Glory

Note: to fully understand this, it is essential, not merely optional, to read the Scriptues linked throughout the post below.

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A friend set me an impossible task in a message he sent me this morning. He asked me to define the glory of God. (I'm honored that he would think me worth asking, but, bluntly, I'm not up to the task. Nonetheless, I shall give it a go, and in so doing hopefully demonstrate, through my own inability to convey the truth of the concept, its fantastical greatness.)

The phrase, "glory of God," tossed about as commonly as it is in our Christian circles, certainly bears more reflection than we often give it. Given the number of times variations on the phrase occur throughout Scripture, we ought to be giving it considerable attention simply on its own merit, and when one expands to consider variations on the phrase - "God of glory," "the Glory of Israel," and so on (try just searching for glory and glorious if you really want to see how important the term is in scripture) - the sheer quantity of references is astounding. This demands closer attention.

One of those phrases - God of glory - is particularly interesting, though it occurs only twice in the body of Scripture (at least so far as I can find): in Psalm 29:3, and in Acts 7:2. These two passages seem to speak rather uniquely to the notion of God's glory, and in manner rather different one from another. From these two passages, as well as what I have gained from my study over nearly a year, I hope to paint something of a picture of what Scripture means by the glory of God.

The 29th Psalm is one of praise and adulation. It opens with an exhortation to the heavenly host to worship God. The particular exhortation in this case is to ascribe to Him all that He is due: glory and strength, the glory due His name. The word glory appears once in each of the three verses, which is significant given that there are only eleven verses in the Psalm. I want to particularly draw your attention to verse 3, the first appearance in Scripture of the phrase "God of glory."

In a Psalm reflecting on the attributes of God - in particular, elucidating His supreme power and worthiness of praise - it is suggestive that David chose to use the phrase "of glory" to describe the God who is "over the waters" (v. 3). The contrast to other gods is, in my opinion, strongly implied in the passage. Every thing that other gods of other tribes would have been doing - natural events like earthquakes, fertility, and so on - is explicitly declared to be under the control of David's - and our - God. But unlike all the other gods, He is not merely the god of the water or the god of fertility or the god of the earth: He is God of glory.

In Acts 7, we have the conclusion of the story of the first known martyr of the Christian believers: Stephen. In verse 2 he begins his monologue declaring the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, lumping them in with the consistent pattern of unbelief that had characterized the Jews over their long history, and thus quietly proclaiming that in rejecting Christ, they were rejecting God. That he opens this speech with reference to the God of glory as the one who revealed Himself to Abraham indicates that it is this attribute Stephen has in mind and wants the Pharisees to have in mind as he recounts their history. That He is the God of glory is central to an understanding of this passage.

These passages in particular, and many others related to them, raise two significant questions. First, what is the glory of God, and second, what does it mean to be the God of glory?

Let us begin by addressing the former question and then from that see if we can understand somewhat the latter question. Glory is a difficult word to define, because it is a word we still have in our language but which concept has slowly faded from our minds. It has become a small, a light thing, when it is used at all.

The American Heritage dictionary's relevant definitions are:

1. Great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.
3. A highly praiseworthy asset: Your wit is your crowning glory.
4. Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship.
5. Majestic beauty and splendor, resplendence: The sun set in a blaze of glory.
6. The splendor and bliss of heaven; perfect happiness.

All of these, with some modification, are part and parcel of the glory which we ascribe to God. On the first count, the honor, praise, or distinction is deserved regardless of whether it is accorded (and to not accord it is thus a wrong done); and the deserving is by dint of the very nature of who God is, not by any assent to His worth by others: He is, by His very nature, utterly deserving of honor, praise, and distinction. The sixth is of course relevant because glory in this sense is then our partaking of perfect fellowship with God.

Of all of these, the third and fifth definitions are most significant for our discussion. The fifth definition gives us both an image of the glory of God revealed in nature - consider the comparisons given in Psalm 19, for example - and a notion of what glory is: majesty, resplendence, and beauty! So in this sense, we may say that God's glory can be defined as His utter and consummate majesty and beauty: greater by an infinite amount than anything of majesty or beauty in this world. And we may also say, in the sense of the third definition, that all His attributes are His glory, for none among them is chief, but all are part and parcel together. His majesty and beauty derive from the sum total of everything about Him: from His perfect love to HIs righteous judgment in wrath, which are but two parts of the same thing: His glory.

