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On Glorifying God

  [Worship]
07/07/2009
By Admin, Admin

Here are some valuable comments Joel Beeke makes concerning "glorifying God and enjoying Him forever." These paragraphs are from page 147 of his book Living for God's Glory (Reformation Trust, 2008).

"Glory to God alone is the heartbeat of the Reformation.  The giving of glory to God, of course, is not intended to give Him something that He lacks.  When God is glorified in human lives and with human words, He is not made one whit more glorious than He always has been and always will be.  In the words of the seventeenth-century Puritan divine, Thomas Watson, 'God's glory is such an essential part of His being, that He cannot be God without it' (A Body of Divinity, London: Banner of Truth Trust, reprint 1958, page 5).  Rather, a doxology extols God for who He is and acknowledges why He is worthy of human praise and adoration.

"Do we understand this kind of glory?  Do we love to glorify God and live for Him?  Can we say, at times, with Jonathan Edwards: 'The greatest moments of my life have not been with those that have concerned my own salvation, but those when I have been carried into communion with God and beheld His beauty and desired His glory. . . . I rejoice and yearn to be emptied and annihilated of self in order that I might be filled with the glory of God and Christ alone'? (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Edward Hickman, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974, 1:lxv-lxxiii).

Beeke's book is an enjoyable read as he interacts with the Scriptures, the church fathers, the reformers and the Puritans concerning the doctrines of grace and what it means to live for God's glory.  I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming a more thoughtful and reflective worshiper of God.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Pastor Greg

The Importance of Congregational Song, Part 5

  [Worship]
03/17/2009
By Admin, Admin

Benjamin Keach is largely responsible for the adoption of hymn-singing in worship among English Baptists.  Baptists in America adopted that same enthusiasm for congregational song, and by the mid-18th century they included an article on the subject in The Philadelphia Confession of Faith (1742), an Americanized version of the Second London Baptist Confession (1689), nearly identical in content.  Here is the additional article under the heading "Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day":

"We believe that singing the praises of God is a holy ordinance of Christ, and not a part of natural religion, or a moral duty only; but that it is brought under divine insititution, it being enjoined on the churches of Christ to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; and that the whole church in their public assemblies, as well as private Christians, ought to sing God's praises according to the best light they have received.  Moreover, it was practiced in the great representative church by our Lord Jesus Christ with His disciples, after He had instituted and celebrated the sacred ordinance of His Holy Supper, as a commemorative token of redeeming love."
Acts 16:25; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; Heb. 2:12; Jam. 5:13; Matt. 26:30; Matt. 14:26

Praise God for each opportunity to magnify Him in song together with other believer!  What a privilege it is to do so.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

The Importance of Congregational Song, Part 4

  [Worship]
03/10/2009
By Admin, Admin

I am spending several weeks giving the historical background for congregational singing.  I do this with passion and without apology because congregational singing is something we take for granted.  This we should not do.  From 1690 to 1698, the controversy raged among the Particular Baptists in England over whether congregations should sing hymns together in their worship meetings.  Those who opposed congregational hymn-singing in worship advanced five arguments.  Baptist historian Michael Haykin summarized these arguments in his book Kiffin, Knollys and Keach (Leeds, England: Reformation Today Trust, 1996, p. 93):

1. They believed use of pre-composed hymns of human composure produced formalism in worship services.
2. They believed examples of hymn-singing in the New Testament were the result of "extraordinary" spiritual gifts which had ceased at the end of the apostolic era.
3. They believed purity of the church was compromised if unbelievers sang together with believers ("promiscuous singing").
4. They believed singing in the early church was solo, not congregational, if done at all.
5. They believed that 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:11-12 prohibited women from uttering a word in public worship of the church, and that included singing.

