There are many different styles of worship in Christian circles. We should never isolate it to just one style of music. Some of the (recent) traditional styles of worship were only created within the last 20 years or so; and so does that mean that all the people who lived on this earth-before these popular artists existed, didn't know how to worship God? Worship is so vital to the healing that needs to take place in our lives that we should spend less time determining what is worship and what is not, and spend more time actually worshipping God.
Worshipping God through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit involves so many things. It involves reading God's word, it involves praying, it involves singing, it involves silence, it involves being together, it involves accepting others with the love of Christ, it involves being alone. Worship involves many things and comes in many different forms.
When we come to church there should be someone who can lead us closer to God through worship, but that can happen in different ways and different styles of music. The reason why this is so important is because worship has the potential of healing our hearts that have been broken during the week. People have let us down. We have let other people down. People may have been racists. Maybe injustice of some kind happened to you. When we come to church worship should help us re-focus ourselves on God so God can heal our hurts.
Worship also happens when we are driving in the car and listening to our favorite musician. Worship happens when we do the right thing when no one is looking. Worship happens when we drive someone across town and don't expect gas money. Worship happens when we say nothing when we are feeling defensive. Worship happens when we put in a hard day at the office and work honestly for our money. Worship happens when we smile at a stranger. Worship happens when we volunteer at church or a community club.
Psalm 95: 1-7 says "Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care."
If God is our shepherd and we are the flock under His care; will He not heal our hearts when we worship Him-in our own way. Is God the God of contemporary worship only? Can God not receive worship from other forms of music? We as Christians spend too much time arguing over what's really worship, when we should spend more time just simply worshipping. Out of all the people on the face of this earth I find it hard to believe that God is only interested in one form of worship. If we can get past this, we can enter into healing our hearts from Satan and the world, instead of battling and hurting each other.
We just finished celebrating Easter. In Matthew 28: 8-10, we have a description of the women who saw Jesus after He rose from the dead. It says, "So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me."
These women fell down and worshipped Jesus, and I know that this must have healed their broken hearts after seeing the death that Jesus endured. If we spent more time falling at the feet of Jesus in an attitude of worship in everything we do, whether it's in a church service or driving down the road, we would spend more time healing our hearts than breaking each other's heart.
When Jesus was speaking to the woman at the well in John 4, He said, "God is spirit, and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." Without getting into the details of that passage I think it's safe to say that worshipping God involves the Holy Spirit and truth. The truth is the only thing that will set our hearts free.
John 14:6 refers to Jesus and says, "...I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." When we worship God we go through Jesus Christ, because Jesus is truth and life. We don't go through what the current culture and society says is worship. We go through Jesus Christ and it is there where you will fall on your knees and worship Him, just like the two women running from the grave site did.
Parry Stelter is from Alexander First Nation
and is Founder of Word of Hope Ministries