And this drives us further, to a deeper and hopefully truer definition. If we look at the word "glory" in the sense in which it is used in Hebrew, it carries two further meanings with it that are somewhat lost in English. The first is the great sense of weight associated with the glory of God: it is a great and terrible and heavy thing: and not only metaphorically. In one of my favorite passages about His glory, at the dedication of the first temple, God's glory falls on the temple, and the priests cannot even enter the temple, because it was full of the glory of God. There are a couple of interesting points to note from this: the first is the sheer present-ness (if you'll allow me the word) of the glory of God. It was Immanent in a way that we typically do not associate with God at all, much less a supposedly abstract concept like His glory. And furthermore, the implication of the passage is that this was the very presence of God, in which case to say that His glory fell is to say that He, in some way beyond us, made Himself present in that location in a way He was not ordinarily physically present.

An extremely important aside here is to note a few things about this presence and immanence. When it left the temple, it broke the prophet's heart - and when it was prophesied to return, it gave him great joy. (The whole book of Ezekiel is essentially focused on God's glory and the temple in the context of man's sinfulness.) The presence of the glory of God is not a small thing. So it is that when the very radiance of the glory of God appears in the person of Christ, this is a most incredible and remarkable event! It is beyond compare! He, the very image of the invisible God (stop and think about that!), appeared to make His glory known to us, and to invite us to once again be perfect reflections of that glory. Ah! I do not have the words to communicate the depth, the urgency, the profundity and meaning in this: that we are given the opportunity to be the ambassadors of Christ in this world, and thus of the glory of God in this world! This is beyond anything in all the world for incredibility.

Returning from that aside to continue our defining, we examine a second point raised by the Hebrew meaning, and related to our expansion of the third definition above. Glory in the Scriptures also means the fullness or totality of something, a complete and total whole. The glory of God, then, is the totality of all He is, a grand whole that is greater than the infinity of each of its parts or even their infinite sum. His glory is the true reality, the grand totality of who He is: His every attribute in perfect harmony and fullness! It is this that is radiant, beautiful, and majestic: and those very attributes are themselves only a part of His glory, parts that make up that transcendent whole.

It is difficult to convey glory in mere words. Think of the most radiant sunset you have ever seen, and all that made it beautiful: impossible to describe, yet knowable nonetheless. Ponder on the most beautiful music you've ever heard, and try for a moment to grasp what made it so compelling: impossible to verbalize, but capable of being experienced. So it is with the glory of God: only infinitely more so, for His nature and character are infinite, and His glory is infinitely infinite. You see? My words fail. Yet I know, in some small part, the glory of God our Father: because I know Him, more deeply and truly every day.

This brings us to our final question: What does it mean that our God is the God of glory? I think that we first must be cautioned that we can never fully describe God Almighty: if even the concept of His glory is beyond our ability to verbalize, how much more so He himself, the God of glory? Then, second, we may grapple with this notion. When other gods are gods of fertility, of water, of sun and moon and stars, even of higher things like righteous anger or love, and ours is the God of glory, this speaks to the reality of who He is. He is not a God created by human hands, nor a construction of feeble human minds. We might be able to conceive of a God whose primary attribute is love - but a God whose love is but a part of a more perfect whole, whose love is a part of glory? This is a God beyond any of us to conceive of, a God whose very nature is beyond understand, but whose glory is reflected just as much in His revealing Himself to us and calling us to comprehend as it is in being so utterly beyond our comprehension.

And because He is the God of glory, with all that this entails, there can be no higher calling in this life, no greater pleasure or joy in this life, than to surrender utterly and completely to His glory as our chief and supreme end, to which all other goals must be subservient or put completely aside. His glory is the only thing worth living for, the only real purpose in this world: for all this is for Him and by Him, and all this is to the glory of Christ. How great an honor we are given to be His image-bearers, to carry in us a small part of the glory of God reflected so that the world may know Him! And how great the promise of Heaven, where we shall each of us perfectly reflect the aspect of His glory we were designed for, and all of us together shall be a shining mirror of the great and terrible glory that He is.