Benjamin Keach is the pastor/theologian who almost single-handedly refuted these arguments.  Keach had first introduced the singing of a hymn at the conclusion of the Lord's Supper service somewhere between 1673 and 1675 at his Horsleydown Church in Southwark.  Over succeeding years, they began to sing a hymn at public thanksgiving services and, finally, in 1691, the congregation gave its overwhelming approval to ending every Lord's Day service with the singing of a hymn.  It was this same year that Keach published his defense of congregational singing entitled The Breach Repaired in God's Worship: or Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, proved to be an Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ.  In this work, Keach answered all five of the arguments advanced by the anti-hymn-singing advocates, also summarized by Haykin, pp. 94-95:

1. Far from fostering formalism, the singing of hymns was actually a means of spiritual renewal.
2. If singing is the result of "extraordinary" gifts in the apostolic period, so were many other activities including preaching, praying and interpreting Scripture; should singing be excluded on this basis, then so should the other activities be excluded.
3. The fear of unregenerated persons singing together with believers should be no greater than the fear that they would join in congregational prayer or the hearing of God's Word.
4. Keach showed that singing in both the Old and New Testaments was "performed with united voices," and that the commands to sing in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 were directed, "not to any select Christian, but to the whole Church."
5. Keach argued that women were expected to speak in the congregation on certain occasions, such as giving testimony to Christian conversion upon admittance to the membership of the church, and so were not prohibited from singing with the male members of the congregation.

As we gather for worship Sunday by Sunday, give thanks to God that we come before His presence together with singing and into His courts with songs of praise!  It was not always so.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

The Importance of Congregational Song, Part3

  [Worship]
03/02/2009
By Admin, Admin

Baptists as an identifiable group only came into being in the early seventeenth century.  People from a variety of backgrounds came to Baptist convictions based on a plain reading of the New Testament.  In addition, it is doubtless that Baptists were influenced in their theology by both Luther and Calvin.  But the Puritans, who were unabashed Calvinists, left a permament imprint on both the theology and worship practice of English Baptists.  The Puritans advocated the Regulative Worship Principle which stated that only those elements which are specifically mandated in Scripture, or which follow as a good and necessary consequence from the teaching of Scripture, may be included in the worship of God.  Baptists of all stripes, both General (Arminian) and Particular (Calvinistic), adhered to this principle in the public worship of God.  Early application of this principle placed severe restrictions on the use of music in worship.  Hugh McElrath, retired music professor from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: 
     "In the beginnings of the English Baptist churches in the early seventeenth century, opposition to the use of music in public worship was strong.  If there was singing at all, it was doubtless solo singing, for John Smyth, leader of the first [General] Baptist group, objected to congregational singing.  However, he held that an individual might sing out in church if so moved by the Spirit.  This anti-congregational-singing stance persisted even in the late seventeenth century, particularly among the General Baptists (Arminian in theology." (Baptist History and Heritage: Church Music in Baptist History, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 1984, "Turning Points in the Story of Baptist Church Music," p. 4)
Next time, we'll see how one man almost single-handedly turned Baptist opinion in favor of congregationally sung hymns.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

The Importance of Congregational Song, Part 2

  [Worship]
02/24/2009
By Admin, Admin

A thumbnail sketch of congregational song within Christianity would show that the early, apostolic church sang its faith often from memory and most likely without any instrumental accompaniment.  The Apostle Paul exhorted the church at Ephesus to demonstrate the fulness of the Spirit by "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ," (Eph. 5:19-21, ESV).  Paul also exhorted the Colossians to "Let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God," (Col. 3:16, ESV).  The church thrived as it sang praises to God, even (and perhaps especially) in the midst of periods of severe persecution.

Over the next few hundred years, the Contantinian and Post-Constantinian church became acceptable to the culture and received state endorsement.  Congregational song became more and more rare and was often replaced with professional singers and choirs who "performed" the praise on behalf of the people.  I'm glossing over the Dark Ages here, to be sure, but I hope you see my point. 

Part of the effect of the Protestant Reformation was to return songs of praise and thanksgiving to the congregation, the common people, in their everyday language.  Martin Luther loved hymns and wrote his fair share of them, including his most well-known hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," a paraphrase and expansion of Psalm 46.  John Calvin, on the other hand, embraced psalmody as the primary means of praise for the people of God.  The Genevan Psalter is a good example of the fruit of Calvin's passion for using the Psalms of Scripture in the public worship of God.

