Personal Worship (Page 18)

Hey Church! As you make your plans for the weekend, I want to encourage you once again to carve out adequate space on Saturday night and Sunday morning to prepare your hearts and minds for worship. It’s so easy to slip into the habit of simply “showing up” to church, like a work meeting that was scheduled weeks ago but still somehow caught you by…

Hey Church! I had a group of friends in college who, at some point in their faith journey, had become disillusioned with the institutional church and decided to form their own “house church.” On Sundays, they would have a potluck meal, sing along with selections from a worship-music CD collection, and have a good old-fashioned Bible study, free of all the…

Hey Church! When Solomon’s Temple was destroyed and the people of Israel were exiled to Babylon in 586 BCE, faithful Jews began to gather together in worship-houses called synagogues (literally “assembly”). Since it was against the Law to offer sacrifices on foreign soil, and without the proper and necessary provisions of the Temple (altars, veils, priests, etc.),…

Hey Church! If you have been tracking with these prepare-for-worship newsletters in recent weeks, you know that we have been tracing the subject of worship through the Scriptures. Our brief survey has examined themes like God’s mediated presence, His desire to dwell among His people, and the use of the Psalms in worship. Today, I want to take a one-week break from that…

Hey Church! The book of Psalms is, for many, a favorite book of the Bible. It is an anthology of prayers and songs written over the span of 1,000 years of Israel’s history, so it grants us access to the thoughts and spiritual lives of King David, Moses, the sons of Korah, and other poets of the time. Thus, reading and re-reading the Psalms over a lifetime trains us to…