Calling – Running After Papa

The Ministry of Worship

As many of you know, I’ve been on the worship team at my current church for several years and was on the worship team for 9 years at the church before that. At our current church, being on the worship team is a fairly demanding endeavor and when you’re “on” for the weekend, it literally can consume 6+ hours on Saturday and 4+ hours on Sunday, not to mention the required practice before and any mid-week commitments of 1-2 hours each.

I say that because I’ve often been asked how I can make such a time consuming commitment with 4 active teens, and while “it’s my passion” suffices for most people, I found something in yesterday’s reading that really anchored it for me.

1 Chronicles 6:31-32 (NKJV)
‎31 Now these are the men whom David appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark came to rest. 32 They were ministering with music before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they served in their office according to their order.

Interesting words here translated as “served“, “office“, “order” and “song” in v32.

“served” – amad – 308 of the 521 references are translated as “stood” or “stand” and the implication is the same as in Ephesians 6:13-14 “when you’ve done all you can do to stand, stand therefore…” What is the implication of this service called worship? It is persistent and enduring…

“office” – abodah – “‎1 labour, service. 1a labour, work. 1b labour (of servant or slave). 1c labour, service (of captives or subjects). 1d service (of God).”

I love this! A labour of service of captives or subjects – what a fitting description of our condition! We are forever captives of the love of God who sacrificed himself to save us. We are subjects to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
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“order” – mishpat – the implication of this word is that of a sentence mandated by a Judge. A legal remedy or decision. An edict handed down by a greater authority.

“song” – sir – ‎1 song, i.e., music including lyrics and instrumental elements (Ps 28:7); 2 singing, i.e., the act. of using the voice in a melodic and rhythmic manner, usually expressing verbal content (2Ch 23:18); 3 musical instrument, i.e., an object of any kind that produces a musical sound (1Ch 15:16; 16:42; 2Ch 5:13; 7:6; 23:13; 34:12; Ne 12:36; Am 6:5+);

1 Chronicles 6:48 goes on to state that these men were called from the Levites – so it is part of the Levitical calling. The word translated as “brethren” means “of the same father or tribe.”

So what is the ministry of worship?

The Ministry of Worship is a persistent, enduring, edict of service to our Conqueror and King – for we are voluntarily both captives and loved subjects to Him – to sing and play instruments in expression to who He is and what He has done and is doing and will do.

Why do I worship? It’s my life-sentence.

Running After Papa…

Be Different

Exodus 21:12-22:31

In reading the last half of Ex 21 and all of Ex 22, its apparent that God’s way of doing things is so much different than what we’ve morphed into over the last few thousand years since Moses first gave the law. It’s fairly simple to boil down… take responsibility…. period. Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your actions, your animals, whatever. If your ox kills someone, make restitution, if you accidentally break something of your neighbors, fix it or replace it. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. If you know your Ox gores people and you don’t restrain it, you are more responsible and restore the infraction with more. If you steal it, restore it with more.

Why don’t we live that way now? Every day we see people finagling their way out of promises, commitments, contractual obligations, etc. People get in and out of marriages like they get in and out of their cars. Employment contracts mean nothing, sports players “hold out” of their contracts because they want a better deal all the time. People abandon their kids, abandon their debts, abandon their families with no second thoughts. Our prisons are full of people on vacation for committing some crime and not really having any real consequences for their actions – unless watching TV, getting college degrees, writing books, etc. is considered “consequences”… No one is accountable for anything anymore and while it would be easy to digress into a social or political statement, that’s not my intent.

What captures my mind here is “Why did Moses have to be so explicit in these commands?” Answer? Because society was very likely exactly the way it is today. I would say we’ve come full circle, but my real guess is that left to our own devices, we’ve never really changed.

In the context of the Law (the 10 commandments) having JUST been delivered, God is saying, “Look! I have rescued you as a people and you are now going to be My people. Because you’re going to be called My people, we’re going to do things differently. You are going to be different. When others see you, I want them to know you are Mine.”

That’s the call. Be different.

When people see me living life, what will they immediately know about me?

Will my life today scream that I am God’s son?

Be different.

Running After Papa…

Irrevocable…

Romans 11:29 (ESV) “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

“gifts” – charisma – 1 a favour with which one receives without any merit of his own. 2 the gift of divine grace. 3 the gift of faith, knowledge, holiness, virtue. 4 the economy of divine grace, by which the pardon of sin and eternal salvation is appointed to sinners in consideration of the merits of Christ laid hold of by faith. (Rom 1:11; 5:15; 6:23; 11:29; 12:6; 1Cor 1:7; 7:7; 12:4; 2Cor 1:11; 1Tim 4:14; 2Tim 1:6; 1Pet 4:10)

“call” – klesis – basically means vocation and a divine invitation, but comes from the word kaleo, which implies to receive a name or to bear a title.

“irrevocable” – ametameletos – Strong’s Lexicon says “Two occurrences; AV translates as “without repentance” once, and “not to be repented of” once. 1 not repentant of, unregretted.

This is interesting because “to repent” means “to change one’s mind.” It basically means to do a 180 and go the other direction.

Substituting those meanings into this verse makes it read much different.

God’s divine gift of grace – my eternal salvation – and my calling – my vocational call, my title, my position in life, my destiny – if you will – is something that God has given me, granted me and will not change His mind on… ever.

The cool – and freeing – thing to me is that I can’t do anything to “undo” His gift. I can’t remove myself from his list. I can’t do anything that will make Him rescind his gift or my calling. Those things that affect my relationship with Him (sin, unforgiveness, disobedience, etc) can greatly affect my effectiveness in my calling, but it can’t change my calling.

So, how do I become as effective as possible? How do I walk in and know what my calling is? That is the question.

Running After Papa…