What is Worship? WonderfulWorship #1

As I discussed in a previous post, I’m starting up a discussion on worship among a number of interested bloggers. Details are here.

The question to ponder this week is:

When you strip everything away and get to the essense, what is worship?

Think about your responses from a personal point of view, pray about them, and post them next week (but before Thursday the 7th of June). Send me the link to your post on your blog and I’ll create an entry here on Thursday, June 7th with a list of them all. If you wish to include a quick bio or introduction, feel free. This may be some people’s first visit to your site.

There is no restriction on format, length or style as long as it answers the question somehow.

Have fun. Be wise.

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A while back it occured to me that I didn’t really understand prayer from God’s perspective. So I’ve spent the last year working my way through the bible reading all the passages that reference the word prayer. I am amazed at the places this study is taking me. Here I was, thinking I would learn all about prayer, and instead God has taught me about fear, and clutter, and promises, and repentance, and menu plans.

Today I wanted to just share one of my little insights about evangelism.

I was looking up verses in 1 Kings 8. The Hebrew word palal, meaning to mediate or intervene, and generally translated pray, occurs nine times in this chapter.

The chapter describes Solomon’s dedication of the brand new Temple in Jerusalem. The Ark of the covenant and all the accoutrement from the Tabernacle were moved into the new sanctuary and then the spirit of God filled the Holy of Holies. Solomon offered prayers on behalf of his people for justice, forgiveness, direction, provision and protection.

And then verse 42 jumped out at me:

When they hear about your great reputation and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds, they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple. (NET)

According to this verse, people who are not a part of the family of God will come to worship God when they hear of His great reputation and His ability to accomplish mighty deeds. Evangelism is the result of sharing what God is doing!

This lines up with what I know of the New Testament as well. Jesus called us to be witnesses. The American Heritage dictionary defines a witness as someone “who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced.”

Therefore, it seems to me that successful evangelism will result when I have a personal encounter with the All-Powerful God and then share my own story with others.

To be honest, I do not find this a very comforting thought. But then that seems pretty in line with the rest of my Christian walk! The reason is that it puts the responsibility for evangelism square in my lap. It does not lie with my pastor, or my church’s outreach programs, or with the worship team on Sunday mornings.

The responsibility to make believers lies with me.

And it depends on my knowing and experiencing the Lord of the Universe. And that in turns depends on my seeking out a constant relationship with the living God. He calls me to abide, and when I do so, there will be fruit, not of my doing, but of His.

Barbara over at Fuel tagged me, asking me to describe seven things people might not know about me.

1) I had major closed heart surgery when I was three years old. I have a 14 inch scar on my chest. I spent a week in the hospital, in which my parents could only see me during visiting hours. Today, this surgery is corrected on an out-patient basis and the scar, found at the base of the leg, is less than 1/2 inch.

2) I had stage 2 hypothermia hiking in the Alps in Switzerland on a wet, windy day. I have never been warm since. On the plus side, I got to spend some time in a small chalet with an elderly couple who made the best fresh cheese I have ever had.

3) I have read Anne of Green Gables more times than I can count. I clung to the idea that people loved Anne even though she was flighty and quick tempered. There was hope for me.

4) I have a phone phobia. I had a bad experience with some creepy caller in my young teens and I’ve never really liked calling people, or answering a ringing phone. I have to work myself up to do it. So now you all know why it is that I don’t call!

5) I gave the valedictory address at my Grade 9 graduation. I cried through the whole thing. I’m glad that video cameras were not readily available back then…

6) I love teaching and public speaking. I love being in front of people and sharing my passions. I recently read a study that said people were more afraid of public speaking than dying. Not me. I’d rather face a large restless audience than spiders, dirty diapers, and even death.

7) I cut hair - my own, my husband’s, my children’s. I think I do a pretty good job. I started cutting MrPages hair in the early years of our marriage to help shave off extra money in the budget. I can use the electric clippers like any good army Sargent now. I needed a little more convincing about doing children’s hair, though. One trip to the Hair-Do Zoo for ten minutes of snipping minus $50 dollars convinced me that I could cut four small children’s hair just as well. After that, the leap to my own curls seemed only natural. Oh and that bald spot there? I’m not sure where that came from….

I’m glad it’s only seven things. This was much harder than I thought and has taken me over a week to write but it was sort of fun.

Page1 reminded me that I’m supposed to tag someone else. So if you read this and want to join the game, leave the info or links in the comment section! ;-)

(This is a continuation of a list started by Page1 here.)

