Friday, February 6, 2009

knowledge leads to worship

This last week was spent preparing a message that I was to give in one of my classes in seminary. The passage I was explaining was 1 Chronicles 13-16. in this account David is seeming to do the will of God by transporting the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem to establish a central place of worship for Israel; however, as he is doing this he breaks two commands of God in regards to how the Ark should be transported (only by the Levites and carried by the poles that were in it). While on their trek to Jerusalem the ox pulling the cart that the Ark is on stumbles and in an effort to catch the Ark Uzzah reaches out and places his hand on the Ark. In response to this God kills Uzzah and David becomes fearful of God (not the fear that is awe/respect but rather fright/scared). Throughout this situation David has an incorrect view of who God is. He doesn't understand that God not only has a will he is accomplishing but also a way in which he wants it accomplished. In the next couple chapters David goes through a transformation of his understanding ultimately a correct view of who God is in regards to doing His will His way. At the end of chapter 15 and nearly all of chapter 16 we see David's expression of passionate worship of God. Instead of responding in an inaccurate fear of God he responds in inspired worship of Him. IN my study of this passage, in conjuction with other situations that have occured in the past couple weeks, I have come to a conclusion that when we come to a new or refreshed understanding of who God is it will motivate the passion of our worship of Him. If we are experiencing dull boring worship the first place to look is not the style of the worship or the structure of the song, the first place to look is our understanding of God. If we have been learning about God the passion of our worship will ultimately be affected by it. There is another area that i have been thinking and wrestling with for a few days is in the area of our corporate worship. the typical Sunday morning service has singing first and then the sermon; however, if it is true that coming to a new or refreshed understanding of God will impact the passion of worship then why do we structure our service in this way? Should we not learn about God through the sermon and then give opprotunity to the body of Christ to express that corporatly through the singing of praise to Him.

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