Ideas About Worship
Christians are qualified to be involved in worship.
Heb. 2:12 (Psa. 22:22) Christ praises God through us when the church is assembled.
Rev. 1:6 This is possible because all believers, (we) are priests. A kingdom of priests.
Priests worshipped in O.T. times by offering fat and blood.
Ezek.44:15-18 Approach the Lord and minister to Him. No human effort. (garments should not cause sweat) Notice too how AFTER ministering to God the priests were promised the ability to minister to people. (verses19 & 23-24)
Lev.9:1-24 Offerings of animal parts, including fat and blood which are pictures of the excellence of the animal (the fat) and the essence of its life (blood). Look up the word for “darling” in Psalms 22:20 ( “[deliver] my darling from the power of the dog”) and see a more clear idea in it of the fat. He is referring there to the beautiful, perfect, precious life that Christ sacrificed. Think of what a person who was like him could have done for mankind if the world had not needed a crucified saviour. In normal terms, “What a waste!” And that is the essence of burning fat to the Lord.
When we eat the Lord’s supper, (communion) we are remembering Christ as our sacrifice, His excellence (corresponds to the fat) and His life (corresponds to the blood).
1 Cor. 7b-8 Christ is our Passover sacrifice.
Deut. 26:1-4 Other parts to worship in the O.T. were bringing tithes of their increase.
Today, our tithe sacrifices are spiritual, as well as material. (I Peter 2:5)
Praise (Heb. 13:15); Doing good and sharing (Heb. 13:16); Faith (Philip. 2:17); Our bodies, corporately (Rom. 12:1)
Our crops are the fruit of the Spirit which He cultivates in us through trials, obedience, edification, ministry, etc. and we bring the knowledge of these with us to the assembly of the church. There we praise Him as in Hebrews and what is in our baskets becomes food for the other priests (church members) who are present. We must spend time during our week allowing and cooperating with the Spirit so that there is something to offer to the Lord in worship on Sunday. Singing is good but there should be more. If we have communion, along with singing and praises, (testimonies and prayers of praise) as well as meditation upon what the Lord has done and what He means to us, then the Lord will be pleased. As is explained in Ezekiel 44, we need to minister to the Lord first, then, to the people. Our worship should be rich with truth about what He has done on the cross and also in our lives.
How should the Lord’s Supper be practiced?
If we look at the last Passover supper that Jesus ate with His disciples, we can see a model. They were gathered around Him and they were talking. Naturally, we would expect that He was the center of all their attention and conversation. This Man was someone who was altogether lovely. If He entered a room, all with pure hearts would gravitate to him. He attracted people everywhere, not just the sick. They followed Him to be near Him. If He were to come into our society today, bodily, in 21st Century clothing, I am sure that the results would be the same. He would attract people. No man spoke like this Man. You and I would be so captivated that we would not even think of our normal schedule. We would stay with him just to be near him. Think of the most wonderful person you ever met. Someone whom you want to be around all the time. This Man was more. His disciples left their jobs to follow him without a thought.
So, when He called their attention to His breaking of bread and told of its meaning and the drinking of the cup, their minds were full of appreciation and praise. Later, after His ascension, when they ate the Lord’s supper, they also were thankful. So they sang praises and thanks, they spoke praises and thanks, they prayed praises and thanks. It probably took some time. Just as at the last Passover, every man was free to speak. Every man was free to call for a song. They were all equal. There was no clergy. There was no designated person who would do all the talking, all the praying. The Lord, if He had been there, would have been the one, but now His hands were not there to break the bread so someone had to be led by the Spirit to do it. There was no pre-planned program of what would be done. It was left to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even more than we today can be led by the Spirit, they then could be led because they were closer to His time. There had not come in all the error in the church that there is today.
The true way of remembering the Lord in the New Testament way is just the same. We need, first of all, to cast away the error that “doing it too often makes it less special” in some way. That is pure evil. Would you say that telling your family you love them every day takes away from your love? No. We need to do it more than once a month. The early church most likely did it every time they met. Maybe even on weekdays!!!!! We also need to spend more than 10 minutes at it. We need to reserve an hour. We need to have time for people in the gathering to meditate and to get up courage to speak praises. Most people have trouble praying in public. This takes time. We need to give it to them. Think of the offerings made by fire. They took time to burn. In our worship we need to allow “burn time”. It should not be programmed and carried out in an exciting way. Think again of the Lord with his people at that last Passover. Now think of how a loud, rock-n-roll, so-called “worship team” would fit in with that. Can you imagine that? God forbid.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 the Lord is warning us about being beguiled by Satan into making the gospel into something it is not. This warning has not been heeded. The church today is saturated with man’s ideas. It has sold the truth and bought so many lies of the devil. Let us leave those ideas and let us be transformed back to what we should be by the renewing of our minds through the scriptures.