I am Thankful For…

26. Love
27. The McInnes’
28. Wind
29. The smell that the outside has after it rains
30. Pancakes with syrup and strawberries
31. Angel food cake and whipped cream
32. Hazel and Clover (our pet rats)
33. Truffles (our pet rabbit)
34. Swimming
35. Birds
36. Root beer floats with vanilla ice cream
37. Those Christmas lights that look like gumdrops
38. Pencils and paper (so that I can draw and write)
39. Apples to Apples
40. MagnaDoodles

The best time for me to think up stories is in bed. Lying there right before you go to sleep.That’s when I think up all of my poems.
That’s when I thought up up this one…

Canada
By LittlePage2

When the Red River settlers came,
To this wintry country of ours,
They were helpless if they were lame,
‘Cause they didn’t have any cars.
They traded the natives beads,
And made lots of baskets of reeds,
‘Cause they had no metal bars,
In this wonderful country of ours.

MrsPages participates in a number of blog “carnivals”. Someone chooses a topic and anyone who wishes to do so posts a blog entry on the topic on their own blog, and they are all linked together by an “index” post that the host maintains. It’s an interesting way to see many perspectives on various topics.

I’d quite like to start something similar focussed on worship. I’ve sent invitations to a number of bloggers that I read regularly and who discuss worship matters on their blogs. I’m waiting for some responses and working up some basic guidelines.

If you’re interested in participating in a bi-weekly discussion of worship (purely voluntary each week, no commitment) please either use the “Contact Us” link on the right or leave a comment here.

[UPDATE: I've had a couple of positive responses, so this is going to happen starting this Thursday. Check the "WonderfulWorship" link on the right sidebar for more details]

[UPDATE: I've turned off comments dur to spam. If you wish to leave a comment on this post, please contact us and we'll post it manually.]

I bent down to kiss Page4 a sweet goodnight. He put his pudgy little hands on my cheeks and pulled me down for a kiss. Then he whispered, “I washed my hands in hot water.”

“Oh,” I innocently replied.

“I got poop on them,” he said rather matter-of-factly.

“Did you use soap?” I cringed.

“Was I supposed to?” he asked.

I’m off to soak my face in disinfectant now…

(Man, I really need to think about some more intellectual posts!)

We have two pretty firm rules here at WonderfulPages. No names and no faces.

No names: I have a pretty big web presence on a few other major sites under other nicknames, and I really do want to keep that seperate from this. Anyone with some moderate Google-Fu skills could likely link them, but for the most part this site is independent.

No faces: There are lots of creeps out there that use pictures of little kids for all sorts of things. I’ve had to deal with more than a few in my various other roles. Even pictures that aren’t your standard “naked kid in the bath” picture can be taken and modified, or the face used in a composite fake image. Also, if someone did manage to track down my details I’d rather they don’t have clear pictures of my kids to use for reference.

Yes, we’re that paranoid. We’ve had raised eyebrows and not-so-subtle hints that we are being too paranoid. “People post pictures of their kids, and their real full names and cities and other information all the time, why not you?”

Here’s why not us:

I just got an email from smugmug (a really cheap, fabulous image gallery service) saying that they had essentially closed my account to the public. They had a report of my images being used on “inappropriate sites”. They asked that I fix the images then I could open my galleries again.

It turns out that in the 750 pictures in the gallery for the Nicaragua trip there were 3 images that had hundreds of hits per week. Yes, you guessed it, the ones that featured the 3 year old boy bathing at the community tap in the village. They were apparently linked on a horrible site somewhere. I felt sick.

I love those photos. They are some of my favorites because they show the village at its best. Mom is washing and doing her best, the kids are clean and happy and laughing, everyone is working together. Now I can’t look at them the same way ever again.

So. Two rules. No names, no faces.

I hate being vindicated in paranoia.

Sacrifice

- from the old english for “to make sacred”.

Sacred

- holy, set apart for God.

So often I think of sacrifice as that which I must give up in order to serve my family, and thus God. I put aside my desire to buy lots of nifty gadgets in order to sponsor our Compassion kids. I give up my dreams of becoming a novelist to write out grocery lists and chore charts. I sacrifice my time alone, to raise and homeschool five active children in a rather smallish house.

And yet in studying this word ~ sacrifice ~ I have discovered that sacrifice is not what I must give up. It is what I must become. It is not about the things I lay aside, in order to serve. It is about doing what is necessary to become like my Saviour. I sacrifice, that others may know His name. I sacrifice to keep a home that will cause my family to praise me at the city gate. I sacrifice to spend time with my five disciples, equipping and training them to do the same unto others.

Sacrifice is not about what I lose. It is about what I gain.

Lord teach me to see with Your eyes, to give with Your heart, to become what You desire.

Teach me to sacrifice.

For more thoughts about The Beauty of Sacrifice, visit this week’s Carnival of Beauty hosted by Holy Experience. For more information about participating in the Carnival of Beauty, please visit Amanda at Following an Unknown Path.

MrsPages was out doing errands and brought hot dogs home as a treat.

Our oldest is only 11. We demolished 24 hotdogs and the kids were asking for more.

I feel a great disturbance in the budget… it’s as if thousands of dollars in groceries cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced…