One of the odd things about this life is that people assume the best of you. They assume that you approve of that which is modern, fashionable, and lovely. That we will follow their ideas on spirituality: that fitness is a yogic practice, and that self-improvement is all.

Now, some of the products of this are beautiful. but wrong. God is not one of us. And although the Spirit of the Living God may dwell within us, even this slob, that is not so we remain as part of this society, but a witness against it.

As I said, some of the songs and hymns of the progressives are beautiful. What frightens me is that Joan Osbourne clip could be something else…

Kari Jobe does not have as good a set of pipes as Joan Osborne, but she can sing. But Joan thinks about who God is…. while Kari talks about God being everything… and that creeps me out. Where is the room for the Pro Photographer? My Children? My parents? Those I should love better, and do not, for I am Reformed, and the Calvinist Frost is a besetting sin.

But Jesus is not my boyfriend. Better is it to be liturgical. Better still, Biblical.

This brief explanation is intended to help explain the rationale for our mode of worship. In our day, it is customary to classify worship as “traditional” or “contemporary.” Since the God we are worshipping is timeless, we avoid such time-bound references to speak about his worship. We prefer to call our worship “biblical.”

While worship is the highlight of our week, indeed of our lives, and while it reunites us with our church family, the focus of worship is not on ourselves, but on God. There are two fundamental principles involved in biblical worship:

Worship is governed by what God has revealed about Himself in His Word. An addition to this is that worship is to be according to what he has prescribed as acceptable worship.
Worship is a dialogue between God and his covenant people – worship is a communication. In this communication God speaks to us through his Word and we respond to him either in prayer or in singing. Every part of worship must have a biblical reason and a biblical defence.

The Elders supervise and are responsible for every aspect of our worship service. So though the pastor, or one of the other elders, leads us in worship, it is under the authority of the Elders.

The songs we sing are chosen primarily for their theology or biblical accuracy. Biblical worship is aware of the importance of music to God, and has always appreciated melody, harmony, and rhythm. But all of that is secondary to a higher, primary concern: faithfulness to Scripture. Our songs are intended to complement, support, and apply the theme of the message.

We are allowed to be jealous of our worship. There is a difference between being a good musician and producing music with a biblical theme and leading worship. The problem is that we can make our worship and idol: worse we can make it about us.

No matter how much we may profess to serve Christ, no matter what our position may be in the church, wherever self becomes the object of devotion, there we have Baal-worship. The myriad forms that this takes are frightening. In a certain sense the ministry is in greater peril than any other segment of the church. It is among the ministry that a kind of ladder-climbing fraternity has been established— as if office could enhance character. Where we have a coveting of promotion, office seeking, with prestige and power as the motivations of ministry, there we have the prophets of Baal.

This denial of the true Christ and glorification of self is to be found in many of our now-standard practices. Why does the Remnant Church need plaques, trophies, certificates, and all the other trappings the world uses and loves? Where the true message of righteousness by faith is understood and believed, these emblems of greatness will fall away. Baal-worship is the fruit of a species of corrupted teachings that encourage a profession of faith in Christ while self refuses to be crucified with Him.

The older and more confessional churches know this, and therefore write things down, and sit and test them.

There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

(1 Kings 19:9-18 ESV)

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

(Ephesians 4:17-32 ESV)

How we worship matters. What we think about God matters. The old scholars and priests who built a liturgical foundation knew this: and the reformers, while purging worship of syncretic practises — The day of wrath is not predicted by the Sybil, hinted at by David, but proclaimed by Daniel and the later prophets, which removes the Dies Irae — the focus was on God.

Not on us.

For we are broken and fallen. Our theology is but of model of reality, and that model is human, and flawed. Furthermore, when we say we are righteous, we lie. We all sin: we all err.

And this is why each day we have to deny our base desires: be it for those foods which are bad for us, or a wish that we can get things without working for them. We are supposed to labour: as men, we are to provide for our families or be accounted as an idolater.

Is this passionate? Absolutely. But our anger, our hatred, our desires are all legitimate and useful. They signal things are good… or dangerous. We are not to be ruled by them, but to rule them.

And in the days when this was well taught, the discipline forced on young men encouraged women to be chaste, for that increased their value to society and to marriage, and that again encouraged chastity among men, so that their name was held as honourable, and so they would win that beauty who had stolen their heart.

Today that has been shredded.

But we are not to be as the pagans. We are not to follow their practises. We are to question what we think of as good, and consider if it is indeed righteous. This is a hard task, for even within the church many worship self-esteem and forget that it is not anything we have done or can do that allows us to approach God, but instead the completed work of Christ, who died for this fallen, broken man.

UPDATE.

VoxDay put this up today. It is true.

Here is a reliable heuristic for the Christian: if a fallen world lauds you for what you are doing, the chances are very good that what you are doing isn’t in line with the Will of God as expressed in the Scriptures.