Thomas Kever
Heb. 2:12 (Psa. 22:22) Christ praises God through us when the church is assembled.
Rev. 1:6 This is possible because all believers, (we) are priests. A kingdom of priests.
Priests worshipped in O.T. times by offering fat and blood.
Ezek.44:15-18 Approach the Lord and minister to Him. No human effort. (garments should not cause sweat) Notice too how AFTER ministering to God the priests were promised the ability to minister to people. (verses19 & 23-24)
Lev.9:1-24 Offerings of animal parts, including fat and blood which are pictures of the excellence of the animal (the fat) and the essence of its life (blood). Look up the word for “darling” in Psalms 22:20 ( “[deliver] my darling from the power of the dog”) and see a more clear idea in it of the fat. He is referring there to the beautiful, perfect, precious life that Christ sacrificed. Think of what a person who was like him could have done for mankind if the world had not needed a crucified saviour. In normal terms, “What a waste!” And that is the essence of burning fat to the Lord.
When we eat the Lord’s supper, (communion) we are remembering Christ as our sacrifice, His excellence (corresponds to the fat) and His life (corresponds to the blood).
1 Cor. 7b-8 Christ is our Passover sacrifice.
Deut. 26:1-4 Other parts to worship in the O.T. were bringing tithes of their increase.
Today, our tithe sacrifices are spiritual, as well as material. (I Peter 2:5)
Praise (Heb. 13:15); Doing good and sharing (Heb. 13:16); Faith (Philip. 2:17); Our bodies, corporately (Rom. 12:1)
Our crops are the fruit of the Spirit which He cultivates in us through trials, obedience, edification, ministry, etc. and we bring the knowledge of these with us to the assembly of the church. There we praise Him as in Hebrews and what is in our baskets becomes food for the other priests (church members) who are present. We must spend time during our week allowing and cooperating with the Spirit so that there is something to offer to the Lord in worship on Sunday. Singing is good but there should be more. If we have communion, along with singing and praises, (testimonies and prayers of praise) as well as meditation upon what the Lord has done and what He means to us, then the Lord will be pleased. As is explained in Ezekiel 44, we need to minister to the Lord first, then, to the people. Our worship should be rich with truth about what He has done on the cross and also in our lives.
How should the Lord’s Supper be practiced?
If we look at the last Passover supper that Jesus ate with His disciples, we can see a model. They were gathered around Him and they were talking. Naturally, we would expect that He was the center of all their attention and conversation. This Man was someone who was altogether lovely. If He entered a room, all with pure hearts would gravitate to him. He attracted people everywhere, not just the sick. They followed Him to be near Him. If He were to come into our society today, bodily, in 21st Century clothing, I am sure that the results would be the same. He would attract people. No man spoke like this Man. You and I would be so captivated that we would not even think of our normal schedule. We would stay with him just to be near him. Think of the most wonderful person you ever met. Someone whom you want to be around all the time. This Man was more. His disciples left their jobs to follow him without a thought.
So, when He called their attention to His breaking of bread and told of its meaning and the drinking of the cup, their minds were full of appreciation and praise. Later, after His ascension, when they ate the Lord’s supper, they also were thankful. So they sang praises and thanks, they spoke praises and thanks, they prayed praises and thanks. It probably took some time. Just as at the last Passover, every man was free to speak. Every man was free to call for a song. They were all equal. There was no clergy. There was no designated person who would do all the talking, all the praying. The Lord, if He had been there, would have been the one, but now His hands were not there to break the bread so someone had to be led by the Spirit to do it. There was no pre-planned program of what would be done. It was left to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even more than we today can be led by the Spirit, they then could be led because they were closer to His time. There had not come in all the error in the church that there is today.
The true way of remembering the Lord in the New Testament way is just the same. We need, first of all, to cast away the error that “doing it too often makes it less special” in some way. That is pure evil. Would you say that telling your family you love them every day takes away from your love? No. We need to do it more than once a month. The early church most likely did it every time they met. Maybe even on weekdays!!!!! We also need to spend more than 10 minutes at it. We need to reserve an hour. We need to have time for people in the gathering to meditate and to get up courage to speak praises. Most people have trouble praying in public. This takes time. We need to give it to them. Think of the offerings made by fire. They took time to burn. In our worship we need to allow “burn time”. It should not be programmed and carried out in an exciting way. Think again of the Lord with his people at that last Passover. Now think of how a loud, rock-n-roll, so-called “worship team” would fit in with that. Can you imagine that? God forbid.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3 the Lord is warning us about being beguiled by Satan into making the gospel into something it is not. This warning has not been heeded. The church today is saturated with man’s ideas. It has sold the truth and bought so many lies of the devil. Let us leave those ideas and let us be transformed back to what we should be by the renewing of our minds through the scriptures.
Thomas Kever
posted by Biblical Christianity at 2:33 AM
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