May the glory of the God of glory consume us all!

- Chris

Zephaniah

I'm cross posting this from my own blog, because it fits, and I've not posted here in too long.

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The little book of Zephaniah is, sadly, probably overlooked a great deal in modern Christian circles. (Indeed, we could say much the same for most of the Old Testament, but that is another post for another evening.)

For the last 16 months I have been slowly working my way through the Old Testament in chronological order. I've read all these books before. And I've taken side trips along the way - the foundations of a word-study on glory (before I realized that I would continue to gain in that as I continued to study through the Old Testament, and that the latter would more thoroughly inform the former than a simple word study), diversions through a few brief book studies in the New Testament. I keep coming back to this slow progression through history, though.

Why? Because it is incredible. The character of God is revealed in unique ways in the historical narrative - sometimes surprising ways. His broken heart for the dying world is so evident. His sorrow at the sins and rebellion of men is beyond mere words to describe. His mercy and love are on display in ways that are surpassed only by the incarnation, cross, and resurrection.

As I read Zephaniah one evening last week, two verses struck me forcefully, both from the final chapter. The book, like the other minor prophets, is a broken-hearted tirade against the foolish sins of Israel, with the hope and promise of God's eventually redeeming her to Himself - by wiping out those sins, not only forgiving them but making Israel truly righteous: a promise which began to see its fulfillment in the nations and will someday be completed when Israel herself returns to Christ.

In Zephaniah 3:5 we read:

The Lord in her midst is righteous;
He does no injustice.
Every morning he shows forth his justice;
Each dawn he does not fail.
But the unjust knows no shame.

This is an incredible verse. We see highlighted and sharply contrasted - as in many of the surrounding verses - God and the sinner. God's injustice is on clear display: He is in the midst of Jerusalem and Judah (the context referenced here). The unjust ones to whom the book is directed in call for repentance, however, knows no shame. Even with the perfect example of what he is not, still he blithely walks on his way, content in his sinfulness.

How easy it is to smirk at the folly of it all. But how frequently is it you or me that, despite the clear evidences of the character of God that we ought to be reflecting, walk unconcernedly along in stubborn pride and rebellion? And this after we have been reborn, redeemed, given a heart of flesh instead of stone! How great should be our sorrow when we see our own sinfulness and the depravity from which are gradually but oh-so-certainly being redeemed!

The other text which stood out to me was the oft-quoted Zephaniah 3:17:

The Lord your God is in your midst,
a Mighty One who will save.
He will rejoice over you with gladness;
He will quiet you with his love;
He will exult over you with loud singing.

I have heard the passage referenced frequently. Yet I have not stopped to truly consider all its implications until that evening last week. So much is buried in this single verse: so much of who God Himself is, so much of His nature and character, so much of the way He interacts with us - and will in the glory of Heaven.

First, He will be in our midst. Right in the middle of us, with us wherever we are. Incredible!

Second, He is not merely the Lord God, He is the Lord our God. That's worth pondering. He is not merely some abstract deity: He is not merely the God of all creation (though to lead that latter phrase with "merely" is a misnomer all its own) - He is personally each of our God as individuals and He is our God as a community of redeemed ones. How remarkable!

Third, He is a Mighty One who will save. Two things worth noting here - first, He is Mighty, which means He is able to save: the promise is not made vainly; second, He is absolutely going to save: the verb is will, not may.

And then we come to the oft-quoted (but perhaps not oft-pondered) part. He will rejoice over us with gladness. Wait: the God of all will rejoice of us with gladness? And it's such a great rejoicing - in which gladness is automatically implied - that it must be reinforced by saying "with gladness"? What kind of rejoicing is this? Indeed, it is the kind of rejoicing that only God, with His infinite capacity for joy can do.

