Category: Worship

This was in today’s reading from The Book of Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. When a song isn’t working for you (during worship), consider praising God, because that probably means it is working for someone else who is very different from you. Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather than requiring others to…

Last week I was reading about King Hezekiah’s religious reforms in 2 Kings and came across this interesting verse. “(Hezekiah) removed the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke up the bronze serpent that Moses had made because the people of Israel had been offering sacrifices to it. The bronze serpent was…

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed…

The larger picture of John 4 details the dialogue Jesus had with “the woman at the well.” As you read through the story, you come to a twist in the conversation where Jesus confronted the woman with her personal morality. Rather than respond to Jesus’ insight, she changed the subject to religion. “Sir,” the woman…

I grew up in a small Baptist church in a time where music was simple and uniform across denominational lines. My “home church” worshipped faithfully, led by volunteers who gave their time and talent to lead the people of God in the enthusiastic singing of hymns. No one thought anything about it because that was…

2 Chronicles 26 tells the story of King Uzziah. He took the throne of Israel at the tender age of 16 and ruled for nearly four decades. By and large, Uzziah was a good king. He led the nation to return to the monotheistic worship of God, and as a result the nation was greatly…