Something to Build On

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Don Merritt

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

I mentioned this verse last week as a point of beginning for our investigation of corporate worship from a New Testament perspective; Jesus gave us more information that we’re all familiar with:

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4:21-24

Yep, everyone is probably familiar with that one, but do we see how revolutionary it was? Notice that Jesus was speaking of something quite different from the ceremonial laws of Jewish Temple worship, with its rigid rituals and forms; this was entirely new. You see, in order for us to worship in “Spirit” we need to have access to Him, which they did yet have. We have access to the Spirit, for He indwells us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Worship for a New Testament church isn’t really a matter of outward form, but instead it is all about an inward presence in our lives. As for the “truth” aspect, I think maybe Paul had this in mind when he wrote:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

As all of you know, whenever we see the word “therefore”, we are reading a passage that draws a conclusion from what has preceded it. While that is certainly true here, this one isn’t just referring to the verses just concluded, for this is the beginning of a new unit (12-15) and thus, “therefore” is drawing a conclusion from the preceding unit (1-11), which is a very important distinction. The first unit in Romans discussed grace; the second unit discusses our response to grace. Thus, Paul is telling us that in response to God’s amazing grace, we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God.

Verse 1 is, in a sense, a counterpoint to the Old Testament worship in which animals were sacrificed and rituals were observed. Notice the presence of the words “offer”, “sacrifice” and “worship”, all three of which are terms that pertain to worship in the Old Testament. The old system of worship involved symbols and ceremonies, but worship in the New Testament involves “spirit and truth”. Consequently, the proper and true manner of worship for the Christian is for us to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Please understand: This is no platitude; it is an imperative. A fair question right about now would be, “OK, but just exactly how do I do that?”

You will no doubt be relieved when I tell you that Paul has provided the answer in verse 2:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

My goodness, how we love to quote this, but how many of us actually do it? How many of us actually believe that it is possible? Surely this is nothing more than an abstract ideal, a goal that cannot be realized in this life!

Maybe we should all pause and re-read it; look carefully at the words, the grammar…

Holy heart attack! This is no abstraction; it too is an imperative!

So, here’s another question: Would the Apostle Paul command us to do something if it is impossible? Perhaps we need to think about this some more. Do you recall what Paul told us regarding Israel’s failure to attain righteousness? Yes, that’s right: They never obtained righteousness because their faith was in their ability to conform to the Law, but what God wanted was for them to put their faith in Him… and with God, all things are possible.

Notice that in the imperative of verse 2, there is a contrast, a duality that is set up by the word “but” “Do not be conformed… but be transformed” Thus we have a choice to make: Either we live as the world does with its values, activities and ways of thinking, or we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds so that we have an entirely new way of thinking with different values that lead us to a different way of life; this is our choice, and to be quite candid with you, it is very much like the choice that Israel had to make.

But we are talking about corporate worship here…

If offering ourselves as living sacrifices is out true and perfect worship (or service) to God, maybe we need to look at Acts 2:42 again:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

When we come together on the Lord’s Day, our worship is a service to God, but the service is not in our grudgingly having given God an hour a week of our valuable time. Instead, it is in offering ourselves, with open hearts and minds, to receive the teaching of His Word, to offer ourselves in service to the community of beliers to accomplish His purpose, in offering ourselves to proclaim Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as our hope of Salvation and eternal life, and to offer ourselves to prayer for the sake of His Kingdom. All of this is offered so that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds by His Word and His Holy Spirit, working together in our lives to accomplish His purpose.

Here we have a foundation to build upon. We also have a number of options from which to choose, for there are many brotherhoods of the faithful around the globe, and not everyone approaches the particulars of a worship service the same way. Yet if these basics of Scripture are present, I am not willing to tell anyone that their manner of worship is right or wrong, unless they incorporate something that the Scripture explicitly forbids.

Next time, let’s take a look at those 3 Greek words and see what we can find out their use in Scripture…

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One Adventure Ends, Another Begins

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Don Merritt

I don’t know about you, but I really enjoyed our adventure in Song of Songs, but like all good things, we’ve come to the end. Happily however, we get to begin a new adventure; I thought another kind of love story would be in order, and since I haven’t done a book of prophecy in some time now, I thought we could take a tour of the Minor Prophet, Hosea.

