Tag: worship

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Beyond ritual to relationship

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Timur Weber on pexels

Some “through the bible” thoughts from Isaiah 58.

“Will you call this a fast,
    and a day acceptable to the Lord?” (Isaiah 58:5)

This whole chapter (Isaiah 58) is convicting. In it, Isaiah challenges us to look at our worship practices. Are they nothing more than ritual? If there’s no horizontal dimension to our spiritual lives, our worship isn’t worship at all. In other words, if our devotion doesn’t affect how we live with others, we’re not worshiping God. We’re just going through the motions.

When love for others is paired with love for God, we get it. He graciously provides food for our souls and an eternal home, and uses us to provide others with physical nourishment and homes. Worship isn’t just about me and God. It’s about God and us, those who intersect our lives every day.

How can you keep your spirituality from becoming nothing more than ritual? Reading this chapter of Isaiah is a good wake up call for those us of, like me, who find that ritual is easier than relationship. The problem is, ritual leaves you further from God. God promises to be closer when we pay attention to each other.

Posted in Life

Worship musician

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Gabriel Gurrola on Unsplash

A couple of months ago, the pastor asked me if I could fill in and lead the praise worship service when he and his wife were out of town for a conference. Another guitarist and bass player joined me as I led the songs a couple of Sundays ago.

I’ve led the music before when other musicians were sick or out of town. On those Sundays, I also preached and taught a bible class. But on this occasion, I would only be doing music. The other tasks were covered by another fill-in pastor.

This was the first time my only job was the music. I picked the songs, led rehearsal, and was the one leading the congregation in song that Sunday morning. These are my reflections on the experience.

For me, the focus required for musical performance engages a different side of my brain from the preaching task. The latter is more of an intellectual endeavor. Music comes from my creative side. In preaching, I am engaging with the listeners. With a guitar and my voice, I find I engage more with the music.

With enough practice, much of performing happens on autopilot. My fingers automatically respond to the chords I see on the page. I picked familiar songs so the sounds that come from my mouth have long been stored in my brain. Most of the tempos came from a rhythm machine. My breath comes from my diaphragm and my vocal chords feel relaxed and resonant. I hate to admit it, but it’s very mechanical.

Someone is running the soundboard, making sure all the voices and instruments are balanced and heard. While someone is reading, preaching, and praying, I am trying to listen, but I am mostly thinking about when I will play next. I am suddenly aware that it’s really hard for any musician to fully engage in worship.

I appreciate all who supply music for worship on a weekly basis. It’s fun to do once. I’m not sure I’d want to do it week after week. Preach? I did it weekly for many years. But that’s a whole different task. I think I’ll reflect on that next time.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

The best party ever!

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Nik on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 35.

What would make you exclaim, “This was the best Christmas (or birthday or other celebration) ever”? It might be the presents you received. Or the people gathered with you. Maybe the food was outstanding. A live band, fireworks, or an open bar could make an occasion the best ever. How about the amount of debris left to clean up the next day?

“Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 35:1). Boy did he ever! “No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the day so Samuel the prophet” (35:18).

What made this Passover so memorable?

First, the numbers are amazing. 37,600 lambs and young goats were slaughtered and roasted, along with 3,800 bulls. It’s close to twice as big as the Passover King Hezekiah kept, which was best one since Solomon was on the throne (2 Chronicles 30:23-26).

Josiah kept this Passover “according to the word of the Lord by Moses” (35:4). Those repairing the temple discovered the Book of the Law of the Lord. A convicted but repentant King Josiah made sure they followed God’s instructions to the letter.

Finally, the king kept the best Passover ever during the decline of the southern kingdom of Judah. In just a few decades after Josiah’s reign, Babylonians would capture and burn Jerusalem, and take whoever was left into an exile that would last seventy years. Those whom God loved rejected him and every messenger he sent to warn them. He had no choice There was no remedy (36:16).

What’s the best worship event you’ve ever experienced? Anyone who’s been to church has a story about an amazing service. The more I think about it, the more I add to my list. Mine would have to be my call service at the seminary, my son’s ordination, baptizing my children and grandchildren, and my father’s funeral. They were all very different but powerful moments.

