(Class 5) Worship... Just a musical endeavor??

To be completely honest, I am a little annoyed. I am annoyed and unsatisfied with the way that most people worship. I began to question myself because I knew that it is excellent to adore God and sing to Him worshipfully, but is that what worship is through and through? If not, then what is it?
Yes, worship is an expression of reverence to God, but there must be so much more to the heart of worship than noise. Don't get me wrong! I am not opposed to musical forms of worship, I encourage it. At the same time however, it is only a part of what worship actually is.
Worship demands more than just our voices. It demands our hands, our feet, our eyes, our minds, our hearts, our lives, our everything. To neglect even one part of worship is selling short of what we are called not only to do, but also to be in the name of Christ. If we think that just by singing at church we are doing good and fulfilling our quota for the week, then we are dead wrong. Worship is a lifestyle, and the whole reason for man to exist.
Even as I write this blog I know that the words I type need to bring Glory to God as an act of worship, otherwise I may have gotten the mark, but have failed in my duty to God.
Our group discussed that art of worship and decided to focus on it specifically because we know that it falls in line with all of the spiritual disciplines. We expressed the need to do everything worshipfully, otherwise why are we doing it in the first place?
Practicing spiritual disciplines such as meditation, fasting, confession, submission, service, etc. are nice and all, but they only truly gain their beauty when they are coupled with a heart of worship. We cannot please God unless we worship with our whole existence.
To end on a high and happy note, God loves us no matter what! Sure, we may stumble and fall when trying to worship God, but that will not make Him love us any less. That only is grounds for us to get back on the horse and try that much harder. He loves us, we need to love Him back, and worship is how.

Class #4

At first when I thought of the fact my residence floor was going to have a group fast. I’m not sure if the group fast is encouraged, or if they we are supposed to be doing it because it’s forced. After thinking about that for a minute, I thought the idea of doing a fast for the reason that you are forced in to it, is just terrible. Fasts shouldn’t be forced, it’s like forcing someone to pray or meditate, and it just doesn’t work unless you have a willing heart. One of my group members commented on this though, he said “We are not in control of our lives all the time… if everything is depended on what we want to do… it’s about us”. In the context of fasting or doing a spiritual discipline I disagree.
I find it strange how fasting helps you make your choices though. I always thought the purpose of fasting was for helping you know that God is the provider, that he can provide you strength. Something that confuses me is that if we fast for whatever reason. Why would we be hungry if God is sustaining us. In Fosters book about spiritual disciplines he goes on explaining how in a few days you hunger pains come, and in by the later days you begin to feel dizzy. But how does this work, how do we get dizzy if we rely on God for strength, does this mean that his strength isn’t working in us, or is he not giving strength? Shouldn’t we be at full strength if God is giving us strength?
I like how in the Nouwen book how the author tells that we are Gods beloved. The book tells us in the reflection part of the chapter that we should just sit, and meditate on the fact that we are God’s beloved, the author tells us to keep repeating it to ourselves over and over again. I tried that, but instead of saying, ‘I am your beloved’ I thought of a praise I can say to the Father as if I was standing in front of him. I may have been shown a vision of the father very close up. I also saw what seemed to be someone of darkness, maybe the enemy or just a demon. I saw them in a standoff and it was strange.
I believe God’s will doesn’t change. I think he will either say, ‘Yes’, ‘no’ or ‘just wait’. It obviously means we have to wait a while but I think God wants us to wait until he feels we are ready.
I am looking forward to reading about the other disciplines, and my goal is to start applying some of these in my life. I just don’t know whether I should practice a few of them at a time, or if I should go over all of them and then when I’m done one cycle, to try going through them again.

Where Do I Begin?

In this week's chapter entitled "Where Do I Begin?, I learned about God's calling for me in my life. First with the story of the man with the marble slab, and the boy. That shows that we have no idea what God has in store for us, it's actually really exciting. I think that this story shows a great example of this. It also speaks a lot about us fearing the voice of God because we are scared to go out of our comfort zone. I think this is true for most people in today's society, and in today's church. People come up with multiple excuses to why they don't want to leave there comfort zone and do God's calling, or they think God has the wrong person for the job. I know when I decided to come to a bible college, I couldn't believe what I was doing. I had planned my life to be an electrician, and suddenly my entire life changed, and so far everything has been working out, so God must be behind this.

I really enjoyed the lesson on prayer, fasting, and meditation. I feel that I lack in doing all of these things often. I feel like since I'm at a Christian college, that I would be praying more, and in some cases I do, but I feel like I'm lacking in that area. I'm often too tired to pray, or I forget to pray before meals. The one thing I have started to pray a lot more for is the small things, things I would have never prayed for before. I have only ever Fasted once, and that was for the wrong reason. Not that it was for a bad reason, but it wasn't for the sake of God, it was more so I could say that I have done a fast. During that fast, we had around 4 bible studies, but nothing too intense. For the most part I really didn't even thing about God at all, I just wanted to have fun. For Meditation I feel that it is something a lot of people miss out on, including me. People lead such busy lifestyles, that there is no time for doing this. I think it should be done every day, for at least a little bit, because when were so busy, we're going to miss what God has to say to us. With these three things in my life, I think that I would be much better off. I really think that Christians today, either don't spend enough time with God, or when they do, they do it for the wrong reasons. Truly, we need these things go grow in our relationship with God, and without them, it's a one way conversation. God gave us life, so why can't we seem to take such a little amount out of it to talk to him, and praise him.