“I’m coming back to the heart of worship;and it’s all about You, all about You, Jesus……”
Hey dear brothers and sisters, guess all of you are very familiar with this song – ‘Heart of Worship’. ‘WORSHIP’ - this was what we talked about during Passion Cell Group last Friday and is what I am going to share with you all now.
After some hilariously-entertaining games and a wonderful session of praising our Father LORD that night, Mark (in the case of my ‘Lausy’ cell) started word off with a somewhat-abstract question: What does worshipping God mean?
- Giving thanks to God
- Praying to God
- Singing and dancing to praise God
- Surrendering our lives to God
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:23-24 (NIV)
Mark continued to share that, ‘Prayer’, ‘Word’ and ‘Worship’ are three of the fundamental elements in our walk of faith. However, it seems that prayer and the word are more explicitly defined, whereas worship is so much broader in context. We found that many of us had the misconceive idea that worship was just confined to singing songs of praise at the beginning of the service (honestly, I used to think like this), but no! We worship God every day, every moment, in everything we do because of who He is and how He wants us to be with Him!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.”
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Lastly, do you know the story behind “Heart of Worship”? Back in the late 1990s, England was actively worshipping in music but in Matt Redman’s home church in Watford, they found something was missing. So, the pastor decided to get rid of the band and sound system for a season. Why? Because they had lost their way in worship and the only way to get back to the heart was to strip everything away.
“I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself, is not what You have required. You search much deeper within, through the way things appear; You’re looking into my heart……”
So brothers and sisters, are you too tired or distracted until you have missed the point? Simply come back and enjoy this intimacy in God’s presence; you’re still the one He loves and wants to be with, after all.
Let’s make God smile today! =)
With lots of love,
Anonymous
So after ALLLLL that anticipation and excitement, Image Matters finally arrived! What a spectacular turn out, albeit transport woes amongst others. Once again, Elizabeth Jolley LT was filled to its brim with such an enthusiastic crowd of Aunty Irene Low herself, Zion Praise Harvest members and guests! How privileged one is, to be part of such an event :)Reflecting back on this special night, the first person that comes straight to my mind is none other than Mr. Timmy Yip, Zion’s very own star of the show. Thumbs up for his incredulous spontaneity, having stood confidently under the scrutiny of 500 odd, in a daring contrast of red shirt versus yellow tie, and of course, a belly that just had to accentuate the contrast. I vaguely remember the conclusions made about Tim’s image but one tip I recall picking up was that ties are to end at the level of belts, not above, not below. So working guys and future wives, keep that in mind!
Then came a session of questions and answers, which I trust was pretty enriching for many. From a crazy crowd of 500 over people, you would never have been able to imagine the variety of questions asked, some of which I have to say were pretty interesting. Examples:
What do you do if you fart during a meeting? Do you admit to being the culprit, or act as if it were someone else?
What do you think of the combination – socks and sandals?
You get my drift, LOL!
Nonetheless, this was the highlight of the night for me, and I sure speak for many. Doubts were finally clarified, including things like the correct way of sitting, exchange of business cards, and so forth. It amazes me how these things seem to be part and parcel of our daily lives, and thus we should technically know them pretty well, yet there seems to be a never-ending barrage of learning to do!
On a more serious note, here and beyond shall detail a dilemma that I have endeavored to solve for quite some time already:
If man looks at the outward appearance while God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), are we being of the world by placing this much emphasis on our image?
This dilemma stemmed from the mindset that when you surrender yourself to God, it involves following Him in his thoughts and ways. As such, placing a high value on the exterior and claiming image does matter, seems to contradict God’s affinity for the heart. However, from the short sharing Aunty Irene gave on Sunday at the UWA Live service, I finally managed to find a reasonable compromise between these two extremes. In short, BOTH IMAGE AND HEART MATTER.
It seems to be the general consensus that Christians are not the coolest bunch of people out there, and that saddens me. It is my wish that one day people will start to realize that being Christians does not mean you are in any way socially inferior, and that begins with us putting our efforts to represent God to our best of capabilities. After all, being Christian does NOT mean having to devoid ourselves of looking good, as long as it is not for self-benefits but for our beloved God.
Once again, what really matters is the motivation behind your actions, and needless to say, our God takes centre stage in this. If you had a heart after God but with a less ideal image in worldly terms, you still earn points in heaven, and you will always be beautiful in the eyes of God. SO if you really had to choose one to go with, I say go with the heart, DUH!
Alrighty, hope you enjoyed this little piece from me, presented to you directly from my heart. Take care, God bless and REJOICE for the weekend approaches.
xoxo, Vera
Hello, fellow UWAians of ZPH! One quick question before you continue reading this post.
Hasn’t Friday nights been awesome since the new semester began? You know what I’m talking about; oh, the usual hanging out with friends and meeting new people; listening to music that gets your feet tapping to the rhythm, and if you’re with a certain AMA, you’ll definitely get to listen to her sweet voice all night long. (Who would ever want to miss that, seriously). Of course, Asians being Asians, how can we miss out the most important part of the Friday Night Party, FOOOOOODDDD (an awful lots of it)!
