Book Look – Persecuted Believers and Worship

 

 

What she’s doing is dangerous, but she can’t resist it. Just one more Bible. It’s in reach and she knows people who need it. But then it all goes wrong, people she loves are in danger- big danger; and she has no way to stop the inevitable. Or does she? It’s risky… but it could change things for many other believers.

Counted Worthy by Leah E. Good is about a teenager named Heather Stone, who smuggles Bibles in a futuristic America that has fallen apart. I and many people I know I really enjoyed this book, it’s adventure, and it’s faith… including people who don’t usually enjoy this kind of thing.

 

…

The Air I Breathe by Louie Giglio was a book my youth pastor wanted me to read in order to be on our youth group’s worship team. At first I thought the book would be boring and talk about how worship is about God and not putting on a show, but I was wrong, This book changed my view on worship and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read it because it will/has helped me with leading worship on Sundays and at youth group. The main point of the book is that we are all worshipers and we are created to bring pleasure and glory to our Creator. We all have a desire to worship things because we were made to worship Him. Something I took away from this book is that we need to constantly be looking for ways to glorify Him. He wants us to talk to Him all day long and include Him in everything you do. If you are a worship leader or even a worshiper, I would definitely recommend this book for you.

(We do not post the full magazine on this blog. To read the entire magazine each month, subscribe for free by emailing us at thinkauthors@gmail.com)

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Life’s Application – Worship

Miranda dragged the heavy van door shut as the last of her siblings tumbled out of the car. Together the family walked up the pathway to church. That is, until someone had to go back to get their Bible. Miranda followed her dad into the building, stopping to say hello to some friends, and be hugged by her elderly neighbor, who was just a bit deaf, and Miranda reaped her greeting several times before moving on. She glanced through the people surrounding her, and hurried to catch up with her family. As the worship band began playing she deposited her stuff in her seat and straightened to see what song was playing. Ah, it was ‘My Lighthouse’ by Rend Collective, one of her favorite bands. Miranda subconsciously looked around her. Her mom had her eyes closed, and hand out. Her dad was singing loudly, nicely. And the women in front of her was was clearly praying out loud, her voice lost in the music. Miranda began singing quietly, after a few lines, she tentatively closed her eyes. Immediately she felt very aware of all the voices around her. Sure that someone was looking at her she peeked out… and of course, no one else was paying attention to her. She noticed a few more people this time, though, off down the row to her right there were two girls who were whispering together. Miranda closed her eyes again and enjoyed worshiping, but a few minutes later she felt unexplainedly compelled to kneel. Immediately, she started getting fearful and arguing with herself.

“Just do it!”

“But what will those girls think? What will my parents think?”

“Does it matter what they think?”

“Logically I should say no, it doesn’t matter. But-”

“But what? Aren’t you supposed to fear God, not man?!”

“It isn’t going to be a sin if I don’t kneel would it?”

“That is what you are going for? The least you can do without sinning? How about the best you can do to honor God?”

“But people will think I’m being dramatic and making things up.”

“Well, you’re not, so who cares? Besides, no one will notice, they are all worshiping”

…

 

Apply it…

• Does your extreme consciousness of everyone around you ever hinder your ability to focus in God and worship in a group? Well, it did for me for a long time. But God arranged circumstances in my situation so that I could really learn to worship- finally! Anyways, you are not alone in that seemingly little struggle. But that doesn’t mean it is okay. It all comes down to our fear of God. Or our lack of it. Are we focused on worshiping the all-powerful, awe-worthy, God who loves us and died for us? Or are we concerned about the human to our left that we don’t even know very well, and definitely doesn’t deserve our worship? We’ve talked about fearing God many times before in Th!nk magazine, and I could write pages and pages on it (I actually started a book about it once), so I won’t go into it all here. But it is the foundation on what we do in life. If we don’t fear God enough to simply worship Him in a room full of other believers in church, how will we ever be able to fear Him enough to much harder things? Our motivation will be really quite pitiful. So, I challenge you: go back, read our pasts articles on fearing God, search Scripture yourself, and then quote it to yourself when you struggle to fear Him, and not humans.

*Specifically, check out May 2016 Th!nk magazine.

(We do not post the full magazine here on this blog. To read the entire magazine each month, subscribe for free be emailing us at thinkauthors@gmail.com)

Dissect it! – Worship

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.

Romans 12:1

Let’s look at the first part, as a proper dissection should go. ‘In view of God’s mercy’. The first admonishment Paul gives us when instructing us in worship is this: in view of God’s mercy. In view of God’s mercy, His favor, His grace, His compassion, and His forgiveness in the face of our multitudes of disgusting sin. Did you know that the actual definition of the word ‘mercy’ is ‘unmerited’ or unearned ‘favor’? When you worship, do you go into it thinking of God’s mercy, or of what you ate for lunch, what you want from God, and how horrible you are? None of those are right! As Paul says, we must go into worship in view of God’s mercy. This is especially apparent if you go back and read the last few verses of chapter 11, where Paul speaks of his wonder at God’s power and mercy.