He will quiet us with His love. The image is of a child falling silent in their parent's loving arms: secure, completely at peace, because the trust is so complete. And why is the trust so complete? Because there is utter assurance of the parent's love. And so it is here with God: we will be quieted by His love, as we trust Him perfectly. Interestingly, while this is a future promise, I think this part of the verse has perhaps the most immediate application for our daily lives now: when our hearts, troubled by the circumstances in which we find ourselves, are loud and complaining, we may see them quieted when we turn back to Christ and recognize His love.

And last but not least - as if to reinforce the image of rejoicing and then step again farther - He will exult over us with singing. To exult: to revel, to be so completely filled with joy that it exceeds words' capability to convey. And out of this is born singing. But not just any singing: loud singing, like the shout that bursts from your chest when your wildest aspirations are birthed before your eyes. God will do that over us.

And again, as I did the other night, I find myself with tears in my eyes as I ponder this. It is beyond belief: and yet we believe it because He Himself promises that it is true. We who are so unworthy will, in our glorification (which will so perfectly glorify God Himself as all finally see just how great His goodness, mercy, lovingkindness, justice, righteousness, and holiness are), He will rejoice over us.

I do not understand.

I am humbled, broken before this.

And I find in myself awe and reverence.

As it should be: for we are to bring to God an acceptable worship, with reverence and awe.

He is a consuming fire, as Israel learned well in her disobedience - as you and I have learned well in our idolatries. Yet He is, now that we are His redeemed ones, a fire that consumes all the dross and destroys the chaff that is not of Him.

Glory to God in the highest! Glory!

- Chris

Passing Reflection on Glory

God's glory is greater than we can possibly imagine - greater than our wildest dreams. The fullness of who He is, the fundamental truth, deeper than anything in the universe, more real than all else that is or has been or will be. His greatness, His kindness, His mercy, His justice, His vengeance, His righteousness, His love, His everything.

His glory.

Great is the Lord of all!

- Chris

Open Theism, logically flawed

Plenty of better thinkers than I have tackled the subject of open theism and shown its demerits at a purely Scriptural and theological level. I'd like to take a few words to demonstrate its logical inconsistencies. I hope you'll pardon the use of a slightly more formal logic than I would ordinarily use in a post.

An important definition before we begin:
Libertarian free will - the view of free will held by open theists, positing that man's will is entirely continguent and therefore unknowable. That is, it cannot be known, even by God, until the choice is made.

Axiom: Scripture is true.
Corollary: God knows that some will be saved (see Revelation, etc. for demonstration of His sure knowledge of the salvation of a bride for Christ).
These two may be considered "fundamental" in the sense that they are agreed upon by both open theists and traditional Christians. The first is truly axiomatic; the second we take as equally foundational since it logically follows from the first.

Axiom: Scripture allows the view that man has libertarian free will.

Axiom: Scripture does not require that man has libertarian free will.
Here is where the point of contention is, of course, but most open theists agree that libertarian free will is not required by Scripture. Most traditional Christians would contest the first of these premises, but we posit for the sake of argument.

Premise: Man has libertarian free will.

From the premises we argue:

1. God, not knowing the future, does not know what individual men and women will choose regarding salvation until they have chosen.

2. All men, their wills being free, may choose to go to hell or to heaven by accepting Christ's salvation and Lordship. (Clarification: this is all individuals.)

3. The general case of some persons going to heaven is contingent on the choices of individuals to go to heaven.

Therefore, since all individuals may choose to go to hell, and their choice may not be known beforehand
4. God may not have knowledge of some people's going to heaven absent knowledge of specific individuals' going to heaven.
AND
5. God cannot know whether any people will go to heaven, and therefore whether Christ will have a bride, people of every tribe and tongue will be saved, and so on.

Contradiction to an axiom.

Since the axiom is not under debate, nor its necessary corollary, it falls to us to reject our premise as false. The axioms may come under consideration separately, but assuming those, we must reject the premise that man has libertarian free will.

Why is this important? Because libertarian freewill is the keystone of open theism. Open theism posits that God's lack of foreknowledge of the future is because of the indeterminacy of the future - that is, that it does not yet exist, because it is contingent on the choices of man. Specifically, the argument is that because of libertarian free will, the future may not be known. However, if man does not have libertarian free will, then the future may be known (or else another reason why it may not be known must be shown), and indeed is known by God, who (all agree) possesses all knowledge that may be known.

