Hand Raising in Worship

Your Mission this Sunday....

....is to take a "hands raised" count :wavey:

 

You misunderstand. I mean... How can I say this... Haha

I do not read Aramaic. I have no desire to read Aramaic. And yet people love reading in the tongue of Christ, and are extremely blessed by it. Others are blessed by manually serving another. Still others are blessed by simply sitting with the elderly and listening. One is not 'less' of a Christian because they don't do these things, they're simply missing out on a blessing.

But, more importantly, we should be true before God. I'm a pk, but I rarely ever wear anything super fancy to church. Never a tux, never a suit, usually just a nice shirt and jeans. To worship in a suit wouldn't be honest to God, and so I don't.

Anyway, I don't condemn those that don't. Its simply missing out on a wonderful experience.

But I'm hurt by those people who rant and rave about how its somehow... heretical to worship God in that way. That was what I was trying to say.

 

That passage has nothing to do with feelings or impressions. The idea is not there at all. To claim otherwise is eisegesis.

 

It is called argumentation Amy.

If one says, "There is no standard by which you can judge what is dignified in worship," then that statement needs to be scrutinized.

Extreme examples prove that statement to be wrong.

That is why I said that.

I actually explained that in the next post if you would just read rather than knee jerk respond.

 

The reason I ask is because I think we have an epidemic of bad thinking in this area in our religious culture.

We make decisions based on "impressions" and "feelings" and signs like a bible falling open to a certain passage.

This ought not be so.

We are taught in Scripture to make decisions based on WISDOM.

Wisdom is what we glean primarily from the Scriptures.

There is no biblical basis for the Holy Ghost impressing something on our hearts. It is not that he cannot do it. It is that he leads us a far better way. By imparting unto us wisdom from the Scriptures.

Then when we come to a crossroads we don't have to wait for a feeling or impression. We pray for the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance the things which we have learned from the Scriptures and make a WISE decision.

That is also how we decide whether or not to raise our hands in worship. The LAST thing we need to do is wait to FEEL something. That is the worst way to make decisions.

But our religious culture is eat up with that flawed way of thinking. They think it is spiritual- but it is not.

 

What New Testament precedent is there for using musical instruments in church?

What NT precedent is there for following an order of service?

What NT precedent is there for hanging a church sign outside?

Your reasoning is flawed. This is the kind of error you make often in debate.

We don't need a NT precedent to do something, especially if we have an OT one.

 

I think this is an unfortunate fad way of thinking.

Some people wear suits because they think the Lord in worship deserves their best.

If you can't afford one- fine. Do your best.

But I must confess I do not like the casual way so many people in our religious culture approach the worship of Almighty God.

We are more concerned with relevance than reverence- and that is a shame.

 

Wisdom is telling me to ignore this thread, so I will.

 

To quote, or paraphrase, Spurgeon: he would not have instruments in his church lest it detract any from the focus of Christ crucified. By precedent, I mean is there any Scripture that would lead one to believe that the early churches practiced this.

I am sure that the early churches order of service changed from church to church as well. Paul seems to indicate that the order of service was out of order in the church at Corinth. "They had homes to eat in."

The building is not the church. Get your theology straight.

To find out what the early church did, what their practice was is not wrong. In fact if we want to be more Biblical in our services we would do what they did:

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2:42)
--Notice that doctrine (not worship), is put first. There needs to be more of an emphasis in doctrine in our churches.

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)
--What is the manner of some? As the manner of the churches gather so ought the people be faithful to the services of the church, and not forsake the assembling of themselves together (not just Sunday mornings).

There is much more that we can learn from the NT about how they "worshiped," if we take the time to study.

We need to study the Bible and learn more about what early believers did. We might learn a thing or two.

 

Wise man. This is one of those discussions that somebody slams you no matter what you say.

 

You are wise beyond your years!!!

 

I'm laughing because I was thinking something along those same lines as to why every single question on here has to turn into a mud-slinging debate and someone has to go on the warpath informing other people of how wrong they are, how heathenistic they are, and on and on. I'm just about to stick to the quiet women's forum because I almost can't take it anymore. People are simply horrid to one another here and I do not believe that it's at all Christ honoring.

 

Amen sis! :thumbsup:

 

I would raise my hand and second this, but someone may get offended by this distraction.

 

That which I bolded, I am in complete agreement with. On here, its nothing more than destructive criticism. It always about someone showing how much they know, versus what little everyone else does. I am surprized that some on here would want to converse with the others; they may see the IQ drop a few points by conversing with us "dummies".