I have arrived back at school. My plane got in bright and early yesterday morning, and I ended up having a bit of time while I waited for my ride. Rather than just people watch like the last blog post I wrote about time spent in an airport, I decided to pull out some of the books I'm doing with my devotions and to do a bit of reading.
I am not going to lie. It has felt like tough slogging this last semester. Every so often I would find a gem it what I was reading, but it was nothing like last winter/spring, where everyday God brought something to my attention. Where everyday it seemed like my mind was being blown away. Maybe it was just a dryer period in my reading, I don't know.
When I was in Ontario, Charming and I were invited for lunch at the home of some of his friends, a couple who are both teachers. After lunch they reached for their Bible. Now they also have a two year old son, and as he had not gone down for his nap yet, they grabbed his Bible instead. I had to smile, as it was the same Bible all the children in my family now possess (my father made it his mission to look for the most theologically-sound Bible he could find). After they had read a story in it, I remarked about my niece and nephews having the same one and mentioned the effort my Dad had put into finding it. The wife smiled and explained how much she liked that every story pointed to Jesus. How He is the theme of the Bible.
For whatever reason, this memory stuck with me throughout my Christmas break. Then I had a moment, in the Vancouver airport, where everything began to come together, and that lunch time experience was the jumping point.
One of the books I'm reading right now is Worship by the Book and it is a collaborative work by D.A. Carson, Mark Ashton, R. Kent Hughes, and Timothy Keller. Each of the men come from a different denominational background, but discuss a biblical theology of worship. Right now I am working my way through Hughes' section, and at this point he is discussing what he calls the distinctives of worship.
The first point, and the one I read yesterday, is that worship is God-centered.
Seems pretty basic, right?
Yet we miss the point a lot. Hughes does not say that church should not be culturally sensitive, or that it shouldn't appeal to the hearts of the people out there. What he is saying is that at the root of it all, worship MUST be God-centered.
When worship becomes human-focused, we can end up with preaching that focuses on lighter, topical subjects because we believe that teaching what is in the Bible is too "heavy." The result is that churches are "producing a people who are weak in their knowledge of the Scriptures as well as of the great writings and music of the church." We end up "dumbing down" church. I know Charming and I discussed this a bit when I was visiting him with regards to teenagers (me from a high school teaching perspective, him from the perspective of a youth leader). We have this knack for thinking youth stupid--for thinking that they can't handle being challenged, that they must be spoon fed everything. Yet what does that teach them? Does it make their faith something strong? Something they can depend on? Something that will keep them from drowning when the storms start raging?
Today I read Hughes' next distinctive: worship is Christ-centered. Here is how he begins this section:
"The New Testament does not reveal a greater God than does the Old Testament, but the New Testament provides a greater revelation of that God. As the Apostle John so beautifully said, 'No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known' (John 1:18). The phrase 'has made him known' is the single Greek word exegesato, from which comes our English word exegesis--so that, as Carson says, 'we might almost say that Jesus is the exegesis of God.' Jesus explained (exegeted, narrated) God for us. As the Word, he is God's ultimate self-expression."
And then I had to stop.
Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the running theme of the Bible (the Word). Jesus is the Word that explains God.
Maybe it's just the English student in me, but I find this exciting!
Sometimes I think we fall into the habit of asking God what we get out of this whole Christianity deal. Our focus becomes what the Bible has to say about us.
But the truth of the matter, is that it is all about God. One of the things that Hughes points out, and that Jesus also stressed in Luke 24:25-27, is that the Old Testament all points to Him. And He is the Word that explains God.
A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying this:
"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."
Maybe none of this has made sense, and if that is the case I apologize. I just know that for me it was an incredible experience to read something that grabbed my attention and, in a way, blew my mind by the connections that were made. And that ultimately made me step back and re-evaluate myself. What is my focus? Is my worship God-centered, or is it me-centered? The stress of a new semester has been clinging to me (I may or may not have had an emotional breakdown on both my sister and Charming last night), and I'm not going to lie, my focus for the last little while has been more selfishly focused.
And I don't want to be that person. I want to be a piano tuned to that one Fork. I want my life to be a life of worship, and worship that is focused on God.
I am not going to lie. It has felt like tough slogging this last semester. Every so often I would find a gem it what I was reading, but it was nothing like last winter/spring, where everyday God brought something to my attention. Where everyday it seemed like my mind was being blown away. Maybe it was just a dryer period in my reading, I don't know.
