The Lord's Church, Part 1: Worship

On the way to worship this morning, as usual, we passed by a certain church near our house. Everytime we pass by, I can't help but notice the sign in the front lawn. The sign indicates that they have a traditional service at 8:15 and a contemporary service at 10:45. It may seem insignificant and innocent to have two different "styles" of worship,  but is that really ok?  I think the fact that they have two different services shows that they're concerned with pleasing men rather than pleasing God. Maybe they want to be all inclusive and not upset anyone. I think they may have a "what can we get out of worship?" rather than a "what can we give to God?" mentality. God did not create worship as a source of entertainment for man.  Its purpose is to show our reverence, thanksgiving, and devotion towards Him. I say all this to point out something that I think most of the population fails to realize:

 God has mandated a specific way to worship, and he will ONLY accept that kind of worship.

In this part one post on how to identify Christ's true church, his one and only body (Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:4), I'd like to explain that a church can be identified as the Lord's true church if it follows this pattern of worship:

1. Commemorating the Lord's death by partaking in the Communion/Lord's supper EVERY Sunday (Matthew 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 20:7)

2. Singing (without musical instruments, which is a whole topic in itself that we'll talk about in a later post) (Matthew 26:30; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)

3. Giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)

4. Praying(1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; James 5:16)

5. Preaching (Acts 20:7; Acts 15:30)

Acts 2:42 tells us that the members of the church "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers."

In John 4:24 Jesus said, "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This implies that it's possible to worship in error.  In Matthew 15:9, Jesus also accused the Pharisees of worshipping in vain, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. This also implies that we can worship in vain.

 The New Testament gives no authorization to use things like concerts, dramas, plays, orchestra performances, choir performances, solo performances, testimonies, magic shows, light shows, circus shows, etc in worship. This kind of worship is not in truth, and it is vain.

I feel like a lot of people think of God as being a laid back, gentle giant in the sky, raining down blessings from Heaven like a white-haired grandpaw passing out candy to the little kids at church.  In fact, I've heard some denominational preachers irreverently refer to God as "Daddy" and "PaPa." People think that as long as they're sincere, they're free to worship God however they want, and God will love them all the more for it. They think God will accept any and all kinds of worship because after all, a loving daddy or candy-giving grandpaw could never be angry with a child who is sincere, even if the child fails to follow the instructions properly.   I think they're unaware that God has both goodness AND severity (Romans 11:22). He even warns Christians to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

The God of today is the same God who struck Nadab and Abihu dead for worshipping with strange fire. He's the same God who struck Uzzah dead when he tried to steady the falling ark of the covenant. He's the same God who dethroned Saul for offering the burnt offering when he had no authority to do so. These people were obviously sncere in their actions, but they failed to follow God's instructions. God punished them for it. The same goes with us today. If we don't worship God as he has instructed, we'll be punished.

In Colossians 3:17, we're told, "and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." This verse teaches that we look to Christ's word as the authority for all we do in worship.  The same concept is seen in 1 Peter 4:11, "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God..."  Finally, we're warned in Revelation to not "add or take away from that which is written." (Revelation 22:18-19)


I never want to come across as a know-it-all, and I never want to make people feel like I'm criticizing them. I hope you haven't felt like that when reading this post. The purpose of this post is to point out things that maybe you've never been told or never realized. At any rate, I hope this helps us better identify a church as the Lord's church by the way it worships.

Window to the Soul

When I was playing with Rylan in the floor yesterday, I got caught up in her eyes.  If you’ve ever stared (in a non-creepy, admiring/studious way) at your kids or someone else you love, you may know what I mean by getting caught up in their eyes.  I was looking at the pattern in her eyes and the way her pupils were reacting; how her eyes changed shape when I made her giggle.  I thought of the saying, “the eyes are the window to the soul,” which, by the way, is adapted from Matthew 6:22-23. Staring in awe at her eyes, I thought about how this little girl does in fact have a soul. I thought about how her very presence in front of me is all the proof I need of God’s existence.  There is no way the design of this child just happened out of nowhere for no reason.  There is too much purpose behind those eyes to say they were formed out of chance.

In school, we’re taught (as fact)  that following a random “big bang” billions of years ago, we humans eventually evolved into what we are today.  God has been taken out of the creation equation, and we’re likely considered dumb if we believe he exists, let alone if he created everything.

Here’s something I never read in a text book. In his work entitled On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin stated:

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense (emphasis added).

Darwin himself admitted that the design of the human eye challenges his own theory!

The Psalms say “the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”  They also say “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.”  From the perfect, life-sustaining way the Earth orbits the sun to the complexity of the human eye, everything in our universe points to intelligent design.  Nature and everything in it shows the handiwork of an intelligent designer – God.

Maybe evolutionists should take a moment to get caught up in their loved ones’ eyes. The scientific world would be much better off.

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As mentioned in my previous post, we'll soon discuss what the Bible says about the one true church.  Stay tuned :)