Awe, Reverence, and Daddy

This relationship we have with our God is an incredible thing. I've been pondering, off and on, these last months, one of the many tensions in our faith. In this case, reverence and intimacy.

We are commanded, as I've written previously, to come before God with reverence and awe. He is a consuming fire. Looking at various passages, both in the Old and New Testaments, we see how great a problem irreverence is. It is deadly. It destroys our walk with God; and it has terrible consequences - for it is a great and terrible sin.

And, at the same time, we read that we are to pray to the Almighty God by beginning, "Our Father..." We read in Romans that we call out to Him, "Abba, Father." Abba is Aramaic - and it means "Daddy." We come before the throne of God with confidence, because we have been ransomed to be not merely His servants, but His friends, His children. Incredible. We are the children of God - His sons and daughters.

So here we have a tension unique to Christianity, a glorious mix that is all but incomprehensible. The Almighty God, who we dare not approach with anything less than the greatest of reverence, the utmost humility: He is the same God who invites us to sit at His feet, to lay our head on His chest, to be intimate with Him.

Many religions have a God who is awesome and terrible (in the original sense of the word): fearsome and majestic. Others have a God who is intimate in personal.

Only in Christ Himself do we find God both so infinitely glorious that the only possible response is to fall at His feet as dead, and so incredibly personal and loving that it is He who bids us stand and draw near to Him. Christ is uniquely both King and friend. He alone is both righteous judge - fearsome and imperious - and kinsman redeemer - intimate and closely tied, saving from destruction.

Christ is the very manifestation of the glory of the Father. He is Lord and He is our friend. We mingle awe and reverence with deep intimacy. We dare not become comfortable, familiar in the presence of the Almighty - for He is good, but as Lewis wrote, He is not safe (as we think of it). Yet we must approach Him with confidence, with assurance of His abiding love, of His perfect fellowship with us.

Inconceivable.

- Chris

A brief thought

I was discussing with some friends yesterday the great good that there is in many different denominations, from Southern Baptist to Presbyterian, even to Eastern Orthodoxy (though I have far more difficulty theologically speaking with the latter than with the former).

We decided we needed to start a new church. We're officially going to have an Eastern Bapterian House Church.

Not really, of course: it was merely a jest-ful moment as all of us appreciated our backgrounds.

But I was pondering the thought this morning, and realized it's worth saying: I have no denomination (though there are those I agree more with and those I agree less with).

I have Christ. And the pursuit of Him, within the bounds of orthodox Christianity and mediated by community that is likewise in pursuit of Him, is really what is most central. Certainly what we call ourselves is far less important than Who we follow and how we follow Him.

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

- Chris

P.S. We're back.

Worship: Looking Closer

Worship: the topic won't leave me alone. Neither will the concept. And most of all, neither will God's call - in His word, in His people, in my heart by the prompting of His spirit. The other day at an organizational meeting, the topic arose again - the distinction between worship and singing, in that case, and how worship is expansive and indeed all-encompassing in many ways.

John Piper once commented that "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't" (Let the Nations Be Glad! The Supremacy of Christ in Missions). I think he's precisely correct: if we truly were worshipers of God - as He calls us to worship Him, not as we have decided to - then "missions" per se would not exist: the outpouring of all that was in our hearts would be a natural response, and the gospel would advance mightily because that is who God is.

So I want to challenge you to examine the nature of worship with me. Let me first make clear my position (definitionally, which is to say, not comprehensively but nonetheless accurately):

Worship is the proper ascribing to God of His glory (that is, the fullness of His attributes and character) by the thoughts, words, and actions of created beings; inclusive of but not limited to specific acts and times of praise.

Breaking this down, there are a number of points to examine, each of which will be expanded upon at greater length over later posts. To begin, however, I'll take a look at them at a basic level.