This should be interesting, and certainly, there is a fair amount of controversy associated with it. The controversy begins with how we understand Hosea’s marriage to Gomer: Is it literal, or is it an allegory? In a way, I don’t care, yet to be honest about it, they way we interpret Hosea’s marriage will determine how we understand the book, at least that’s the conventional wisdom. To me, it really shouldn’t matter all that much unless you are a literalist who insists that everything is literal. In that case, you will find Scripture exceedingly difficult. For everyone else, these prophetic books aren’t nearly as tough as they seem at first.

How ever you may choose to see these things, we’ll get busy when we come back together next time, see you then!

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I Think it’s Time

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Don Merritt

I have very much enjoyed our little Martian adventure, and I want to thank everyone who has participated in our discussion so far; you are all amazing!

Yet I think we have just about arrived at the time when we need to pause and regroup. Here’s what I’m seeing:

At the beginning, everyone seemed to think we didn’t really need to take anything with us to Mars for worship, because worship should be a fairly simple matter and here on Earth, we’ve added way too much to it; the idea of simple worship seemed to be the dominant thought. Yet as the discussion progressed, it seemed that several of us realized that there were indeed a few things we might need for worship after all. We need music, and maybe we need a few other things like communion and we should really list our dislikes about church so we can avoid doing anything we dislike, but then, we might need some ritual, because some like that, and we need lots of praise, but it can’t be loud, because some don’t like loud music and chit chat, because we need more time for prayer, but not too much…

OK fine: You caught me. Yes, I pulled some of that out of context, but only so we could get to the point quickly.

I have done this in live classes several times, and I let it get to the place where people started to become unhappy with each other; I don’t think this is the right medium to go that far, however.

The Biblical study of worship can be tricky. It isn’t tricky because it’s all that complicated, it’s tricky because there are several factors that come together making it very easy to become confused. For instance, the English word “worship” appears 75 times in the NIV, but three different Greek words translate as “worship” in English, and they have three different meanings.

There are many different ways for a congregation to conduct worship. Some are very formal and ritualistic, some a sort of formal, yet quite traditional, while others are more relaxed and non-traditional, and still others are contemporary and almost anti-traditional.

So, which is right?

Many people today are in the habit of using the word “worship” in place of the word “music”: Are music and worship the same thing?

There is more than one kind of worship mentioned in the New Testament, I’ll mention 3 of them: Individual private worship, family worship and corporate worship (Church worship service).  Would you be surprised if I told you that individual worship is spoken of in the New Testament a great deal more than corporate worship? Well, it most assuredly is. Can you imagine what would happen if a person took their personal worship practices and preferences and sought tom impose them on the corporate worship of the entire congregation?

There are 2 possible outcomes: 1. Unity in the church is broken and the church splits. 2. Unity in the church is broken and the congregation drifts away and the church dies.

Worship, you see, is a serious topic.

Years ago, I was asked to pick up a couple of undergrad courses on worship: Intro to Worship 1 and Intro to Worship 2. It always came as a shock to the students that almost everything they knew about worship was not from Scripture. Sadly, most of what we think we know on the subject comes from culture, tradition and custom and are entirely of human invention.

Yep, worship is a tricky subject.

Why do we have so many different traditions, customs and styles of worship? So many denominations and non-denominations?

Because it always seems to come down to what people like and don’t like. Yet God casts a very broad net, and He doesn’t want anyone to perish, not even the ones with whom I disagree!

Hard to believe, but it’s true.

Next time, I’ll bring some more information into this Quest of ours, and let’s see if we can come up with a Scriptural foundation upon which to build an understanding of worship that we can use to at least understand if we can come together to a consensus on which to proceed.

So, my next question is this:

Other than everyone just agreeing with me on everything, or with you, what would it take for all of us who seek to follow Jesus Christ, to come together as One in the Body of Christ− is that even possible?

OK, it’s your turn…

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Song of Songs: Epilogue

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Don Merritt

We’ve been all the way through the Song of Songs. We’ve discussed many of the issues and the theology that surround the book; there isn’t much left that I can say about it… except for the best part of all.

