Gospel Advocate March 2009 - Worship

Reference your articles on the subject of worship in Gospel Advocate March, 2009 You mention the church's responsibility is to worship. There is a prayer Catholics say asking that God not look on their sins but on the faith of the church. I do not see bible support to believe the 3,000 on Pentecost assumed any group responsibilities. If the Great Commission was given to the Apostles as a group didn't the responsibility die with the death of the last apostle? If given to them as saved individuals the responsibility would pass to saved individuals. If the local congregation as a group has a responsibility it encourages the belief that "work out your own salvation" can mean that cutting the church grass is a soul saving work. When a group is responsible, no one is responsible. The Christian Chronicle recently reported the numbers of members and adherents of the Church of Christ have declined. In the corporate business world insanity has been defined as doing the same thing while expecting different results. Maybe we need to consider something different. The word Gospel comes from a word meaning "good tidings" and later "story concerning God." In the New Testament the word is always used to mean the good tidings which Jesus and the apostles announced. It was not until A.D. 150 that the word was applied to the writings concerning the message of Jesus. (The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, Merrill C. Tenney). That being correct preaching about the message of Jesus is not preaching "The Gospel." We use the term "Gospel Preacher" to refer to an individual who preaches to a congregation of people believing themselves to be saved. Those men are not preaching the gospel; those in their audience have already heard the good tidings and believed it. Now they need to be instructed to observe all the things that Jesus commanded the apostles, i.e. Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 as well as other records. They need to be strengthened, edified, built up, and encouraged. We should remember the advice flight attendants give: "Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others." There is nothing unscriptural for Christians to take time for themselves: to edify each other: to encourage each other without the unsaved being the primary focus and I believe the Bible teaches us to take such time. We are losing the war it is time we change our battle plan. As Sesame Street changed the way teachers teach; the same reading, writing and arithmetic but teaching in a different way. Christians should look into what that means for the saved and how they can relate to the not saved. The church huddled together on Sundays, offering "the invitation" to people who are not there does nothing to help its members. How is praying for the sick worship, or listening to the preacher worship (edification, hopefully) or how is singing to each other worship? How is contributing for our own comfort and ease, worship? Jesus told his followers to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. Remembering and worship are different functions, aren't they? We attend memorial services and do not consider that worshiping the deceased. Is telling someone to praise God, praising God? When we praise our children to we say "praise, fill-in-the-name?" Or do we praise them by rehearsing what they did? Over time, the Pharisees among us have altered the meeting to suit their purposes and have changed the meeting to one where we go to church. Due to our carelessness our assemblies can be boring, nonproductive and frustratingly make those who have other things to do feel guilty because they want to leave when they are finished going to church. I see nothing in the New Testament that commands or even suggests we worship (other than Paul's instruction "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."). Jesus told the woman at the well, "... true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth ... God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Most Christians have no idea what that means and do care enough to find out. In the Old Testament we read that Moses or Joshua or others read the entire law to the people. Some places we are told that men, women, children were present. Paul told the church in Colossae that when his letter had been read among them, they were to have it read in the church of the Laodiceans; and they were to be sure to read the letter from Laodicea. Paul told the church in Thessalonica that he put them under oath before the Lord to have the letter read to all the brothers. How can we contend for the faith when we go months if not years in our assemblies without reading significant portions of the Bible? We talk a lot about the Bible but that is not what Moses and Joshua did nor was it what early Christians did. They read. If the churches in Colossae and Thessalonica read their letters like we do, do you suppose they ever finished them? Did they take six months or more to understand what Paul was trying to teach them? The average reader can read Colossians in less than 20 minutes and both letters to the Thessalonians in less than 25 minutes. Both letters to the Corinthians can be read in less that 2 ½ hours. Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" can be read in less than 15 minutes. The Bible has taken a backseat. In a continuing effort to limit the amount of time spent in the assembly there is no time for the Bible. One result is the church is shrinking. A second result is an increased Bible illiteracy of the church. God does not need our worship but he needs our "going into all the world." We can and must worship everyday. We do not need each other to worship. We need each other's strengthening, edification, building up, and encouragement. People do not like to think that an omnipotent God can be caught between a rock and a hard place but he just might be. Unless he is to do away with free choice he is limited by our willingness or unwillingness to obey him and to tell others, to spread the good-tidings. God wanting something to happen does not make it happen. We know that. He wants everyone to be saved and they will not be. There are people who either will not be saved or will be saved other than by what the New Testament teaches because "We Will Not Do As He Wills." Saying Lord, Lord, does not accomplish anything. The saved have concentrated more on getting Sunday "worship" right and as the Pharisees have neglected what is truly important.