"Are we prepared to purposely disregard ourselves and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual inner-searching we do in an effort to see if we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, sickly type of Christianity, not the vigorous and simple life of a child of God. Until we get into this right and proper relationship with God, it is simply a case of our "hanging on by the skin of our teeth," although we say, "What a wonderful victory I have!" Yet there is nothing at all in that which indicates the miracle of redemption. Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the redemption is complete. Then don’t worry anymore about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ has said..."
View the whole devotion here.
+++
I'm currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attending a "Worship Renewal Grant Colloquium" (I know. I had to look up colloquium too. It turns out that it means an informal gathering for the exchange of ideas. Seems like a mostly fitting description for this particular conference.).
Last night I went to a workshop concerning the use of visual arts in a worship gathering. I don't have time to record all of the speaker's observations, but one of the things he talked about was a study that he had conducted of Protestant, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox churches in S. California. Among many other things, he learned that Protestants tended (there are many Protestant churches that aren't this way) to experience their times of worship together on an "inward and intensely personal" level. Interestingly enough, one of the contributors to the "self-centered, sickly type of Christianity" (as Oswald Chambers describes what our faith can turn into in the quote above) that this workshop speaker indicated was a lack of concern for the aesthetics or visuals in Protestant churches.
That's all I have time to post this morning. I can provide some more concrete examples of this from the workshop to anyone who's interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment