FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everybody,

Today we’ll complete the “Inspiring Worship – 1″ series.

Monday:  One Song that inspires worship
Tuesday:  One Thing that inspires worship (non-musical)
Wednesday:  One Art Form that inspires worship (non-musical)

Today – what is one “musical” artist (ie. singer, band, musician) that inspires you to worship.  Here’s the catch … it CANNOT be a Worship Leader or “Christian” band.  I would go so far to say as “non-Christian”, but we don’t always know whether an artist is/isn’t a true Christian.

I wanna hear from you today – so chime in!

Hey Everybody,

Yesterday we talked about ONE SONG that inspires you to worship.  If you missed that post, share your response.

Today I’d like to ask this question:
“What is ONE THING that inspires you to worship God that is NOT music-related?”

Go for it.

Hey Everyone,

This week I want to discuss things that inspire you to worship God.
Today is easy … it’s something we’re all familiar with.

SONGS

Name one SONG … only ONE … that inspires you to worship God.
Tomorrow, we’ll talk about other things that invoke us to worship.

Are you Ready?  Go.

Hey Everybody,

Today is “Blog Action Day” – an annual event where bloggers from all over the world come together to discuss a specific topic to bring awareness about it.  For 2008, the topic is POVERTY.

As someone involved in full-time ministry, specifically in the area of corporate worship, I’d like to discuss how I believe that “worship” and “poverty” collide.

Far too often we associate “worship” with things such as music, singing, gathering to hear a sermon, or giving praise and adoration.  “Worship” has become something that we judge and rate … “wow, worship was great today”.  Now we have a huge culture of “worship music”, “worship artists”, “worship record labels”, etc.  The word “worship” seems to more of an adjective or noun that an active verb.  This grieves many of us.

In Romans 12:1, the NIV translation actually uses the word “worship” where other translations have used the word “service”.  See here:

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1, NIV, YouVersion.Com)

This verse really broadens my definition of worship.  By offering ourselves as a sacrifice, and living life in such a way that is transformed with a renewed mind, instead of conformed to the selfish ways of the world (as it goes on to discuss in v2), I’m offering up a spiritual act of service that is called “worship”.

Another passage of Scripture that I love to meditate on is from Isaiah.  He has just had a vision where he’s seen the throneroom of God.  Around the throne is worship.  His response is one of humlity, fear, and ultimately, service.  (who will go, send me).

5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5, NIV, YouVersion.Com)

Ultimately, I don’t think that it’s possible to have a genuine worship encounter with Almighty God without having a strong sense of action – to change, to serve, to become “less”.  This is the natural response to a revelation of God’s greatness.

This takes me to our crisis of poverty.  I’ll not write a long blog with statistics that demonstrate how much poverty is in the world.  I’ll not post pictures of all the starving children, poor homes, and contrasting mansions and fancy cars so many of us enjoy as luxuries.  I believe this is all made obvious to us every day, though we often refuse to see it.

What I will do is challenge you.  The overwhelming majority of people who read this blog are “Christians”.  You are involved in ministry, leading, or attending a place of faith and worship.  You “worship” once a week corporately, and hopefully you are celebrating the discipline of worship personally in your daily walk.

How has this changed you?   How can you encounter God, His love, His grace, His mercy, and not do something about the social injustic of poverty all around?

I’ll be even more bold.  If you, as a Christian, are not intentionally doing something (either financially or practically) to bless the poor and those in poverty on a consistent basis, I’d say that you’re in direct disobedience to God’s commandments, to His will, and you’re missing out on a huge blessing.  (yes, that’s strong).

Want an easy way to start?  Sponsor a child through Compassion International.  This is a decision that we made a while back as a family.  Our first child is Kelvin, and he’s in Tanzania.  This has been an incredible and practical way for us to do even a “small something”.  It’s been an enormous teaching opportunity for our children as well.  My children are quickly snapped back into reality when they get ungrateful about the things they have and we can remind them about our “adopted brother” in Tanzania and what he does NOT have.

Give food and clothing to your local food bank.  Whatever it is – make sure it actually COSTS YOU SOMETHING.  How special is the gift if you don’t have to sacrifice a little bit to make it happen?

This is a clarion call to fellow Christ-followers.  We are called to be Christ in this fallen world.  Poverty is real.  So is our faith.  So is His provision.  But He would rather use us … his church, rather than supernaturally raining “manna” from the sky.

Discussion Time.  Be honest.  Are you lacking in this area?  Share your convictions.  Are you making progress in this area?  Share your thoughts.

Hey Everybody -

I just finished leading an hour of worship and prayer here at SSCC.  We do this every Wednesday at noon.  For obvious reasons we spent a lot of our time worshiping and praying about our economy and the current financial situation.

About half way into the meeting a lady came to the mic and begin praying some of the Psalms.  It’s electrifying to hear God’s Word being prayed back to Him.

After she finished I felt led to just encourage everyone that if they had a Scripture on their mind to stand up and read it out loud.  I repeated a couple of verses, my own paraphrase of them at least, and opened things up.

For the next while we had person after person speaking out and declaring God’s Word.  It was awesome.  At one point I found myself chuckling, thinking to myself “how could we ever be worried”?

My point – hearing God’s Word stirred my faith, my confidence, and made me ever-more aware of how incredible our God is.  It enhanced our time of worship in a big way.

So many times we think of “worship” as singing songs.  But the reading and celebrating of God’s Word is a beautiful act of worship.

“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

With all that’s going on in our world these days – I’d like to hear from you.  What Scripture(s) are jumping around in your spirit today?

Fred