Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”
Our Bible verse for today: “A song to our strong God! A shout to the God of Jacob! Anthems from the choir, music from the band, sweet sounds from the lute and harp, trumpets and trombones and horns: it’s festival day, a feast day to God!” Psalm 81:1-3 (The Message)
Our thought for today: “Worship with enthusiasm.”
For the last half of 2015 I’m reading through “The Message” in my personal daily devotional time. “The Message” is a paraphrase of the Bible which is designed to capture the essence of the Biblical passage in colorful and poetic language.
My reading today included Psalm 81, which is essentially a picture of a joyful and enthusiastic worship service. As I read it I was reminded of a scene I witnessed and participated in on my recent mission trip to Haiti. On both Sunday mornings that our team was in Port-au-Prince, we participated in the four hour early morning service in the mother church in the district of Waney. The church meets in a large tent because the church building had been damaged by the earthquake five years earlier.
The place was packed to overflowing and spilling out into the ally. The 2000 – 3000 people were joyful and animated in their worship. There was even one lady who brought her own trumpet (she was not in the band, just one of the worshippers). Periodically throughout the music service she would start playing along with the praise band from her seat. She would stand, tilt her head back, raise the trumpet towards heaven, and just wail away on that thing – as an act of worship.
This is the kind of scene being described in Psalm 81. It was loud, it was animated, it was joyful, and it was from the heart.
I’m not necessarily advocating for church members to bring their trumpets to church. In fact, I’m not making a case here for any particular style of worship service. But what I do hope to illustrate, both from the excerpt of Psalm 81 and from the example of the worship service in Haiti, is the importance of giving ourselves fully to God in the act of worship.
If for you that means raising your hands, blowing a trumpet, or doing summersaults down the aisle, that’s fine (as long as that’s appropriate in your worship setting). Or maybe you are more reserved like me and while you’re not very demonstrative outwardly, in your mind and heart you are fully engaged. Whatever the case, I encourage you to focus fully and enthusiastically on worshipping our strong and mighty God.
When we participate in worship we’re in the presence of God, interacting with Him in a manner intended to convey our heartfelt love, adoration, and thankfulness. We should do so enthusiastically, with our mind and heart fully focused on Him. I encourage you to worship Him with enthusiasm.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 