Next time, we'll look at the effect that the Protestant Reformation had on our direct forbears, the early Baptists, and their concept of congregational song in the public worship of God.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

The importance of congegational song

  [Worship]
02/18/2009
By Admin, Admin

The most important music in the church is the song of the congregation as it gathers each Lord's Day to lift its collective voice in corporate praise to the majestic, Triune God.  This is the one indispensable music in the church.  We are commanded in both the Old and New Testament to praise God with congregational, vocal praise.  Questions about which instruments to use (if any), whether or not to have choirs, whether or not to have solos, duets, trios, etc., style and tempo are all matters of second or third importance.  But congregational worship through song is, in my view, necessary to the health of a well-balanced church.

It has not always been the case among Baptists.  In this post, I will be exploring a little of the history of hymn-singing in our tradition, where we are today, and where I see us going in the future.  Please visit later in the week for more on this topic.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

Love and Worship

  [Worship]
02/11/2009
By Admin, Admin

 

In What Way Is Worship A 'Conversation'?

  [Worship]
01/20/2009
By Admin, Admin

I have often used the term "conversation" to describe worship in general and corporate worship in particular.  "Conversation" is a great word, but it can be misunderstood, primarily because of how it is used in the world of the emerging church.  In emerging/emergent lingo, "conversation" is code language for the viewpoint that truth is a non-propositional, non-verifiable cultural construct, necessarily limited by time, place and situation.  Under this view, truth claims can be neither universal nor absolute.

This is not what I mean by "conversation."

What I mean by "conversation" in the context of corporate worship is essentially this:  Worship is a dialogue between the Triune God and us, His people.  He initiates the dialogue of worship by speaking the truth to us through a human vessel, often a pastor or other officer of the church.  That truth is His infallible, inspired, inerrant, inscripturated Word, the Bible.  Since we are bound to Him by covenant relationship, we listen to God speak and we respond in joyful praise.  But as soon as we do so, we are confronted with the holy and just character of the true and living God, combined with our utter lack of all things holy and our need of His imputed righteousness.  We bow in humble confession of sin and submission to God's just judgment.  It is then that we are reminded of His mercy and grace in salvation.  We rise to hear the powerful words of assurance of our pardon, extended freely to all those who truly repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation.  We respond to God's pardoning grace and redeeming love once again with adoration for who He is and thanksgiving for all He has done in Christ.

At this point in our corporate worship, our hearts have been prepared to hear God speak to us through the preaching of His Word.  Commitment to Christ issues from the Spirit working through the ministry of the Word which began with the call to worship and continues right through to the benediction.

This is the kind of conversation that Isaiah had with God in Isaiah 6, and it is a fitting pattern for our corporate times of worship together.

Perhaps "drama" is a better word since we are re-enacting the drama of God's redemptive acts in history with particular reference to the cross of Christ. 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Greg

Jerusalem Adventures

  [Missions]
10/05/2008
By Thompson, Tad

This morning we had services at the Local Baptist Church in Nazereth.  I would like to tell you about the sermon, but it was in Arabic, so I didn't catch much of it.  But, it was a taste of heaven to worship with people of different tribes, tongues, and nations.  After the service we headed to Jerusalem.  Yesterday, the Greens van broke down and today, the Bridger's van broke down on the way to Jerusalem.  God was good!  The timing belt snapped while we were going 70 on the highway, but we were able to coast into a gas station near the Baptist Village.  There was an extra IMB van available for us there.  We waited about 2 hrs in a restaurant for the tow truck to arrive and then we took the other van to Jerusalem, arriving about 9:45pm. 

We will spend the next couple of days in Jerusalem and we are seeing God's vision for us take shape as we dream with Randy and Scott about our next trip to Israel.  Please pray for both the Green's and Bridger's vans.  They desparately need this transportation. 

Mandy, Jaime, and Anne:
Sorry we were unable to make contact today by phone...we no longer have access to Vonage, so we will try to make contact tomorrow some other way.

