Making our homes worship-ready?

At the conclusion of today’s worship service, the challenge was given to make our homes worship-ready. With the pandemic restricting large group onsite worship, can we see it as the grace of God giving us an opportunity to examine ourselves and our families the heart of worship?

When we gather online for the worship service, what are our attitudes reflected in our preparation?

What are our heart postures when we look at the screen with the host, the worship leaders, the speakers at another part of town encouraging us to worship as a church?

Is our home environment conducive and worship-ready for us to still our hearts, focus on God, sing and pray to Him, listen to what He has to say through the Word, give an offering for the expansion of the Kingdom and so on?

Are there reverence and honor given to Him at the place we called home and the place that God has blessed us with and a place that we are so comfortable in? Can the same kind of ‘reverence’ and preparation be made when we come to onsite worship service be replicated in our home environment whereby we can sit casually with breakfast in front of us 5 min before online service starts?

We are given a new environment to examine ourselves as individual and as a family. A lot to think about and maybe a few adjustments to be made (or rules to set before next weekend service comes).

Let’s examine ourselves regarding our heart of worship? For this is the time that we worship the Father in spirit and truth for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers.

John 4:23-24 NASB ²³ But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Last but not least, maybe a further test to ascertain whether our homes are worship-ready will be to start inviting people (2 of them since it is the advisories) to come and worship together with us in that home environment.

Who will be invited to my house soon? 😊

 

Training towards godliness.

I was looking at some articles of regarding building certain muscles group. It talks about the effectiveness of certain exercises for certain muscles group. Doing the plank, machine crunch, hanging knee raise, flutter kick, diamond push up…certain exercise done at certain interval will be effective to build certain muscles group. The sciences and arts of building a great physique are many out there. The vision of the well tone body with 8 packs looks really good and it is motivating to work towards that. It looks achievable with the bombarding of the ‘vision’ and the articles to instruct you how to go about achieving it. BUT…unless we go, exercise and train with perseverance towards that vision…it is all look and read 😊. It is all head knowledge without working out the muscles…

How about your spiritual formation? And our practice of Scripture? Our listening in during worship service? Will it be head knowledge without the training of self or spiritual muscles towards Christlikeness?   

1 Timothy 4:7–8 (RSV) ⁷ Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness; ⁸ for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

We need to exercise and train by putting into practice the Word spoken to us. We need to turn those ‘information’ on how to have a great spiritual ‘physique’ into reality. We need to practice certain disciplines to strengthen certain part of our ‘muscles’ group. We need to keep doing a certain ‘spiritual’ command to strengthen that weakness in our life. Train yourself in godliness.

Nevertheless, while we train ourselves in godliness and towards Christlikeness, let us also have a strong and healthy body because the bodies are the vessels we need to serve God and others.

Questions:

What are some ‘strengthening’ you need? Look into Scripture and allow God to speak to you.

What are some ‘information’ you already have or know? Do it and do not procrastinate.

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Reflection from Ps 81

What a sobering psalm to remind us to walk close to God, listening and obeying His Words.

God would have feed the Israelites with the finest of wheat and honey from the rock (v16) if it was not for their stubbornness to follow their own counsels rather than of God's.

Psalms 81:16 NRSV
I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

What about us?
Knowing and sensing what God has already told us, let's allow the lesson the Israelites had experienced be a warning, admonition and even a motivation for us to listen and walk in His ways.

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A Reflection for the Sunday Afternoon: Church in the New norm

I went back to church this morning. It was the gathering of not more than 50 people so as Pre Event Testing was skipped. The rest of the church joined the onsite church online. Our hearts were synchronized by the songs we sang, the words we declared, the message we heard and the mission we carried out. 

God called us as a community for a purpose and we can be one onsite and online. However, given this new norm, the local church needs to find the equilibrium in being the church for this season. 

Putting aside online congregation for this reflection, I was with the onsite worshippers today. My family was at home forming the other part of church. 

As I sit in the presence of God and His people, I was assigned a seat, there was no singing allowed. I responded with hands lifted up, occasionally humming the tune, praying silently in the heart, reciting the Lord's Prayer, listening to what God has to say...

As we are an intergenerational congregation, there were children talking and crying during the service, movement of parents bringing the crying toddlers out of the hall and coming in once they were more settled. And I like this because there is life and authenticity in the worship. I salute both the families with young children and the congregation regarding these aspects:

The families that value coming together as an onsite community and the congregation that is patient and loving to welcome them. 

Yes. Coming onsite has its challenges. The restriction of not more than 50 or the implications of  more than 50 are just some challenges highlighted. How about restrictions like dismissing the congregation straight after service ends? Or the F&B not opened to more than 2 people per table? Or the restriction affecting large families and so on? 

Why do I go onsite to be part of the physical church today? 

I thought this is a good afternoon to think about what is our idea of fellowship? (Is it just eating, drinking, catching up with one another after service ends?) What is our concept of community? What is our understanding of church? (This reflection piece will not be able to contain my thoughts) 

Back to the service that I have attended. I love the reminders from the message, the songs sung, the atmosphere in the sanctuary, the volunteers serving the faith community, the young children playing and making noise, the fist bumps that I can make with some, the short conversation I made, the encouragement I have when seeing '3 dimensional' people onsite, the saying of 'bye, have a good weekend' to those leaving...

Maybe it was the intentional time spent being with one another in the faith community (even with the safe distancing) that made the Sunday morning so good. 

Psalms 122:1 NRSV

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

Have a good weekend