Yes, I am talking about Passion cell groups held on every Friday! Can’t think of anywhere else to be on a Friday night (TGIF!)? Passion cell it is! Your date has just thrown an aeroplane on you on a Friday night? Come for cell!
Still not convinced about how awesome and passionate people in Passion are? (pun intended) Alright, let the testimony speak for itself.
A perfect Friday evening with God’s sons and daughters begins with gathering at a designated home,a time for ice-breaking, followed by praise and worship (jumpjump, clapclap, shoutshout to our Father!). After a round of announcement on the events happening in ZPH, the cell leader (in my case, the wonderful AMA! or ‘buff guy’ *) would then move on to the word of God!
On a particular Friday, awesome would be an understatement of what we have learned as we are armored with a phrase we should live by, ‘1 more verse for Jesus’ and a memory verse from the book of Joshua - Joshua 1:8 ‘Do not let this Book of Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ (NIV)
Joshua 1:8 depicts on why it is important to read the Bible or the word of God constantly(!). Aside from God promising that we will be prosperous and successful, it is important to be equipped with God’s word, i.e. a salesman selling his products. It is also a reminder that the Bible is not of human wisdom but G-O-Dly wisdom, hence it is relevant to everyone and for any occasions, in any size or shape.
In order to draw a better picture of how the Bible is used in every and any context, we were divided into smaller groups and further discussion was made on a topic randomly picked by AMA. A fruitful discussion ensued in the groups itself, which were on worship, wisdom, obedience and love.
A few of the verses shared at the end of the group discussion were:
Worship – Psalms 99:5; Psalms 150, Hebrews 9:9, 1 Timothy 2:8, Exodus 20
Love – Matthew 22:39-40
Wisdom – Proverbs 4:12
Obedience – Genesis 22
I personally love going through discussions or just listening to the word of God because (as stated above), what we are listening to is not human’s wisdom but God’s. And the wonderful thing about His wisdom is that it rings so true and deep in our hearts, souls and minds, that if we allow ourselves to open up to it, it will instill in our hearts and change our lifestyle forever. How? By letting God into our heart and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead our life, for the old is gone and the new has come.
Think I am exaggerating? Experience it for yourself today!
Hasn’t Friday nights been awesome since the new semester began? You know what I’m talking about; oh, the usual hanging out with friends and meeting new people; listening to music that gets your feet tapping to the rhythm, and if you’re with a certain AMA, you’ll definitely get to listen to her sweet voice all night long. (Who would ever want to miss that, seriously). Of course, Asians being Asians, how can we miss out the most important part of the Friday Night Party, FOOOOOODDDD (an awful lots of it)!
Yes, I am talking about Passion cell groups held on every Friday! Can’t think of anywhere else to be on a Friday night (TGIF!)? Passion cell it is! Your date has just thrown an aeroplane on you on a Friday night? Come for cell!
Still not convinced about how awesome and passionate people in Passion are? (pun intended) Alright, let the testimony speak for itself.
A perfect Friday evening with God’s sons and daughters begins with gathering at a designated home,a time for ice-breaking, followed by praise and worship (jumpjump, clapclap, shoutshout to our Father!). After a round of announcement on the events happening in ZPH, the cell leader (in my case, the wonderful AMA! or ‘buff guy’ *) would then move on to the word of God!
On a particular Friday, awesome would be an understatement of what we have learned as we are armored with a phrase we should live by, ‘1 more verse for Jesus’ and a memory verse from the book of Joshua - Joshua 1:8 ‘Do not let this Book of Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.’ (NIV)
Joshua 1:8 depicts on why it is important to read the Bible or the word of God constantly(!). Aside from God promising that we will be prosperous and successful, it is important to be equipped with God’s word, i.e. a salesman selling his products. It is also a reminder that the Bible is not of human wisdom but G-O-Dly wisdom, hence it is relevant to everyone and for any occasions, in any size or shape.
In order to draw a better picture of how the Bible is used in every and any context, we were divided into smaller groups and further discussion was made on a topic randomly picked by AMA. A fruitful discussion ensued in the groups itself, which were on worship, wisdom, obedience and love.
A few of the verses shared at the end of the group discussion were:
Worship – Psalms 99:5; Psalms 150, Hebrews 9:9, 1 Timothy 2:8, Exodus 20
Love – Matthew 22:39-40
Wisdom – Proverbs 4:12
Obedience – Genesis 22
I personally love going through discussions or just listening to the word of God because (as stated above), what we are listening to is not human’s wisdom but God’s. And the wonderful thing about His wisdom is that it rings so true and deep in our hearts, souls and minds, that if we allow ourselves to open up to it, it will instill in our hearts and change our lifestyle forever. How? By letting God into our heart and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead our life, for the old is gone and the new has come.
Think I am exaggerating? Experience it for yourself today!
