Well, I still can’t seem to get back into the blog routine, so I thought I would just post something I found worth reading.

Every Sunday, our pastoral team takes turns writing “blogs” except we don’t put them on the internet. We print them on real paper on the back of our church bulletin. I know…it’s so old school. Well, every once in a while we write some good stuff. I really appreciate @Ed_Lech ‘s commentary on worship so I thought I’d share it here with y’all, just in case you didn’t get a bulletin. As always, feel free to comment…

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Hebrews 13:15 (ESV)

I love to worship God in song during our corporate meetings. For me it’s an opportunity to express my affection toward God – a time that takes me out of the cerebral and into the emotional.  In fact, since I am here at all three services on Sunday morning I often stand in the back of the sanctuary and worship during all the services.  Praise in song provides a time to lose thought of myself, my circumstances, and my life in general and focus my mind and emotions on God.  Most of the time, the result is refreshment to my soul. I also believe it brings great pleasure to God.

Now I haven’t always known this kind of freedom in worship. As a young believer the embarrassment factor of a less than melodious voice along with the self-conscious thoughts of making a spectacle of myself when raising my hands or standing/kneeling in a public meeting often inhibited my experience in worship.  What I have come to learn over the years is that praise involves sacrifice.  Sacrifice can be defined as the voluntary release of something dear that may result in doing something that is uncomfortable to perform.

So what does sacrifice in worship involve?  Well it may be any number of things but here are a few: my self, my reputation, my musical preference (songs or style), my embarrassment, my laziness, my self-consciousness, my anger, my frustration, my distractions, my stubbornness…  Notice a common theme?  My!  Sacrifice in praise and worship begins with the sacrifice of me.  It is the setting aside of myself for God.  As we worship this morning, I hope you’ll take the time to make a decision to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name”.

Be blessed in worship and lose yourself in God!

Ed