Posted in Advent devotions

Doing good things and God things

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Ryno Marais on Unsplash

In Matthew’s account of Jesus’s birth, Joseph believes he is doing the right thing. When Mary was found to be with child, he didn’t want to shame her, so he resolved to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:19). While it was the right thing to do according to the law of Moses, it wasn’t God had in mind for Joseph.

Like another Joseph from long ago, this Joseph has a dream in which an angel of the Lord tells him to take Mary as his wife. Her son was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and he would save his people from their sins, just as the prophet Isaiah had said.

Joseph’s life turned out completely different than anything he could have imagined. The family would have to take a trip to Egypt to save Jesus’s life when Herod slaughtered the children in Bethlehem. He would raise God’s son in Nazareth as his own.

Joseph taught carpentry to the one who laid the foundations of the earth. Joseph worshiped alongside the one who would be worshiped by every nation, tribe, peoples, and language.

What a privilege to work and worship alongside the Lord. Since he is Immanuel – God with us – we get to do that too. This truth adds perspective to every task and prayer we offer up!

Of course Joseph gets an ornament on the Jesse Tree. He’s “of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:4) and served as a faithful father to Jesus.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

The walls came down

Posted on by William Douthwaite

People are screaming, “Why didn’t you write about Jericho?” Relax. Here’s a “through the bible” devotion from Jericho 6.

There are lots of walls in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As we drove from the airport to our guest house, every home that could be lived in was enclosed in an eight-foot tall wall topped by shards of broken glass. Heavy iron doors were the only way in and out, and you had to call ahead of time so someone on the inside would open them.

Safe? Secure? Not really. All it took was a moment, a 7.0 earthquake, and many of those walls, gates, and homes fell into piles of rubble.

Jericho looked secure from the inside and the outside (Joshua 6:1). Safe? Secure? Not really. Not after seven laps around the city, when the priests blew the trumpets, the armed men shouted, and “the wall fell down flat” (6:20). A well-timed earthquake? A sonic-wave of destructive proportions? Who knows? The earth shook at Mount Sinai and at Jesus’s temporary tomb. The sound of many waters and loud thunder accompanies God’s presence. If the Lord can raise the dead with a cry of command and the sound of a trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16), then a few city walls are a cinch.

The fall of Jericho is Israel’s first victory in the promised land. They marched. They blew ram’s horn trumpets. They shouted. But God did the heavy lifting. He brought down the walls. Is there a lesson there for us? We go (to all nations), we lift up our voices and play our instruments in worship, and God “gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Who’s side are you on, anyway?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Joshua 5.

I listen with interest as people try to get Jesus to take sides. Some of the faithful will slot Jesus as a liberal. Others label him conservative. Partisan politics plays tug-of-war with Jesus, trying to pull him over to their side. Capitalist or socialist? It depends on who you talk to. Protestant or Catholic? Since he was Jewish, I guess that doesn’t work.

It’s easy to take the words of Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us?” to assume that God is on my side. That is, he’s behind me and supports my cause.

When Joshua encounters a man with a sword in Joshua 5:13, he naturally asks, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” Friend or foe? A threat or an ally? Are we fighting each other or fighting side-by-side?

The man answers, “No.” He goes on to explain, “I am the commander of the army of the Lord” (5:14). Suddenly, Joshua’s question is irrelevant. Falling to the ground, he worships. The commander says, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy” (v15). This is Joshua’s burning bush moment. He’s in the presence of the Lord.

The question becomes, “Who’s side are you on, Joshua?” Not long before this, in Deuteronomy, Moses laid outlined blessings and curses, encouraging the people to choose life, to love the Lord your God, obey his voice, and hold fast to him (Deuteronomy 30:19,20).

Jesus doesn’t take sides. He calls us to be on his side.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

The pulse of a Spirit-filled life

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Rachel Loughman on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Numbers 28 and 29.

Upon learning that I was a pastor, folks would either comment, “It must be nice to only have to work one day a week” or, “You’re on duty 24/7, aren’t you?”

The truth lies somewhere in between. A lot of preparation goes into the weekly message to the gathered congregation. Shepherding a flock may be a daily commitment, but even shepherds clock in and out each day.