Proper: worship is not something to be done haphazardly. It is to be reverent, filled with awe at who He is, and it is to conform to the patterns He has given us. It is not simply whatever we want it to be. Even the sub-aspects of it - praise, art, and so on - are not to be done out of our own understanding, but submitted to Him, in accordance with His character and His revealed will. Consider, for example, the incredibly detailed instructions He gave for the building of the tabernacle or the temple, and then remember Christ's words to the woman at the well, calling us to worship in spirit and in truth. Hebrews 12:28-29 sums up this point nicely, calling us to an acceptable worship, with reverence and awe - for our God is a God of fire. (For an interesting study, look at how many times people in the Scriptures bow when they worship. For another study, at least as important, look at how many times God is called a jealous God ["whose name is Jealous"].)

Ascribing to God: this is pretty straightforward. Worship is not about us. At all. It involves us, as we're the ones doing it. But it's not about us: it is entirely centered on and focused on Him. Our part in it, our role even in our thoughts and words is our response to Him. The Psalms are like this: they often begin with a statement of the psalmist's situation or complaints, and then turn to worship: reflecting on God and who He is, not on the psalmist or his status any longer.

His glory: several points are worth noting here. First and foremost, the glory we offer to Him is His already: we can in no way increase His glory. Our offering is but a reflection to Him of the glory that is inherently His: for He is the God of glory. We do not make Him more glorious by our worship, but it is a glorious thing that He allows us to be a reflection of His glory! Further points are related to the meaning of glory itself. Looking at the Hebrew idea of glory, we note first that it carries with it a notion of immense weight. Glory, especially that of God, is not a trifling matter: when the glory of God, the Shekinah, fell on the tabernacle or the temple, it came not merely as brightness but as fullness of presence that is unbearably intense and incredibly present. We must also understand that God's glory is not merely glory as we think of it, as beauty and radiance: it is the very fullness of His character. God's glory is the reflection of all that He is, every aspect of His incredible character on display.

This leads us directly into the next points: how we worship.

Thoughts, words, and actions: worship is not something we do on Sunday mornings. If you only worship when at church, there is a serious problem with your spiritual life and your walk with God. Worship is to be lived out, not "experienced" (some church advertisements for their Sunday service to the contrary). We are to offer our bodies to Christ as living sacrifices and holy temples: but sacrifices and temples are for worship. Ultimately, our every thought should be to the glory of God. That is not to say that every thought should be of Him, but over the course of our lives as we are sanctified, more and more of our thoughts should be in accord with His will and His ways. Words and actions that are glorifying to Him will follow naturally as well as we are sanctified - indeed, as our thoughts are brought in line with His. As we are conformed to the image of Christ by the renewing of our minds (note the reference is the same as that of our being living sacrifices!), our words will change as well, since the come from the overflow of the heart; and our actions are but the execution of our wills. All of this is to come together until, ultimately, our entire lives are one continuing act of worship - as they will be in Heaven when sin no longer keeps us from Him.

Not limited to specific acts of praise: as I mentioned last time, worship is not limited to praise, and it's certainly not limited to particular times and instances. It is, optimally, the defining characteristic of our lives. Every action, then would be worship, even those not specifically acts of praise: for if we were truly holy and sanctified, every piece of art, every hour of work, every diaper changed, every task accomplished would be done in such a way and with such a heart that God would be glorified - His character reflected rightly for all to see. Specific acts of praise would be a staple of our existence, too, for in a truly sanctified existence, our thoughts would ever turn to the goodness of God and His holiness and majesty. Song, picture, dance, carpentry - all would be glorious acts of praise; but our lives would be worship all in all, not just those specific acts.

So let us learn to practicing living out worship as it is meant to be: let us offer to God an acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire!

- Chris

Worship and praise

Picking up on some thoughts from last time, I'd like to explore some of the developing situations I see in current "worship music" trends - both for good and for ill.

First and foremost, I think it's important to note that worship and praise are not synonymous in their usages in Scripture, however much they have become interchangeable in evangelical circles. Even in the dictionary, the definitions differ in important ways.

Worship: reverent honor and homage paid to God or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred. (Dictionary.com)

Praise:
1. the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation.
2. the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship. (Dictionary.com)

Looking at the approach through Scripture, we note a distinction between praise and worship that complements these definitions. Worship is a heart attitude of reverence and awe directed toward God. It is frequently accompanied in Scripture by bowing of the head or body. Praise, by contrast, is verbal proclamation of the glorious attributes of God. What we frequently call "worship music" is more accurately called "praise music," and worship itself is a practice all too frequently neglected. (Remedying that is something I plan to address in a future post.)

