First of all, let me claim total credit for this. Because I was the pioneer, and everyone is just a follower. Especially Dave Hong, who has the audacity to use the mymind.html (tm) title. How dare he. That's quite bumptious, if I do say so myself.
What's on my mind this week is what's on Dave's mind. I guess the first topic is worship. We did a Bible study on John, and the phrase, worshipping "in spirit and in truth" came up. I guess my take on this is that there are two ways in which we can worship. One might be very spiritual; a very emotional experience with a lot of activity. The problem with that is that this type of worship lacks the truth - it is not accompanied by Biblical wisdom and a godly lifestyle. This is bad. It's like the seeds in the parable of the sower that fall on rocky soil - they'll spring abundantly for a while, but then because of their shallow soil, they'll fall away.
The flip side is worshipping solely in truth. We have all the head-knowledge, Our theology is flawless, our knowledge of the Bible exceptional; but we lack the spirit; a passion in worshipping him. This I think is where the Pharisees went wrong, right?
This isn't my idea at all. I just remember reading something where this church was sponsoring a missionary, and the missionary reported that the new believers there were very on-fire, but they lacked a solid Biblical foundation. And one member remarked that they'd be willing to trade some of their knowledge for some of the missions' believers' passion.
I thought that was true. I mean, there's two extremes we can reach, and the balance is so delicate. But it's something we need to reach, as it's commanded in the Bible.
Another thing... worship isn't just praise, right? I mean, there is a reason why there are two separate words. Praise is a part of worship, usually done near the beginning of the worship service, but it is by no means all of what worship is. So when we talk about worship, we shouldn't talk only about praise, because that's only a part of what worship is (which is declaring His worth ship).
Well my bold claim then is that what worship really is a lifestyle. It's not an activity that we do once in a while, but it is lifestyle. We declare His worthiness by our lives; it should reflect how we feel about Him. So worshipping in Spirit and truth means our lives should be guided by spirit - passion and action by the Holy Spirit - but also by truth: our action (and emotion) should be guided by Biblical knowledge, and our actions should reflect a godly lifestyle, not just blindly following our passions (which can change).
So Dave, this is for you. You're right, when we sing and forget, it's not worship. But it's not right worship in any case, as true worship (in my opinion) is a lifestyle, not an activity.
Well then, about clapping and lifting hands. Well, I don't know... I struggled through this myself. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that both of these are mentioned in the Old Testament. Clapping and lifting hands to God. So, I mean, there's a Biblical basis to it. The only problem I used to have is that I become too aware of lifting my hands, and I wonder, am I really doing it for God, or for other people? Or because of other people? I guess what I concluded is that lifting your hands to God is Biblical, and it is a good thing, as long as it is concentrated totally toward God and not toward man. Honestly, I'm not at the point yet where I know that if I am lifting my hands, it's totally God focused. I'm just too weak, and very conscious of others around me. But it's a good thing; I'm just not ready for it yet.
In any case, I don't think getting emotional at worship services or prayer is a wrong thing. I used to be really cynical about these things, to the point where I doubted everyone who seemed emotional, as I figured it didn't really mean anything, as they're just going to forget about it anyway. But, I guess my views are changing. Like, I used to think that there is simply no place for emotions in worship. But someone reminded me that God created emotions, and there is a place for them. Like there is a place for passionate love, for holy anger, for holy fear. Etc. In a worship setting, then, our emotions should be totally focused toward God, and the natural result of focusing on God is joy, emotional highs. I was reading Desiring God by John Piper, and he quoted the catechism: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. He also noted that it says in the Bible to be happy in the Lord. It is a command to be happy in God. I don't know, to me, I think it's saying emotions are good.
Yeah, when we go back to the same lifestyle, obviously it's bad. And we (especially me) should strive to match our actions with our words, and what we say and sing and whatever. But when we fail to do this (and we will fail, as we are all human) does that mean we're supposed to not praise Him? I can't believe that. I think that when we do praise Him, hopefully, at least at the time, we do mean it. And this in itself is good. Don't get me wrong; this shouldn't be all, but it is in itself a good thing. I mean, Peter was a passionate guy to, and he said all this stuff like he'll do anything for Jesus, etc. But then his actions failed his words, and he denied Jesus. I don't think that he didn't mean what he said, it's just he was weak. And I don't think he shouldn't of said it; rather, he strove (after the incident) to make his actions in accordance with his words. And in any case, it's nothing he could do. He was weak and unschooled; but God chose him and God worked through him; God changed him. We can't change ourselves, but simply state our desire and willingness to be changed by God, and let God change us. And I think ideally, praise helps us to do that.
