By How much emotion should characterise our prayers? Some saints weep at the slightest thought of God’s grace to them, while other saints can swallow a systematic theology book without as much as a visible tear. Yet, both saints might well be equally affected by the solemn truth of being right
Don’t Sing with a Sad Face
Singing with a sad face is like trying to lick your elbow—it just isn’t really possible. It is true that not every person exudes their inner joy in equally expressive ways, and it is true that we worship God in the heart-breaking troubles of life too, but when we choose
Does Your Religion Help You Overcome Sin?
The longer one lives on this earth, the more obvious the futility of false religion is evident. The most fervent of worshippers on one day of the week can be the most immoral, un-thankful, arrogant, and deceptive two days later. Sadly this is true of false worship under the banner
Why We Worship God
“Why do you worship God?” For believers, that is not a difficult question to answer. The more difficult question is “Where do you start?!” It seems that Psalm 147 also didn’t really know where to start, so the author just started, and then continued for 20 verses with a number of calls
Praying the Bible
Some of the least recognised, but profoundly impactful, especially over time, ministry of some pastors has been the public prayers during worship services. This reflects a heritage of the importance of public prayers in the lives of believers. The book of Psalms is the Bible’s way of modelling the relevance
Spiritually Sensible to Worship
A puritan once wrote: “He who prizes gold, will dig for it in the mine” (Thomas Watson, Godly Man’s Picture). What he meant was: “He who prizes God, will dig for Him in the Word.”. Psalm 63 is about the sensibility of prizing God. May you not only believe what David did,
How Not to Worship During Church Worship
It is not uncommon for true Christian to be distracted from worship by worship. Personal convictions on specific things are held onto much stronger than the more general verses in Scripture that govern our church worship services. Scripture does not give an annually updated list of accepted instruments. Scripture does
Why Can’t We Worship As We Please?
In reaction to the Roman Catholic worship practises of the Dark Ages, some of the pre-Reformers and Reformers decided to halt all the traditional elements of worship that the Roman Catholic Church had practised, and to start over with the Scriptures alone as the guide to what worship practises are
Death From a Godly Point of View
The death of someone close to you is part of life in this fallen world. It is appointed for man to die, and all do. Yet, the godly, who understand this reality better than all the faithless put together, do not despair. The anxious pleas for a life that is
Singing During Disaster
Nobody feels like confident singing when calamity strikes. But Psalm 46 is a three-stanza song for the worst of disasters. The first stanza starts with the most comforting truth about God during disaster, but ends with what would certainly be in the top three natural disasters of history. “God is