It is a Biblical commandment to praise and worship God!

John 4:24: God is spirit; and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

God moves in a fresh way in his church amongst his people. An important part of this restoration comes from warm and sincere celebration of God through praise and worship.

If we ask whether it is a Biblical commandment to praise and worship God, if it really is important to the believer and if we should emphasise the role our Sunday Service plays in being obedient to this command, the answer is a stern YES!

Celebratory Sunday Worship where we heartily praise the Lord, is not the invention of man, or of the gospel music industry or any church renewal movement, but it is God’s idea. Since the days of the Old Testament, it was God’s idea that his people should meet regularly and continuously to worship him and to celebrate our relationship with him.

Just listen to Psalm 150, and see how we are taught to "praise the Lord!"

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise him in his mighty expanse.
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with trumpet sound;
Praise him with harp and lyre.
Praise him with timbrel and dancing.
Praise him with stringed instruments and pipe.
Praise him with loud cymbals;
Praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!

God is still saying to his church, as he commanded so often during all the ages: "Praise Me!"

The reason for the Biblical command to worship and praise lies not with God, but with me. The reason is that WE need what praise and worship can do in our lives. It meets a deeply rooted need to celebrate the Lord.

Praise and worship change and inspire us! The living of a purposeful and content life, begins with celebrating God.

Love as Jesus loved!

In Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 we find what is considered as the greatest of all the commandments in the Old Testament: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And in Leviticus 19:18 we read, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself." The Bible had taught these commandments to love, from the very beginning.

In both the Old Testament and New, we meet God as a God of love. And in both Old and New Testament, we find that God expects from us to have holy love.

But the old commandment does differ from the new commandment that John speaks about in 1 John 2: 7-8:  “I am writing you a new command... because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”   

When he wrote these words, John was thinking of Jesus’ own statement recorded in John 13: 34: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

It is not the command to love that is new, it is that Jesus gave us a new scope for love. It is not new in its being there, but it is new in its reach and standard!

In the old command, we were to love our neighbour as ourselves. In the new command, we are to love one another as Jesus loved and demonstrated God’s love to us.

This is the new commandment – to love as Jesus loved!

Listen to John 15:13, "Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Jesus loved us enough to lay down his life for us.

When we walk in the light and learn to forgive one another, we will take the next step as well: To love as Jesus loved!

Serve the Lord cheerfully

We need to understand that the Church of Christ is all about relationships. Everyone knows that the Church is not bricks and mortar, buildings and structures, laws and traditions.  When we say “church” we talk about people. 

The New Testament word for Church means "the called out ones."  The Church is made up of Christians. The Church is all of us who love the Lord and love his work. In the Church, we are related to one another based on our love for the Lord.

It is a relationship based on an understanding of who we are in relation to each other.

Rom 12: 3: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Our opinion of ourselves ought not to be too high or too low. It ought to be an opinion based on what God has done in our lives and on what God’s calling means in our lives.  We need to desire for our lives what God’s idea is for us and what place and role God has given us in his work. We think too much of ourselves when we assume that we received a gifting that we do not have, or believe we should play a role that God has not given to us.   

On the other hand if we think too little of ourselves and if we do not recognise the gift of God in us, we do not serve according to Gods calling and equipping of us. 

We all are needed and important for God’s work. And we are responsible to each other and we are accountable to each other to get the work done. We need each other to accomplish what the Lord intended for us personally and communally.  We have to use the gift that God has given us.  This is how God wants to make a congregation strong.

Let’s build each other up in faith, in love and in enthusiasm. Let’s serve the Lord cheerfully in his Church community!

Simply being God's children!

See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.   Matthew 18:10

While children are persecuted in Iraq and other parts of the world - and often even within their own families – we need to remember how important they are to God, who has a special group of angels to help and guide them.  We need to pray for every child that suffers and make a difference in their lives, even if it is only in the life of a single one of them at a time!

But for today, let's learn about faith and trust from the children around us. Let's celebrate their spontaneity, love and simple trust. Let's do what we can to protect them from that which would mislead them - let's give them more of ourselves than of entertainment and materialism-driven values. And let's be comforted that when our children struggle, God sends his closest angels to be with them!

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me”, Jesus said.  “It is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” What good news this is!

Whoever receives one such child in Christ’s Name, receives our Lord.   An important part of whom we are and what we do as the church is to receive people here in the name of Jesus Christ.

We receive the children into the household of God, the faith community.  Think about how different children are from adults. They do not come to church to do a task or run a project.  

They come to church because they can and may be part of God’s family. Because God loves them and his grace welcomes them with open arms. They come because they love to be with the Lord and learn about him and praise and worship him. 

And so they remind us of our own status in the Lord’s household.  It is important for us to be accountable for God’s work and to contribute to the work of his Kingdom.  But first of all we are here not because of all the good things we can do, but because of all the good things God has already done for us and wants to do for us. We are not here to tell Christ how to run his work and church. We are not here to be equal partners with God.

Instead, we are here as God’s children. We are here as grateful, trusting, believing and faithful children of our heavenly Father. We are here because the grace of God calls us and gathers us here.

The children remind us of who we all are. When the church forgets that, we forget who we are. We forget that we live by the grace of God alone, and we begin to think that we can live by our own common sense and strength and goodness. But when we receive a child in the name of Christ, we learn again who we are—the children of God whom Christ has received—and so we are reminded of, and strengthened in, the grace of God.