The priests and Levites were busy. Here’s a list of all the occasions on which were responsible for the offerings of God’s people:

  • Daily offerings, morning and evening, including a lamb, flour, and wine)
  • Sabbath day offering (weekly)
  • First of the month offering (monthly)
  • Passover offerings (14th day of first month, eight days total)
  • Feast of Weeks offerings (Pentecost; firstfruits of the harvest)
  • Feast of Trumpets offerings (Rosh Hashanah; 1st day of 7th month)
  • Day of Atonement offerings (Yom Kippus; 10th day of 7th month)
  • Feast of Booths offerings (15th day of 7th month; eight days total)

All that is in addition to vow offerings, freewill offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, and peace offerings (Numbers 28,29).

When I’m distracted by other things in life, whether it be myself or my things, I don’t fix my eyes on Jesus. But it sounds like the psalmist had it down, from waking till sleep:

“My voice you shall hear in the morning” (Psalm 5:3).

“When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches” (Psalm 63:6).

I like to think of all these instructions as a metronome that establishes a rhythm of worship. Rather than an interruption, worship occasions are the pulse of a Spirit-filled life.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

What’s your backup plan?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Changbok Ko on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Exodus 32.

The room was filled with random conversations as students continued to shuffle into the lecture hall and find a seat. Most were looking at their phones, a few unfolded laptops, and others pulled lunch sandwiches from takeout boxes. Some were laughing. One had his hood-covered head down on the desk, eyes closed. Many scrolled through emails and social media.

After about ten minutes, when no professor or teaching assistant had arrived, each student packed up their stuff and left. No one was upset or concerned as they wandered off to do something else.

Not long into the exodus from Egypt, the question on everyone’s mind is, “Where’s Moses?” He went up the mountain to talk to God in the cloud, but “we don’t know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1). The people quickly assume, “I guess we’re going to need some new gods.” Everyone pitches in some jewelry, Aaron makes a calf of gold, similar to a Canaanite god, and they create their own religious ritual and festivities.

It’s hard to believe the nation of Israel so quickly goes off the rails. But not if you ask yourself, “What’s my backup plan” when God takes too long to answer prayer? Or when I lose confidence in his presence, provision, or protection? What cultural gods take his place?

Everyone’s got a golden calf of some kind. We all hedge our bets. Work harder. Get a second opinion. Eat comfort food. Go shopping. Ask for a prescription. Quit.

And that’s after about forty minutes. Moses was up on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

None of those things are necessarily bad. But why not, as Air1 Radio puts it, “Worship through it?”

After Aaron makes the golden calf, the people “got up early and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings;” and the people “sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior” (Exodus 32:6).

Why not enter his gates with thanksgiving, offer up a sacrifice of praise, and wait to see what God’s going to do next? Why not approach his throne of grace, where we find grace? Why not keep our eyes on Jesus?

Having a rough day? Bored? Stressed? Restless? Sounds like an opportunity for worship.

Posted in church, Devotions, Through the Bible Devotions, worship

Why does someone have to get hurt?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Tom Jur on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Genesis 4.

As soon as people began to worship God, worship began to separate people. Cain and Able both brought an offering to God in Genesis 4. But their style of worship was different. Cain brought produce from the farm; Abel brought something from his flock. Because God had regard for Abel’s offering but not for Cain’s, there is post-worship anger, gloom, assault, and murder (Genesis 4:8).

Not much has changed. Worship styles vary from church to church. There is gloom, despair, and agony when some congregations grow and others shrink. Worshipers openly criticize, discredit, and attack each other. And along the way, someone usually gets hurt. That’s what happens when “people [begin] to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26).

Jesus himself got caught up in a worship system that had plenty of room for laws, sacrifices, rituals, and priests, but little room for God. He was the one who ended up getting hurt and ultimately killed.

But that changes everything. The Lamb who was slain is on the throne in Revelation where everyone is on the same page, giving him “blessing, honor, and glory” (Rev. 5:13).

I suppose there’s a lesson to be learned here. Rather than focusing on what someone else is doing for worship, put the blinders on and let the Lord be in the spotlight. Listen to his word, receive his gifts of grace, and respond as someone who has been abundantly loved by loving others.