This year, on the first Friday of the month, I want to share with you some resources that you may use, either for your own growth and encouragement, or resources that may be useful in sharing with friends and family.
I want to focus on some of the booklets that are provided by our denomination on various topics. We have several in our bookcase in the foyer of the Church building, and I encourage you to enjoy the resources that are there.
This month I want to focus on a booklet that is being used in a couple of different ways by our Church. This “Helps for Worship” is what we are using on Wednesday night as we study the various elements of worship and why we do the things we do on Sunday.
I also started last Sunday printing bulletin inserts from this booklet to help us in our worship and our study. I will continue to do that weekly as we move through 2017.
If you would like a hard copy of the booklet, let me know and I will get a copy to you. I currently keep them at the manse, where we have our midweek study. If you would rather read it electronically, you can find an online copy here: http://store.opc.org/SearchResults.asp?Cat=1823 . Look for “Helps for Worship”.
The following is from the Preface to the booklet:
“The right worship of God is the highest calling given to every man, woman, and child. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”
Indeed, joyful worship in this life is a blessed foretaste of the worship that God’s people will give him for all eternity. Man’s chief end in the new heavens and the new earth is indeed “to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever” (cf. Rev. 5:8-14).
Worship is, first of all, theological. It is focused on the true and living God and regulated by his word (Deut. 12:32; Matt. 15:9).
Worship is Christological. It is given, received, and at every point conditioned by Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King (1 Tim. 2:5).
Worship is spiritual. It flows from hearts filled with the Holy Spirit in a setting which the Holy Spirit is at work using the elements of worship to transform lives (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:18).
But worship is also pedagogical. Each element of worship teaches something, and all elements of worship are to be used with an understanding of what is being done in worship and why. We are to worship with understanding (Heb. 11:6; 1 For. 14:15).”
I hope you enjoy our studies on worship this year, and it helps you to better understand part of what makes us Faith Bible OPC. If you have any questions about worship along the way, don’t hesitate to ask myself or one of the session members.