Up on the Hilltop

(Sung to the tune of Up on the Housetop)

Up on the hilltop, people pause
Telling Congress "change our laws!"
Christians refuse, making lots of noise
You can't take away our Christmas joys.
No, no, no! We will not go.
No, no, no! We will not go.
Up on the hilltops, sound the drum:
Down in the streets proclaim Christ is come.

First comes the Scripture, the Word of God
Oh dear it's our firing squad
Man's natural law can't survive the shot
With the Truth we'll conquer the whole lot
No, no, no! We will not go.
No, no, no! We will not go.
Up the mountaintop, raise your sword.
Down in the valley scream "praise the Lord!"

Next they're telling us to keep quiet
Oh they can't kill this glorious riot
With heart and mind we preach Jesus Christ
Their reality resembles Kleist.
No, no, no! We will not go.
No, no, no! We will not go.
Your celebration will end soon, but
We praise Messiah the whole year long!

What is Worship? Part 1a

For a leadership group I am in, I am going to be studying hymnology, but as a precursor it has been requested that I start with what worship is. So, what is worship? That is a broad question not answered easily. However, I have compiled five basic answers from the texts I have been reading to answer this question.

• Gill: "Godliness is the ground work of internal worship, and without which there can be no worshipping(sic) God aright." (A Body of Practical Divinity: Book I, Chapter 2)
• Piper: "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth." (p.84)
• Morey: "True worship is ministering to the Lord." (p.105) and "Worship is all of life." (p.14)
• Frame: "Worship is the work of acknowledging the greatness of our covenant Lord." (p.1)

You may ask which one is correct, but the point of this is to gain an understanding of what worship is, so I would argue that they all are correct. My study will incorporate all definitions, as they are not contrasting, but simply different perspectives from pastors with different personalities.

First, let's take some time to examine the word "worship" as used in the Bible, in the original languages. (For a more extensive study, see my friend Glenn's blog for starters.) There are two main groups of words that are most commonly translated "worship." The first is "Abodah" in Hebrew, and "latreia" in Greek, which means "service." From this, we can see that worship is an action. A person must actually participate in worship; it is not sufficient to be a mere spectator at some entertainment event. Also, it is a conscious act, not consequential. It is not something you end up doing while singing or clapping your hands. A person must set out with the intent to worship, and then anything else is consequence. This is because worship starts in the heart, which we will get to in a minute. The second set of words is "shachah" in Hebrew, and "proskuneo" in Greek, which means "to bow down." The first thing that this implies is that we are honoring someone superior to ourselves. This is the right mindset to get into, to remember that God is above you, and not your buddy or boyfriend. A person must have the highest reverence for God and understand WHY he is worshiping Him. He is superior in all things, bow to Him! To do otherwise is contradictory in the root of the very word worship itself. The second thing this means is that the purpose is to please Him first, and any benefits we receive are secondary. A person should not worship with the intent of cheering themselves up or reaching some sort of spiritual high. It is to please the Almighty, and then it just so happens that we obtain feelings of joy or bliss from that. Those secondary benefits don't even always come, even when a person is truly worshiping in his heart. It is in those times he presses on, because he has the hope that even if the LORD doesn't lighten his heart in this life, He will in the life to come. That joy is ever flowing. If a person worships to obtain spiritual highs, he will never be satisfied. His worship would be self-centered and one would doubt his salvation. There is no rock to stand on when the tide rises if worship is only a means to happiness. So from the origins of the word, we see that worship is a conscience act of service to a being greater than yourself for their benefit.

Having an understanding of the word worship is not sufficient to say we have an understanding of what it is. We know it is an act towards a being, but what is the act and who is the being? Stay tuned for the answers to these questions and more. Part 1 will continue in two more sections, with a Part 2 to follow, length undetermined as of yet.

The sources I am referencing for this study are as follows:

1. Frame, John - Worship in Spirit and Truth
2. Morey, Robert - Worship: It's Not Just Sunday Morning
3. Gill's Archive (http://www.pbministries.org/books/gill/gills_archive.htm)
4. Piper, John - Desiring God
5. Nave's Topical Dictionary

Sharing Time ^__^

I would just like to take a moment to direct your attention to the left column of my blog, to a content section entitled "Shared Items from Blogroll." These are my favorite posts from the blogs that i regularly read (list of these at left as well). There is, imho, some interesting things worth reading there. I share stuff ranging from new books, current events, hot moral topics, and more. Most recently, I added a post from Josh Harris' blog linking to an article by Al Mohler about the new movie The Golden Compass. I do think that this (and anything i share) is worth a read.

If you want to subscribe to my share feed (think of it as a reader's digest of the blogs i read) or see the posts in full, here is the link for that.

Al Mohler calls the attack via The Golden Compass new, but it seems to me that movies have slowly been desensitizing society's moral standards. Josh Harris made a good point about this in his blog. Attacks on our theology is not new, when you consider gnostic media such as The Da Vinci Code and V for Vendetta. I suppose the difference here is that is so much less subtle. The author of the book is not shy in stating his agenda, in the books and in interviews. I agree with him on one point, though, and that is wondering why Harry got so much more attention than his books. His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass is book 1 of a trilogy) is an obvious attack on Christianity as a way, while JK Rowling's Harry Potter series just uses fantasy witchcraft as a means to show the power of love. What's more, she set the epilogue the number of years after that she did to make sure that none of it suggested teen pregnancies.Note-If you haven't read The Deathly Hallows yet, don't worry, i haven't given anything away besides the fact that two people out of the entire world survived to the end. I don't think this is a movie to be ignored, but i hope people don't fight to the wrong proportions as they too often do when it comes to culture. Press on and Godspeed.

I just finished The Vile Village from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I am only progressing at such an excrutiatingly slow pace because i don't own the books. I borrow them from my brother and get a new one when i see him, and i am reading other things. Don't let that fool you! These books are some of the most entertaining things i have ever read. Such sadistic humor though, so while it's written at a kid's level, i'd suggest reading 'em first before giving them to your child. There really are no happy endings, as the back cover promises there won't be.