doing is complaining that church doesn’t give us what we want. Where are you being fed?

We too often look at church through the eyes of the modern consumer, demanding church will meet our needs, to give us something in return for our investment of time and money.

When church fails to meet our expectations, our first impulse is to act like a shopper and take our business elsewhere.

However, the main purpose of church isn’t for us to receive what we want; it’s for us to give. We give God what he desires, and we give people what they need. Our goal at church should be to worship God and to serve others.

It’s countercultural today, but it’s what Jesus modeled for us two thousand years ago. Let’s follow his example today.

Yes, sometimes we are hurting, and sometimes we are in need. Then we should go to church to rest and to receive. But our normal, prevailing attitude at church—and everywhere else, for that matter—should be one of giving.

After all, it is better to give than receive. So don’t go to church to get something out of it but with the intent to give something to it: worship God and serve others.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

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Tags church, God, worship

Christian Living

What’s the Best Part of Church?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 28, 2014
2 Comments on What’s the Best Part of Church?

Pursue Christian Community

As a child, my parents told me we went to church to learn about God. The sermon was when I learned about God, so I assumed the rest of the service was unnecessary.

I deemed everything outside the message as obligatory filler and tuned it out, waiting for the main event. According to my reasoning, a church service without a sermon was wasted time, as was a trivial message where I didn’t learn anything.

Other people focus on the singing part of church. They see it as their time to worship God. They may tune out the preaching, viewing it as unnecessary. For them, a church service with an hour of music is the best kind.

Singing to God is important and learning about God is important, but we can do both of those from the comfort of our home. So why, then, do we bother to go to church? Because there’s more.

The Best Part of Church

Church has a third element most people overlook. It’s community. It’s hanging out with friends on a like-minded spiritual journey. The music and message are secondary in comparison to experiencing rich spiritual connections.

Community is why I go to church. Sadly, too many churches don’t place value on real community and too many attendees don’t experience significant connection at church.

True spiritual connections with others rarely happen during church services—or at least how we practice church today.

Occasionally, brief community can occur before the service, but the primary opportunity for meaningful interaction is after church, once the final “amen” marks the end of the official service.

To realize meaningful spiritual community, we must be intentional, and we must be patient. Seek out people who aren’t in a rush to leave.

Engage them in conversation, but minimize small talk about the weather, the afternoon game, or last night’s movie.

Seek spiritual substance. Share life, talk about our spiritual journeys, pray for others and let them pray for us. Meet needs, help others, celebrate Jesus.

This is how we worship and serve God; this is why we go to church—and if your church doesn’t allow for this kind of deep community, then either fix your church or find a new one.

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Tags community, worship

Christian Living

Do We Ever Lie to God?

Be Careful of the Word You Sing

The song said, “We lift up our hands.” Except for my wife, no one else in the church service moved, not even me. It seemed disingenuous to only raise my hands when the song told me to. Shouldn’t I have already been doing that?

We all sang the words, but we failed to do what our words declared. I wondered what God thought about our supposed worship. We said one thing but did another. We sang a lie to God.

I was still agitated by our disconnected praise to God when another song declared “down on my knees.” No one knelt. Why did we profess we were doing something we refused to do?

Raising our hands to God is a sign of adoration, while kneeling before him depicts reverence. Our worship of the Almighty was half-hearted, claiming one thing with our words but then denying them through inaction. We were lying to God.

Our third strike came at the end of the service when we sang, “I surrender all.” I thought I meant it but wondered if I really did.

After all, I didn’t actually lift up my hands when I said I was or literally kneel when I claimed that in song, so was my surrender in words only?

Was I really surrendering all to God or was I holding back, only surrendering in part? Did I again lie to my Father in heaven?

May I be like David, who says he will “live what I sing every day.”

What about the other 200 people present? They lied to God about raising their hands and about genuflecting. Was there any reason to suspect their claim of surrender was genuine?

Even more convicting, did they bother to consider the words they sang? That might be a worse affront to God, to mouth the words with unthinking routine, to simulate worship when their mind was elsewhere.

That might be an even bigger lie and a rut I fall into too often.

God, forgive us for lying to you in song. Grant us focus when we sing.

[Psalm 61:8]

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Tags good music, worship

Bible Insights

Celebrate God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 16, 2014

The prophet Amos had some condemning words for the people of Israel. Through Amos, God unleashed a lament against his chosen people.

He says he despises their religious festivals, and their assemblies are a stench to him. Yeah, I get that.

Those people sure rebelled against God. They deserved his stern rebuke. They went through the motions of worship but forgot to focus on why. To their shame they didn’t really understand who God is.

Yet, I wonder if those words also apply to us today. Does God also despise our efforts at church? Are our gatherings a stench to him?

God continues his stinging reproach. He calls the noise of their song and refuses to listen to their music.

Does God think the same way about our worship music today?
Does our preoccupation with music style, instrument selection, volume level, worship team, and pursuit of excellence repel God?

I hope not, but I fear it might be so.

A couple chapters later God says what he will do. He will turn their religious celebrations into mourning; he will change their singing into tears.

Sometimes (too often) I sit in church and want to cry, at least on the inside. I thought this was because I was bored and disconnected, but now I wonder if maybe God isn’t revealing a bit of his heart to me.

I fear there is more to worship God, so much more, but we largely miss it.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Amos 4-6 and today’s post is on Amos 5:21-23.]

