It has been a “readin’ up” day, and I am eager for my love to return. We will see what being empty nesters is like once more, but I am up for the challenge! Thank You, Father, for the blessing she is to me and so many others!
1 Corinthians 14: 36-40 (<<click here to read the passage)
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. v33
But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. v40 NIV
A good part of humanity tends to lean toward swinging from one extreme to another, and in many ways, it works against us.
One of the things that bothers me, in the church in particular, is that we have a mentality that it’s our way or the highway. Yes, there are many absolutes – the core tenants of our faith- but we hold many other things on the same level and refuse to budge.
One example is the many different components of worship. Music comes to my mind (no surprise there!) I am partial to hymns, but many find great benefit in more contemporary worship styles. There are critics on both sides of the fence. Some hold that giving up hymns releases a great resource of theologically based reinforcement. Others feel that sticking with just hymns lacks the appeal needed to bring in the non-churched – they can’t relate to old fuddy-duddy stuff. But in all truth, as long as they both point us in the right direction – to God, praising Him, and encouraging us to follow Him faithfully – they accomplish what is necessary.
In his address to the Corinthian church, Paul is taking on what sounds like the craziness of disorder in worship. The components were there; the problem was that everyone was doing what they thought best, with no real thought put into how it impacted the body as a whole.
Interestingly, my Life Application Study Bible, in response to Paul’s statement, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace,” states that the preferred alternative to disorder is “peace.”
As I mentioned, to counter disorder, some believers have swung to the opposite extreme by opting for rigid, predictable, and unvarying forms of worship. Disorder is one thing, but responding this way makes God’s presence equally difficult to find. When there is chaos, the church is not allowing God to work among believers as he would like. Worship that “is done properly and in order” should not, however, rule out God’s creativity, joy, and unpredictability.
We must do our part to have worship be a joyful, peaceful, winsome experience that draws people into it.
Only then will it accomplish its goal of engaging us and bringing us into God’s presence to impact and change us as it needs to.
Lord Jesus, help us to make worship what it needs to be, an interaction with You to continue to make us more like You. Amen.
Feb 12th, 2024, Mon, 12:22 pm
