Lack of Humility

[mcneely]

Can anyone deny that there is an utter lack of humility in the protestant churches? I've been a baptist for nearly 20 years now, and I ave loved my church and my faith. But after searching, and praying I have yet to see any solemnity (is that how you spell that?) or humility in what we call worship in the many churches I've visited and programs I've seen on television. Quite frankly, I'm basically seeing a glossed-over, sensationalized form of charasmatic worship. Rather than jumping, and shouting commands for God to "heal this" and "Move on that" with extremely secular music blasting, shouldn't we be humbling ourselves before our Lord in his house, and praying earnestly and solemnly to him?


----Justin

 

[Chemnitz]

Hey, I'm 1,000,000x's more humble than thou art.

 

[Ray Berrian]

I do not think we have to search for humility in a certain kind of Divine worship. Worship is where we meet with the Lord--in our heart of hearts. The same person can worship in a 'high church' kind of adoration or in a more casual kind of Divine worship where praise choruses are used.

If we really know the Lord He will cause us to understand our relative insignificance and His infinite greatness. As we know more of the Word the Holy Spirit will make us people of godly humility.

An ordained ministerial or a lay Elder can stand strongly for certain Christian doctrines and still remain humble before the Lord God, while others in church may think of this person as lacking humility. It is the Lord God who reads and knows our lives and not necessarily other Christians.

There are too many 'fruit inspectors' in local churches.

Berrian, Th.D.

 

[gb93433]

Reminds me of the man who came to church looking for friends and found none. He decided to return with a different attitude. He returned wanting to be a friend and found them all over.

 

[gb93433]

Originally posted by mcneely:
Rather than jumping, and shouting commands for God to "heal this" and "Move on that" with extremely secular music blasting, shouldn't we be humbling ourselves before our Lord in his house, and praying earnestly and solemnly to him.

Lead the way by making disciples.

 

[hillclimber]

Originally posted by gb93433:
Reminds me of the man who came to church looking for friends and found none. He decided to return with a different attitude. He returned wanting to be a friend and found them all over.

It's simple little things like this that are gems. Thanks gb.

 

[rbell]

A tension surfaces in the area of worship...

On one hand we're told, "But the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him," (Habakkuk 2:20), yet on the other we're told, "O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph," (Psalm 47:1).

I think we'll always struggle with the proper tension between a sense of reverence and awe, versus a sense of celebration and jubilance.

 

[Tom Butler]

If the Lord Jesus walked into a worship service at my church, I guarantee you that the response would not be shouting, clapping and jumping up and down. We would all be on our faces before the Creator of the Universe.

Let's not confuse an emotional experienced with the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Tom B.

 

[Gold Dragon]

In the presence of the ark of the covenant itself which a man was killed for touching it while trying to stop it from tipping over, King David did the following.

NASB - 2 Sam 6:14-15

And David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouting and the sound of the trumpet.

The one who despised his dancing ...

NASB - 2 Sam 6:16

Then it happened as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

... was noted in the end of the chapter as being barren for the rest of her life, something considered to be a curse from God in those days.

NASB - 2 Sam 6:23

Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

Be careful when you despise those who rejoice in the Lord.

 

[Ray Berrian]

rbell & Gold Dragon,

I really believe your posts were very excellent and show to me that you have a wise view of things.

Even when I was a teen we used to sing Holy, Holy, Holy to open a more formal worship service and then a more Gospel type song and then as a closing hymn a more majestic type hymn.

On Sunday night and Wednesday night we used to have more praise type a service.

I think we have to be more concerned with the lyrics of the music than the the tempo of the music. I am sure in Heaven we will not have Divine ushes handing us a bulletin with an Order of Worship.

I do not think we can legislate how someone else should be worshipping the Lord. Sometimes we are sad, discouraged or in a real mood of praise when we enter a church door. I believe this is where the Holy Spirit comes to aid us in our particular needs.

This is not to say that I believe in a service that is wild and without decency and order.

 

[mcneely]

My point for this thread is that more and more churches are trying to base worship on levels of emotion. I love to see people rejoicing, but often times we find ourselves getting wrapped up in this new charasmatic movement.

For Example:

A new market has opened for the selling of Christian-based merchandise. Everything from "cool" wristbands to hats and T-shirts bearing things like "got jesus?"(of course a spin-off of the "got milk?" ads) And the infamous WWJD fad.

First of all, using the name of our Lord to make a profit is a wretched thing, and we should not have a part of it.

Secondly, taking secular ads and replacing the words with our Lord's name is also wrong. Jesus' name is holy, and that is no way to treat it.

God does live in our hearts when we accept him, not in our backpockets and on our clothes. And worship is not going in to a holy place and having a big extravigant party. We need to restore the reverence.

---Justin

 

[standingfirminChrist]

Amen, Justin!

Prayerful Worship Fulfills!!!

 

[Acumenical]

One thing I do agree about Baptist churches is that the congregation tends to be very noisy before the service begins. It's hard to get into a worshipful attitude sometimes. I wouldn't mind if it was a little quiter and more reflectful. As for humility, there's certainly a lack of that these days, but it's a bigger problem than just church service distraction.