King David sinned a great sin! Crushed by guilt and shame, David cried to the Lord for forgiveness! “I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and heard my cry for help. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God” (Psalm 40:1–3). Forgiven, transformed, made new, David sang a new song!   The early church sang new songs. Most likely, the ch

Moses, with God’s precise blueprints, built the Tabernacle as a dwelling place for God’s glorious presence in the Wilderness (Exodus 25-40). Again, with God’s detailed instructions, Solomon was tasked with building the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3-5).    When Solomon’s construction project was complete, the Nation was invited to come near. Like a shining beacon of light on a hilltop, the Temple symbolized God’s greatness and glory, His magnificence and majesty,

Congregations worship. Families worship. Individuals worship.   Worship includes sacrifice, surrender, and service… giving, serving, praying, singing, listening.   Adam and Eve worshipped. Noah worshipped. King David worshipped. Peter and Paul worshipped. And the angels in Heaven worship.   South Georgia Baptist Church worships. So do sister churches around our town and around the world … in Africa, Europe, India, the Far East and the Middle East.   The first time that the wo

After wandering in the Wilderness for forty years, the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan and began the conquest of the Promised Land. Their famous first battle was at Jericho, where God miraculously toppled the walls and defeated the enemy. Their second battle, against the smaller, less fortified city of Ai, included sin, defeat, repentance, and finally, victory.   Before another battle, God led the nation to Shechem, situated between two bald hills, the place where Jacob h

When you hear the word “worship”, what’s your first thought? Most people think of singing memorable old hymns or more contemporary choruses. Worship is singing about the Lord and to the Lord.   The word “worship” also conjures up thoughts of gathering with God’s people on a Sunday morning in a church’s sanctuary. We get together on Sunday mornings to pray, sing, and hear the Word of God proclaimed from the pulpit. Christians gather on the Lord’s Day to worship.   Paul defines

When the angels in Heaven gather around the throne of the Glorious One, they sing in spine-tingling harmony, “Holy, holy, holy!” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).   They don’t sing “almighty, almighty, almighty” or “omniscient, omniscient, omniscient” or “all-knowing, all-knowing, all-knowing” or even “gracious, gracious, gracious.” They sing “holy, holy, holy!”   After crossing the Red Sea and witnessing God’s greatness, Moses and the emancipated nation sang, “Lord, who is like

The stories of Abraham teach us about worship… authentic worship.   Obediently following God from his home in the south, Abraham travelled north to Canaan where he built an altar at Shechem (Genesis 12:7-8). From there he travelled to Bethel where he again built an altar and “called upon the name of the LORD” (Genesis 13:1-4). At Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, he once again constructed an altar (Genesis 13:14-18). In each case, Abraham built an altar to offer

There are two kinds of worship: “Cain Worship” and “Abel Worship”. Let’s see…   After Adam and Eve sinned, “they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7). This wasn’t worship… it was religion; their fruitless effort to hide their shame and make themselves acceptable to God.   To atone for their sin, God sacrificed animals to make fur coats. This introduced the sacrificial system whereby blood is shed to pay the

According to Webster, worship is the act of attributing honor or showing reverence for a divine being. The Holman Bible Dictionary says: “Worship is the interrelation between divine action and human response… worship is the human response to the self-revelation of the triune God.”   Here’s my simple working definition: Worship is my response to God’s glory and grace.   When Adam and Eve lived in the pre-fall Garden, they enjoyed unlimited, unconstrained, unhindered communion

At Mount Sinai, God declared concerning Himself: “The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth!” (Exodus 34:6).   Nearing the end of the forty years or wilderness-wanderings, Moses proclaimed, “He will not leave you, destroy you, or forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them by oath, because the Lord your God is a compassionate God” (Deuteronomy 4:31).   Before crossing into the Promised Land