Our praise music today is a subject of considerable controversy throughout evangelical circles (and the more so when one is on the edge of evangelicalism, as in the case of "low liturgical" churches). Older members of the congregation tend to prefer older styles of music, some even to the point of rejecting any that includes a guitar. On the other end of the spectrum are those - usually younger - who want little to do with hymns or organs and prefer their music louder and with a stronger rock sound. Some churches have dealt with the situation by splitting their services, others by attempting to incorporate both styles into the equation. Ultimately, both camps need to compromise and meet each other in the middle, realizing that God is far less concerned with style - which has varied drastically over the ages - than He is with our hearts: whether our praise is delivered with an attitude of worship.

Far more important than style is the content of our songs. If I have noticed one particular problem with the songs being written and sung in popular Christian praise music today, it is this: that there are far too many songs written about us and far too few written about God. Over and over again, I have seen songs that had immense potential to glorify God, and turned instead to focus on our feelings, our desires, even our response to God. But our feelings, desires, and even response to God are not the point of praise: exclaiming the greatness of God is. To be certain, there is a place for calling out our own feelings in song before God - the psalmists did so frequently. Ultimately, however, even those declamations must turn to true praise. Over and over in the psalms, an author will proclaim the injustices done to him, the travails of his heart, and so on: but always they conclude with the glories and greatness of God, not with their own feelings. Unfortunately, even songs that by and large are God-centric have a bad tendency to turn back to us at the end. This self-centeredness and egoism are immensely detrimental to our praise and inhibit us from truly worshiping even outside the context of praise. I sincerely hope (and I believe it is and will continue to happen) that songwriters will increasingly focus on God and not on man. Insofar as we are a partial focus of the songs, it ought to be such that our hearts in the end are turned back to God. Not all worship occurs in the context of praise, but all praise ought to be worshipful - and so we must be careful who we are worshiping: ourselves, or God.

Nonetheless, it is worth being attentive to style as well as content. Worship must be reverent, filled with awe of God. If we wish our praise to be worshipful - as it ought to be - then we must be careful in how we write the music with which we are praising Him. While I do not believe that the classic hymns are all perfect, they are often more reverent in lyrical content than our new praise music, and as such are worth preserving and relishing. There are several reasons for this: first, all hymns once had to be approved by a committee of theologians before inclusion in the hymnal, at least hypothetically assuring their theological conformity to Scripture; and second, the hymns we regularly sing today are those that have survived the test of time.

Stylistically, I think hymns may also more readily lend themselves to attitudes of reverence and awe in our times of praise. Note: I do not believe that the melodic and harmonic content is inherently more reverent (to the contrary, in some cases! - some of our greatest hymns were intentionally set to bar songs' melodies to catch people's ears). However, in our cultural context, they have a grander sound to them, and a sense of age and majesty associated with them that often helps our minds shift into a more reverential mode. I do not think that a rock band is by dint of character necessarily less reverent than a choir and organ: but the latter may have a power to suggest reverence in our minds more readily than the former, and that is no triviality.

(Tangentially related is another concern: that for many "worship bands," playing in front of the congregation can all too easily become just another gig. It is hard work to not merely play well but to worship well while bringing praise before God: and to lead others in truly worshiping is harder still. I pray often for the band at Paradigm and at the church God calls me to attend, that as well as working to achieve technical excellence, they would be attentive to the Holy Spirit and themselves worshiping in spirit and in truth. This is an area in which we all must strive to improve!)

Worship, beyond praise, ought to fill every moment of our lives. We ought to be living our lives in a worshipful way: that is, living in a way that is reverential and filled with awe of God and all He has done and all He is. On that theme I will be spending much time over the next weeks! I pray that we all seek to worship God with everything in us: that His glory will become our greatest desire and the praise of His name our great goal in life.

