What is worship? In
reality, all that I am writing about in this series is a form of worship. Worship includes everything in a Sunday
church service. Worship includes helping
those less fortunate. If all is done as
to glorify God and to be obedient to him.
However, it seems like today with many Christians, worship just
comprises the singing portion of a church service. And that is how I am using the word today in
this blog post, but I just wanted to clarify for the sake of correctness.
One of my favorite things to do is to sing. I love music.
The way it makes you feel an emotion.
The way that you can use it to make others feel emotions. The way that it can cross all sorts of
situations, cultures, and barriers to make everyone feel connected. It brings together, but it can also
divide. It can be a rally cry. It will be stuck in your head for days, over
and over and over…
Music is a powerful tool that God gave us. I don’t think that many Christians realize
this. Yes, they know just what I spoke
of above, but do they really understand that what they are usually mindlessly
listening to is really infiltrating some of the deepest parts of their
soul? If you’ve listened to some
contemporary Christian music that is being sung in churches today, I think
you’d have to agree that they really don’t.
(Are you talking about Jesus or my relationship with my husband? Oh I see, Jesus was thrown onto the end of
one line. Got it, Ok.)
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I’m not all old-school-music only because that’s the only holy music,
but my point is that we should be mindful in the music that we sing. There should be a decent amount of theology
within your worship. Remember how we
talked about prayer and how it shouldn’t just be empty and mindless. Singing is that way as well.
What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. (1 Corinthians 14:15)
This blog post is all about encouraging you to put more
effort into deepening your relationship with God. I would encourage you to add singing to your
Bible study time. It’s not just for
church. It doesn’t have to be
fancy. You can be the worst singer in
the history of singers. But you are not
foolish. God will be glorified and
praised through your obedience and worship of Him. You will add your voice to the angels and the
saints as a beautiful chorus unto our Lord.
The way I have ultimately decided upon was to create a
personal hymn book. Yes, this took time
but it was ultimately worth it. I had
just copied and pasted lyrics into word documents to look up on my computer,
but I found my mind distracted. (All the
pretty icons beckoning me to click on them or the internet calling.) Yes, I could have just printed off pages, but
I had a free journal and it reminds me of the many saints that have held books
in their hands to sing to God throughout the past. It just adds a depth to my worship for me. Find what works for you.
Some tips to keep in mind:
- Really look into the lyrics before you decide that song should be a part of your worship time.
- There should be a lot of theological content to a song.
- Don’t shy away from hymns because they are old-fashioned. If you really read the lyrics of many hymns, you will find that they are full of content.
- Also, don’t discount all contemporary Christian music simply because it’s not traditional or old. Some actually do have content and will add some flavor to your worship time.
- You don’t need instruments or background music. A cappella is just fine. Just a tidbit: supposedly in Italian it is supposed to mean “literally, according to (the style of the) chapel.” (Dictionary.com)
- Leave a few blank pages at the beginning of your book for a Table of Contents, then number either the songs or the pages in the top, outside corner of the page in the journal. When your book is complete, go through and alphabetize the names of the songs and write them in your Table of Contents with corresponding page/song number. That way, you will be able to find the song you are looking for easily.
- Keeping one song to a page and putting a song that encompasses two pages on two opposite pages (not having them on a back-to-back sheet) will enhance the look and usability of your hymn book.
- Add pictures, phrases, or Bible verses in blank areas in the book that correspond to the song on the page.
Having trouble coming up with songs? Write down the titles of songs that you have in your church service that you like. I also found a good website that has hymn book, lyrics, and other great things called hymnary.org that you can use to help as well.
through His grace alone!
Sarah
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