At the moment, I am looking at a sad situation. It looks as though I may have to miss
services tomorrow morning for the first time in several years. Actually, I can’t quite recall the last time
this happened. It is due to the fact
that I am sick, which is a pretty rare occurrence. I get sick about once a school year, so I
guess my body figured out that Spring Break is almost here, so it was time to
get the quota in.
My sickness isn’t the point though. The thought of having to miss services
saddens me. Earlier this semester I
wasn’t able to make it to Wednesday night Bible study because of an exam. Then I had a similar feeling: disappointment. I’m reminded of David who said in Psalms
122:1 “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of
Yahweh!"
My life has become increasingly busy lately and
there are many schedule-like things that I’ve had to be mindful of. I have classes. Now that I’m working for the student newspaper
I have deadlines for articles, events to attend, and interviews to do. I am now writing for this blog every day, so
I’m mindful of that. I also have to
study for my classes and make the time to call my parents every once in a
while, which I am really bad at by the way.
Amid all of these things that I’m juggling, there’s always “church” on
Sundays and on Wednesday nights. It is
really easy for worship to become just another one of those routine things that
I do every week, and so I’ve been thinking about how I can keep it from
becoming commonplace. God deserves better
than commonplace.
That led me to another thought. Why is it that in my thinking process,
worship to God is restricted only to formal church assemblies? Is that right? Is that Biblical? Now before you label me as a heretic and come
knocking on my door with torches and pitchforks, let me clarify that I am not
saying that anything and everything in life is worship whether it be fishing,
reading, working, or playing. I am
saying, however, that we should worship God outside of the assembly.
The scripture that is often used when talking about
singing to God is Ephesians 5:18-20: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that
is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your
heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now here’s the
thing: Ephesians is not about assemblies.
Ephesians is about your life as a Christian. The book talks about our salvation, the
marriage relationship, being pure of sin, putting on the armor of God, so on
and so forth. So why have we taken a
scripture about our lives as Christians and restricted it to the assembly?
By the time you’re reading this, it will be Sunday. I may not be worshipping with the saints, but
make no mistake about it, I will be worshipping.
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