Do you remember how desperately “She” yearned for “He” in the story, how close and intimate she wanted them to be together, and how “He” also yearned for that closest of relationships? That relationship of intimate personal contact has come, and is available to all of Christ’s followers, today.

We may not yet be perfect in this relationship, and many would say that this perfect image of His likeness will only be attained in eternity, and I would tend to agree with them. Yet that does not mean that the intimacy pictured in the Song is beyond our reach.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

To attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ is to attain this intimate personal relationship with Him, and this is made possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which His followers receive. This indwelling is, by the way, the most erotic of all images, if you’ll pardon me for pointing it out.

It has been pointed out to me recently that many, maybe most Christians do not have such a close relationship with Jesus Christ, but that is not because it isn’t attainable, for look closely at this little passage above, and you will see the linkage between the spiritual gifts mentioned being used to build up the Body of Christ, and the attainment of maturity in the faith and unity of the Body, and the fullness of Christ.

To be honest, for the longest time, I never would have thought that the use of spiritual gifts to build the Body of Christ, and attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ would be linked together with an intimate relationship with Christ, as pictured in Song of Songs, but I have come to see that the exercise in humility of our spiritual gifts with which our Lord has blessed each of us, leads us directly to the maturity in Christ and unity of purpose that leads us to that fullness in Christ that is so yearned for in the Song of Songs. Yes, dear reader, it is not only attainable for each of us in this lifetime, but it is intended to be a byproduct of following Jesus on this great adventure in life on this earth.

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TLP Living: June 25, 2018

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Don Merritt

A Strong and Vibrant Relationship

I.ve used this story many times, let’s be clear about that. Why wouldn’t I use it? It’s a great story, and it has the added bonus of being true!

Once upon a time I was teaching a class, and the class was about Ephesians. When we came to chapter 5, the part about husbands and wives, I read the verses (5:22-31) then I pointed out how the wife and husband had an equal partnership in the scenario Paul set out, and then we had a class discussion about what it takes to have a strong marriage relationship. It was a wonderful class discussion, and it resulted in quite a list of things that are important to have a strong marriage, some of things that were mentioned are…

  • Husbands and wives must take time to be together.
  • They must always be honest and open about everything.
  • Talking together; husbands and wives must take the time to talk about things together.
  • There cannot be any secrets from each other.
  • They must put God first in their lives.
  • They must always work together towards a common purpose.
  • They must love one another.
  • They must cherish each other.
  • There must be intimacy in every aspect of their relationship together.
  • They must put each other first above everyone else.

There were plenty of other things mentioned, but I think you can get the drift of how the conversation went. Then I read the next verse, Ephesians 5:32:

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

The was silence in the room.

Then I said that we had put together a very good list of ways to build a strong marriage and we can probably all see one or more areas in which we can do a better job as a marriage partner. Yet Paul was using marriage to illustrate the relationship between the church and our Lord. Do we put the same kind of effort into our relationship with Him as individuals? As a church? Would it even occur to anyone that our relationship with Christ should be as honest, open and intimate as in the perfect marriage?

Of course, a church family really cannot really be Christ’s “Bride” until its members have attained a mature and intimate relationship with Christ individually, and precious few of us ever get that far, perhaps because we don’t understand how that could even be possible. We tend to think in more analytical, academic and philosophical terms and while there is nothing wrong with any of that, it does tend to get in the way of simple, innocent trust, and without trust, there can never be true intimacy, whether between friends, or spouses or between people and God.

I wonder: Could that be why Jesus said we must become like little children?

Maybe.

At any rate, I’m thinking that maybe we should study this some more, to look into the possibilities. Tomorrow I’ll post one last time on our Martian adventure, and after that let’s examine intimacy with God and see what discoveries we will make in our life’s adventure following Jesus.

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TLP Inspiration: June 25, 2018

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Don Merritt

Hurry Up!

Good Monday from the Heartland.

Hurry up!  Time is of the essence!  Let’s go, go, go!  Get things done!  Time to run! I’m late!  Rush, rush, rush! Urgent! Move it! Get the lead out!

