What do you think after watching this? (I tried to embed the video into my blog post but it wouldn't work): Father Can You Hear Me
It makes me want to visit a Southern Baptist Church (or something similar) someday! Sure... it could just be a lot of show... emotions on overdrive... but I think I could use a bit more emotion in my public worship! David danced publicly before the Lord did he not? I want to work on being less reserved in the display of my faith and worship of God...
5 comments:
Thanks for your comment :). And actually my name is Irene, but nickname has been Bean for a long time :P. I used to live down the street from Joanne in Pompton Plains!
Dear Bean, just came to see your blog. the Lord Jesus said that we are to worship him in spirit and in truth. That can be emotional but not emotionalism. You might benefit from reading Jonathan Edward's book Religious Affections. Do not be deceived by the emotionalism portrayed in this movie you posted. They are not worshiping God, they are acting. The scene is offensive to God because God says in His Word he hates acting. He wants you to be sincere (truth). He wants us to be holy (spirit). These actors, with the use of sound and sight are portraying hedonism which is sensual worship. You do not need to go to a Southern Baptist church to get emotional. If you by grace are given a real sense of your sins, that will make you weep out of sorrow for not glorifying Him as you were created to do, and then the gospel of Jesus Christ dying for your sins will also make you weep and rejoice at the same time. We need no other type of outside stimulation. Sent with much love.
God has given us many emotions other than weeping. As reformers, we a very good at maintaining "proper" corporate worship but I am not about to say that there is no other way to properly worship God. Obviously it is not necessary to visit a Southern Baptist church so see emotion. They show their emotion very differently than we do! I do, however, think it is extremely judgemental to say that they are only acting (outside of the movie setting, of course). We have no way to know whether they are sincere, just as we have no idea whether our fellow reformed churchgoers are sincere or not in their piety. This type of praise is cultural and how these believers have learned to worship. Just because it is different does not make it wrong. They could look at us and say that we are acting just the same.
The previous poster was only referring to the movie actors when referring to acting. We have a tendency to mistake acting in a movie for reality and wish we could be and do like them. They are trained to act extremely in order to influence us through our emotions. WE have to be very careful. I have been in southern baptist congregations and actually they are pretty subdued in comparison with this movie. What are we really talking about? Do we think that God is motivated by our actions to love us more? If we look pious and act pious and are pious, do we think we deserve more notice from God? He only notices the perfect work and righteousness of the Son of His eternal love. If we are by grace in Christ, we might be as hard as Egyptian marble, cold as Newfoundland icebergs, as unemotional as tree trunks and yet He looks upon us in mercy and love. What a wonder! Yes, we long for more feelings and affections in our worship, but that is not what we are to seek for. I can't find anywhere in His Word where He require this of us. He says seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Look to Him all the ends of the earth and be saved. Again sent with much love.
No... of course I don't believe for a second that God is motivated by our actions to love us more. I said I wanted to work on being less reserved in the display of my faith and worship of God... I could affect a outward change and "force" myself to be more joyful, emotional etc, but as we all know, the Lord looks at the heart so that wouldn't do any good. Or if I had a different mindset, I might try to appear conservative, pious, and subdued in order to affect the look of a humble spirit... but that wouldn't change God's view towards me either.
But being fleshly, emotional human beings, the times we (or at least I) feel closest to God is often when my emotions are involved: whether it be through grief and repentance or rejoicing and praise or even a happy sense of contentedness.
The Israelites were very obvious in their displays of emotion: wailing while wearing sackcloth and ashes when mourning, singing praises to God with a number of different instruments, David dancing for joy before the Lord... The point of my post was just to say that I personally would like to be less inhibited in my outward display of faith. I acknowledged that a lot in that video clip was probably just emotions... but I don't believe that faith has to be entirely separated from emotions. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Post a Comment