- Chris

True Worship

God challenged me this week - again - to consider the notion of true worship. I was reading in Isaiah and Hebrews, finishing the study I began over Christmas break on Christ, and He forced me to grapple once more with His holiness and His glory, and the corresponding demands on our worship.

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

This is part of an incredible passage I strongly encourage you to read through in its entirety: calling us to remember and be thankful for the glorious reality of Christ's kingdom: a kingdom with foundations, one that cannot be shaken, will never be removed, and is far greater than the covenant that was given to Moses.

The author of Hebrews contrasts this new covenant with the Mosaic covenant repeatedly, both with direct comparisons and with literary references. In these final two verses of the chapter, he makes a reference back to Deuteronomy:

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:23-24)

The entire passage is a call by Moses for the people of Israel, about to enter the land of Canaan, to remember God, His law, and His works - to remain true to Him and not to turn to other gods. Both Deuteronomy and Hebrews are making reference to Exodus 24, where Moses ascends the mountain to have the law given to him, when "the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel" (see Exodus 24:16-19). The Hebrews knew exactly what was being referenced in this letter: the glory of God - the Shekinah - that was a destroying fire to all that was impure.

We read in Isaiah, in the context of God's vengeance on those who have turned to idolatry:

"For behold, the LORD will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment,
and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by the LORD shall be many." (Isaiah 66:15-16)

These verses in Hebrews are not just a "cool passage" about God's glory being like fire - though certainly the picture of God's glory as an incomparably brilliant fire is one that should awe us and draw us to a place of worship. Rather, the passage is one of warning: that our worship, as we thank God for all He has done for us in the new covenant, must be reverent and filled with awe. Why? Because our God is a consuming fire: the Holy One who destroys false worshippers.

One could spend much time discussing our modern practices of worship, and in particular on "worship music" (a misnomer that is a discussion all its own), but there is an issue raised by these passages that is of utmost importance in our daily walk with God. It is that appropriate sense of awe which we are missing: the reality of our great need and the depth of God's greatness, mingling and conjoining to humble us - deeply and truly filling us with reverence. I'm not sure we even know what reverence is anymore, though.

When we come to our "worship services" and sing songs that are largely centered on us, we are in a very dangerous position... indeed, one might argue we are in a position drawing very near to idolatry. When we look at the earlier sections of Isaiah 66, we see a God who takes no delight in the sacrifices of man divorced from a heart that truly worships Him. He loves those who are contrite and humble, who tremble at His word (see Isaiah 66:2).

We are called to approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), but we must also approach reverently, awefully (if you will).

There is a place for a holy fear of God, and I wonder if in our emphasis of God's love we have not under-esteemed His wrath against those who bring a false worship before Him. We must come before Him with love, adoration, and holy fear. This is not a fear of His hellish wrath, for we are saved, but rather of bringing Him a praise which is no sacrifice to us, which is costless, easy, or - worst of all - designed more to benefit us than to glorify Him.

We must be careful in the songs we sing. Some may sound very good, but when we examine their words, we find them empty of anything that glorifies God and filled instead with much that emphasizes ourselves. Even in those songs that do point more toward God, I believe we must exercise caution in the extent to which we exult in our salvation and freedom (as opposed to thanks to Him for that salvation and the work He has done). If our God is a consuming fire to those who bring Him a worship that is not reverent and awe-filled.

I challenge you to worship Him as He has called us to worship - not as is comfortable, emotionally attractive, or easy - but in a true exaltation of God and a worship holy and right.

- Chris

Introduction

Some of you may not know me. Some of you may. Some of you probably got here from my blog recommendation; most of you didn't. Some of you have never heard of me before. So, time for an introduction.

I'm Chris. My interests are fairly varied, from physics (my major) to music composition (my minor), with everything from philosophy to international politics tossed in on the side. My passion, though, is seeing God's glory made known to the nations - and particularly in seeing the church be the Church: all that it can, should, and is called to be as a light in this dark world, as the true representation of Christ to the lost and the dying.

I exist to help people know the glory of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ in a way that transforms their lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it's my hope and prayer that this blog is a part of that work. We're excited about the possibilities... we hope you're blessed by the journey, as we are.

- Chris