Welcome to another week.

Everybody’s always in a big rush, have you noticed that?  I remember when fax machines came along… weren’t they going to make things easier?  Well maybe they did in a way, but as I recall they also made me everyone’s slave.  Instead of opening a letter that came in the mail that made a request and asked for a prompt response (when you have a minute), now I was getting faxes that said the sender was waiting for a response this immediately…

Fax machines are kind of obsolete now that we have scanners and email, and the demands are even greater… and you can never get away because you have a smart phone and you can get email even when you are out… and the people still expect an immediate reply.  In fact, with all of the modern time-saving technology that we have, we’ve never been more at the beck and call of others; the insanity just increases.

Being a bit of a rebel myself, I tend to investigate new electronic devices when I get them to discover if they have a very old-fashioned feature: an off button.  I have demonstrated this feature to countless young people over the years who had no idea that their cell phones even had such a thing!  My kids thought that they only had vibrate buttons; imagine their surprise!

Well, as I was saying I’m a bit of a rebel, so I tend to turn these devices on only when I want to use them, to the consternation of some− oh well.  It seems to me that we need to have some time to relax, to think and to spend with family, loved ones and the Lord Jesus Christ.  This is another old-fashioned notion: we need to devote time to our important relationships. I know, people everywhere are falling over in shock, right?

Take a few minutes today for those important relationships in your life, especially the one with our Lord, your sanity level will be healthier and your life will be enriched.

Now: I’d love to say more, but sorry, I’ve gotta run!

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Sunday Sermon Notes: June 24, 2018

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Don Merritt

Title: The Kingdom is at Hand

Text: Mark 1:29-45

Healing People

Mark 1:29-34

Parallel Texts: Matt. 8:14-17; Luke 4:38-41

Galilee Touring

Mark 1:35-39

Parallel Texts: Matt. 4:23-25; Luke 4:42-44

Growing Crowds

Mark 1:40-45

Parallel Texts: Matt. 8:2-4; Luke 5:12-16

If Jesus were to make a tour like this today, a promoter might call it “The Kingdom Tour”.  Certainly, His early ministry in Galilee was tumultuous, with ever-growing crowds of admirers, lines of the sick and lame, the demon possessed… and of course His critics.

More than anything else, Mark, with his brief glimpses of one incident after another, paints for us, a picture of the Kingdom Tour as it advances from one Galilean town to the next. With this somewhat disjointed picture, we start to see a pattern of sorts, images connected together by a theme. We know that the theme is “The Kingdom is at Hand” and the trends are that Jesus preaches the Kingdom, heals the sick and lame, drives out demons and crowds grow larger. They grow so large that Jesus can no longer enter the towns, but instead meets the people in the nearby countryside.

This Kingdom Jesus is preaching brings with it God’s righteousness, a new energetic life, forgiveness of sin and healing. There is something different going on here, nothing like this has swept through Galilee before; this has an other-worldliness about it. It is hard for any of us to reflect upon this period and see the Kingdom as a mere metaphor, or a simple abstract idea, no this is different. Think about the healing that is going on; not only is sickness being swept away in Jesus’ path, but so is infirmity and even death itself. It is as though this Jesus can undo the consequences of sin.

Yet, this isn’t the only healing that is being done right out in the open. Jesus is driving demons out of people! These unclean spirits that have taken over human lives are being given orders to cease and desist… and they know exactly who they are dealing with; Jesus is acting to prevent them from telling the people who He is; why? Where did these demons come from? Were they always there?

One thing is very clear: we can add spiritual cleansing to Kingdom activities in this amazing picture of the “Kingdom Tour.”

However you slice it, Jesus was making a splash, and He is attracting attention as the news of His tour reaches Jerusalem, where the authorities will want to find out just what is going on up there in Galilee, from whence nothing good ever comes, as the action moves into the second chapter, next time.

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TLP Op-Ed: Jume 23, 2018

Posted on June 23, 2018 by Don Merritt

I think that sentiment would apply no matter which Nation you may call home.

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TLP Inspiration: June 23, 2018

Posted on June 23, 2018 by Don Merritt

Summer’s Story

Good Saturday to you from the Heartland.

