Shout For Joy

Being a child of the 80s, I am blessed to remember the Curl, polyester choir robes, Dr. King fans, and central air conditioning being a luxury at churches.  Sister Fanny Bradley singing all the verses to the hymns that carried a people from slavery, through Jim Crow laws, to a new day where the promise of equality and freedom are close at hand.  No one is being arrested for preaching holiness and divine healing.  Receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost will no longer cost your your job.  God had come through.  Big cars and fine houses were on both sides of the tracks.  Faith had won a great victory. 

Like the children of Israel, it was deemed appropriate to relax the standards of holiness, sanctification, and fellowship that seemed so vital before we arrived in the promised land of modern America.  The time of dependance on God had passed.  Christ became a bridge of troubled water instead of Lord of All.  As the object of worship becomes less sacred and significant, the music and other elements of adoration follow suit.  Secular humanism is often laid at the feet of atheist  philosophers.  I believe it only gets traction when the church begins to acknowledge a form of godliness but denies the power there of. Miracles and signs and wonders follow faith filled preaching of God's word.  If God is not allowed to move freely in the places that claim to be His home something is amiss.  The real threat to the body of Christ is not post-World War One cynics but a church that disallows true worship that will invite the manifest glory of God.

In the past few decades many churches have made an overt effort to mold the church into the image of human comfort instead of presenting the transforming word of God.  The word of God must not be confined to the sermon.  If we are singing the praises of who we are instead of who Christ is, and expecting His presence, there is a great deception.  If we offer a sacrifice of praise based on the forms and trends of secular idol worship, we offer an unworthy sacrifice.

Psalm 33:3  Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

God deserves more than fatigued leftovers from pop music.  the word used for new can also be translated as fresh.  Leftovers and retreads are not fresh.  Let's pursue a new sound for God.  A sacred sound.  Sincerity, truth, and honor bring us close to God. God is unmoved and utterly unimpressed with trends.  Worship the preferences of people and they will come near.  Worship the God whose miracles and life-changing power will bring all you need and He will come near.  God is all you need.  Worship Him.