When I was in Ontario, Charming and I were invited for lunch at the home of some of his friends, a couple who are both teachers. After lunch they reached for their Bible. Now they also have a two year old son, and as he had not gone down for his nap yet, they grabbed his Bible instead. I had to smile, as it was the same Bible all the children in my family now possess (my father made it his mission to look for the most theologically-sound Bible he could find). After they had read a story in it, I remarked about my niece and nephews having the same one and mentioned the effort my Dad had put into finding it. The wife smiled and explained how much she liked that every story pointed to Jesus. How He is the theme of the Bible.
For whatever reason, this memory stuck with me throughout my Christmas break. Then I had a moment, in the Vancouver airport, where everything began to come together, and that lunch time experience was the jumping point.
One of the books I'm reading right now is Worship by the Book and it is a collaborative work by D.A. Carson, Mark Ashton, R. Kent Hughes, and Timothy Keller. Each of the men come from a different denominational background, but discuss a biblical theology of worship. Right now I am working my way through Hughes' section, and at this point he is discussing what he calls the distinctives of worship.
The first point, and the one I read yesterday, is that worship is God-centered.
Seems pretty basic, right?
Yet we miss the point a lot. Hughes does not say that church should not be culturally sensitive, or that it shouldn't appeal to the hearts of the people out there. What he is saying is that at the root of it all, worship MUST be God-centered.
When worship becomes human-focused, we can end up with preaching that focuses on lighter, topical subjects because we believe that teaching what is in the Bible is too "heavy." The result is that churches are "producing a people who are weak in their knowledge of the Scriptures as well as of the great writings and music of the church." We end up "dumbing down" church. I know Charming and I discussed this a bit when I was visiting him with regards to teenagers (me from a high school teaching perspective, him from the perspective of a youth leader). We have this knack for thinking youth stupid--for thinking that they can't handle being challenged, that they must be spoon fed everything. Yet what does that teach them? Does it make their faith something strong? Something they can depend on? Something that will keep them from drowning when the storms start raging?
Today I read Hughes' next distinctive: worship is Christ-centered. Here is how he begins this section:
"The New Testament does not reveal a greater God than does the Old Testament, but the New Testament provides a greater revelation of that God. As the Apostle John so beautifully said, 'No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known' (John 1:18). The phrase 'has made him known' is the single Greek word exegesato, from which comes our English word exegesis--so that, as Carson says, 'we might almost say that Jesus is the exegesis of God.' Jesus explained (exegeted, narrated) God for us. As the Word, he is God's ultimate self-expression."
And then I had to stop.
Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the running theme of the Bible (the Word). Jesus is the Word that explains God.
Maybe it's just the English student in me, but I find this exciting!
Sometimes I think we fall into the habit of asking God what we get out of this whole Christianity deal. Our focus becomes what the Bible has to say about us.
But the truth of the matter, is that it is all about God. One of the things that Hughes points out, and that Jesus also stressed in Luke 24:25-27, is that the Old Testament all points to Him. And He is the Word that explains God.
A.W. Tozer is quoted as saying this:
"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship."
Maybe none of this has made sense, and if that is the case I apologize. I just know that for me it was an incredible experience to read something that grabbed my attention and, in a way, blew my mind by the connections that were made. And that ultimately made me step back and re-evaluate myself. What is my focus? Is my worship God-centered, or is it me-centered? The stress of a new semester has been clinging to me (I may or may not have had an emotional breakdown on both my sister and Charming last night), and I'm not going to lie, my focus for the last little while has been more selfishly focused.
And I don't want to be that person. I want to be a piano tuned to that one Fork. I want my life to be a life of worship, and worship that is focused on God.
I agree with your statement about church being dumbed down, especially in regard to teenagers. I went through that at my church. Fortunately for me my homeschooling program had a daily Bible/Theology lesson, and they didn't shy away from the deeper points of Scripture.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in more charismatic churches, I found that the experiential became the prominent theme of services--it was all about the emotional experience. And while God created our emotions and I definitely believe He uses them to speak to us, I get tired of the view that us "regular" people are unable to grasp the deeper points of Scripture.
DeleteI am so glad to hear that you had a program that was able to supply that for you! I know my parents went to great lengths to make sure that my siblings and I were given more than just milk.