It might be heretical to say that, but that's what I think. I think when we praise, we shouldn't be so hesitant to totally make sure that everything we are singing is exactly what we feel. But it's really how we want to be. I sing, and I can't honestly say that God is everything to me (as reflected by my actions), but that's what I want to be. And it's what it should be, and it's what we declare to God. I say this because there are praise songs (and psalms also) where the perspective is taken from God to us. How the heck is this praise? I guess I figure that it offers insight to the heart of God, and reminds us where we need to be. Obviously we aren't God, so when we sing lines like "Come to me, my people come" we can't mean it from our hearts. But it offers insight into God and how we should be, and to me, that's how it's praise. It is like telling God, yeah, I realize this about you and this is how I want to be.
It's like the song Lost in Love where it says "Lord, when I am with you it's easy, I can't deny Your love, and my heart is laid open before You; when I am with You I'm lost in love." When we're praising, it's easy, and I believe that we mean it genuinely, and so in itself, praise is a good thing. Our goal is to make the rest of out lives the same way.
Another thing. I used to be really cynical about the purpose of a Worship team. Like, where in the Bible is a band supposed to lead people? I was reading Kings or Samuel or something, and what they did is appoint worship teams to praise God at all times of the day. It was like a relay, and when one team was done, another team would take over. The point was, it wasn't done for people but for God; I mean, the only one that heard the worship was God. I thought this was true worship. There's no reason for people to even hear; that's like pointless. It should be the worship team in a closed room, letting only God hear. So I had this vision that once a week, the worship team would get together and just praise God, not to practice or to lead people, but just to praise God. I think I still want to do something like that.
Anyway, at the KCPC sophomore retreat, pastor Julius referred to the passage where I think Paul says "sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." to each other. He explained this by saying that doing this is an administration of God's grace. I'm not explaining it well, but it was pretty compelling to me. It's an administration of God's grace. I think that's true, too. So I'm not as down anymore on special praise or leading worship.
Okay, the next section is re: Dave's stance on girls.
I understand what he's saying about the Western notion of marriage and romance as being wrong. And I have to say that I would agree with what a lot of he says. I think a problem is that people think the most important thing in a relationship is romance, whereas to me, the most important thing is dedication - to each other and more importantly toward God. I mean, the divorce rates in countries where romance is the big thing is totally higher. Romance (like all emotions) changes, but dedication is like true faith - grounded on a solid foundation.
So I make the bold claim that I can marry anyone, as long as their priorities are the same as mine. Which basically means their primary priority in life is serving and pleasing God. Not only that, but I believe I would love them totally. Not just because I had to, but because I would. I mean, love comes from God, right? Anyway, that's my bold claim. I can happily marry any Christian sister.
At the same time, I don't think the conception of romance and courtship is totally unbiblical. In fact, this idea is probably heretical. I mean, there are various accounts of romantic love, am I wrong? Like Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob and Rachel too. I think maybe Ruth and Boaz also. And in any case, the whole book of Song of Solomon is about romantic love. It's celebrated. I mean, there are several ways people look at this. One thing people say is that it's the way a marriage should be - and if you look at the book, that includes a bunch of romance and passion. It's almost disgusting. Another thing people say is that this is a metaphor for God and Israel - the lamb and His bride. If you subscribe to this point of view, this says that God passionately loves His people. This has weird implications, don't you think? If we deny passion, then, we deny an aspect of God's love for us. I think that for those who are called, marriage is a good thing. And the passionately love between spouses is also good, as it helps us understand God's love for us (I mean, the parallel of love for spouse and Christ's love for church is made many times in the New Testament). So this passionate love shouldn't be denied. That part isn't unbiblical, to me.
I have a whole lot more to say about this, but I'll save it for later.
I hate Dave Hong.