A lot of people I know only think of the summer time as hot and muggy; I think they might be missing something…

I’ve always thought of summer as a glorious time, but I must admit that early on that was just because I didn’t have to go to school.

I took a drive the other day, and summer’s story was all around.  You could see it in the backyard BBQ’s where friends and family were gathered together.  You could see it in the small town festivals where communities are gathered.  You can see it in the church VBS  announcements where little kids will hear all about Jesus, and their parents and other adults will experience godly service for others.

You can see summer’s stories driving through farm country and seeing growing green fields as far as the horizon in every direction.  No, don’t say that is a boring sight!  This is where men and God work together to feed the nations and I daresay we’d all notice if it wasn’t going on.  Summer is a time when many have a chance to relax and recharge, to vacation with family and to just slow down a bit.  You can sit outside in the evening and hear the symphony of the land, the late calls of birds and the rustle of leaves in the trees, and you can enjoy the sight of the tiger lilies bright orange all around.

Yes, I’d say summer has a lot to tell if anybody cares to notice, and if we look carefully, we’ll see God at work all around us.

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Martian Musings

Posted on June 22, 2018 by Don Merritt

It isn’t by mere coincidence that I moved our conversation from Spiritual Practices to a Martian Colony, no, that was by design. Come to think of it, this is a natural progression of thought from individual to corporate worship. Having gone though so many different practices that are individual in nature, moving on to worship within the Body of Christ is a crucial component of the Christian life, for God’s eternal purpose is wrapped up not in the individual, but rather in the entire Body of believers.

Some of us have a hard time with that notion, and we can see that beginning to emerge in some of the comments that are bring posted. Please don’t assume that because I mentioned it that I have a problem with any of the comments; that isn’t at all the case. As I see it, it’s a healthy conversation, and the fact that we have diversity of views and ideas being brought up just says that people feel safe enough in our midst to be honest, and that is kind of a rare thing these days, a good thing, to be sure.

Some have wondered why a Martian colony, and the simple answer to that is that it’s just a little different way of asking what you would do differently if you could go back to the beginning and start over with the lessons we’ve learned over the centuries. Our conversation thus far has reflected that pretty well. Yet no conversation of this sort can go on for very long without running headlong into a discussion of the nature of corporate worship itself, and when that happens then we run into the natural friction between the first century model that emerges from Scripture, and the cultures, customs and traditions that have sprung up since then. The more we look into this, the more we will come to realize that there is a huge difference between what was going on in the first century church and what we are doing today: Whether that is good or bad really isn’t for me to say, God will be the judge, not me.

If we go all the way back to the very beginning of the church we will see that “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). If you continue to research, you’ll discover that this remains pretty constant in the New Testament. Thus, we have four elements of the Sunday assembly of the church that we can be certain of in the New Testament: The “apostles’ teaching”, fellowship, the “breaking of bread” and prayer. Since the Twelve are no longer with us, we have a message from the Word of God, commonly called a sermon or homily. We have fellowship among the members of the Body, or at least we should. Then there is the breaking of bread, which I read as what we would call Communion or the Eucharist. We also know that they sometimes had a congregational meal along with it. Finally, there was prayer.

If we just look at that list, many will be amazed at what was not mentioned: Music. Yes, Paul mentioned “singing spiritual songs”, but it wasn’t in a context of the Sunday assembly. Another thing that is interesting is that the word “worship” appears 75 times in the English (NIV) New Testament, and not one of those times is it used in connection with the Sunday assembly.

If you are interested in more info, please check out my Sunday Sermon Notes for March 4 and 11 of this year, just click March 2018 on the archives at the right and scroll down…

So, what do we have in all of this?

As I see it, every component of our Sunday worship other than these four components I’ve pointed out, derives from either culture, local custom or tradition; not from Scripture. Please understand, I’m not even coming close to telling you that any of those things are wrong or bad, and I never will tell you such a thing− who am I but a humble servant of Christ?

That’s probably enough musing for a Friday, it’s a lot to think about; of course your comments are always welcome. Most likely I’ll add some background on worship and the Sunday assembly next time and then toss out another question to the colonists; see you then!

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