Category archive - worship

A Christmas Gift

I have posted here before about The Jesus Storybook Bible (click here for that post). The picture is of me reading it to the two cutest children yet born. If there are young children in your life, you need to see to it that they have a copy of this wonderful book, which you can order by clicking here. Most every children’s Bible story book I have seen takes episodes in the Old Testament and simplifies them into a moral lesson. They are distilled into things like “Noah obeyed God; you obey God!” Or, “David was brave; you can be brave, too!” The Jesus Storybook Bible is different.

It contains these stories, but rather than simply drawing out rules for behavior, it shows how these stories point to Christ. In fact, the subtitle of the book is “Every story whispers his name,” and each of the stories makes explicit the redemptive plan God had from the beginning. The story about the Ten Commandments illustrates this well, and it ends like this:

“God promises to always look after you,” Moses said. “Will you love him and keep these rules?”

“We can do it! Yes! We promise!”

But they were wrong. They couldn’t do it. No matter how hard they tried, they could never keep God’s rules all the time.

God knew they couldn’t. And he wanted them to know it, too.

Only one Person could keep all the rules. And many years later God would send him – to stand in their place and be perfect for them.

Because the rules couldn’t save them.

Only God could save them.

As we approach the celebration of the birth of the One who lived the perfect life we could not live, I wanted to share with you from this great book the beginning and end of the story of His birth, which encompasses the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel. What is quoted below is the first and last pages of the story. I’m leaving out the middle four pages in the hope that you’ll be further enticed to buy this book for the children in your life:

He’s here!

The Nativity, from Luke 1-2

Everything was ready. The moment God had been waiting for was here at last! God was coming to help his people, just as he had promised in the beginning.

But how would he come? What would he be like? What would he do?

Mountains would have bowed down. Seas would have roared. Trees would have clapped their hands. But the earth held its breath. As silent as snow falling, he came in. And when no one was looking, in the darkness, he came.

_________________

And there, in the stable, amongst the chickens and the donkeys and the cows, in the quiet of the night, God gave the world his wonderful gift. The baby that would change the world was born. His baby Son.

Mary and Joseph wrapped him up to keep him warm. They made a soft bed of straw and used the animals’ feeding trough as his cradle. And they gazed in wonder at God’s Great Gift, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

Mary and Joseph named him Jesus, “Emmanuel” – which means “God has come to live with us.”

Because, of course, he had.

A Word from Keith Haygood

Keith Haygood serves as Worship and Music Ministries Specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. He provides resources and training opportunites for those involved in local church music ministry, as well as providing leadership for the Oklahoma Baptist All-State Youth Choir and Orchestra, and serving as the conductor of the Oklahoma Baptist Symphony. With his permission, I want to share with you a column he wrote for the October edition of the BGCO’s Worship and Music Ministry e-newsletter, e.worship.ok:

Have you ever gotten into your car after church on Sunday and asked yourself, “What just happened here?” Does it seem that you are doing all you can do and yet you are not connecting with people nor are you helping them to connect with God? Is it possible for the church to meet week after week and just go through the motions, yet never sense the moving of the Holy Spirit? After all, even in His great commission, Jesus said, “I am with you always…”

God spoke through the prophet Amos:

I hate, I reject your festivals; nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

I believe that we are often guilty of presenting our music and our prayers to the Lord as an end of itself, when God’s desire is that we come to Him with clean hands and a pure heart. The song we sing and play for Him must be the song that has come as the cry of our hearts, not some religious rite. This is why God rebukes the religious in Amos 5. He is looking to the heart. His desire is that we be real with Him. He already knows our hearts, so why do we play games with Him in our worship experiences? God’s desire is that we walk according to His Word day after day. If we do, corporate worship will be much sweeter because it will come as an outpouring of what God has done in our lives all week long.

Praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. -Psalm 111:1

Promotion

A new commercial for our church – this really ought to pack them in, don’t you think?:

And if I can get this guy to come lead worship, we’ll probably have to go to multiple services:

[HT: FIDE-O]

Worship Style

In light of recent discussion on SBC Outpost that was sparked by the remarks of one of our convention’s leaders, I thought I would share the following wisdom from Kieth Haygood, who serves the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma as Worship and Music Specialist. The following is from e.worship.ok, the monthly e-newsletter from the BGCO’s Worship and Music Ministry:

A Word from Keith Haygood

I Love to Tell the Story

I was just recently reminded of this powerful verse from the old Fanny J. Crosby hymn I Love to Tell the Story:

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,
T’will be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

What a wonderful thought, when we are actually in the presence of Jesus himself, the new song we sing will still be about the old story… the eternal story of how God loved the world in this way: He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 CSB).

This is what the Bible is all about. It could be that, in our “progressive” society, some may have become so innovative in their preaching style, evangelism techniques, musical style and audio-visual technology they have forgotten the wonder of the old, old story of Jesus and His love. Is there a danger of falling in love with our worship styles and thus missing the point altogether. We are to Love the Lord our God, rather than love the way we Love the Lord our God. Worship is all about the life we live, not something we go to do. The entire basis for the Gospel is that we were dead in our sin and in Him was life (John 1:4). This, my friends, should be first and foremost in our hearts and minds. Remember where you were when Jesus found you. Think about those whom you know who have not yet discovered the relevance of the old, old story and share it with them.

I love to tell the story,
T’will be my theme in glory
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.

Worship is the expression of love and gratitude from the heart of God’s child to the heart of God the Father.