Psalm Alarm

At 7am on Tuesday I sent a text to all of Energy. It did not bless them as most of them were a) still asleep and b) had not put their mobile phones on silent. In that text I reminded them that we were going to be meeting in LIFE Groups and they needed to prepare by reading Psalm 19. These Groups stand for 'Living In Faith Everyday' and are same-sex groups that give us space to go deeper into God, build stronger friendships with one another and generate a sense of belonging to BCC.

As we gathered in our LIFE groups, I'd planned a session taking another look at worship. At this time, the worship in BCC is exploding in some very powerful and exciting ways. God is truly inhabiting the praises of His people. I wanted to remind the young people about the 'basics' so they too can understand what we do and why we do it. We reflected on three key learning points:

1. Worship is for life not just for Sunday
Romans 12:1-2 (The Message) says, "So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.”

2. Everyone is made to worship (Matthew 22:37). It is not a case of IF we worship but WHAT we worship. Some people dedicate their lives to particular things or people, pouring out endless time, money and effort in the pursuit of this life. These gods can vary from sex to money to being liked to a sport to music to on-line game playing and so on. The list is endless. However, what this shows is that inbuilt in the heart of every human being is the desire to worship. The problem is, this urge is directed in the wrong direction.

3. Worship is about us loving God for Who He is and what He’s done. It is not simply singing a song (although that can be an expression of worship), but about worthship i.e. according to God a true sense of worth and value for who He is and what He's done. It always centres on Christ; it begins and ends with Him.

The Psalms are poems/songs of praise: "Psalm" literally means 'song' and there are 150 Holy-Spirit inspired songs of praise offering up to God complete devotion and love despite some extremely difficult circumstances. Expressing the songs of praise is an important part of our worship lives to God. Ephesians 5:19-20 (The Message) "Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ." Today, we too can sing new songs to God that come out of our own heart and lives of love and devotion to Him. Obviously they are NOT scripture but putting into words the overflow of our hearts is both biblical and beneficial.

On Tuesday night, we asked the LIFE Groups to put together their own simple 'psalm' to God. Here is what the boys came up with...

A PSALM OF ENERGY
Thanking the Lord for Our Gifts
Awesome God, you equip us to act your will for our lives.
Your imagination knows no end; each gift unique.
We thank you that you fill us up and we can share your word.
We need you God, in us to guide us.
Thank you Lord that you forgive us from our sins.
I thank you that you joyfully make us each unique.
Without you we wouldn't exist. Without you we would be lost.
We thank you that through our gifts, we can speak out to all the nations.
Jesus you rule over all things.
We pray that you will enhance our gifts to the full ... Amen ...

Have you sent up a fresh psalm of praise to the Lord today? Are you obeying Ephesians 5:19 and singing those new songs to God as an expression of your love and devotion to Him? Maybe it's time to do it again ...