Alright, in view of God’s mercy. Got that. What’s next? ‘To offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God’. A living sacrifice. In the Old Testament when an animal was chosen to be  a sacrifice to God- whether is was a sin offering or a thank offering or some other offering- they would have to be the best of the best of the animals, not blemished in the slightest. Just as er should be a living offerings. Scripture says that we should be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Set-apart for God. I was recently reading in Numbers and it was listing all the sacrifices and what was required for each individual one. It was interesting to see that the sin offering wasn’t the most demanding one- rather that of the thank offerings and praise offerings. How important they are! So, how can we be a living sacrifice? Well, first of all, we must be set apart for God, the best that we can be for Him. That is an act of worship to God. The true and proper act of worship.You don’t have to only be singing to worship God and give Him the glory and thanks that he deserves, but you can worship Him even more by loving others, and honoring Him with all that you are! Whether it is through art, or sports, or singing, or dance, or writing, or serving! That is what is being a living sacrifice: being completely and totally God’s. That is what our whole purpose is anyway! To bring Him praise and delight (Philippians 3). That is what our spiritual act of worship is. Do you love your savoir enough to do this? To truly offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God? And to not just talk about it, but to actually do it? It isn’t easy, and this decision is a dangerous one that you can’t make once, but that you have to renew daily. Are you ready? Are you willing?

*We do not post the full magazine on this blog. To read the entire magazine, subscribe for free by emailing us at thinkatuhors@gmail.com.

Real Life Stories – Worship

Distracting Worship

By a 13-year-old girl

I love worship, it is probably my favorite way to thank Jesus for all he has done.  But I started noticing in the past year that I wasn’t fully grasping the concept of worship.  I wasn’t thinking about the messages in the songs.  Because at my church most of the songs we sing I know pretty well from memory, well enough to where I don’t have to look at the screen where they project the lyrics.  But I found that since I know the words so well my mind starts to wander to other places while my brain automatically sings the song.  Don’t get me wrong, knowing the words to the songs isn’t a bad thing it is actually good thing, but in my case it is, in a way, a distraction, which we all should know isn’t a good thing.  I found that while I automatically sang the song I would be “going” off to different “places” in my head taking away from the glory and purpose of worshiping the Lord.  So lately I have been attempting to listen more to the words then sing them, and trying more to find the meaning in the song.  To understand God’s message in the song.  And I have found that it has been working, now the songs are more than words put to music.  They are turning into a communication between me and God.  All that to say I have been fully blessed to have a new found way to praise the Lord and that I hope you will find worship so enjoyable and meaningful as I do.

 

Simply Helping

By a 11-year-old girl

Sometimes you think you have to be singing to be worshiping. But that’s not true. My family and I are staying with friends that have three wonderful little girls ages six, four, and two. They’re very cute, and love singing at the top of their voices whenever the house feels too quite. The youngest especially loves singing songs from Frozen. 😀 They’re amazing kids, but I could see how the mom might get exhausted, and/or very tired of hearing ‘Let it go’, and sometimes even squeals from their bedroom. So, I try to help entertain. Not because I want to be thanked, or because I want someone to notice at all what I’m doing, but because I love God. And He loves little children. In the Bible in Matthew 25:40 (NIV) Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  It then says things like “For, when I was hungry you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, sick, and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” I like that idea. That all that we do, we do for Jesus Christ. So watching these three little girls, and entertaining them, and playing with them, is helping their mom. In doing dishes every day so that other’s can get other more important things done, I can worship God even while doing that. I can worship God while I read storybooks to little children, and while I clean. You can worship God while you’re hiking, or doing chores, or even going to the store, because He made you able to do those things.

 

A Call to Worship

By a 15-year-old girl

I have always felt really connected to God through music and instruments. For example, music really speaks to me when I’m worshiping, and also when I’m mad, I play Christian music and it helps me feel better. Anyways, I have have been apart of my church’s worship band and I really enjoy that. Every Sunday I get to sing worship songs and connect with God in a valuable and unique way. My youth group also has a worship band, but I have always been too busy for it so I was never apart of it. Recently I was thinking that it would be cool to join the band for my youth group, but I didn’t want to do it unless God was calling me to it. I asked God to somehow take care of it and that if it was His will, then that he would bring it up and work it out. SO…. a couple Wednesdays ago, I was leaving youth group and my youth pastor wanted to talk to me. He said that he thought I wanted to talk to him while we were at our conference about joining the youth band. I chuckled at this, because I never brought up this topic. I said that it would be cool and that I would enjoy that. And then I left without a doubt that God was in the working. I have no idea where God is going with this but I am grateful for this opportunity and can’t wait to see what happens. I’m excited to lead my peers in a special time for me.

*We do not post the full magazine on this blog. To read the entire magazine, subscribe for free by emailing us at thinkatuhors@gmail.com.