Post by mattxiong on Feb 20, 2006 15:25:46 GMT -5
A Message to His people
Worship doesn’t happen when we sing. Worship doesn’t happen when we lift up our hands. Worship doesn’t even happen when we close our eyes or get on our knees. In James 2:13, it says that “faith without action is dead”. One can also come to the conclusion that action without faith is pointless. People of God, I am not here to lead you all into songs. My job is to lead you all into worship. Singing is not necessary at all, but it is our response from worshipping. Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God -- for who He is, for what He has done -- expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live. In your response, express yourselves freely, but in spirit and in truth. Express yourselves wholly. Use all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If you guys ever see me worshipping, I sing with all of my heart. I close my eyes and focus completely on worshipping and glorifying God, using my mind and my soul. I play the guitar with all of my strength and energy, and dance around however I can while staying in tune and not completely destroying the guitar or tripping on cables. I am not saying that you should do what I do, but I am merely giving you an example of how it can be done.
I encourage you all to close your eyes when you’re singing (or responding to worship). It makes so much more of a difference. How can you worship God when you’re looking at everything else and processing every visual stimulus into your brain? How can you worship God when you’re worried about how you might sound when standing beside a group of friends or strangers? How can you worship God without praying? Many people close their eyes when they pray. This is the stereotypical way of approaching prayer. I don’t believe it is necessary at all, but gosh is it hard! Prayer is how we commune with God. Of course, we can commune with God all sorts of ways. We can even think things in our heads, and God will hear it. Everything we can imagine doing, God can do. Philosophers say that our imagination is limited at where God’s begins. I don’t know if I said that correctly, but it basically means that everything we can think of within our imagination is nowhere near greater than what God can do. Like in that Chris Tomlin song it says, “None can fathom”. Anyways, back to prayer. We choose to close our eyes to help us focus. As we worship God with songs of praise, we can also close our eyes and transform the words that we sing into our very own personal prayers.
If you’ve ever worried about what to pray about, any song that is sung during worship can be interpreted as a prayer. One thing many of us overlook is the power of worship during troubling times. I understand that most people find it difficult to put their hearts into worshipping God when they’ve just lost a loved one, or has just experienced a horrible break up. Any type of tragic event can draw one’s heart and mind away from worship. Do not let this hinder you from worshipping and praising God. Remember, God is your refuge and your strength. Like in that Matt Redman song, “Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering. Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.” The song goes on to say, “You give and take away, but my heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be Your name’.” It is also okay to express anger at God. Don’t worry. God knows when you’re angry at Him anyways, but He doesn’t want you to hide it from Him, especially if He already knows about it. Express how you feel to God, and then humbly ask for guidance. In Psalm 13 it says, “How long, Oh Lord, will You forget me? How long, Oh Lord, will You hide Your face from me?” The Psalms express all sorts of humane feelings and emotions to God. Use the Psalms as a guide to worshipping God.
-Matt Xiong
Worship doesn’t happen when we sing. Worship doesn’t happen when we lift up our hands. Worship doesn’t even happen when we close our eyes or get on our knees. In James 2:13, it says that “faith without action is dead”. One can also come to the conclusion that action without faith is pointless. People of God, I am not here to lead you all into songs. My job is to lead you all into worship. Singing is not necessary at all, but it is our response from worshipping. Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God -- for who He is, for what He has done -- expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live. In your response, express yourselves freely, but in spirit and in truth. Express yourselves wholly. Use all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. If you guys ever see me worshipping, I sing with all of my heart. I close my eyes and focus completely on worshipping and glorifying God, using my mind and my soul. I play the guitar with all of my strength and energy, and dance around however I can while staying in tune and not completely destroying the guitar or tripping on cables. I am not saying that you should do what I do, but I am merely giving you an example of how it can be done.
I encourage you all to close your eyes when you’re singing (or responding to worship). It makes so much more of a difference. How can you worship God when you’re looking at everything else and processing every visual stimulus into your brain? How can you worship God when you’re worried about how you might sound when standing beside a group of friends or strangers? How can you worship God without praying? Many people close their eyes when they pray. This is the stereotypical way of approaching prayer. I don’t believe it is necessary at all, but gosh is it hard! Prayer is how we commune with God. Of course, we can commune with God all sorts of ways. We can even think things in our heads, and God will hear it. Everything we can imagine doing, God can do. Philosophers say that our imagination is limited at where God’s begins. I don’t know if I said that correctly, but it basically means that everything we can think of within our imagination is nowhere near greater than what God can do. Like in that Chris Tomlin song it says, “None can fathom”. Anyways, back to prayer. We choose to close our eyes to help us focus. As we worship God with songs of praise, we can also close our eyes and transform the words that we sing into our very own personal prayers.
If you’ve ever worried about what to pray about, any song that is sung during worship can be interpreted as a prayer. One thing many of us overlook is the power of worship during troubling times. I understand that most people find it difficult to put their hearts into worshipping God when they’ve just lost a loved one, or has just experienced a horrible break up. Any type of tragic event can draw one’s heart and mind away from worship. Do not let this hinder you from worshipping and praising God. Remember, God is your refuge and your strength. Like in that Matt Redman song, “Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering. Though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.” The song goes on to say, “You give and take away, but my heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be Your name’.” It is also okay to express anger at God. Don’t worry. God knows when you’re angry at Him anyways, but He doesn’t want you to hide it from Him, especially if He already knows about it. Express how you feel to God, and then humbly ask for guidance. In Psalm 13 it says, “How long, Oh Lord, will You forget me? How long, Oh Lord, will You hide Your face from me?” The Psalms express all sorts of humane feelings and emotions to God. Use the Psalms as a guide to worshipping God.
-Matt Xiong