House Church

  [Missions]
10/04/2008
By Thompson, Tad

After our time at the Sea of Galilee, we travelled back to Nazareth and rested until worshipping with the house church.
Pastor Tad was asked to bring a message to the fellowship. 
Tad, Michael, and I were very encouraged worshipping with this body.  Their faith in Jesus inspired us as we joined them in praising the Lord.  One member and his son played a Lute (similar to a guitar) and a taba (similar to a jemba drum) as they led singing.  We laughed and smiled as we were not familiar with the songs, but our hearts were in agreement hearing their tongues praise the Lord.  Tad had a translator as he shared the word of God charging us and the local body to care about the lost as God cares about the lost in Nazareth and Israel.  We are grateful for your prayers and look forward to sharing al the mighty things God is doing in our hearts and this land.  Jesus is Lord!
Kameron

Arab Believers

  [Missions]
10/03/2008
By Thompson, Tad

The black rocks underneath the white are the foundation of the synagouge next to Peter's house in Capernaum.

Good morning from Nazereth!  Well, its morning in the states, but here is 4:15 and we are resting a little while before we attend a house church this evening with Arab believers.  I found out last night that they want me to speak and I am very excited for the opportunity.  Pray that God would grant me the words to say to encourage these Arab believers. 

This morning we were able to go to the ancient ruins of Capernaum, the ministry headquarters of Jesus.  It  is sad to know that Jesus has been rejected in the very place where he came to minister, die, and rose from the grave.  There is such spiritual need in this place.

Last night our team had the honor to sit with Kahleel, a muslim background believer who attends the seminary in Nazereth.  His story is a testimony to God's grace and a vivid reminder that God is in the business of saving Muslims from the darkness of Islam. 

Thank you so much for praying for us.  We are learning a great deal and are already planning the next trip...maybe God will send you to Israel in 2009!

The English Hospital in Nazereth

  [Missions]
10/02/2008
By Thompson, Tad

The busy streets of the modern city of Nazereth.

Today we walked the streets of Nazereth, the hometown of Jesus, which is now a modern city of about 70,000 people.  Nazereth is now the home of Randy and Stacy Green and God is opening many doors of that will allow the team here to minister to Arab Muslims with the Gospel of Christ.

One of these Opportunities is the English Hospital in Nazereth.  The new director of this hospital has a vision to see a great amount of ministry take place inside its doors.  This will be an amazing opportunity for us in the future.  Being in the center of the city, a team from our church could stay and minister at the hospital, while being involved in many other ministry projects in Nazereth.

Another great opportunity to reach the Arab people is through English Camps.  Many of the Arabs desire to learn English in order to have jobs in the thriving tourist industry in Israel.  Many of us can be used to help facilitate conversational English classes that can help the believers here make important contacts.  Keep praying the God will help us learn more and more about the culture, while giving us a vision for our future involvement with this people group.

- Pastor Tad

Prayer Walking Haifa

  [Missions]
10/01/2008
By Thompson, Tad

Today we had the opportunity to prayer walk in Haifa.  Haifa is a city with many Arab Muslims who are lost without Christ.  We spent time praying, learning, and dreaming about how we can be used to reach these precious people for Christ. We stopped by Bethel Church, one of the only evangelical Arab churches in the region.  According to Randy Green and Scott Bridger, only around 30 believers exists from an Arab Muslim background.  We prayed for this church and that God would use us to start a church planting movement among the Israeli Arabs. We are discovering many opportunities where God can use us here as a church.  Please continue to pray with us that the gospel will speed ahead to these people.  God is faithful.

We Have Arrived!

  [Missions]
09/30/2008
By Thompson, Tad

We have arrived safely in Israel and will be going to bed shortly.   We had a great flight and are looking forward to begin our work in the morning (we are eight hours ahead of you).  Please be in prayer for us and ask that God would give us soft hearts and a big vision for the Israeli Arabs!

- Pastor Tad

We Fly Out of Tulsa Tomorrow at 5:30pm

  [Missions]
09/28/2008
By Admin, Admin

Many have asked about our schedule.  We fly out of Tulsa tomorrow at 5:30, head to Atlanta, and then fly all the way to Tel Aviv.  Please be in prayer for our travel and our families while we are away.