It's been a while

Ok so it's been over a year since I've posted anything but I hope to start posting in a more regular fashion soon, that is if anyone even reads this. Peace to all for now.

As it applies to worship

1 Cor 2:1-5
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
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So the thought came to my mind how this passage applies to leading worship, and I realized how it really speaks to the ultimate goal a worship team aspires to. When Paul preached he didn't try to capture their thoughts with eloquent speech, or fancy gestures. He wasn't standing in front of them yelling look at me! look at me! he was pleading with them. "Look at the cross, look at the power of God, look at what he has done through His son for those who believe". He directed everyone's attention away from man and pointed it directly at God.
Isn't that the purpose of a worship team? It's not to attract the congregations attention towards one individuals talent, or the talent of the worship team as a whole. The purpose is to focus everyone's attention on God and praising Him. You've heard the saying "Preaching to the choir", I wonder how often congreagations sing to the choir instead of being focused on giving all their praise and worship the God. After a worship service everyone should be in awe of how great God is, not how well the worship team played.

What is true wisdom?

So here is my devotion for the day, it would help you understand it better if you read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 first.

Vs 18-19

Paul begins this passage by introducing how foolishness the gospel is to the ears of the world (or unbelievers). To the world the idea of the cross is “folly”, but to those who understand that the cross is the only means of salvation, it is the most beautiful and foundational concept a person can grasp.

We are then warned that if we think ourselves to be wise in the eyes of the world, our famed wisdom will be destroyed; and if we think ourselves to be discerning according to the standards of the world, we will be thwarted. God will prevent all of the world’s wisest and most discerning men from accomplishing any real purpose.

Vs 20-25

Verse twenty asks the question, “What is true wisdom?” If God has shown the wisdom of the world to be empty and foolish, where is our wisdom supposed to come from? This question will soon be answered.

Those who believe on the Lord are brought to a saving knowledge through the preaching of apparent foolishness. The scripture says that God was pleased with this preaching of folly because it mocks the wisdom of man. Men who believe themselves to be wise in the world don’t grow closer to God but farther and farther as they obtain more of the world’s “wisdom”.

Some men seek signs to prove what they hear, a kind of faithless salvation; others seek the world’s wisdom to get them to God, but Paul says that true salvation comes from the crucifixion of Christ and believing on Him to pay the penalty for your sin. This idea really messes up any idea the world may have about how to get to God. Believers don’t demand signs from God to validate their belief, or try to earn their way to God through their own wisdom, they believe in faith that what the word of God says is truth. And here we find the answer to our question of what true wisdom is. True wisdom is the wisdom of God which is captured in His son Jesus Christ, where His power resides. We are to find our truth in God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse twenty five states, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger that men”. Any man who tries to get to God through his own wisdom or his own strength will fall short. You must look to Christ, who is the summation of God’s power and wisdom, for your salvation, any other belief is folly.

Vs 26

Next Paul gives an example of God’s wisdom being seen as foolishness in the eyes of the world. He points out that many of the brothers in Corinth had not achieved a high ranking in the eyes of the world. They were not seen as wise or powerful and they were not of noble birth. Paul uses this example to show that God takes joy in calling the lowly to Himself, taking in those who the world despises and rejects.

Vs 27-29

Here, in this next section we find the purpose behind God choosing the lowly and thwarting the wisdom of the world. God chose what is foolish in man’s eyes in order to shame the wise, and He chose the things that are week in order that the strong man of the world would be put to shame. God chose all that is despised and seen as nothing in the world so that no man would be able to boast in His salvation. If man were able to reach God through his own wisdom or strength, he would have no need for God, and the Almighty would be robbed of His glory.

Vs 30

But He is our source of life through Jesus Christ who holds our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. All of this was laid out so that anyone who receives salvation will boast in the Lord and the Lord alone.

My First

So this is my first blog post. Whether you find my writing humorous and preturbing is up to you. I'll try my best to write consistently but I can't gurantee it. For the most part I'll be using this blog to share my thoughts about worship and the experiences that I encounter that help shape my view. Church worship is my biggest passion. I began leading when I was fourteen at Middle Town Bible Church in California. I played under pastor Doug Thompson at MBC for quite a while and I attribute almost all of my knowledge as it pertains to worship to him. After I graduated from high school I moved to Santa Clarita, CA to attend the Master's college. My involvement in worship quickly diminished to almost nothing. I really missed being involved in worship for the year that I was at Masters. When the opportunity came for me to move back up North and be involved in worship again I couldn't help but jump on it. So i moved to Santa Rosa, CA and began attending Christian Family Fellowship. Once there I immediately began playing the piano for Sunday morning worship and leading the worship service for their wednesday evening bible study. After a few months I began leading the sunday morning worship service once a month. I was very glad to have the opportunity to lead, but I faced some hardships that I hadn't forseen.
So here I sit in Billings, Mt to learn something more about worship. I am now playing with the worship team at Rocky Mountain Community Church under the guidance of Trudy Poirier. So thats all I have for now. Until next time....may God richly bless you