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Tags God, worship

Bible Insights

Do You Worship a Modern-Day Idol?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date January 9, 2014

Manmade Gods Can’t Save You

The prophet Habakkuk, like many Old Testament mouthpieces for God, talked about the folly of a person who fashioned an object and then turned around to worship it.

In essence, these ancient people would make something less them themselves and then revere it as something more.

They would turn a log, a rock, or something they created into their god, an inanimate object they bowed down to, worshiped, and served. How foolish.

The idea of a man making an object and then worshiping it seems ludicrous, yet are we any different today? It’s now fashionable to conceive of God as we want him to be.

We keep the parts we like and throw away the parts we don’t. We assign him traits that don’t belong and ignore what does.

Modern culture often makes God into who we want him to be. Is that any less ridiculous than bowing down to an image made from wood or stone?

Can a god concocted in our minds save us any more than a god fashioned with our hands?

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Habakkuk 1-3, and today’s post is on Habakkuk 2:18.]

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Tags worship

Christian Living

How I Worship God

Many people think that singing songs in church is worshiping God. They’re right, but there’s more.

Other people call the entire church service, “worship,” as in “Our worship service is at ten.” I suppose they’re right, too. But there’s more to worship than a one hour a week effort.

Ideally, everything we do, say, and think can worship God. At least, it should. Yet sometimes that’s hard to do.

Yesterday, as I tried to get my snowblower ready for winter, I should have been happy that I have a snowblower in the first place and found time to prep it.

Instead I was upset that it didn’t start, despite doing all the right steps. And when it finally did start, I forgot to thank God for answered prayer.

As far as worship, I fell short.

Yet my writing is one way that I do worship God. Everything I write is either about him or for him. I sense his pleasure as I type away. After finishing a piece, I think he smiles with delight as I offer it to him.

Whether it’s primitive or polished, as long as I did my best, he receives it with joy. Like a proud parent he posts it on his refrigerator for all to see.

Each Sunday, I write before I go to church, and it’s often my most profound worship experience of the week. Sitting passively in a pew may have its positive moments, but for me it pales to making something and offering it to God.

Here it is, God. I give you another piece of my writing as an act of worship.

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Tags worship

Christian Living

Another Way to Worship God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 7, 2013

For the past few days I’ve helped on a home improvement project. I’ve urged my body forward, performing physical tasks long ago forgotten.

There’s an ache that permeates my muscles and reaches into my joints. But it’s a good ache; it’s an ache of accomplishment.

When God completed his creation, he said, “It is good.” When our remodeling project is finished, we will likewise take a step back to survey the results and say, “It is good.”

I think that will please our creator who will receive our work as an act of worship.

The opposite of work is idleness: watching too much TV, playing too many games, persisting in meaningless conversation, and sleeping when we don’t need it—wasting the time God gave us and squandering what he intended us to be.

Though we need rest and to guard against busyness, we also need to avoid the opposite.

God made us to do things: to work and to create. When we do as he intended, we sense fulfillment.

When we do so for his honor, we worship him. Then we rest.

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Tags creation, Sabbath rest, worship

Christian Living

Why Do We Worship God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date November 25, 2012

Today is Sunday and many who love God will worship him today. But why?

Because that’s what we’re supposed to do
Because we like the music and it uplifts us
Because the Bible says to
Because it gives us joy when we do it right
Out of habit
Out of fear
To feel good about ourselves
To avoid feeling guilty
To please him

These are all secondary reasons. Worshiping God is not about us, it’s about him.

The primary reason we worship God is to affirm him. He doesn’t need our affirmation, but we need to offer it. That’s what worship is.

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Tags God, worship

Bible Insights

Do You Fear God?

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date October 9, 2012

The Bible says we are to fear God. But what does that really mean?

I don’t think it implies God is malevolent or waiting for us to mess up so he can zap us, which would be legitimate reasons to fear him.

Instead, God is benevolent and wants good things for us; there is no reason to fear him for that.

Some translations render fear as “worship” or “revere.” That helps some. We are to worship God and to revere him. I can do that. And although I have a healthy respect for his power, it’s not one the produces fear.

That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Perhaps a hint of understanding is that of the 13 times the phrase occurs in the Bible, most are in the Old Testament.

I will post more on this next time.

[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Ecclesiastes 10-12, and today’s post is on Ecclesiastes 12:13.]

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Tags fear God, God, Old Testament, worship

Christian Living

Four Ways to Worship God

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date September 23, 2012

When I think about worshiping God, I first think of singing songs to him and about him. Yes, that’s a part of worship, but there’s more.

Next, I think about worshiping God by giving money to him and his causes. That’s another aspect of worship, but there’s more.

Third, I think about worshiping God by performing acts of service. There’s a myriad of ways for this to happen and each can be another facet of worship, but there’s more.

Fourth, I think about worshiping God by creating art. Sometimes art is about him and sometimes it’s for him, creating for the creator. After all, he is the ultimate creator and we are made in his image; therefore, we are made to create.

The problem is I’ve never considered myself a creative person. I’m an analytical guy, logic and structure is how I’m wired, not to create.

God began to change this perspective in me when I attended the Breathe Christian Writers Conference last year. Through the people there, he showed me writing is another way to create art.

Not only is writing a spiritual act for me, but now it’s becoming a creative act, too; one I use to worship God.

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Tags creative, give, good music, serve God, worship