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Contemporary Worship -A Final Appeal

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Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 
1 Timothy 5:1 ESV

I close this week with an appeal to my fellow senior saints, or as my friend Dave Duncan calls us, fellow “Keen-agers.” God has graciously allowed us to live long and placed us individually in His church as He has seen best. I wholeheartedly agree with many of you, that I wish they would turn the volume down and that our young worship team would sing all the verses to the occasional hymn that they offer us. But then I remember how our Pastor preaches the gospel as straight-up from the Bibe as anyone I have sat under in the fifty plus years I have been a Christian. He and his wife have lived with integrity, raised three boys who are serving in the church and then adopted two more boys who were in foster care. I also recall that our church currently has a team of 25 members visiting a children’s ministry in Kenya which we have supported for over twenty years. More importantly, hundreds of people of not just our youth, but of every generation are led to faith in Christ and baptized each year. Sure, there are plenty of things I wish were different, but walking away and finding a quieter and more comfortable church that is doing little to carry the Gospel into our world is not an option for me. So, as I finish this series on finding, “What is Good in Contemporary Worship,” let me close with this: my favorite contemporary worship song that we sing at Generations Christian Church.

Faith of a Five-Year-Old

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“In Jesus name Amen,” I said after blessing the food before lunch at kid’s summer camp. Suddenly a tiny voice piped up from one five-year-old girl asking,

 “Hey Pete, why do you take your hat off when you pray?”

I was taken aback, first, because I was amazed that she paid such close attention to my prayer, and second, because no one had ever asked me that before.

“Well,” I slowly cleared my throat in an attempt at gaining a moment to think, “It’s in the Bible. Men have to take off their hats, but not the ladies.”

Seeming to feel that was good enough, my five-year-old friend smiled and nodded and then began munching on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She was satisfied, but her question got me asking myself, “Just why do I take my hat off, close my eyes, or bow my head when I pray?” Then I recalled that my mom had taught me to pray, “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive. Amen.” Those were simple words, but they covered just about everything that God expects when we pray. In the book of Luke, Jesus tells a little story about how two men prayed.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Luke 18:10-12

Without even reading the rest of the story, we already know who Jesus wants us to be like. Maybe that Pharisee would have even prayed differently if he had just taken time to listen to himself. God also loves it when five-year-olds humbly ask honest questions about prayer, then respectfully listen to the answers, before munching on their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And Jesus loves it when we pray with the faith of a child, listen with their willingness to learn, and then gratefully receive those gifts that He has prepared for us to receive!

Welcoming the Holy Spirit

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Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Matthew 28:18 KJV

Growing up Lutheran in the 1950’s our catechism class taught us that God was a Trinity: The Father, Son and Holy Ghost. We were all pretty clear on who The Father was, and obviously Jesus was His Son, but “Who is this Holy Ghost?” we asked each other. On the way to school my friend Wally and I decided to ask our Catholic buddy Louie. We figured that maybe the Catholics knew. But Louie was as mystified as we were!

Of course, as I grew older, I discovered that the Holy Ghost was the Holy Spirit and though that made it a bit clearer, it was still easy to dismiss His importance, or to think of Him as the Junior Partner of the Trinity. But He is no less than the other persons of the Trinity. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in Mary. By the Holy Spirit’s hovering over the waters of a dark planet, God created all life and by power and action of the Holy Spirit, Christ is born into our hearts by faith. So, as we wake up each morning, we should remind ourselves that it is the Holy Spirit who stands ready to walk with us, protect us, and empower us. Why not welcome Him into our lives today and ask Him to guide our thoughts, actions and words? As we welcome Him this way, we will discover the wonder of walking with Him through everything and anything that lies ahead. Inviting the Spirit of God into the home of our hearts makes Him our Savior, but when we put the keys to our front door into His hands, He becomes our Lord!