daddy4ms

My Aunt Kay Jean suggested I start sharing a verse of the day.  I liked her suggestion but decided instead of a verse of the day, I would share a verse of the week.  Be reminded of who God is from His Word. 6  In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2  Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3  And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" 4  And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5  And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, ha...

Today at Hesston MB, I preached on the topic of "Worship Fully" based on one of the themes from Advent Conspiracy. For more information about Advent Conspiracy, visit their website www.adventconspiracy.org. My message was based on Isaiah 6:1-8. My intro. started with the statement to worship fully we must understand the who, what, and why of worship. I will share a few details under each of those points. Who The baby in the manger is the who of worship. Notice what Isaiah notices in vs. 1-The Lord is seated on a throne, high & exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Too often, we let things get in the way of us worshipping fully. Things such as: sports' teams, sports, careers, family/friends, TV or movie celebrities, money, technology, video games, computer/ internet , books, or religion. We need to be careful to not place anyone or anything in the place of God. God is the Audience of One in worship. What This is the area that causes much controvers...

(See part 1 & 2 on previous blog posts.) In the opening verses of Isaiah 6, what the prophet encounters first in the house of God is the glory of God: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (v.1). It doesn’t first say he encountered well-dressed people or hot coffee or influential power brokers or a booming sound system or a great organ. What he caught site of first was God’s glory. There’s a growing trend in some churches to offer door prizes to any returning visitor. One church visited recently by a friend of mine promised him a ten-dollar Starbucks gift card if he came back the following week. Isaiah shows us the door prize that awaited him when he walked into the house of God—the uncomfortable, wrecking presence of God’s glory: “Woe is me!” (v.5). In the Bible, the glory of God refers to God’s “heaviness,” his powerful presence. It’s God’s prevailing excellence on display. The glory of God is...

(This post is part 2 in a series on corporate worship that I began a few days ago.) Contrary to what many modern people believe, we can’t approach God any way we please. Trying to do so is extremely dangerous, as the Bible makes clear (see Cain, Nadab, and Abihu, for example). In the Bible, God provides us with commands, instructions, examples, and stories to illustrate how he wants us to worship him. Our worship, therefore, is to be regulated by God himself through his Word. The often misunderstood “regulative principle” of worship simply means we must worship by the Book—that everything we do in worship must be divinely approved. During the Protestant Reformation, two views emerged regarding how Sola Scriptura ought to be understood when it comes to worship practices. Martin Luther believed we could do anything we want in worship as long as the Bible doesn’t say “no”—whatever is not prohibited is permitted. John Calvin believed we can’t do anything in worship unless the Bible says “y...